The Labourer 



when we come to the opportunities for better- 

 ment that the conditions are so unfavourable. 

 In Denmark, 70 per cent, of the rural 

 labourers have sufficient land to give them 

 a very large measure of independence. Yet 

 this does not create a shortage of labour for 

 the farmer. The thing to strive for is a big 

 labouring population in the rural districts 

 possessing a direct interest in the land. 

 These men will do so many days' work 

 in the year on the surrounding farms, and 

 their sons also will furnish the farmer with 

 excellent and intelligent labour because they 

 have been brought up under right conditions. 

 There is nothing so dangerous from the 

 national point of view as a large landless 

 proletariat. Yet in Great Britain this class 

 is larger than in any other country in the 

 world. 



Here, by the way, it is well to bear in 

 mind that it is not only the rural labourer 

 who should have access to land but the urban 

 worker as well. Some 70 per cent, of the 

 dock labourers employed in Antwerp have 

 sufficient land to give them occupation, and 

 provide food for their families, during periods 



82 



