The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-06

HE blhAlNOf1AM A ' ially the growing predominance of | women over men as far as numbers i were concerned, have given her gov | erument many hours of serious doubt ] When the war started there were l. i 900, 900 fewer men in the country than women The disproportion is ever so muQh greater today and is steadily | increasing. Across the North sea- the superior German birth rate and the pre- dominance of men over women is year { by year adding to the numerical, and, i therefore, the commercial strength of | Britain's most formidable competitor, | while the population of the United | States, the most active and dangerous | rival of both in the war for the future i trade of the world, is increasing by leaps and bounds.
 1 For, if England is to lose many. of her youths and men, it means that al though there may be unemployment for q period following the war, ultimately there will be. comparatively speaking, a shortage of labor. This inevitably points to an all-round increase in wages affecting vitally the cost of production and thereby EnGlands s abil- ity to compete in the world markets, If, on top of this is to come limited tariff policy, as some seem to think will De necessary either to protect British manufacturers in the home l market or to raise additional revenue to pay the interest charge on the huge national debt. what is to become of England. "the factory of the world as it used to be called in the days of our fathers?
 England is already fully alive to all these impending problems and Lord Selborne secretary of state for agri | culture, has appointed a committee un- der the leadership of Sir Harry VerneN permanent under secretary of the de- | partment, to draw up plans for keeping the returning soldier in England These plans naturally, are in the line of settling as many men as possible on the 1 land and opening up the whole intri- l cate and baffling problem that faced and foiled numerous back to the land movements in England. It is impossi- l ble to go at all deeply into the ques- 1 ton here: to make one realize the po sition of affairs it will be sufficient l to give just a few figures. It is true, l as a general statement, that more than half of all the land in England is owned by a few people and these are people in no way interested in throw ing the land open to cultivation. Of England's 77,00O,O00 acres, 40,000,000 are claimed by no more than 2500 peo- pie, while another 35000 people own an additional 1S,000,000 acres Whereas, in a country like France, with a backbone of small peasant proprietors living on the land, less than 35 per cent of the total population is urban; in England, less than 23 per cent Is rural.
 It is commonly supposed that this concentration of the great bulk of the land In a few hands is due almost entirely to the peers. Such, however, is not the case. The peerage, it is true, does own more than 5,500,0Oo
 a,,l hut m years past 1000 wealthy men, devoid of hereditary titles, have been steadily buying up the land wherever it has
 come on the market. Today, these
 great landowners, to the number or
 12SS, to be exact, own S,500,o00 of the lest acres of the country. It is pr1n-
 cipally the competition of these insa-
 tiable land hogs that makes the pur- chase of desirable land at price which permits profitable cultivation. impossible to intending small holder.
 However, the government, despite re- peated past failures, is not discouraged and the Verney committee has made modest start It is realized that one of the chief needs of the times is a trained peasant class and an experiment is to be made with 50 soldiers and sailors who have been discharged for disablement' l They are to be given a course of training | in an agricultural college, and such or 1 them as prove satisfactory will be found suitable employment on the land and,
 ultimately small holdings Upon the re- suits of this experiment will be based an extensive scheme, embracing thousands of returned soldiers and many thousands
 of acres of ground supposing, of course, that other difficulties, touched upon above,
 can be satisfactorily overcome.
 | Various representatives of the British self governing colonies some time ago
 made an attempt to induce the home gov
 ernment to allow one of their number
 to sit on the Verney committee, but Lord l Selborne turned down the proposition
 with emphasis.
 The Royal Colonial institute numbering l among it's members practically all the
 colonial experts on the subject of immi-
 grafton, has had a special committee sit
 ting on the subject for months, and this committee has hatched out some impor- tant and interesting schemes. Lord Sel- l borne said his committee would be de- l lighted to hear any evidence the Royal 1 Colonial institute experts had to offer, but las for allowing one of them to sit on the government body-impossible!
 l It was proposed to the government that Sir Rider Haggard, the famous writer of fascinating tales of adventure, chiefly in South Africa, and an acknowledged eX- pert on small holdings and farming. be sent on a mission around the world to sound the various colonial governments and to examine at first hand the many schemes proposed. No official decision on this matter has been divulged, but it is
 reported in some quarters that the gov , ernment thinks favorably of it.
 l In the meantime, the colonial experts | and authorities, cold shouldered by the
 government are enthusiastically pushing | their prepa rationS and unless Sir Henry Verney and his associates hustle, the col
 onies will gain the advantage that su- perior preparation and greater fore l thought always give and the home gov