342 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



county council." " Of immense value " undoubtedly it would have 

 proved. Because the great hitch in all that has been attempted and 

 done in the matter has been the lack of capital in the intending 

 settler's pocket. And Continental, Irish and Indian experience 

 clearly shows that such lack may exceedingly well and without 

 danger of loss to the lender be made good by the use of Co-operative 

 Credit. In the same spirit as that in which Mr. Green wrote, the 

 late Sir John Brunner, who had warmly befriended my Bill, observed 

 to me during the War, when money became scarce : " Farmers 

 would be thankful now indeed if the proposals made in your Bill 

 had been carried out." 



Lord Ernie knew better than those whom he succeeded at White- 

 hall, and those who in turn have succeeded him, and as apparently 

 did the county councils, where the shoe pinched, and where there 

 was need for ease to be given. During his one brief tenure of office 

 he was obviously so overdone with temporarily more urgent business, 

 and the whole atmosphere in legislation was so adverse to action 

 under this head, that such action became altogether impossible. 

 But he had, as the Duke of Bedford's chief agent, formed the 

 successful settlement at Maulden, in which, though no working 

 funds were provided for the settlers — which was not to be expected — 

 in any case absolutely no money payment out of their pocket was 

 asked for. Settlers were allowed the full enjoyment of that ad- 

 vantage which is pleaded, as if it were unanswerable, in favour of 

 tenancy over ownership — namely that of keeping all their available 

 money for working purposes — while at the same time entering upon 

 the most valuable benefit of ownership, which secures to them the 

 full reward for all their labour and outlay, and ensures to the com- 

 munity the valuable consideration that production and " heart " 

 will not be reduced by any " farming to leave." And there has been 

 no loss. 



Land, of course there must be. And " land " there is. And 

 county councils are at length, after much bungling, learning how to 

 provide it in a businesslike way by acquiring, not a plot here and a 

 plot there, but entire estates, which are cut up systematically into 

 small holdings. But, situated as we are under this aspect, the whole 

 question really turns upon this one point — the provision of sufficient 

 working capital, which is only possible by means of credit. 



Now such credit — so we know from ample experience collected 

 from all over the globe — co-operation can readily and easily supply 

 in , sooner or later, almost unlimited quantity. Lord Lincolnshire and 

 Sir Thomas Elliott, as observed, seemed willing to make it supply it. 



