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for his labour without the interposition of capitalism. Whether we 

 are going to have large farms or small co-operative farms whichever 

 policy is pursued the anomaly which exists to-day must be removed. 

 Let us make ourselves self-supporting as a nation, and produce our 

 commodities for the well-being of the community and not for private 

 profit. 



MR. A. E. MABBS (Coventry Trades Council) : I was surprised to 

 hear a plea for the uprooting of the present system of agriculture in 

 one part of Alderman Morley's speech and a plea for small holdings 

 in other parts. It seems that some people are unable to learn from the 

 past experience of this and other nations. We are intimately connected 

 through the war with a country which has tried small holdings, not for 

 a few years, but for generations, and there is not a more gigantic failure 

 in the world : the small holdings in France are made to pay, more or 

 less, but as a matter of fact they are mortgaged up to the hilt they 

 are made to pay only by the labour of children from a very early age. 

 I do not desire our working class to enter into conditions of that kind. 

 We shall have to apply the same methods to agriculture as have proved 

 successful in all other industries that is, of large concerns properly 

 organised and managed. We shall get the best results by getting the 

 best brains to specialise. 



MR. STUART BUXNING (Postmen's Federation) : It does not appear 

 to me that these problems can be dealt with except by bringing in the 

 State. Nationalisation will not solve everything, but when dealing 

 with the necessaries of life for the people, there is great reason for the 

 State to step in and to see that proper measures are taken. I had an 

 exhaustive enquiry undertaken as to housing conditions in rural 

 districts four years ago, and found that in a good many cases the 

 reason for insufficient housing was not because it would not pay to 

 build, but because the landlord would not sell the land. This difficulty 

 again brings us back to nationalisation. 



MR. LIDDALL BRIDGE (Working Men's Club and Institute Union) : 

 The difficulty is that, before you can deal with the land you must get 

 possession of it, and at the present time that is impossible for the 

 ordinary man in certain parts of the country, because of the custom 

 of so-called " entail." Generally speaking there is no such thing as 

 entail in law in this country at the present time. If a landlord 

 has property, he has only the right to settle that property for 

 life and lives in being and for 21 years after. But he gets out of the 

 difficulty this way : if he has a son, he can leave it to him and to his 

 child when he is 21, but he can do no more ; and when the grandchild 

 is 21, his father will say to him " If you do not resettle this land, I will 

 let you starve." That is why we have what are called compound 

 settlements. The time has come when the land should be made free 

 in order that tilling could be made successful, and so that a man should 



