CHAPTER VI 



SMALL HOLDINGS AND AGRICULTURE 



THE sound development of small hold- 

 ings lies at the root of land reform, 

 just as land reform must be the basis 

 of all social reform. 

 If the social evils from which Great Britain is 

 suffering are to a significant extent caused by 

 so large a proportion of the population being 

 divorced from the land : if a landless proletariat 

 constitutes, as Disraeli pointed out years ago, a 

 grave national danger, then the remedy must be 

 to recreate a large, well-educated and financially 

 sound rural population. 



For upwards of loo years Parliament passed 

 Acts which legalized the enclosing of common 

 lands, and gave its sanction to the systematic 

 withdrawal of land from the people. It is not 

 here a question of whether land in the form of 

 commons was put to the best economic use, or 

 no; a larger subject is before us — that of national 

 welfare, which demands that the greatest possible 

 number of people shall be directly connected 

 with the land. 



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