296 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



comes to be laid for that better "country life" which, 

 under Sir Horace Plunkett's inspiration, President Roosevelt 

 made it his aim to introduce in the United States. Both 

 sides understand that theirs is a bargain of give and take — 

 favoured, as it must be, by mutual goodwill and mutual 

 consideration. Employer's work is now sweeter to the 

 labourer, who understands the employer's position better 

 than he did before, just as does the employer his. To some 

 extent at any rate both have individually the same interest 

 and they have now learnt that that is so and come to share 

 that interest in common. Something of that " brother- 

 hood ' ' spoken of recently in this connection by the Bishop 

 of London, and the breaking down of class barriers, has 

 been brought about. Our man is no longer a machine but 

 a fellow- worker. 



Such were the relations between my labourers and myself. 

 And such they are in all similar cases where there is good- 

 will and a liking for fairness. Fairness on one side begets 

 fairness on the other. 



Here is a picture full of promise of happiness and content- 

 ment for work satisfactory and beneficial to the Nation as 

 well as to those taking part in it, and full of promise also 

 for the repeopling of the countryside, and the production of 

 happiness and contentment upon it. The men's own farm- 

 ing at home may indeed mean a draft upon their time other- 

 wise given to the employer. But the employer will receive 

 in quality what he sacrifices in quantity. It is another form 

 of the application of " the economy of good wages." And 

 repeopling the countryside with contented denizens may be 

 expected to bring back some of the sunshine of the old 

 " Merrie England," with its humble place for the labourer, 

 secure in his home and his common rights. There was 

 considerable waste in the use of those common rights. And 

 one would not think of re-establishing them as they were. 

 But under the circumstances they gave the small man what 

 he wanted, a position of comparative freedom, with a home 

 of his own to pass on to his children. The new garden and 

 the well-kept field will do the same thing now in a way 

 more in harmony with the spirit of the present time. 



