FAILURE OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE 15 



It is of small moment to most of us as citizens 

 if a boot manufacturer, owing to the lack of 

 modern machinery, or through mismanage- 

 ment of any kind, fails in his business. Other 

 boot manufacturers will soon supply the demand 

 for boots. A manufacturer cannot afford to be 

 unenterprising. 



In farming the case is different. An in- 

 dolent farmer who rents under a landlord who 

 is indifferent to good cultivation somehow 

 manages to carry on for a great number of years 

 in a slovenly manner, so long as he can make a 

 margin of profit which will provide him with 

 the necessities of life. But the worst of it is 

 that while he remains in possession the nation 

 suffers. The adjoining farmer, if he is already 

 farming "high," cannot make up the loss 

 accruing to the nation by the want of enter- 

 prise on the part of the indolent. Very often 

 it is not indolence, nor being overrun by game, 

 but the lack of capital, the lack of labour 

 power ; but loss to the nation inevitably 

 follows. 



There is also the farmer who "farms to 

 leave " — who corrodes the potential capital in 

 land. The loss to the nation does not even 

 stop here. The owner of a large estate may 

 also be short of capital, and with the best will 

 in the world is unable to supply his tenants 

 with adequate buildings, and through this kind 

 of "private enterprise" probably the nation 



