THE FUTURE— AN ORGANISED AGRI- 

 CULTURAL INDUSTRY 



I CANNOT say how glad I am to have had the oppor- 

 tunity of giving these lectures before the London 

 School of Economics. If the nation is to be stirred 

 to a realisation of the importance of agriculture 

 as a national industry ; if politicians and the Govern- 

 ment are to be forced to give agriculture that 

 attention and consideration which it demands as 

 our primary and still largest industry, these results 

 will be largely achieved by the teachings of econo- 

 mists. I am convinced that in this work the London 

 School of Economics, with its wider conception of 

 national economy, will play a very important part. 



Our charge against the old school of Economists, 

 and the politicians who take from them their 

 opinions ready-made, is that they set forth what they 

 deemed to be economic truth, while in reality it is 

 only a part of the truth. Their views are too 

 academic, and they ignore the human element. 

 They fail to realise that sound social conditions and 

 a high standard of physique are factors of vital 

 importance in the well-being of the nation. 



They were bound hand and foot in the tangle oi 

 doctrines of the laisscr faire school and the tyrannies 

 of party politics. In this fettered condition, and 

 with their narrow view-point, they studied not the 

 great economic forces at work but certain phenomena 

 which were the results of these economic forces 



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