CHAPTER VI 

 LABOUR 



PART II 



Seebohm Rowntree in his work on Unemploy- 

 ment offers as a possible specific the planting of 

 urban workmen out in the country with a patch 

 of land each so that in those times of unem- 

 ployment which arise (possibly through no fault 

 of theirs) they can fall back upon it, when it will 

 serve to maintain them. The land should be 

 worked regularly, in evenings or Saturday after- 

 noons, and altogether in slack times so that it 

 would be a sort of fly-wheel to store reserve power. 

 This is a remarkable suggestion. Land is the most 

 elastic and generous thing in creation. It stretches 

 endlessly, and the more you put into it the more 

 you receive, whilst it will, if required, suddenly 

 absorb any amount of surplus labour. You get a 

 range from the large farmer with one man for 

 every thirty acres to the small holder with one for 

 every five acres, and lastly the market (or French) 

 gardener with several men to one acre. 



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