256 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



Eextal System impossible in Agriculture 



The reply is that it is partly due to an impossible system 

 of land tenures, and partly to the maintenance of those tenures 

 by a powerful political body who deem their interests are best 

 served by supporting a policy which is inimical to every national 

 interest, including those ivhicli are crroneoiisly held to he hencjited 

 hy maintaining it. 



Let ns first consider the system of tenancies, or, in other 

 words, the practice of attempting to run the agricultural 

 industry of Great Britain on a system of Eents. 



We are such creatures of habit tliat we become accustomed 

 in time to most abnormal conditions of life. 



The practice of farming out parcels of land for a certain 

 sum of money which we call rent, is a time-honoured custom 

 in our country, and, like many other " time-honoured customs," 

 it has become unsuitable to the times in which we live, and 

 to-day it is a fact that we can no more afford to maintain the 

 custom than we could of building and maintaining a fleet of 

 wooden battleships for the defence of our shores and overseas 

 trade. 



How Textile Industries would fare under a 

 Eental System 



To attempt to run a great agricultural industry on a system 

 of " tenancies " is to essay the impossible. Let us take the 

 great textile industries of the North as an illustrative example, 

 and run them on precisely similar lines to those on which the 

 Manchester School compels the agricultural industry to run. Let 

 us say there are a number of landlords who own the whole of 

 the textile factories and mills, and who insist on forcing the 

 occupiers, or tenants thereof, to hold their mills under a 

 system of leases short or long, which reserve to the landlord 

 full powers in respect to renewal, rents, etc. Here we have 

 a " tenant-at-will " system with all the power practically on 

 the side of the landlord. A wave of trade prosperity would 

 certainly mean higher rents on renewal of leases ; while a 

 period of depression might, although it is not certain, mean 

 a slight reduction. Broadly speaking, however, it is certain 

 tliat any reduction of rent after bad years would surely be 

 followed by an increase after good ones — an unstable system 

 that would as surely fail in the textile as it has in the agri- 

 cultural industry. 



Let us now try to imagine the chaos which would result if 

 our manufacturers generally were forced to run their industries 



