90 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



easiest thing in the world to " get up " any subject at a 

 few hours' notice. 



It is from such men that the vast majority of people 

 in this country get their information, either through the 

 medium of the public prints or from platform orations, 

 and they have now to ask themselves: " Have we bene- 

 fited by this system of second-hand teaching? and if we 

 have not benefited, our teachers must be at fault and 

 their teaching of a spurious order." 



This question can best be answered by comparing 

 certain social and economic conditions of this country 

 with any one, or all, of the neighbouring European 

 States. 



Labour conditions, scarcity of employment, dis- 

 tress, LEGALISED PAUPERISM, NECESSITY for UNIVERSAL 



PRIVATE CHARITY, ENORMOUS POOR-RATES, are all cap- 

 able of being compared with similar conditions in other 

 countries ; and if they be studied with care, and without 

 prejudice, it will at once be seen that the workmen 

 forming the " Gainsborough Commission "had enough 

 justification for their conclusions in the following signifi- 

 cant utterance. 



" We have been just three weeks in Germany, and 

 have seen the German workmen at work and at play. In 

 the busy districts of Rhineland and Westphalia we came 

 into contact with thousands of our German comrades 

 engaged in the heavy industr}^ and looked in vain for 

 the signs of poverty which certain persons in Gains- 

 borough and elsewhere told us would confront us on all 

 sides. Despite the prevailing dearness of meat, which is 



