WHAT MIGHT BE AND WHAT IS 249 



Probably also there would be co-operatively owned 

 grinding mills which would return to the producer some 

 of the profits that are now divided among the millers. 



Dotted about the countryside would appear many 

 more farmsteads than are to be found to-day, each 

 of them the residence of a small landowner. In fact 

 in this respect it would have resumed the aspect 

 that, to judge from the countless remains of manor- 

 houses which can still be traced, must have prevailed 

 in and about the Tudor period. 



In every one of these houses and in a great 

 number of the small-holders' cottages the telephone 

 would be installed ; not the somewhat ineffective instru- 

 ment with which we are acquainted, but one of real 

 use out of which the voice of the speaker, be he far 

 or near, comes with perfect clearness and without 

 delay. This advantage, too, would be secured at a 

 fraction of the almost prohibitive price that is de- 

 manded in return for the installation of telephones 

 in our rural districts. Also every village of more 

 than a certain size would be lit by electric light, as in 

 Denmark no small boon in the long winter season. 



The great cottage question, too, now so insoluble, 

 would have been met by the erection, with the aid of 

 co-operative building societies, of a sufficient number 

 of wholesome and suitable dwellings, most of which 

 would be owned by their occupiers. The railways 

 would belong to Government, and carry passengers 

 and goods at about one-half of the present rates. 



The general prevalence of co-operation would 

 have brought into existence great numbers of local 

 societies, large and small, thus favouring intercourse 

 and mutual trust between man and man. Corn- 

 growing would still be practised to a considerable 



