146 THE STATE AS FARMER 



because the real farming which I hope to see 

 constituted by the State at an early time 

 cannot begin until we recognise that the farm 

 labourer is a member of a very skilled trade, 

 and should be under rules and regulations of 

 his own as strict as the great railway and 

 engineering unions are. From some points 

 of view the land workers' union ought to be 

 the stricter of the two. The railwayman or 

 engineer has little need to establish safeguards 

 against the abominations of squalid property. 

 With the rural expert it is only from squalid 

 cottages that he can emerge to demand the 

 usual decencies of life. I am not a politician, 

 but it is obvious to all who look at the question 

 that the rural labourers must form a strong 

 union if it is only to assist the county councils 

 and their medical officers to destroy the present 

 evil influences of parish councils, and man 

 them afresh and aright. No country has ever 

 succeeded which allowed its own laws to be 

 stultified : the permissive which plays into 

 the hands of the retrograde is only another 

 form of treachery against the State. 



The very urgent question of housing, 

 then, hangs upon the due discharge of our 

 multifarious farm duties by competent men 



