A Study in Congestion 203 



year, because he does not know how to raise the 

 family income to such a scale. His peace of mind 

 has been founded on the smallness of his total 

 liability, and a higher liability has more terror 

 for him than an occasional famine. He dreads 

 losing what he has for what he cannot keep, and in 

 his circumstances there is more wisdom in his 

 fear than in the statesmanship which attempts 

 to finance his inefficiency. 



The peasants are really labourers, on a low 

 standard of efficiency at that, and the statesmen 

 assume them to be men of business. A farm 

 bearing a total liability of .80 a year means an 

 annual turnover of ^350, assuming proportionate 

 production ; but ^350 frightens a man who has 

 never had more than 25 passing through his 

 hands in one year. His mind is not large enough 

 for the prospect, and no Government dares to 

 enlarge his mind. Where " relieved " already, 

 he regards it as a grievance that he cannot 

 keep the pig in the drawingroom, and sometimes 

 he has done so despite all regulations to " im- 

 prove " him because the essential part of him, 

 the mind, is left unimproved. Set the man free, 

 with his faculties at his own command, as when 

 he succeeds in America, and then give him land. 

 In the meantime, the statesman who proceeds 

 hurriedly in this congestion business is likely to 

 regret it, or at least to leave a legacy of regret. 

 On the statutory basis at work, the choice is 

 between present confiscation and future bank- 

 ruptcy. Deal honestly with the landlord, and the 



