THE SACRIFICE OF AGRICULTURE 183 



almost unproductive, in the sanie way as the neighI)Ourhood.s of the 

 big cities in France are utilised for market-gardening."* 



ScATiiiNCr Comparisons 



" It is obvious that if we are satisfied with merely stating that it 

 is cheaper to bring wheat from Riga than to grow it in Lincolnshire, 

 the whole question is settled in a moment. But is it so in reality ? 

 Is it really cheaper to have food from abroad ? And, supposing it 

 is, are we not yet bound to analyse that compound result which we 

 call price, rather than to accept it as a supreme and blind ruler of 

 our actions ? 



"We know, for instance, how French agriculture is burdened by 

 taxation. And yet, if we compare the prices of articles of food in 

 France, which herself grows most of them, with the prices in this 

 country, which imports them, we find no dillerence in favour of 

 the importing country. On the contrary, the balance is rather in 

 favour of France, and it decidedly was so for wheat until the new 

 protective tariff was introduced. As soon as one goes out of Paris 

 (where the prices are swollen by a heavy octroi), one finds that every 

 home ■prodws is cheaper in France than it is in England, and that 

 the prices decrease further when we go farther East on the 

 Continent." t 



Justifiable Contempt 



Summing up his conclusions the writer of " Fields, Factories 

 and Workshops " speaks with justifiable contempt of that 

 attitude of profound ignorance and apathy which modern society 

 assumes towards the food supply of their own country, a 

 question of such tremendous import, even to the highly 

 cultured and well-placed ones of the earth, as to demand their 

 earnest consideration rather than their supreme indifference. 



*' We civilised men and women know everything, we have settled 

 opinions upon everything, we take an interest in everything. We 

 only know nothing about whence the bread comes which we eat — 

 even though we pretend to know something about that subject as 

 well — we do not know how it is grown, what pains it costs to those 

 who grow it, what is being done to reduce their pains, what sort of 

 men those feeders of our grand selves are, ... we are more 

 ignorant than savages in this respect, and we prevent our children 

 from obtaining this sort of knowledge — even those of our children 

 who would prefer it to the heaps of useless stufi' with which they 

 are crammed at school." X 



Both Eobert Blatchford and Prince Kropotkin have dis- 

 covered " the rift in the lute," while ]\[r. CoUings has thrust 



* " Field<?, Factories and Workshops," pp. 59, GO. Prince Kropotkin. 

 t lUd., pp. 71, 72. + Ibid., p. 125. 



