158 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



waste which results from conveying small manufactured articles 

 over long distances and we would be reducing the distances which 

 at present separate the farmers and the manufacturers. 



THE EXAMPLE OF FRANCE 



Some light on the methods which are necessary to achieve success 

 in domestic industries is thrown on the problem by what has been 

 accomplished in France. Petty industries and intensive farming 

 are carried on side by side in the most populous and richest parts of 

 France, and on land less fertile than that of Canada. Referring to 

 the social conditions and activities of France, Erik Givskov wrote in 

 1904 thus: "No one can travel through the French villages and 

 hamlets without being struck by the comfort and cleanliness generally 

 prevailing. Almost every house lies half hidden behind a thicket of 

 fruit and rose trees, and behind the flower pots in the large windows 

 or sitting on the threshold, as the case may be, one sees the whole 

 family in busy activity turning out ribbons, laces, brushes, combs, 

 knives, baskets, or whatever may be the special industry of the dis- 

 trict." Mr. Givskov added, "It is man, not land, that produces 

 draws forth wealth." But satisfactory social conditions are as 

 essential for production as ownership of the land. In Canada we 

 need to provide the social and business organization which is as essen- 

 tial to secure success as the fertility and ownership of the soil. 



But even the combination of good soil, ownership, agreeable social 

 conditions, and the creation of small domestic industries are not suffi- 

 cient in themselves, as has been proved in parts of Europe where these 

 things are available. There must be co-operation and modern indus- 

 trial equipment as well. Competition of small manufacturing indus- 

 tries with the great factories is always difficult, but proper organiza- 

 tion and the use of water power to produce electric energy in the vil- 

 lages can do a great deal to overcome that difficulty. Then there are 

 industries in which constant change of process, individuality and 

 artistic skill count for so much that these industries can be 

 successfully manipulated on a small scale. 



In the part of Northern France devastated by war are areas 

 where successful small industries have been carried on by the peasant 

 population, and where before 1914 the French peasant prospered by 

 uniting agriculture and manufacture. Between St. Quentin and 

 Cambrai, which, at the moment of writing, are within the zone of one 

 of the greatest battles of history, and at Le Cateau, Caudry and 

 Solesmes, to the south of Lille, shawls, curtains and tulle used to be 



