i 4 4 THE STATE AS FARMER 



do when put to the test. But under present 

 circumstances we need not press it to its 

 utmost capacity. We need only begin the 

 operation by setting on foot the various 

 agencies to which I have alluded and get 

 decent dwellings and fair wages for those 

 who have neither at the present time. We 

 shall then have formed a nucleus for a new 

 kind of rural population, and shall have 

 established some of the necessary reforms 

 of rural life. 



The objectionable features at the present 

 time in rural housing are chiefly two. The 

 cottage is not fit for those who dwell in it, 

 and it is a sort of relic of the truck system ; 

 wages are paid in terms of a cottage, and fixity 

 of tenure depends upon the labourer ' giving 

 satisfaction ' to its owner as one of his ' hinds.' 

 We must, therefore, have a large number of 

 better and more wholesome cottages free in 

 their tenure from all connection with the 

 employer, unless the employer be the State 

 itself. This involves the increase of wages 

 to pay a higher rent. Perhaps there has been 

 no persecution in England more unfeeling 

 than that exhibited in the housing question. 



