The San Francisco call., 1910-08-22
NEW VIEWS ON THE
CRY, BACK TO THE LAND"
Sir Horace PIunkett Discusses
Oldest Industry

In an article on "The Newest Phas
Of the Oldest Industry" Sir Horac
P1unkett gave some novel news on tn
transfer of the land to the people. H
said:
The cry of back to the land" has
been heard loud enough and long
enough to be taken as evidence of
real public opinion. The state is
now giving to the country side of
our national economy a degree of
attention which can not be ex-
planned by the mere party pursuit
of the agricultural vote, though,
of course, this inevitable factor in
all public questions will make it's
normal contribution to the confu-
sion of issues. 1t is the agreed
policy of all parties to settle
larger number of the population
upon the land, and this is not in
order to placate or benefit the land
less so much as to strengthen the
position of the nation. The back
to the land movement is not the
result of an agrarian agitation; it
is a redirection of national idea and
aim.
England not only prospered
nightly In industry at home, but
was enabled to seize the cream of
the worlds unoccupied agricultural
lands. In these newly settled coun-
tries 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 in
dustrial and commercial supremacy.
Agriculture came to be treated
much more as an investment than
as career. This tendency has
reached its extreme manifestation
in the wasteful, almost prof1igate
farming in many of the richest
portions of the western hemisphere.
Roosevelt has not only used his
powerful influence to correct this
extravaganza of natural resources,
but in his country life policy he has
declared for preventive measures
against the neglect of the rural
population in the supposed in
he forsees.
On the continent of Europe agri-
cultural depression and rural back
wardness are not unknown. but
with us, to the downward drift,
but to the opposite cause. rural
congestion. Moreover. where the
danger of invasion did not pass
after the Napoleonic wars military
considerations forced governments
to realize the Importance of main
tanning the physical. as well as the
moral. we'll being of the rural pop-
ulation. Their welfare was recog-
nized to be just as essential to
tlic SdlCtN VI luc IldllO0 DIS was
the growth of town populations
and the development of their manu-
factures.
In most European countries the
state has long ago interviewed, as
it is doing in Ireland today. to
effect a transfer of the agricultural
land from minority of owners TO
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 econo-
my We find state department
attending to the interests of agri-
culture by giving not only the kind
of assistance which we consider
legitimate, even<if we do not give
IT. but by subsidizing and bonus
ing what they regard as the chief
national industry in many ways
Above all, they encourage by every
means In their power. by educa-
tion and actual organization. the
forma ton of farmers cooperative
societies, in order that state as
sistance may be made effective bv
being founded upon organized vol
untary effort
To my mind, any comprehensive
treatment of rural conditions i'm
these islands will have to proceed
as we are doing in Ireland, upon
similar lines. UnquestionabIy the
weak spot in English agriculturaI
economy is the failure of farmers
TO combine for business, social pnd
political purposes. The first lesson
TO be learned from the continent
is tnat you can not help farmers
who do not help themselves