A BUSINESS PROPOSITION. 53 



" cheap " must be interpreted in a spirit of enlightened self- 

 interest. The lowest-priced labour is very rarely the cheapest, 

 and the longest hours are not the most productive. But the 

 objective is quite clear to make profit for the ordinary shares 

 and it is the creed of many of us that the more intelligently 

 this object is pursued the more easily can it be reconciled with 

 the rising standards of social obligation. 



In farming the fundamental objectives are much confused, 

 and for the moment at least the British people seem inclined 

 to conduct Agriculture as an insurance against a submarine 

 siege of these islands, as a nursery of manhood, and as a pension 

 scheme for the returning soldier by giving him a strip of land 

 for which he has fought. However desirable these things may 

 be, they are not intrinsically business propositions, though they 

 can be reconciled with business at a price. If we grant the 

 premise that farming is to be conducted for profit pure and 

 simple, I would concur whole-heartedly in the application of 

 the factory system to the farm, and would accept the con- 

 clusion as to farm labour that our choice lies between five 

 labourers at i per week and two labourers properly equipped 

 and directed at 3 per week and rural depopulation be hanged. 

 I shall, however, assume for the purpose of this discussion 

 that any policy to command wide approval in this country, must 

 effect a reconciliation between pure business and certain State 

 requirements. 



I find, unfortunately, that this is only the beginning of an 

 answer to the simple question What is farming ? The precise 

 place which is given to the several objectives, determines the 

 fundamental character of the industry. The most important 

 of these is the degree to which safe food is to take precedence 

 over cheap food. For several generations cheap food has 

 been absolutely dominant, but under the stress of war there 

 has been a complete reversal to safe food. When the alarums 

 of war have subsided the safe food policy may become a very 

 moderate programme, and it may again be necessary for the 

 land to sell her fair face for the pleasure of the industrial mag- 

 nate, because her honest housewifery cannot compete with 

 that of younger countries. Arable may again diminish and 

 pasture increase, and you may continue to depend on the incom- 

 ing ships for daily food. 



The first essential of an agricultural business policy must be 

 for the industry itself to frame a proposal to submit to the 

 State defining in precise terms what it is prepared to do to 

 meet national requirements, and the price. Consider for a 

 moment the Corn Production Act. To an industrial manager, 

 it would appear that the farmers are treated, and treat them- 

 selves, as helpless victims of blind economic forces, and it is 



