230 . SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 
of food merely by causing a reduction elsewhere ; of finding jobs for our 
unemployed by throwing overseas producers out of work. It is, of course, 
true that scientific and industrial progress is making countries, in some 
respects, less dependent one upon another. Italy, by developing her 
water power, has reduced her need of our coal ; we, by building Billingham 
Works, have lessened our requirements for Chilean nitrate. Some 
increase of self-sufficiency is the inevitable consequence of progress. 
But itis still true that civilised countries depend largely—for the abundance, 
variety and security of their food supplies, as well as for many other 
material blessings—upon a free and large international exchange of 
goods. World trade has shrunk because our monetary system has been 
unequal to the task of maintaining its flow. People are idle because 
they cannot exchange, one with another, the things which they might 
produce. Mere one-sided restrictions on trade can form no part of 
any sane plan. International trade agreements, indeed, are an essential 
part of any scheme. 
Supposing that the marketing schemes succeed in restoring a level 
of moderate profitability to agriculture, there will still remain the con- 
siderable task of reconditioning our farms. Apart from the period of 
two or three years at the end of the war there has been no business 
inducement, for more than half a century, to put fresh capital into farming, 
Many of our existing buildings were planned at a time when wages 
were at less than a third of the present rates, and therefore with little 
regard to economy of labour. Some farms are of an uneconomic size 
in relation to modern kinds of equipment. . There are heavy arrears in 
the matter of plant and machinery renewals, of drainage and liming. 
There is also, in many cases, a heavy burden of debt. 
In some countries the problem of farmer indebtedness is so acute 
that it has been thought expedient for the State to intervene, e.g. by 
prohibiting mortgage foreclosures, by proclaiming moratoria on mortgage 
interest, or by making or guaranteeing loans at specially low rates of 
interest. These measures have become necessary because the long- 
continued underpayment of agriculturists has led to the severe depletion 
of agricultural capital, but in themselves they can provide no permanent 
solution of the farmer’s economic problem, which is one of prices. It 
would seem that the recapitalisation of the industry could be most 
quickly brought about by the deliberate raising of prices, for a short 
period, somewhat above the ‘ fair’ level as previously defined. The 
profits made would undoubtedly be largely reinvested in farming, and 
new capital would be attracted. Moreover, after a long period of under- 
payment, a short period of over-payment is no more than the farmer’s due. 
Reorganisation presents the greatest difficulties in the case of those 
branches of the industry which, so far as can be foreseen, must suffer 
a permanent reduction of demand for their products. A case in point 
is the production of oats which has been from immemorial times one of 
the main departments of farming in this part of Britain. ‘The general 
rise in the standard of living is causing a general decline in the use of 
oats for human food, and the substitution of mechanical for horse trans- 
port is gradually killing the alternative market. For other purposes, 
