Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-27
BACK TO FARM IS
NATIONAL DEMAND
States of Europe Trying to Give
Farms to the Actual
AgricuIturiSts

LONDON, Aug. 26.-In an article on
'"The Newest Phase of the Oldest In
dustry." Sir Horace Plunkett gives
some novel news on the transfer of
the land to the people. He says:
The cry of back to the land" has
been heard loud enough and long
enough to be taken as evidence
of a real public opinion. me
state Is now giving to the countryside
of our national economy degree OF
attention which cannot be explained
by the mere party pursuit or the ag-
ricultural vote, though, of course, that
inevitable factor in all public ques-
tions will make its normal contribu-
ton to the confusion of issues. IT Is
the agreed policy of all parties to settle
a larger number of the population
upon the land, and this not In order
to placate or benefit the landless SO
much as to strengthen the position OF
the nation. The back to the land
movement is not the result of an agrar-
ian agitation; 1t is d redirectton OF ma
tional ideal and aim.
England not only prospered mlghtliy
in industry at home, but was enabled
to seize the cream of the WORLDS uA-
occupied agricultural lands. In these
newly settled countries there was, of
course, no urban predominance. But
this day rural life in the United states
and the British Dominions is affected
by the economic thought which had
dominated the ear of England's indus
trial and commercial supremacy. Ag-
riculture came to be treated much
more as an investment than as a career.
This tendency has reached its extreme
manifestation in the wasteful, almost
profligate farming IN many of the rich
est portions of the western hemis-
n hos ut IIT
used his powerful influence to correct
this extravaganza os natural resources,
but in his country life policy he has
declared for preventive measures
against the neglect of the rural pop
ulation in the supposed interests of
urban development which he foresees.
On the continent of Europe agri-
cultural depression and rural back
wardness are not unknown, but they
are generally due not, as with us. to
the downward drift but to the oppo-
site cause, rural congestion. More
over, where the danger of invasion did
not pass after the Napoleonic wars
military considerations forced govern
ments to realize the Importance of
maintaining the physical as well as
the moral wellbeing of the rural pop
ulation. Their welfare was recognized
to be Just as essential to the safety
of the nation as was the growth OF
town populations and the development
of their manufactures. In most Eu-
ropean countries the state has long
ago intervened, as 1t is doing in Ire
land today, to effect a transfer of the
agricultural land from a minority or
owners to a majority of cultivators.
But we always find the settlement OF
the tenure question accompanied,
where 1t was not preceded, by an all
round development of rural economy.
We find a state department attending
to the interests of agriculture by CIV
ing not only the kind of assistance
which we consider legitimate, even If
we do not give it, but by subsidizing
and bonusing what they regard as the
chief national industry in many ways.
Above all, they encourage by every
means in their power. by education