THE FUTURE OF THE VILLAGE. 193 



industry can and should play an important part in rural recon- 

 struction. A suitable industry will provide alternative sources 

 of income, and part-time employment in slack periods of the 

 year, while if it is a full-time industry it may well provide useful 

 and welcome employment for the wife and the family. 



Whatever steps are taken, however, to re-establish old, or to 

 develop new, industries, sweated labour should be carefully 

 guarded against, as no permanent advantage can accrue either 

 to the State or to those employed in the industry, if the industry 

 is unable to pay a living wage to its workers. 



Such then is the machinery which should be established, 

 and these the plain matter-of-fact lines along which village 

 organisation should proceed. 



There is, however, one word of caution, which I would like 

 to utter, and it is this. In any schemes which are promoted 

 there must be no taint of patronage, and there must be no trace 

 of welfare, that is to say in the sense of instructing people as 

 to what is good for them. 



No one hates more than the dweller in a rural district being 

 told by some superior kind of person what is beneficial for him, 

 how he is to spend his spare time, and the money which he has, 

 in many cases, so dearly won. 



He desires, and rightly desires, and what is more he intends, 

 to spend both his time and his money, as he likes, when he likes, 

 and where he likes ; and the furthest point to which any assistance 

 can advantageously go is to enable him to do this under good 

 conditions and in the manner which will give the greatest benefit 

 to his family and to himself. 



In conclusion, I would say that if it is possible to sum up in 

 one word the essence of a policy of rural organisation and develop- 

 ment that one word is " sympathy." Sympathy not merely 

 the sympathy of a few kindly words, but a real, enduring, construc- 

 tive sympathy, the sympathy of doing everything possible to 

 advance the cause of the rural dweller. 



Too long has the State treated him with neglect, but this 

 policy must be changed. The State owes to each one of its 

 citizens, whether they be townsmen or countrymen, the right 

 to live, the right to live a decent life, and a life in which the 

 broad avenues of opportunity shall be open to all. 



The subsequent discussion ranged mainly round the 

 question of the cottage and the wider implications of the 

 subject received less attention. Colonel Abel Smith, 

 however, put in a word for co-operation, which he thought 

 might form the basis of village organisation. He also 

 supported Sir Douglas Newton in the view that the services 



o 



