LAND TENURES 275 



111 iiiiiintaiiiiiig the present state of affairs ; but if the people are 

 prepared to lend the State £770,000,000 to pay for its wars— 

 for killing people, in other words — they would be strangely 

 inconsistent if they refused to subscribe several extra millions 

 for the more peaceful purj)0se of saving the lives of their 

 fellow-countrymen and building up a great, profitable national 

 industry. 



War Loan Unproductive 



There would, however, be a wide distinction between a huge 

 war loan and an agricultural debt. The former is unproductive, 

 unremunerative, and an eminently undesirable item on the 

 wrong side of the national balance sheet. It produces nothing 

 for the people, nor affords them employment ; it is an immense 

 drag on the national finances, and costs the people about 

 £20,000,000 in interest with no rciurii on the outlay. It is, in 

 short — sheer waste of public moneij. 



Agricultukal Loan Productive and Profitable 



An Agricultural Deist, on the other hand, would be the 

 antithesis of all this. It would be productive, it would afford 

 employment, and support and provide food to literally millions 

 of people ; it would rehabilitate lost conditions, repopulate our 

 country districts and give back to England that backbone of 

 rural strength and vigour of which the enervating, exhausting 

 policy of the last half-century has robbed her. It would 

 create throughout our land such a number of happy prosperous 

 homesteads that our countrj^-sides would literally teem with a 

 cheery contented population of old men and women, young men 

 and maidens, who had regained their physical vigour, and had 

 found that bright gaicte de cmur in agriculture which they had 

 sought for in vain among the industries of manufacturing towns. 



What the Agricultural Loan would do 



A great agricultural loan would again launch into existence 

 all those subsidiary industries which arise out of, and depend 

 upon, agriculture, and would, at the same time, create in our 

 midst a numerous, pros})erous agricultural population, the 

 purchasing power of which would be enormous. It would be 

 a source of immense wealth to the people and therefore a direct 

 gain to the nation. Last, but not least, an agricultural loan, 

 whether it be for £10,000,000 or £500,000,000, would not cost 

 the countrij a ijcnny, for the simple reason that the extra half 



