REASONS FOR REVIVAL 147 



wages, housing, and mental occupation in which 

 the labourers lived. They fled from the land, 

 and continue to fly, some to the towns, some 

 abroad. It was not from work they fled, for 

 they find harder work where they go, but it is 

 work under different conditions. 



Cheap food must always be very necessary to 

 Great Britain ; no one wants to prevent that 

 coming in. But the flight from the land is a 

 disaster, because only the land can give to 

 a large section of the British population what 

 they require, if that population is to march 

 towards its ideal. 



A revival of British agriculture is therefore 

 necessary, for the following reasons : 



First, agricultural life shares with seafaring 

 life the offer of work in the pure open air. 

 Hitherto it has offered little else, and that is 

 why it has failed. 



Second, although cheap food is a necessit}', it 

 is at the same time desirable that the amount of 

 food produced in Great Britain should be largely 

 increased, provided this can be done without any 

 inconvenience to the public generally. 



Third, by this revival employment would be 

 found for a large number of men who are not, 

 and never can be artisans, and nevertheless are as 

 important a part of the population as any other. 



Fourth, a large proportion of these men will 

 be composed of those who, after the intro- 

 duction of universal military service, annually 

 complete their period of such service, and for 

 whom immediate employment is essential. 



