TWO SIDES OF THE QUESTION 439 



also the absence of any demand for land amongst 

 the labouring population in those districts where 

 generations of farming on a large scale have de- 

 stroyed the small-holding instinct. 



It will not help the question to shut one's eyes 

 to these facts, as real as the facts of success men- 

 tioned in the foregoing pages. It is easy to under- 

 stand how galling the rhetorical denunciations of 

 many reformers and journalists are to the man who, 

 in his own way, has lived more in touch with the 

 conditions they denounce, and is aware of the many 

 fallacies they make and the pitfalls into which they 

 are likely to fall in any effort at reform. But why, 

 one is tempted to ask, does he not set to and 

 use his superior knowledge to tackle this question 

 himself ? 



For it is maintained that these facts are not 

 sufficient in themselves to justify a wholesale con- 

 demnation of the small-holding system, especially 

 when, as is too often the case, such condemnations 

 are based entirely on the knowledge gleaned in one 

 particular environment. If the causes of failures 

 are thoroughly looked into, how often will it not 

 be found that this condemnation should be directed 

 against the individualistic, antiquated methods of 

 cultivation and marketing of the holders them- 

 selves rather than against the actual existence of 

 such holders ? These men serve a purpose other 

 than that of mere agricultural success in the 

 economy of nations. We should therefore direct 

 our efforts rather to the solving of this problem 



