CHAPTER XX 



HOW WAR WOULD INTENSIFY POVERTY — GRAVE PERIL TO 

 THE NATION — OUR FOOD SUPPLIES AT THE MERCY OF 

 enemies' AGENTS, " CORNERERS," AND SPECULATORS 



Let us now try to realise what might, and assuredly would, 

 happen to us if war broke out between this country and one 

 or more of the great European States, particularly with a 

 country possessing a powerful navy. Do not let us shirk this 

 question as we shirk so many others, because there are visible 

 signs that war is not at all improbable unless we change much 

 that is objectionable in our foreign policy, or rather the " pin- 

 pricking" policy assumed by a certain section of the Press, as 

 also in the internal social and economic conditions of the 

 country. That we should be armed at all points is unquestion- 

 able, but that we should arm resolutely and quietly, and in 

 a dignified manner, instead of talking so much about it, is 

 equally certain. 



The strongest proof that could be brought against the 

 fatuous policy which destroyed national agriculture would lie 

 in the immediate effect tliat war with a European State 

 would have on the price of corn, and, for that matter, of all 

 other food-stuffs. 



No country can be in a state of war without suffering 

 seriously from dislocation of trade ; increase in price of com- 

 modities ; unemployment, and consequent poverty : but the 

 country that grows its own food staples is likely to suffer less 

 than the country which imports them. 



France, for example, during the Franco-Prussian War, 

 suffered comparatively little — save in beleaguered cities — from 

 this cause, because of the immense food reserves which lay 

 behind the universal agriculture of the country ; and it was 

 this fact, coupled with the tremendous wealth and recupera- 

 tive power of the great laud industry, that ultimately saved 

 France from financial destruction. 



