98 A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



land campaign in favour of a minimum wage 

 for labourers. 



If any one thinks I show bias in my strictures 

 on farmers, as a class unaccustomed to think of 

 the commonweal in the pursuit of their trade, 

 I would refer him to other authorities. Sir 

 Daniel Hall, who has been accustomed to mix 

 with farmers, to hear their views, and to inspect 

 their holdings, wrote in his book, Agriculture 

 after the War: "His (the farmer's) personal profit 

 does not coincide with the national interest, 

 either in the direction of the production of food, 

 or in the maintenance of men upon the land." 

 They are no worse in this respect than any 

 other class of business men, and one should not 

 expect from them a higher standard of patriot- 

 ism than that maintained by any other class of 

 men engaged in prosecuting their business for 

 personal gain. 



Nor should we blame them, for Burke, the 

 great British opponent of the French Revolution 

 and the Defender of Profiteers, when we were 

 at war with France and food was scarce, said : 

 "But if the farmer is excessively avaricious? 

 Why, so much the better — the more he desires 

 to increase his prices, the more interested is 

 he in the good condition of those upon whose 

 labour his gains must principally depend." 

 The farmer at that time of war prices was so 

 interested in the good "of those upon whose 

 labour his gain must principally depend," that 



