34 G imiTAIN FOR THE BRITON 



have reduced the people's greatest wealth-producing industry to 

 the pitiable condition it is in to-day — the hiughing-stock of the 

 nations and an ever-present menace to a world-wide Empire ; 

 but to call our magnificently fertile land " a niggardly soil " is 

 to open all at once the vials of vituperation on that much- 

 abused and sorely degraded quantity ; while to assert that vast 

 quantities of inferior land would need to be cultivated before 

 we could produce our own wheat is simply to — mislead. But 

 "any stick to beat a dog" is good enough, and it is evident 

 that those who take a delight in belittling Britain's agriculture 

 avail themselves of this and all other means to that end. 



There is nothing " niggardly " about British soil, but there 

 is much that is niggardly and wrong about these British 

 political parties, British political economists and others of 

 that ilk, who, whatever may he. the considerations which 

 \irge them to it, persuade the people that it is better to sacrifice 

 their splendid agricultural resources on the altars of Commer- 

 cialism and Industrialism than to run them side by side with 

 those industries as, indeed, with every other industry which 

 this great country is capable of launching into existence. A 

 bar to successful agriculture exists ; a mighty obstacle purposely 

 put there by the manufacturer-reformers of the "hungry forties " ; 

 but remove the bar and there would be no more misleadino; 

 statements about niggardly soil, inferior lands, and the rest of 

 such claptrap phrases. 



More Scientific Fallacies 



Fallacy 3. " Since all imports of corn would now cease, the 

 exports of cloth, machineri/, etc., hg which thcg are at ijresent 

 jmrchased, would cease also, and the industries which supplg 

 them would decline . . . shiphuilding and other suhsidiarg 

 industries . . . would collapse." 



Here again the writer indulges in abstract theories and 

 generalisations instead of giving concrete examples showing 

 how, and when, and in what specific instances, our industries 

 would suffer by this country ceasing to import its corn. 



In pages 103-7 and in page 120 of "The Free-trade 

 Movement " we are particularly reminded that the world's trade 

 is carried on by commodities in exchange for commodities, and 

 that these are practically the only means of exchange, money 

 being but a token, or the measure and standard of trade. 



an 



Trading is done in terms of money, that is, in price ; gold is 

 the measure and standard, but its transport is avoided as much as 

 possible. And as in the internal trade of the country cheques and 



