LAND TENURES 255 



"science," aM(l the consumnuitc ease vvitli wliich the people can 

 bo beguiled by such Will-o'-the-wisp political catchwords as the 

 " Big Loaf" cry, and many others of a similar nature, 



A Bettek Scheme to compare England with otheii 



Countries 



A more useful purpose will, however, be served by confining 

 the matter more to a (question of coinparisons, for the reason 

 that once you establish a precedent you have half won your suit. 

 If Great Britain were the only country in the world, the estab- 

 lishment of a precedent for agriculture, or for any other in- 

 dustry, would be impossible, and the question would probably 

 remain a controversial one till the crack of doom ; the fact 

 of there being a score of precedents within a few miles of our 

 shores brings the whole question well into the open, and renders 

 political and economic legerdemain more difficult to perform. 



France, which is acknowledged to be the richest agricultural 

 countrij in the world, directly employs, as was shown in tlie last 

 chapter, nearly 8,500,000 persons on her lands, and M. Gourot, 

 Tresident de la Societe Natiouale d'Encouragement a 1' Agri- 

 culture, speaking on the subject in July, 1905, spoke of 

 '24,000,000 arjric}dturids of France. As we must assume that 

 the President of this Society knew what he was talking about, 

 we conclude that France's great land industry employs and 

 supports the enormous total of 24,000,000 of her population, or 

 nearly two-thirds of the whole. 



Hungary, with a population of a little over 19,000,000, 

 employs and supports over 15,000,000 in agriculture, or, in 

 other words, her land industry employs and supports upwards 

 of three-fourths of the entire population of the country. 



Germany employs and supports about one-third of her 

 population. 



Great Britain stands alone in that she employs and supports 

 5,656,000 persons in agriculture, or about one-eighth of her 

 entire population. 



These are hard, unemotional facts which can neither be 

 minimised by political trickery nor whittled down by the 

 "economic" paring-knife. These countries, and indeed every 

 country in the world, manage to maintain a highly prosperous 

 agricultural industry and employ a far larger head of the popu- 

 lation than (Jreat Britain ever dreamed of doing, and the time 

 has come for the British people to ask the reason Why ? 



