1922.] The Revival of Village Industries. 349 



the relatively even distribution of population and industries 

 throughout the country. Germany, more than any other con- 

 tinental country, has worked out its distribution of industrial 

 activities on a considered plan, but other countries have not neg- 

 lected the problem; for example, the French rural industries 

 employ more than million persons, and in Switzerland the 

 prosperity of rural industries is closely associated with agricul- 

 tural life. 



So disproportionate has the rural population of this country 

 become and so serious is its threatened effect on agriculture, 

 that the problem of improving the conditions of life of the rural 

 worker has for several years received the serious thought of the 

 Government and of leading agriculturists and economists. The 

 more closely the matter is explored, the more definite appears 

 the conclusion that the revival of rural industries must form an 

 essential factor in the stabilizing and revitalizing of the 

 countryside. 



Already in pre-war days the rural worker was being influenced 

 to a larger and broader outlook on life by improved education and 

 the more frequent reading of the daily press. The War has here, 

 as in so many other directions, had a decisive effect. The rural 

 soldier returned to his village with new experiences and greater 

 ambitions and his ideas rapidly spread to his fellow inhabitants. 

 The countryman now demands for himself and his family greater 

 security and wider prospects for the future than the exclusive 

 dependence on agriculture can offer. Disregarding even the 

 seasonal nature of much agricultural work, the farm worker can 

 gain a livelihood only when he is strong and able-bodied. Purely 

 agricultural work offers but rare chances of employment to his 

 wife, to any of his children whose health is failing or to himself 

 should he become physically weakened. Inevitably, therefore, 

 the more progressive villagers are attracted to the towns where 

 the greater variety of openings seems to offer a better future for 

 himself and his family. 



Again, on grounds of high economic policy, it is desirable 

 that the continued centralization of all industries in the towns 

 should be checked and that a process of decentralization should bo 

 begun by transferring to the countryside some of those industries 

 which are still largely dependent on handiwork and in which the 

 use of modern mechanical processes is subsidiary. The increas- 

 ing congestion in towns is clearly undesirable on social grounds. 

 But further, in many industries cheaper production should result 

 cwing to the reduction of numerous " overhead " charges which 

 are frequently much inflated in towns. 



