242 LAND REFORM 



will claim, and receive, credit from their constituencies. 

 Governments find that an agricultural question is a 

 negligible quantity. A Butter Bill, of the utmost 

 importance to the dairy farmer, has dawdled through 

 several sessions, and it is still uncertain when it will 

 become law. In the country the same apathy exists. 

 Among those who elect our county councils there are 

 so very few who have any direct and personal interest 

 in the land that the fortunes of agriculture are re- 

 garded with indifference. 



But if on the great estate referred to there were 

 one hundred owners (yeomen) instead of one, if in 

 addition there were several hundreds of peasant pro- 

 prietors and a corresponding number of agricultural 

 labourers, owning — not renting — bits of land, and if 

 this change were introduced throughout the country — 

 as it easily might be — a different state of things would 

 be seen. There would then be a real agricultural 

 party, with a force behind it ; a party whose pockets 

 would be directly touched by the action either of 

 Parliament or of the local authority. They would 

 all be in the same boat, and pulling in the same 

 direction. 



Those who have followed the discussions on agri- 

 cultural subjects in the French or German Parliament 

 know that the agrarian party there is powerful enough 

 even to be aggressive. It is inconceivable that a 

 Butter Bill introduced into the Rigsdag of Denmark, 

 in the interests of the Danish dairy farmer, would 

 be delayed a single day more than was absolutely 

 necessary. There are too many owners of farms with 

 too large a voting power, to allow any delay in a matter 

 which affects their interests. 



From an economic point of view, any business man 



