THE STATE AS FARMER 131 



But, leaving all those useless questions of 

 history, we are compelled as a State to retake 

 possession of the soil because no other 

 controller of it can afford to carry through 

 all its necessary operations and face the 

 annual fluctuations in rent or profit. If 

 we take the working expenses — including a 

 comfortable wage, a habitable cottage, 

 education, and the rest for the labourer — as 

 to some extent fixed, and if in view of free 

 trade the prices obtainable fluctuate — for 

 we have to provide high-class food for our 

 urban and manufacturing populations — the 

 profit, that is the rent, of the land must 

 fluctuate too. And, seeing that the interest 

 on the land stock must be regular, it follows 

 next that a margin must be provided to 

 deal with the fluctuating profits. The finance 

 may be worked out in different ways, but 

 it is incontrovertible that the State only 

 can undertake the development of land to 

 its full capacity. Any other system must 

 be unjust to one or other class among us. 

 The labourer or the farmer or the town dweller 

 must suffer, for their interests under an 

 individualist system clash. The owner of 



K 2 



