54 THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



the State which is taking the initiative in plans, and the burden 

 of administration. And there is no real evidence that any other 

 method is possible. To what organised body could the Govern- 

 ment go for a guarantee that production would in fact be in- 

 creased in an adequate degree for the money which it was pre- 

 pared to spend ? The result is a minimum price for corn which 

 violates several important business principles, and involves a 

 measure of Government control tolerable only during war. 



Contrast this with the case of the Ministry of Munitions 

 securing a forced and uneconomical output in the metal trades. 

 By expert advice the Ministry ascertains a fair price which will 

 produce a certain amount of output under ordinary trade con- 

 ditions. Still greater quantities are required and the trade 

 undertakes its production at a higher price for the increase, 

 such higher price being based on the increased cost due to using 

 semi-obsolete equipment. Further production is required and 

 new plants are necessary which will be redundant after the 

 war, and a price is fixed accurately measured by the higher 

 depreciation on the war plant. A specific return is guaranteed 

 for a specific payment, such payment being measured accurately 

 by the degree of violation of economy necessitated by the war 

 demands. Where the industry is not organised, it has had to 

 submit to Government control, with a loss to both sides due 

 to divided interests and responsibility. If this one point could 

 be brought home to the farming community, and they realised 

 fully the annoyances of control, it should prove a very strong 

 inducement to organise politically and industrially. The 

 State, I am sure, would greatly prefer to deal with such an 

 organisation rather than assume control. I have seen no 

 evidence of the desire on the part of the much abused civil 

 servant and so-called bureaucrat to reach out into new fields 

 except with great reluctance. On the other hand, the some- 

 what proud statement of the writers of the Agricultural Policy 

 Report that the ownership of land is vested only in the land- 

 lords, and that in dealing with them the State knows exactly 

 where it is and whom to hold responsible, is not altogether 

 borne out by the situation revealed when definite action has to 

 be taken. 



There can be no satisfactory reorganisation plan which leaves 

 the most important measures to be settled in the political arena. 

 It is, therefore, the first duty of the industry to present a reason- 

 able proposition to the State, and to undertake to return a 

 guaranteed minimum of production for a stated price. As to 

 the price it is easy to state the basis. It must represent the 

 ascertained offset to the unequal conditions of cheap land and 

 virgin soil, as on the American continent, and sweated labour, 

 as in Russia, less the cost of transport. It must not be a mere 



