8 THE POLICY OF THE PLOUGH 



Now is the time. The opportunity is unique. It is 

 not likely to occur again. After the war there will be 

 a vast re-shuffling of the population. Discharged 

 soldiers and sailors, men with an acquired distaste for 

 their former sedentary work, will be looking for new 

 jobs. The land calls to them. The land is in the 

 deepest need of them. The land, then, should offer 

 them conditions which will be sufficient to attract 

 them and hold them — conditions worthy of the most 

 natural and honourable labour a man can perform. 

 At present the conditions in some districts are not 

 worthy of civilised men, much less of men who have 

 proved themselves, in the field or on the sea, knights 

 of honour in the service of their country. It is the 

 duty of the State to see that proper conditions shall 

 be ensured by whatever means may be necessary. 



Agriculture could afford to pay for conditions equal 

 to those of several industries in which the standard 

 of comfort is tolerably high. But the majority of 

 farmers, for reasons which wiU be explained presently 

 and which cannot by any means be ignored since they 

 are good reasons in themselves, will not take the 

 financial risks that are at present inevitable in in- 

 creasing the output of the soil. What is needed is a 

 method of assuring the farmer that he will not be 

 allowed to suffer through mere bad luck. He must 

 be given confidence. You may call any means which 

 the State could conceivably employ of giving him 

 confidence "artificial" if you please. You may ask 

 why the State should do for him, what — ^as has been 

 in effect admitted above — he could really do for him- 

 self. But could anything be more artificial than the 



