The evening times., 1899-05-29

suffice to keep the laborer on the land
unless you are able to raise his wages.
No. if you offered him house with hot
and cold water laid on throughout and lit
with electric light. and took him to and
from his work in a motor car, and had a
coffee stall erected on every farm and
brought him to a lecture three times
week, 1t would not persuade him to accept
i2s or lbs a week when he knows, or be-
lieves. that by transferring himself and
his family to two or three squalid rooms
in the dingy courts Of great town he can
earn 20s or 25s, for, as said before, wages
and nothing but wages, to speak broadly.
is at the bottom of this movement from the
country to the towns.
Another remedy that in my opinion is
no remedy is the semi-socialistic legisla-
tion that is advocated by some. BY this
mean legislation of which the real if not
the ostensible object is to better the po-
sition of the laboring classes out of the
pockets of the owners and occupierS OF
land and the allied sections Of society, by
forcing them to build houses that cannot
possibly be remunerative. at their own
cost, or to become responsible for any
thing and everything that may happen to
a man in their employ. however entirely
it may be his own fault. 1t is no remedy.
I think for this reasOn-that you cannot
get blood out Of stone. The land. or at
least our eastern counties land, can bear
no more burdens. AS it is. with wheat
at from 24s- to 25s. quarter, it does not
pay, and another straw or two on the
camePs back will break it.
Government and Classes.
Governments, it is probable would like
to solve the trouble in this fashion, name
ly by the spoliation of certain classes for
the benefit of other classes, for the Govern
ments naturally attack the weak-that is
those who have few votes-and offer them
I'D as a sacrifice to those who have many
votes, and from whom they hope to win
support But though the agricultural in
terest, with its S.000.0G0 of people who
are connected with it, is, suppose, because
Of its suicidal divisions, its timidity, and
it's want of political organization, abso-
lutely the weakest in the kingdom, it has
this protection-the protection of its ut
ter poverty-so il money is wanted for
more experiments In popular legislation it
will have to be got elsewhere.
"Then what is there that could help
the land, and, therefore, help the laborer?
1 venture to suggest one of two things.
Very stringent measures which would
make it impossible for the farmer to be
defrauded by the sale as his produce of
that which he never grew; the equaliza-
tion Of rates and taxation on real and per-
sonal property, thereby lessening the bur-
dens that now fall on the land; and the
making it impossible in fact as well as in
name for carriers to transport foreign
goods at cheaper rates than they grant
to British produce. But do not go into
this subject at length. for after all it is
not our province to decide on the reme-
dies suggest that what we have to do
Is to call the attention of those in author
tv To a tot Uro 70 Of of foSr
ask them to deal with it, for a Govern
ment is immeasurably more clever and full
of ideas than all the chambers of agri-
culture In the country put together can
be. Moreover, 1t has the power Of trans
lating its ideas into some practical and
useful action. For my part. do not sup
pose that the agriculturist. for its mere
love Of him, would be likely to get any
thing from this or any other Government,
since 1t IL our common experience that
when he asks for bread he receives .