i8 
Land & Water 
February 14, igi8 
pastors and masters, however benevolent, but as'workers on scious reason is based upon the larger subconscious mind. 
the land all these problems are implied in rural refonna- Indeed, the green spaces of the city might very well be 
tion, and the problems involved in the correlation of compared to .the inspiring and refreshing intrusions of the 
town and country are not less urgent or less native. They sub-conscious— call it day-dreaming if you like— into everv- 
are mainly problems of the market, and from the ppint of day affairs that most of us experience. 
view of the welfare of the community they cannot be solved One of the,.^best things about Mr. Ashbee's book is the 
by captains of mdustry or princes of commerce thinking and bold way he faces the question of machinery. As he says : 
, " The distinction between what should and what 
should not be produced by machinery has in 
many trades and crafts now been made. This 
has been the discovery of the last twenty-five 
years." He might have added that it is only 
when the distinction is clearly made tKat 
handicrafts can come into their own. So long 
as there is any doubt about it good craftsmen 
will waste their skill in doing by hand what 
can be done better by machinery ; and on the 
other hand machinery will degrade production 
by imitating things designed to be done by 
hand. The moment it is recognised that there 
IS no special merit in either except that of 
adaptation of means to end, there is no longer 
any point in either the competition or the 
imitation. A division of labour is made, and 
the thing is frankly designed to be done by 
hand or machinery. It is quite certain that 
we shall not escape from the " tyranny of the 
machine " by refusing to make use of it. The 
only way is to go on and master the machine 
^, ^^ as we have mastered the simpler implements 
The Norman Chapel at Campden, Gloucestershire, as ''V'uf ^"''''P- 
rpnai'rpH ^ritU^A^,.- i>"'ic, at, jhis, of course, applies to country labour 
repaired, with additions as much as to town labour ; the tractor plough 
working from the city. The country must find and control Pl^rfri. . """^f ^° ^^'^y- "^^^ ^^^y distribution of 
Its own market. Something may be done with exS tlsks ran^ TV IT^"']'/ dozen ways in which country 
machinery; though it is difficult to see how a machfnew narHrnl.H ^^^^''''^, l"'" ^he benefit of the labourer-^ 
lughly organised to check production and uneaSe Sh!f^ ^«' labourer's wife. Undoubtedly this 
distribution for private profit-which is what the exSne ^K .nH . %'^'u .^P°" ^^" landscape. Picturesque 
rnachinery of commerce really is-can be made to work f"? f if • ^ ^^'J'SShng hedgerows wiU disappear in the broader 
the welfare of the commnnitv rh.."lt.^ .uT'''^^ ^""^ technique of new methods ; very much as a certai^ 
cosiness in country life wiU eo to be mnr. tha. '.ir 
the welfa^e-'of th^'Vommunly.'^YhTrelsT 
TtllifCtel "' ^'^ i ^^ P^^-"* food'litS'on' 
^^'^^:^^^ Sn "^r^^oT^ 
that private profit m the needs of the people ^ ' 
IS not compatible with public welfare ; which 
lonrtlr'^ "' "' '^"^ '^^" ^^y^^ f- ' 
It is hardly too much to say that a reformed 
refC^'^Vr"^^ r^° ^ "*y automaticaUy 
reformed. The madne^ of cities is caused by 
poBon m the country, for the relation of town 
AnS "^ u T ""^"^^ that of brain to bod " 
Anyl^dy who has come into close contact with 
the insane knows that the most fantaTtic 
delusions can often be traced to bodily causes 
the IftlTJf ^°r "^^ ^"""y storL abo" t 
the effect of homely remedies upon the state 
of imaginary kmgs. What is needed is a 
The English landed class, in allowine the rr>pl 
factorv bells AK^ T^ ^^^^''''- o'" ^ork to 
cosiness m country life wiU go to be more than com- 
pensated for by the increase in communal interests; for, Ts 
Mr. Ashbee pmnts out, the machinery must be under 
common control ; in a word be " socialised." 
Home Place. By E. S. Prior 
[These photographs are reproduced fron. Wkere ike Great City Stands.-^ 
