San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-10-04
LAND GAN SAVE
nation, AYERS
EX-PREM|ER
Present Feudal System Must
Be Adapted to Needs Of
Day, He Feels.
By D. LLOYD GEORGE


Torner Premier Of Great Brittany
LONDON. Oct. 3.-Why is ths
land question once more coming to the
front in Britain and why will it, in
the coming years, become increasingly
prominent, whatever political inter
csts may do TO keep it down?
1t is because events will drive
Britain to what almost all European
countries have already accomplished
the adaptation of their land system
TO the national exigencies of the day,
after the great deluge.
Soon after the armistice, the resur
rected nations OF Central Europe, i'm
povcrished and devastated by war, OF
one accord resorted to the rich treas
ure locked up in the motheaten chest
of feudalism. They broke the rusty
padlocks and distributed the boarded
riches. The great estates had with
held from the people for centuries
much of the wealth. which was there
for the digging. These estates have
now been largely divided amongst the
peasantry.
LAND is UTILIZED.
Vast areas of wasted land have
thus been brought into cultivation in
Roumania, Czechoslovakia, Poland
and the Baltic states. Before the war
these lands, now cultivated or under
cultivation, were dedicated to the
pleasure of caste. England has
alone stood by the lordly past with
its vasteful spaciousness.
In all its essentials. the feudal sys-
TEN still fashions the life of rural
England. There you will find the
lord of the manor, with renting
feudalories in the form of tenant
farmers who hold their lands from
MN on a tenure more precarioys,
and therefore more dependent, than
that which prevailed in the middle
ages. Beyond that, you have hun
dreds of thousands of hereditary toll
ers-agricultural laborers-with no
legal interest or prospect OF acquiring
an interest in the soilof their native
land.
WORSE THAN IN PAST.
Here. also, the change from olden
times is for the worse. a years no.
tice from a landlord can deprive a
tenant Of the homestead which his an
cestors may have held and cultivated
for centuries, and a weeks notice can
turn the landless worker from his cot
fage. No ransom need be assigned for
the severance. The decision of the
feudal chieftains is unchallengeable.
The power is not often exercised, but
the fact that it is there and can be
put into operation and occasionally if
enforced gives the lord of the land,
within his seignory, a dominion which
the king does not possess.
Ny first recollection of political life
IL associated with the wholesale evic-
ton of hundreds of tenant farmers in
Wales from the lands held by their
families for centuries, for no better
reason than that they had voted lib
eral at recent election.
FOR KILLING RABBIT.
also<cnll TO mind the case Of a
widow. who farmed with the aid Of
an only son. The latter was suspected
by the landlords gamekeeper Of hav-
ing killed a hare-on his mothers
land-with Patchwork. This was a
heirous feudal crime. She was given
the alternative either of parting with
her son or with her farm. The son
left for the towns and never returned.
The king of England has no such
power over his subjects-not even in
darkest Africa. This arbitrary pow
Fl W the law of the land today in
Britain, though public opinion exer-
cises z more restraining influence over
these feudsl excesses than il imposed
q generation ago. The laborers flee
from this gloomy tyranny TO the
squalid freedom of the towns and. as
a result. rural Britsin has become
gradually depopulated. It is visibly
deceying.
REFORM is NECESSITY.
But Il is Characteristic of England
that the movement towards reform o.
the land system does not proceed from
any revolt against the oppressive ana
chronism but from q hard practica
necessity. Feudalism has broker
down. II Is no longer supplying thu
national needs in food and Britain
has. in consequence. tn buy abrOa'
100000, 900 pounds worth Of food an'
timber. most Of which ought 10 b
raiscd on her own soil.
did not worry her in the least. Brit
ish. trade was coming money out of Il.
foreign exports. its finance. its ship
ping. its coal. We supplied the worlc
With goods, with fuel, with carriage
with money-sll at a good price Why
then, should we not buy cheapIy a
the counters where we sold dearly?
TURNS TO LAND.
II was fair and fruitful exchange
Our medieval land system was yer,
picturesque. Why modernize this rem
nrut of nediaevalism which distir
gnished England from the parvenu ma
lions Of the world? Income depende
uron that business, but our proportio
NJ that business has fallen from hal
the worlds carrying trade. before ID
war, 10 less than one-third TODAY.
Since this time three years ago. "
have had five governments, each {
which has no doubt done its bes
They have succeeded in aTerting acut