SMALL HOLDINGS 197 



Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's hopes and 

 prophecies are to be fulfilled if the labourer 

 is to be given a real chance to emancipate 

 himself from the quasi-serfdom of his miser- 

 able wages and his tied cottage if our young 

 men and women are to be kept in the country 

 villages, a much stronger measure of Land 

 Reform is needed than the Small Holdings 

 Act of 1907. The Scottish Act has shown us 

 the right way. In the case of any subsequent 

 law for the extension of small holdings in 

 England it is clear that County Councils 

 must be deprived of the work which they 

 refuse to perform adequately. Their duties 

 must be taken by a Commission, presided 

 over by some genuine reformer who will act 

 as well as talk and composed of men whose 

 single purpose is to wipe off some of the long 

 arrears of political neglect, and make the life 

 of our English villages better worth living. 



