The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-01-30 00:00:00

~.-tottibrib,ge Ober*.

SATURDAY: JANUARY 30th, 1886.

A.GRICU LTURAL DEPRESSION.

THE Debate raised on Monday night in the
House of Commons by Mr. J. W. Barclay,
member for Forfarshire, by his Amendment
to the Address, did some seri. ice in eliciting
a general expression of conviction that the
agricultural situation is a grave one. There
was considerable divergence of opinion as to
the causes of the prevalent depression, and
an even wider variance as to what would,
and what would not be likely to dissipate
the cloud which hangs SO heavily over the
British farming industries. Even RS to the
main point of the amendment—which was
defeated by a narrow majority in what for
such a subject was certainly a thin House—
members were hopelessly at issue. But it
may safely be assumed that, though 8 major-
ity might not, possibly, in a full House,
assent to the principal propounded by Mr.
Barclay, "that there is pressing necessity
for securing without delay to the cultivators
of the soil such conditions of tenure as would
aid and encourage them to meet the new and
trying circumstances in which the country
is placed," yet members of every shade of
thinking would agree in the conclusion that
practical legislation of some sort is highly
desirable to the end of lifting our most im-
portant national occupation from its present
low state. It is to be deplored then that no
adequate measure to meet the case seems
likely in the immediate future to be intro-
duced into Parliament, either by the Con-
servative leaders on the one hand or the
Liberal chiefs on the other; nor even by
private members closely identified with the
question. Minor bills, designed to deal with
points in the knotty problem, there were
announced on the opening night of the ses-
sion in plenty; but no thorough going en-
deavour to look the whole matter in the face,
and while laying bare the many contributory
causes of the complex evil, suggesting at the
same time an acceptable remedy. We can-
not but think that Parliament is equal to
the task, difficult as it undoubtedly is, if it
I will only seriously grapple with it, having
regard to the interest of no one class more
than another. Attempts to redress real or
imaginary grievances of land lords at the
expense of tenants, of occupiers to the pre-
judice of owners, or of labourers to the
detriment of both, can only in the end re-
sult in the failure tl.ey deserve. The in-
terests of all concerned in the tilling of the
laud in every branch are inseparably
identical. Prosperity cannot ensue unless
landlord, farmer, and farmhand are all
extracting a properly proportionate return
from the soil. How do matters stand now?
The lament is general that, notwithstanding
our advanced knowledge of field and dairy
farming here in Britain, and our splendid
home market for agricultural produce,
foreign and colonial farmers are able to do
so much better than we are that they can
undersell us at our very doors. It does not
need a profound politician to arrive at the
conclusion that in such a state of things
there must be something radically wrong
here, either in the British farmer's modus
operandi, or in the conditions with which he
is surrounded. Consumers of agricultural
produce very naturally, like buyers of any
other class of commodity, will purchase in
the cheapest market; and, taking a cosmo-
politan view of things, it is manifestly for
the benefit of mankind that such should be
the cube. We do well to encourage those
providers of necessities who are able to
supply an existent demand on the best terms.
Thus their competitors are driven to amend
their methods of working; and if, from
climatic conditions or other unalterable
local circumstances of whatever sort, a
producer finds it impossible to grow as well
and cheaply as his rival situated elsewhere,
he will, if he be wise, either migrate to a
more favoured location, or abandon his
futile efforts before ruin overtake him.
Employing himself and what capital he can
command in the cultivation of other crops
than those he has been accustomed to raise,
or in the rearing of different stock, may in
many cases turn the tide for him if the
change be intelligently brought about. We
have faith in the British farmer if he will
but keep heart. He labours under disabili-
ties, but many of them are removable. In
fact, we consider that, the vicissitudes and
weather excepted, there are no difficulties
standing across his path to prosperity which
he should despair of seeing overthrown.
But he must not put on a gloomy face and,
following Mr. Chaplin, wait despondently
for his competitors to lower their prices,
^ under the conditions which environ
a profitable market. Rather
lvis energies in the
- his ways

that n.,
him, may 0bta1,...
must he go with an
direction of improving or varythb
of work. of doing all he does with econow,
and understanding, each operation as a
well-considered means to a definite end. If
he is unfairly burdened with taxation, let
him set his case clearly before the country,
and we do not doubt that the end will be
that relief which is his right. But do not
let him, individually nor
_in combination, go
complainingly to Parliament and implore
the State to stand as agent between himself
and his landlord, to regulate his agreements
as to rent and conditions of tenure. He can
do it much better himself, ;for, as we have
pointed out, his landlord's interests are
indissolubly bound up with his own; and,
without that good feeling of mutual confi-
dence which would make an equitable ar-
rangement an easy matter, they could not,
to use a homely phrase, get on at all. Any-
thing prejudicial to either owner or occupier,
as between themselves, now existent, might
be removed by legislation, if those possessing
the unfair or wrongful advantage would not
themselves remedy the matter; and any
practice bill placed before Parliament with
the object of effecting such a desideratum
would certainly become law. Where Right
is the real ruler, as happily it is in England,
measures based on justice to all cannot long
be impeded. But there must be no beggi
for generosity in the way of rent reductions;
and no coercing to divert properties to the
purposes of others, however well intentioned
as, for example, the principle involved in the
resolution of Mr. Jesse Collings that defeated
Lord Salisbury's Government on Tuesday
night, which would provide for compulsory
allotments. The sense of what is due from
one man to another should regulate these
things. A state of society in which it is
necessary to coerce men to' do right by their
neighbours isin urgent need of reform,
There is a future for the British farmer if he
will but rationally and with sturdy inde-
pendent spirit approach the whole subject
of his chosen occupation, determine to
understand it, address himself earnestly to
the removal of the difficulties which beset
him, diligently apply his energies in the
most enlightened manner, and above all act
honestly and justly to his labourer, his
landlord, and himself. The sun will not al-
ways shine, but he is man enough to get a
livelihood in good times and bad, if he will
exercise all his capabilities and act up to his
intuitive sense of right.

GENTS WANTED to pu: h th
A.3laabinery Oils. Liberal Commikeionse,
Bosil, keel Moe, Liverpool.