CHAPTER XII. 

 THE WORKER'S SHARE IN AGRICULTURE. 



IN September, 1919, as there happened to be a meeting of 

 the Club at which I had failed to secure anyone to introduce 

 a subject, I filled the gap by reading the following paper. 

 I reprint it in full, not from any excess of pride in authorship 

 a foible which long usage of the pen has much mitigated 

 but because it puts one or two points which I still regard as 

 timely : 



We are in the throes, painful and perhaps prolonged, of the 

 birth of a new world. Political, social and economic frontiers 

 and landmarks have been shifted, and we have to redraw the 

 map of the common life of mankind, as the Allies have redrawn 

 the map of Europe. In the welter of change only one factor 

 of civilisation remains stable human nature. The great war 

 has been the great leveller. The doctrine of the equality of 

 man, since it was propounded by Christ, has been preached 

 and also perverted through all the Christian era, but the com- 

 radeship of war has hammered into millions of minds the truth 

 that, however much men may differ superficially, or however 

 different may be their places in the ordered life of the community, 

 they are much alike in all the fundamental virtues and vices 

 which go to make up what we term character. 



It is from this angle, and in the lurid light of war experience, 

 that the relations of men, and of classes of men, must hereafter 

 be viewed. 



One notable result of the war is that, in the national effort 

 to increase food production, the importance of the manual 

 worker has been recognised. The ultimate dependence of 

 Agriculture upon labour has been demonstrated and the worker's 

 share in production has been realised. Farmers at the present 

 time do not stand very well in popular esteem, and the public 

 are inclined to forget the real service which they rendered to 

 the country in its hour of need. There is no doubt that the 

 vast majority of them worked whole-heartedly and unreservedly 

 to increase food production from a sense of patriotism and duty. 



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