February 14, 19 10 
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Rural Reformation : By John Ruan 
As architect, designer and craftsman Mr. C. R. 
Ashbee does well to devote the greater part of 
his ^^ book, Where the Great City Stands 
■ (Batsford : 2 is. net), to the affairs of the city 
itself ; but we shall not be wasting time if we 
regard the city rather from the point of view of the countr}'. 
A city is, after all, only the concentrated expression of^the 
land. Just as man himself may be regarded as com and grass 
and fruits become conscious, so his most elaborate works 
are only reorganised pro- 
ducts of the soil. 
If the war has taught 
us anything it is the 
supreme importance of 
the land, and any scheme 
of social or industrial 
reconstruction that does 
not start with the country 
will be dealing with symp- 
toms instead of causes. 
The time is long past for 
regarding the country as 
a mere background to the 
town. Even granting, 
and it is open to question, 
that the finest effects 'of 
civilisation in philosophy, 
science, literature and art 
are produced in cities, 
the relation of country to 
town is still that of root 
to flower ; and unless 
the one be healthy the 
other cannot be more at . 
Best than the hectic blos- 
som which an actual 
plant puts forth when 
threatened with decay. 
Mr. Ashbee himself de- 
votes his last chapter to 
this very question. He 
takes for his text Axiom 
X. of the list drawn up at 
the beginning of the bofek. 
" In an industrial civili- 
sation, the reconstructed 
city cannot be stable 
without a corresponding 
reconstruction of the 
country. Town and 
country should be corre- 
lated, and react upon one 
another. This correla- 
tion is a necessary con- 
sequence of the conditions 
of machine industry." 
With the prevision that town and country react upon one 
another whether you will or not, and in any conditions of 
industry, those are wise words, but in order to get the full 
wisdom of them it is necessary to consider them in more 
detail than the axiomatic form allows. What, for example, 
is meant by the " reconstniction of the country " ? First" 
of all it mcaas the re-establishment of human beings in some 
secure footing on the soil ; and that brings in the question of 
Tyberton Cross, Herefordshire 
ownership. This is hardly the place to weigh the respective 
claims of State and private ownership, and it is enough to 
say that in either case the peasant must be something more 
than an exploited labourer. Whether he owns his land or 
rents it from the State or from a private landlord, he must be 
allowed that interest in his labour upon it for which the 
right word is artistic. 
This is not a counsel of perfection ; it is a counsel of neces- 
sity ; and anybody who has lived among country workers 
knows that one of the 
most tragic things in 
country life is the struggle 
between this persistent 
interest and bad con- 
ditions of employment. 
The countryman who does 
not want to do his work 
better than he is allowed 
to do it is the exception 
rather than the rule. A 
great deal has been said 
about the " incentives " 
to labour. There is only 
■ one incentive to labour 
that is worth practical 
consideration — it is plea- 
• sure in the job. Let 
the incentive be wholly, 
! or mainly, the hope of 
• profit, and sooner or later 
■, the man will find out a 
'. way of scamping his job 
and still securing, or try- 
ing to secure, his profit. 
• Then, apart from the 
question of labour, there 
are all the questions of 
life ; of housing, educa- 
tion, social intercourse 
and recreation. These 
are not new questions 
brought into existence by 
the war ; they are old 
neglected problems seen 
by the light .of the war 
to be soluble and press- 
ing for solution. And 
their solution must come 
from within. It is no 
use for clever gentlemen 
to go down from the city 
to put the country 
straight. They can help 
to supply the machinery, 
but they must be shown 
the needs by people who 
have suffered from them ; who know by bitter experience 
the conditions that are covered by the words " rural 
England." This means organisation in the country 
itself. In every village there must be a pooling of 
experience. The prof)lems of birth, nourishment, bodily 
and mental, marriage, domestic economy and sickness as 
they are conditioned by country life must be examined m 
council by people who have lived the life ; not merely as 
