Land Problems and National Welfare 



take a farm in a district where small farms are 

 being developed in colonies. Why should they 

 not do the same in England ? 



This method would be of great advantage to 

 the County Council, because it would simplify 

 its work in every way ; and it would be of equal 

 advantage to the small holders because it would 

 place them in a better position to co-operate 

 and to receive instruction in the best methods 

 of cultivation. 



Mr. Pratt puts the scheme so well in his 

 article in the " Standard " on the advantages 

 of the taking of land by co-operative societies, 

 that I quote at length — 



" I realise that what I have stated in my 

 previous article may seem very discouraging to 

 those Unionists who have been looking to 

 peasant proprietary as their ' Bulwark against 

 Socialism,' but I have thought it my duty to 

 state the facts as I have found them and to 

 offer what seems to me right guidance and 

 direction in a matter less of theorizing than of 

 hard, practical fact, in which the interests of 

 those of our fellow-countrymen whom it is 

 desired to send ' back to the land ' must be 

 regarded as paramount. 



" So I come to the question — ' What should 

 the Unionists do ? ' and thereon depends in the 

 first place the subsidiary question, * Should they 

 abandon their aim of creating a larger body of 



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