334 BrJTAIN FOR THE BRITON 



nation prepared to put back its progress and revert to that position 

 in order that it may be self -sustain ini;-, when by means of free ex- 

 change it is able easily to maintain its vast population in considerable 

 comfort ? " 



" Our dependence upon other countries has a counterpart ; if we 

 take food from them, they take from us manufactured goods ; they 

 seek our products as eagerly as we desire their grain." * 



" Other countries are for the most part self-supporting as regards 

 food ; in this respect the case of Great Britain is exceptional." f 



" For good or for evil Great Britain has become dependent upon 

 imported wheat to the extent of more than 70 per cent, of her 

 consumption." t 



Geim Fateful Dicta of Economics 



Whatever else these grim passages may mean, they tell the 

 British people in plain unmistakable language that, irrespective 

 of all other considerations, they must abandon and cast aside 

 the greatest of all national industries — agriculture — so that 

 Industrialism and Commercialism may have full sway. No 

 other economical interest, and no other human consideration 

 must, for one single moment, be permitted to stand in the way 

 of the onward march of these Imperial forces ; everything in 

 the land must yield to them, and whatever sacrifices are 

 necessary on the part of the people, even to the extent of 

 yielding up their chief means of subsistence — National Agri- 

 culture, such sacrifices must be willingly and cheerfully made. 

 There must be no opposition, and no regrets. Industrialism 

 and Commercialism are to be enthroned as the sovereign rulers 

 of the British people, and the people would do well to submit 

 humbly and peacefully. 



The Free-trade Moloch 



Since that far-away time when the old Phoenician god 

 claimed his human sacrifices, and the cold-blooded priests of 

 Moloch committed their victims to the flames, there has, 

 perhaps, not been a crueller wrong done to a people than in 

 committing this country to the destruction of its national 

 agriculture and setting up in lieu thereof other industries. 

 Tlie Israelites lost home and country by destroying the temple 

 of the veritable God, and in setting up altars to Baal and 

 Ashtaroth, and the British people have lost much by sacrificing 

 agriculture to the gods of Industrialism and Commercialism. 



♦ " The Free-trade Movement," p. 195. 



t Ibid., p. 1G4. X Ibid., p. 169. 



