CHAPTER IV 

 THE POLICY OF GUARANTEED PRICES 



IN spite of the earthworks thrown up by the 

 lords of the soil, the defenders of private 

 property, great and small, against the 

 demands of the nation for food, a revolution 

 (spell it with a small r, please Mr. Printer, or 

 people may see Red) was working its way into 

 the heart of rural England in the years 1917— 

 19. But if any one thinks this was due to 

 the guaranteed prices being assured for wheat 

 and oats, he will make a very great mistake. 

 Farmers with wheat guaranteed at 60s. in 19 17, 

 dropping to 45s. a quarter in 1920, displayed 

 as much heart in ploughing grass land as might 

 be found in a bolting cabbage. It was under 

 the crack of the carter's whip of that forward 

 person, Mistress D.O.R.A., that farmers pulled 

 at the plough as they never pulled before. 

 Examining witness after witness at the Royal 

 Commission on Agriculture we found that 

 few farmers could honestly reply that the 

 guaranteed prices had had any effect in stimu- 

 lating wheat production. The whip, indeed, 



was far more stimulating. As Sir Daniel Hall 



64 



