132 THE STATE AS FARMER 



the deer forest or park is the very first to 

 scream for conscription when war comes. 

 He makes desolate the region where thews 

 and sinews, hardihood and valour flourish, 

 and then coolly asks the State to save him 

 by taking men by force from other places 

 whither they have been driven by his 

 disastrous feudal powers. In fact the present 

 system is its own reductio ad absurdum. It 

 leads to depopulation, as many of us have 

 said for years, and to the military dangers of 

 depopulation ; and now the war has come 

 to prove our case finally and absolutely. 

 We want men, and in these places where we 

 should have the best we have neither men 

 nor food to give them sufficient for strength. 



Just look fixedly at what the landowner 

 has wanted all these years. He has wanted 

 a duty on corn so that without improving 

 the yield he might put a heavier price upon 

 the citizen's loaf and exact a higher rent for 

 himself. He has made no effort to keep 

 up with the times. He does not exact from 

 his tenant, with all his exactions, even 

 loyalty to co-operation. If that had been 

 made a condition of every tenancy there 



