HOMES AND WAGES 143 



ment on the other, nevertheless with all 

 our imports unimpeded menaced thousands 

 of our poorer fellow-countrymen with semi- 

 starvation. If a disturbance of our internal 

 communications could produce results so 

 painful and disastrous, we may well stand 

 aghast at the possibilities inherent in any 

 serious naval interference with the importa- 

 tion of our normal food supplies. Few serious 

 students of rural life can avoid the conclusion 

 that all is not well with the land of England. 

 Some will maintain that under existing con- 

 ditions the improvement of our land system 

 is quite impossible that land tenure, land- 

 lordism, the helplessness of the labourers, the 

 apathy of the farmers, rule out schemes of 

 adequate improvement, that it is useless to 

 put patches on the old garment : the entire 

 system of existing land tenure must be 

 changed before agriculture can fully come by 

 its own. Others put their trust with more or 

 less enthusiasm in less sweeping reforms to be 

 enforced by the strong arm of the legislature. 

 There is something truly pathetic in the 

 sequence of electioneering phrases which have 

 been employed, in] many cases with all sin- 

 cerity, to stimulate the jaded hopes and rouse 

 the enthusiasm of those who sojourn in our 

 English villages. There was once a time when 



