io6 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



Instead of universal riches and prosperity we have 

 reaped widespread poverty and distress. Instead of 

 becoming lords of manufacture, our country is the 

 common " dumping ground " for the manufactured 

 wares of our foreign rivals. Instead of good wages and 

 general employment there is " sweating " and un- 

 employment. Instead of home industries supporting our 

 own people, they are obliged to seek work in Germany 

 and elsewhere; and, worst of all, instead of the Mother 

 Country holding out a helping hand to the best and 

 readiest, the strongest and fittest of her sons and daugh- 

 ters, they are obliged to leave the land they love and 

 seek their bread in lands that are free from these old 

 worn-out ideas, which have wrought such incalculable 

 harm to the British people. 

 Xhe This is the central fact that runs right through the 

 ^^F "^^t position like the warp of a piece of cloth, and crosses and 

 re-crosses it like the weft, and unless we pick up these 

 threads and weave them together in a practical manner, 

 we shall never succeed in making a good job of our work. 



Governments, statesmen and publicists have all 

 missed the way, because they have never gathered up 

 the right threads into their hands; and this much re- 

 mains certain, that until they do so and then dexte- 

 rously manipulate the shuttle, they will continue to 

 fail. 



As for your ordinary politician he is of no account as 

 a factor in the question, because he is a man of no inde- 

 pendence, and, therefore, of no use save to vote with his 

 party. 



