476 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



if you would create Credit, is security. That being provided 

 you will have no need to trouble about the money. The 

 money will come in of its own accord. 



The means of doing the thing, then, lie ready to our hand. 

 Let us not split hairs, as is being done now, alike in Govern- 

 ment and in would-be " organising " quarters, about some 

 new form to give to Organisation, when experience has 

 supplied us with so many trustworthy guides ! Surely 

 in this matter the proper stage for discussion is past, and 

 the time for action has come. 



As a next point, it is not likely that the question of 

 agricultural Labour will be forgotten imder present cir- 

 cumstances. It keeps forcing itself upon public attention 

 every day. Unfortunately town people will look upon the 

 agricultural labour question with town eyes, and prescribe 

 industrial remedies — which is like giving toothache mixture 

 to cure a stomachache. The agricultural labourer does 

 not want all those rigid limitations of hours and work by 

 the stroke of the clock that are asked for on his behalf. 

 But he does want a home of his own, held independently 

 of his employer, a little rural menage, and the treatment 

 and prospects of a full citizen. He is an Englishman, like 

 all his neighbours. And if you will but give him the " neces- 

 sary liberties " pertaining to the status of an Englishman, 

 such as his neighbours undisputedly enjoy, he may be 

 relied upon to show — though in some cases it should be only 

 in the next generation — the same intelligence, resource 

 and practical sense of an Englishman, sharpened by acquired 

 practical knowledge and a new sense of responsibility, 

 rendered acute by English sturdiness of character, grit and 

 mettle — as those now more favoured neighbours. And 

 so, by his raising, the Nation will gain a new, valuable class 

 of citizens. 



The question of Labour accordingly naturally connects 

 itself, in a complementary manner, with that of Small 

 Holdings, in the substantial multiplication of which not a 

 few intending reformers rightly seek, not only greater 

 agricultural prosperity for the country, but also a more 

 satisfactory organisation of national society, a perfecting 



