RELATED TOPICS 249 
2. The Farmers’ Union, 
(a) General Principles.— The treatment of this 
subject involves reference to the general question of 
combinations of capital and labour. What is said in 
this connection is nothing more than what is evident in 
the social order of to-day. The avowed objects of the 
Union will be given later. It must not be thought, how- 
ever, that the relations of capital and labour are the only 
topic which our subject gives rise to. That topic is taken 
as the starting point because it seems more and more 
evident to the author that the true importance of the 
Farmers’ Union can best be realised in relation to it. 
In the modern economic order there is undoubtedly 
a class war. ‘‘We have in our day a two-fold movement 
. 3 first, a weakening of the old classes based 
on political ‘privilege and established by positive statute 
and long continued custom ; second, a growth of economic 
classes, and especially the emergence of rather sharply 
defined classes of employers and employees, each with 
a menacing class-consciousness. The word class-con- 
sciousness has played and is still playing a great réle in 
socialist agitation.’”’* The causes of this development 
need not be stated here. They require elaborate treat- 
ment of the very foundation of the economic system. 
To state that a class-war exists is a very different 
matter from advocating it as a means of settling the 
economic problem. There may be those who say that 
there is no economic problem to settle. Certainly, New 
Zealand is fortunate in this respect, for the predomin- 
ance of rural pursuits has saved her as yet the trials 
of a big industrial problem. But in spite of this there 
is evident the same tendency, though to a less extent, 
as is present in great industrial centres. This phe- 
nomenon of industrial unrest has received more 
*Ely, ‘‘ Property and Contract in Relation to the Distribution 
of Wealth.’’ 
