PREFACE Xlll 



The problem is simple — so simple indeed, that many 

 people seem to miss its point. 



We have to keep things going under conditions which 

 we cannot materially alter. The value of the produce of 

 a given area is half — or at most three-quarters — of what 

 it used to be, while the cost of production is not less 

 than it used to be, but possibly more. We have got to 

 make it possible for those who till the land either to 

 produce more, or to produce what will command the 

 higher range of price. That means that our more and 

 more limited resources must, on the one hand, be used 

 with more freedom, and on the other hand, must be 

 concentrated in the most effective methods. 



In other words, the narrower the margin of the gross ,' 



profits over the cost of production, the larger must be 

 the proportion of gross profits left with the working [ 

 partner to keep him going. But this is just what our i 

 evidence proves has not been done. In this great ( 

 depression, the whole economic loss has been, in general, I 

 thrown on the working partner, while the margin has ( 

 been eaten away by the sleeping partner. It is the ) 



sleeping and not the working partner who has been ( 



kept going. Hence the sweeping destruction in those 

 districts where the margin has dwindled most. ( 



If the vigilant and open-minded scrutiny, which is 

 applied to scientific questions, be only applied with equal 

 effect to the evidence of the Commission, many mis- 

 conceptiojis would be quickly brushed aside which too 

 often have clouded the vision of ordinarily just men. 



The gravity and reality of agricultural depression 

 becomes clear to any one who has grasped the fact that, 

 taking the produce and the prices of 1872 as a starting- 

 point, the diminution since then of the gross profits, 

 annually divisible among those who own and work the 



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