Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-19

even the pauper who Is protected and
perhaps, encouraged, by the law.
Il i
Both liberal and conservative party
leaders deplore the existing conditions
and suggest RENE
Leaders UeplOre dies. The trouble is
~. r.a:4: that neither party is
willing to go to the
root of the evil by breaking up the large
| land holdings and by preventing further
retirement of arabic land for the use of
game preserves and deer forests. Mr..
Chamberlain believes that the agricul-
! tural depression is due to free trade, and
| he suggests that a customs duty be
| levied on wheat and other farm produce
to protect it from the free competition
of American and Argentine breadstuffs
To meet the objection that this would
force the country back into the terrible
condition of the hungry forties" when
the corn laws starved thousands upon
thousands of people to death, a system
OF colonial preference Is suggested,
whereby wheat and similar products
from Canada, Australia and other Brit
| ish colonies would be admitted under
to protective tariff duty on wheat
for a country which now grows
less than one-fourth of it's breadstuffs
| and whose production is decreasing are
obvious, but the free traders find it diff
ficult to combat the colonial preference
propa ganda.
The liberals propose some relief by their
small holdings act, under which thus far
total of $500 acres have been purchased
and 1900 acres hired by local municipal
councils to be left for life to small hold
ers. But yet this relief is miserably
inadequate.
The conservative party blazed the way
in Ireland. In the language of Sir
H orace Plunkett:
Blazing of Way There is going to be
=, rrol,.a revolution in Brit
ish agriculture, such
as long has been in process in Ireland.
where the best proof Of it's vitality is that
it has survived the bitterest political OPP
position In Ireland the government pro-
Vlded for advancing money to tenants
with which to buy. small holdings. and at
the same time it compelled the landlords
to sell. But the leaders of the conserva-
tive party have not advocated, nor have
they approved even in principle, the
adoption of such radical and rigorous
measures for the home country. They
taking of such a revolution would result
in the wreck of their party.
Even where it is possible to secure
small holdings by allotment or purchase,
there is no provision for the extension of
credit to enable the small farmer to buy
He cannot mortgage the land, as he would
do in the United States; there is no
credit bank to aid him, as in Ireland:
there is no agricultural bank to loan to
him on his personal paper as in Germany:
there is nrOViGiOO whatever enable
him to take advantage of the few oppor
tunitieS which present themselves. The
British fOndneSS for compromise cripples
efforts to secure remedial legislation, and
| the government, declining to organize a
credit system or to make the deposits in
| the postal savings banks available for
! agricultural loans, compromised by voting
a subscription of $1,000 year to the sup
| port of a voluntary society called
| THE Agricultural Organiza ton Society,""
| formed for the purpose of helping ten
ants to get money to buy land. This
| society meets, discusses and resolves, but
as it has money of its own and no
money from any banking institution, it's
| practical accomplishments are nil
| In spite of all the talk about the agri-
cultural. depression. in spite OF all the
| preaching from the
| Government text Back to the
n land" the British gov
| UoeS Notnlng. ernment does abso-
lutely nothing to encourage the farmer.
/ Alone of all the civilized nations of the
world Great Britain does not possess a
single agricultural experiment station.
And yet in Ireland the experiment sta
tons have done wonders right under the
eyes of England.
| 1t must not be thought that the English
! farmer is ignorant. In the time Of Queen
Eliza beth he succeeded in raising fourteen
| bushels of wheat to the acre. That was
before the United States was settled and
the American farmer today raises only
| fourteen bushels of wheat to the acre, as
against thirty-three bushels to the acre
produced by the Engishman. 1t is not
that the English farmer is incompetent
it its not that he is indolent. 1t is not that
he is ignorant but it is that he is not
independent. Give him his own land,
break up the game preserves and restore
the deer parks to the dominion of the
pillow; provide him with opportunity to Sc
cure working capital and release him
| from social and personal bondage to the
| lord of the manor and the English yeo-
man will prove himself as valiant and as
| effective in the bloodless battles of the
age Of industrial progress as he did under
! Cromwell in the revolution.
TOunOrroy-The Rr2tish Cr,.ss