PREFACE. 



There is no aspect of Reconstruction which is more important 

 in its bearing on national well-being than that of rural life. The 

 problem is not solely, or even mainly, economic in its character ; 

 rather is it that the economic question has arisen as a result of a 

 defective and incomplete social ideal, with its correspondingly 

 defective and incomplete social organization. It is because of 

 this that this pamphlet is entitled ' The Rural Problem ' and not 

 ' The Agricultural Problem.' The former includes the latter, and 

 much more besides. The great need is for a social motive in our 

 rural polic}^ rather than a purely economic motive. 



The problem is not primarily one of raising cheap agricultural 

 produce, or of tariffs, or of settling discharged soldiers on the land, 

 or of providing small holdings for townsmen with a craving for 

 country life, or of making this country self-supporting ; the real 

 problem is how to give the rural population new hope and inspira- 

 tion, how to develop in those who live upon the land a broader 

 outlook, greater adaptability and initiative, how to establish new 

 political, social, and economic traditions in the village and the 

 farmers' club — in a word, the problem of rural life is essentially the 

 same as the problem of urban life — how to utilize to the fullest 

 advantage human capacity and human powers. If the farmers as 

 a whole were more responsive to new developments and oppor- 

 tunities, if the labouring population were better paid, lived in better 

 houses, had fuller opportunities for education and social intercourse, 

 the economic problem would rapidly be solved. 



The rural problem is both complicated and difficult, and though 

 it must, in the main, be settled by the rural population, the in- 

 dustrial population must lend its aid. This pamphlet is intended 

 chiefly for those who dwell in towns. It is the duty of every citizen 

 to grasp the essential features of the rural problem and to understand 

 both the difficulties and possibilities of rural life. The factory 

 worker must be made to realize his obligations to his fellow worker 

 on the land. As Mr. Ashby points out, the country districts need 

 the Trade Union, the Adult School, the Workers' Educational 

 Association. Those industrial workers who study this pamphlet 

 wUl, one hopes, be led to see that along these lines lies, from the 

 workers' point of view, the hope of rural reconstruction. 



ARTHUR GREENWOOD. 



S864i7 



