112 Agriculture and the Community. 



But that they will assert their human right to some share 

 in the control of the industry in which they are engaged, 

 in common with other workers, is certain. They are 

 taking the first steps in that direction now by insisting 

 on their right to determine conditions of employment. 

 They have made a beginning by securing definite 

 regulation of working hours, and in fixing other con- 

 ditions. Other workers began in the same way and have 

 gone on stage by stage until they find that from merely 

 defensive efforts they have moved on to positive acts of 

 control. The demand for a share of control in industry 

 is being made in all industries and in many countries, and 

 it is clear that industry in the future must become a 

 democracy. It is in this direction that the workers in 

 agriculture will secure their freedom, not by turning back 

 the industry by individualist division of the land amongst 

 small cultivators, but in the development of association 

 and organisation in which the individual will express 

 himself in his community. 



I am well aware that I shall be accused of making a 

 vague and idealistic claim for the future of the workers in 

 agriculture. I purposely refrain from making any sug- 

 gestions how the claim to share in control will be met, 

 because it would be absurd to lay down any scheme in an 

 industry which has not yet developed beyond the stage of 

 private control by a multitude of small capitalists. Any- 

 thing in the nature of workers' control in present circum- 

 stances would be merely farcical. The units must be 

 increased considerably before the workers can hope for 

 any alteration in their relation to the industry, while the 

 workers themselves are only at the beginning of 



