300 'PRIVATE ENTERPRISE' 



the district, and with a considerable number of appli- 

 cants to choose from, its members would accept as 

 tenants only such persons as were capable of becoming 

 efficient cultivators. In this way, therefore, the control 

 exercised by the syndicate would be more effective than 

 the control of a large land-owner, of a land company 

 operating in London or elsewhere, or of a County 

 Council possessed mainly of a beneficent idea to plant 

 the unemployed on the land. Taken altogether, the rule 

 of such a syndicate would be the rule of a beneficent 

 autocracy, and, in the circumstances, such a rule should 

 tend to promote the general welfare of those concerned. 



Another practical advantage which the colonists 

 under the proposed scheme would obtain is in the 

 matter of cartage. At present each small holder at 

 Evesham makes his own arrangements for getting his 

 produce to the local markets, or to the railway-station, 

 and this generally means (i) that he is put to the cost 

 of buying a horse, or a donkey, and vehicle ; (2) that 

 he incurs further expense on account of keep ; and (3) 

 that he loses time in having to take in the produce 

 himself. It is estimated that for a small holder with 

 5 or 6 acres of land these items represent the equivalent 

 of from 4 to 6 per acre added to his rent. 



To avoid all this expense and waste of time, the 

 syndicate would provide horses and vehicles for the 

 combined conveyance of produce, according to a scale 

 of moderate charges which would work out very much 

 less for the tenants than if each member of the little 

 colony acted independently of the others. The horses 

 thus kept would also be available for hire for light work 

 on the land when they were not otherwise engaged. 

 In this way there would be no need for the tenants to 

 buy and keep animals of their own, and the profits 

 from their holdings would be increased proportionately. 



