44 A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



undisturbed by competition for a number of 

 years, and to treat the raw material over which 

 they work or slumber as though it were a rabbit 

 warren, a pheasant preserve, or a wilderness 

 for the grazing of rough cattle — and even to do 

 this at a time when the nation was on short 

 rations for food. In no other industry, even 

 under capitalism, is this possible. 



One would have thought that at a time of 

 national stress, when our food supply was im- 

 perilled by the acts of ruthless and daring 

 submarine commanders, that the old English 

 nobility would have risen to the sublimity of 

 the appeal to patriotism and thrown open the 

 gates of their spacious parks to the tractor and 

 the seed-drill, in order that the nation should 

 not suffer from the want of bread or milk. One 

 would have thought that whilst many men were 

 giving all they had to give — their lives — our 

 nobility would have gladly turned over a few 

 acres of their parks to produce food. Un- 

 fortunately for them as a class — with notable 

 exceptions — not only did they fail to lead, but 

 they failed to follow. There were nobles who 

 actually impeded the race between the plough 

 and the submarine. 



In some counties, where the feudal spirit had 

 infected farmers with its poison of servility, 

 the County Agricultural Executive Committee 

 showed the white feather when approaching 

 the domains of those great landowners who 



