CONCLUSION 355 



steps of the land nationalisers — a party not to be made light of, 

 however faulty their programme may be — they are setting up their 

 own programme of what may be called half-nationalisation, as 

 paving the way for nationalisation proper, or forming a halfway 

 house. They claim the land and its cultivation for the " consumer," 

 whose interests they stand specifically to fight for. Under such 

 programme the country's farms are to become productive depart- 

 ments of consumers' societies, worked for the consumers' account 

 and under the consumers' direction. Mistaken as such a policy 

 would be — since it cannot lead to a maximum of production — it is 

 not to be met by superior pooh-poohing, with a silk gown and some 

 military scarves waved in the opponent's faces. There is too great 

 a force, just of the section of the nation whom the matter most 

 concerns, at the back of it. Be a craft ever so well designed, it 

 cannot hope to contend successfully for a long time against both 

 tide and wind. The little Whitehall breeze will not carry it through 

 against such forces. 



We have here, not a sectional, but a national object to deal with, 

 an object the very aim of which is that it should be made democratic 

 and popular, since otherwise it could not be successfully realised. 

 Its progress will have to be gradual, it may be slow. Ardua quce 

 pulchra. But eventually those modern popular aspirations, which 

 have already led to so many signal successes, are bound to prevail 

 against the worn-out, antiquated methods which are out of keeping 

 with modern times. We shall not, and we do not, want to get rid of 

 country mansions and large farms altogether, both of which have 

 their distinct uses and merits. But, in substance, to remedy what 

 is now generally recognised as being amiss, we shall have to see 

 that the land — as much of it as is suitable for the purpose — goes to 

 the people that the nation wants to be kept on the land, and that 

 those people are made comfortable on it, attracted to it, given scope 

 on it for acquiring property and encouraged to engage in large and 

 appropriate production. 



In the foregoing pages an attempt has been made to show on what 

 lines such an object may be attained. None of these means lie 

 outside the power of the nation. Long neglect and false starts 

 made have added urgency to the task and made action more called 

 for. Now that this fact has been recognised, one may hope to see 

 action quickened and the work taken in hand with all the energy 

 and the allowance in the way of means that its promotion calls [or, 

 and so carried to successful accomplishment. 



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