The Landowner 



general public would be forced to recognise that 

 the land, the nation's chief asset, was being put 

 to the best possible use. Landlords should 

 not only guide the development of the agri- 

 cultural industry, but should direct the whole 

 movement of land reform. Land reform will 

 have to come within a few years' time ; and it 

 rests with the landowners either to guide that 

 reform — as the Danish landowners have done — 

 or to see the whole process of reconstruction 

 taken out of their hands and attempted by 

 politicians who may lack that practical know- 

 ledge which is necessary to make land reform 

 successful. 



Landowners still subscribe large sums to the 

 party chest : they could therefore, more than any 

 other section of the rural community, force 

 politicians to give heed to the requirements of 

 agriculture ; they could insist upon the choosing 

 of candidates for rural constituencies by reason 

 of their agricultural qualifications, and could stop 

 the present system of sending down " carpet- 

 baggers " to contest our rural divisions. 



It should be clearly recognised as necessary, 

 in order to secure the solidarity of the move- 

 ment, that a certain number of suitable tenant 

 farmers be returned to Parliament ; for it 

 is only right that the people who make their 

 entire living off the land should have some 

 representatives of their own in the House of 



5 



