THE LAND AS AN OUTLET 17 



upon the land. If that feeling cannot be satisfied at 

 home they will take the first opportunity of emigration 

 to countries where land is obtainable, urged thereto, 

 moreover, by the pressure of taxation that will then be 

 resting upon this country. Here, indeed, lies one of the 

 gravest dangers to the future of the United Kingdom — 

 that just when we need increased production to pay for 

 the expenditure incurred in the war we may lose by emi- 

 gration a large proportion of the most active and enter- 

 prising of our population, and thus increase the burden 

 upon those who remain. In order to avoid depopulation 

 of a cumulative and disastrous type, the State must 

 exert itself to provide fresh outlets for employment, 

 and the land presents the most fruitful opportunity. 

 Nothing will better meet the exigencies of the situation 

 than a more intensive employment of the land ; it is a 

 comparatively undeveloped national asset, and its utili- 

 zation will menace no existing industry but will result in 

 the direct production by labour alone of real wealth from 

 our existing resources. It will also be production of the 

 most necessary of all materials, the demand for which 

 springs from the fundamental needs of the community 

 and does not depend on the possession of a margin for 

 superfluities. After the war many classes of the com- 

 munity will be impoverished by taxation and their 

 power of making purchases abroad will be corre- 

 spondingly reduced ; the nation as a whole will have to 

 work harder and to depend as much as possible upon its 

 own internal resources, of which the land has been the 

 least exploited. 



