200 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



work at Burwell, Cambs, when the Crown lands were 



turned into allotments." 



These headlines first of all attract our attention and 

 then we are induced to believe that an injustice has been 

 done to the people, almost an outrage indeed. 



The facts of the case are that Government, in their 

 attempt to afford some relief to the strained situation, by 

 turning a few hundred acres of Crown lands into Small 

 Holdings, necessarily had to displace some of the hands 

 who had been working on the land; and this trifling 

 matter is sufficient to call forth these sensational head- 

 lines and supply " copy " for a hostile Press or a hostile 

 party. These are traps to catch the unwary; political 

 traps, which both of the great political parties are not 

 above setting, and we should beware of them. We cannot 

 make our omelet without breaking eggs, and we cannot 

 have our " Small Holdings " without displacing, to 

 begin with, those who are already working on the land, 

 but this single fact no more sums up the position than 

 that " one drop makes an ocean." 



Question ^ , . . , 



of Re-ad- In bnngmg about any great national reform it 

 justment ^^ highly probable, nay, almost certain, that, at the 

 outset, some individual interests wiU suffer, but in the 

 end it is equally certain that in the resultant general 

 good, full compensation will follow. Small Holdings are 

 especially designed to help those working on the soil, and 

 if a farm hand be displaced to-day, he may come in to- 

 morrow as a peasant proprietor or a tenant farmer ; it is a 

 mere question of readjustment, a reshuffling of the cards 

 and we must not, therefore, allow ourselves to be frigh- 



