234 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 

 The Region sible results all round — to the individual, the people and 



of Polemics , „ . , . ^ . 



the State — from the region of polemics. 



If we take the trouble to study the works of most of 

 the writers on the subject, and the speeches of those who 

 are patriotic enough to touch on the matter on public 

 platforms, we shall find that, in nearly every case, a 

 more or less controversial attitude is assumed. 



Indeed, this simple question, the solution of which is 

 so apparent, is treated by many writers and speakers 

 with almost the same amount of academic discussion as 

 astronomers contrive to cast about the origin of star 

 clusters and those mysterious nebulae, which are sunk in 

 space to such an appalling distance that the light takes 

 centuries to reach our earth. 



There is nothing far away or abstruse about this simple 

 question as to whether we shall or shall not cultivate 

 our fields, and the wonder is that we have been beguiled 

 so long by those who would make a mystery of it. There 

 is no room for discussion, and none for doubt; nor is 

 there the faintest chance of losing our way, because the 

 path, and the only path to our destination, lies plainly 

 before us, and is as straight as an arrow. 



This is the question : — There is a town with, for instance, 

 a hundred thousand inhabitants ; it has its usual com- 

 plement of professions, trades and manufacturing in- 

 dustries, but, nevertheless, it cannot employ and sup- 

 port its entire population. 



Many of the people are badly off because of lack of 

 employment, and numbers, indeed, are on the verge of 

 starvation; while many who possess energy and enter- 

 prise, make a bold dash for freedom and prosperity by 



