THE STATE AS FARMER 125 



hinted at, and we have instead been legislating 

 for smallholders, minimum wages, and rural 

 housing in sheer desperation. But we are 

 determined not to see that it is a matter of 

 impossibility to go on with the present system 

 of land tenure. If the Repeal of the Corn 

 Laws chastised landlordism with whips, our 

 new legislation must do so with scorpions 

 when the land under present conditions is 

 called upon to bear the cost. And if in addi- 

 tion we run motor services, build depots, 

 keep a large staff of professors, and charge 

 these on the land, what will be the result ? 

 Ruin ; for the present system of management 

 knows no method but that of lower and lower 

 wages, cheaper and cheaper hovels, rotting 

 orchards, weedy fields, and slovenly marketing. 

 In other words, if we are to resuscitate agri- 

 culture we dare not commit all the fine 

 machinery of its working to the present 

 workers without instituting effective State 

 control. 



But if we institute this State control and 

 make farming a success without resuming 

 possession of the soil, we are heaping up 

 prices, rents, and capital values, by our own 



