xii PREFACE 



capital is safe so long as the yearly profits 

 are enough to repay the annual instalments ; 

 fluctuations in the capital value of the property, 

 which jeopardize the security in the case of 

 permanent mortgages, do not affect those 

 mortgages which are reducible. If the first 

 two yearly instalments are paid, the risk is in- 

 finitesimal, and the land remains the security 

 throughout the continuance of the loan. 



Whether an owner or a tenant will produce 

 most from the land, is a question which depends 

 more than anything else on "the character of 

 the individual. But given two men of a similar 

 disposition, experience proves that the strongest 

 incentive to increase the output is that of 

 ownership. Owners can stretch themselves 

 where tenants are crippled. Every improve- 

 ment they effect is for the benefit of them- 

 selves, and not of someone else. They fear 

 neither rise in rent nor notice to quit. They are 

 their own landlords, and call no man master. 



No one can deny that the Unionist system 

 is fairer to the men than the principle adopted 

 in the Small Holdings Act. Under that Act, 

 where the County Council has borrowed money 

 from the State, bought land, adapted it for 



