the Polish race in the Russian regions of the Parti- party has armed twenty-five thousand or thirty tion, hastened to guarantee the House of Romanof thousand adherents of the Greek Church in Southern from foreign intervention, discouraged the revolution, Albania has recently appeared in the very latest indevised new measures of suppression against Polish formation, and some daring investigators have even nationality, and devotedly assisted the Russian discovered that an equal number of "volunteers" Empire over its gravest peril since the ascendency from Greece itself are under orders to join the insurof the Great Napoleon. The restoration of Poland rection against the young Albanian State. It would was the terrible menace which Napoleon held over hardly be an exaggeration to say that Greece comRussia. Not only the revolutionary party, but the mands the full sympathies of France, which has constitutional reformers in Russia, promised freedom already achieved such wonders in the training of the to the Poles. Thanks to Kaiser Wilhelm's more than new Greek Army. The best-informed circles of friendly neutrality, the Romanofs were able to crush opinion at Petersburg repeat from day to day renewed both revolution and reform; the Polish race on both assurances that "the final settlement will find Russia sides of the Russo-Prussian frontier is in heavier strong in her alliances and quite confident of her own chains than ever; within the Russian regions of the power." Sir Edward Grey's latest note is interpreted Partition Nicholas II now requites his Imperial to signify the preference of England for the Hellenic brother and ally of Hohenzollern by assembling in ambitions. Meantime, that action of the Russian Russian Poland the most formidable host of soldiers War Office in extending for another three months. which has ever menaced any European State! It the service of the time-expired troops, who were is very strange that such little attention is paid in this entitled to return to their homes last September and country by Press or public to the extraordinary cha-October, leaves no doubt of the reality of the designs racter of this resurrection of Russian power. Even or the apprehensions of the Government of the Tsar. the great increase in the German Army under the Nearly fourteen hundred thousand Russian troops legislation of the past year generally failed to excite stand under arms ready to pass the German and attention to its real cause and significance. The Austrian frontiers. average critic of foreign affairs appears to find a There are grounds for believing that a predominant sufficient explanation of everything of the sort in a section of Army opinion in France, believing that war reference to the relations between Germany and is inevitable, is convinced that the French organisaFrance. There is just this much accuracy in such tion will never be more thorough or more powerful a view, that no doubt Germany's effort to make its than it is to-day. The increasing tendency in France force overwhelmingly great would be less strenuous is towards further depopulation, and diminishing and remarkable if there were no quarrel about Alsace-population means greater and greater difficulty in Lorraine, and if there was not that magnificent French maintaining the numerical strength of the military Army west of the Vosges. The three-quarters of a force. Why not strike while the French Army is at million standing army which the three years' its highest power and excellence? One thing is service gives to France would not, however, produce certain. The spirit, the confidence, the passionate the financial and military effort now incumbent upon and disciplined courage of France's magnificent Army Germany, if there were not also, within a couple of cannot be greater or better justified than to-day. The days' march of the eastern frontier, the enormous very tone of the comments in the French Press upon and unprecedented mass of infantry, cavalry, and the extraordinary development of Russian military artillery which has silently risen out of the Russian resources reveals a readiness to provoke, rather than soil during the few years that have elapsed since the to follow, events which was difficult to find a few year war with Japan. Indeed, the period in which that ago. Not merely the favourite organs of the military marvellous transformation has been accomplished class like the well-informed and ably written Echo dates from much later than the Japanese war. For de Paris, but the newspapers of general circulation the whole of the two revolutionary years which in the closest relations with the highest circles of followed the collapse in Manchuria a couple of French Republican politics, describe the marvellous thousand of good troops could have marched to resurrection of Russia, with an enthusiasm which can Moscow and Petersburg without meeting an organised have but one interpretation. In the Matin, for inforce capable of fighting a pitched battle. The whole stance, the brilliant editor, who is a tower of strength work of reconstruction and re-armament has been for the Republic, has himself undertaken to make accomplished within five years . . while the German Frenchmen realise how entirely and triumphantly Emperor smiled benevolently on the recovery of the ill-prepared and painfully defective armies of Russian power and the vanity of Polish wishes! Kuropatkin in Manchuria have been superseded by To-day a Russian host, more than double the entire an enormous host, equipped with everything which Army of France, equipped with the latest products can conduce to the success of enormous numbers of military art and science, is prepared to repay that animated by magnificent discipline and bravery. fostering affection of the Hohenzollern Sovereign at "Greatest Russia. The disposition of the Army the first signal that booms upon the Rhine or the Corps for war." Such is the heading of articles on Danube. The Near East and the Near West have the front page, which describe the multitude of the become equal subjects of solicitude for Germany, armies and the development of the strategic railways thanks to that outburst of unrequited devotion to intended to bear that inundation of lead and steel over Russian interests only half a dozen years ago. all the eastern borders of the Austro-German enemy. Our respected contemporaries are beginning to "Even on a peace footing Russia disposes to-day of an observe that the explosive capacities of the debatable army of 1,385,000 soldiers, including 1,180,000 regulands between the Adriatic and the Caucasus have lars, 60,000 Cossacks, 60,000 frontier guards, 40,000 not been exhausted by the wars of extermination gendarmes, 35,000 marine infantry. On the war footing among the "Christian Brothers" of the Balkans. the Russian Army amounts to 6,000,000 men." This The somewhat stale intelligence that the Panhellenic stupendous mass of men is "a force admirably

favour and 194,000 against; the Northern Counties Weavers' Association balloted 98,158 in favour and: 75,892 against. The Amalgamated Society of Engineers in favour of the political fund were 20,586, and against 12,740-less than a fourth of the

trained, organised, and equipped. . . In addition to In addition to a political fund, there is a very large minority opposed the ordinary field artillery of the highest quality, to it. The Miners' Federation balloted 261,000 in every army corps has a hundred and twenty pieces of heavy calibre. . . Every company, every squadron, has its wheeled kitchen that can cook a dinner for the troops within half an hour of pitching camp. . . Fifteen thousand vacant places of officers have been filled since the Russo-Japanese war. . . Of thirty-members voting at all, which seems to show that seven army corps fourteen always stand along the the enthusiasm for political action is not very marked.. German and Austrian borders, and fourteen others are These sample figures demonstrate the existence of a ready to join them from the interior. . . Five great great mass of trade unionists who do not believe that lines of strategic railways convey to Warsaw the trade unionism has anything to gain by political men and material not only from Moscow and Peters-action-at any rate by such political action as has burg, but from the Caucasus and the Ural." Nor prevailed under the ascendency of the Socialists, 'does this astounding enumeration exhaust the roll of the real rulers of the unions in recent years. Mr. Russia's defenders. Servia and Greece are bound by Osborne may also be congratulated on the largeness. a secret bond. Who can say what action Roumania of these minorities for another reason. It is provided. may take? The Balkan Wars appear only to be by the Act that a contribution to the political fund the prelude of and preparation for a greater struggle. shall not be made a condition of membership of the union. The usual tyranny of the unions in compelling workmen to belong to these associations would have been exercised in this instance to turn them out for refusal to contribute, unless the minorities had been sufficiently large and powerful to offer combined resistance.

TRADE UNIONS' POLITICAL FUNDS.

T1

We

HE Trade Union Act of last year was a measure which, to some extent, curbed the ambition of the Labour Party, and especially the Socialist section of it, to fasten their political tyranny This, however, is a purely trade-unionist conon trade unionism. Mr. Osborne won a very im-sideration. These large minorities have another and portant battle for the freedom of his fellow-workmen, a public side. It would be in the national interest and the aim of the Labour Party has been ever since that all these minorities should be ousted or retireto deprive them by legislation of the fruits of the disgusted from the unions if we could only be sure victory. It had a willing enough tool in the Govern- of their character. What proportion of them are ment, whose existence has depended from its entrance Syndicalists, who are more dangerous even than the to office on satisfying the clamours of each section of Socialists in the unions, and who vote against politithe Coalition. But the Government found there was cal action because they wish to direct all the power considerable danger on this occasion of repeating its of the unions into direct action, eternal strikes, the Trade Disputes Act performance and again upsetting national strike, and the terrorism of sabotage? a decision of the Law Courts at the behests of the cannot say. Probably it is a pretty large proportion,. Labour leaders. Mr. Osborne's resolution not to and the part which consists of old-fashioned trade contribute to the political funds of his union spread unionists, who are neither Socialist nor Syndicalist, throughout most of the unions and threatened to split may be comparatively small. This is quite likely from trade unionism. This was a different situation from what is known of the prevailing current in trade that which existed when trade unionism was united unionism. The men who hold the controlling power in demanding that trade-union funds should not be are either Socialist or Syndicalist, though the older answerable for whatever wrongs the unions might Socialist leaders who introduced political action into commit. trade unionism have been largely ousted by the SynThe Government was in a dilemma, especially as dicalists. They would like to get rid of these troubleMr. Osborne was a Liberal, and it could not be mis- some rivals who, as late Labour troubles show, have represented that his movement was engineered by practically reduced them to impotence and made their the opponents of trade unionism. It brought in the official leadership ridiculous. And if we only conTrade Union Act as a compromise, and allowed sider this as a matter between these two mischievous. Mr. Osborne and the dissentients the liberty to refuse parties the Syndicalists have a good case. The payment to any political fund raised by a union. Parliamentary Labour Party is doing exceedingly Mr. Osborne, however, had a narrow escape; and little for the special industrial interests of Labour. though there has been a good deal of sympathy with It has no Socialism worth speaking of that might him, and satisfaction that he succeeded so far, he not just as well be packed into the bundle of official was almost luckier than a trade unionist deserves. If Liberalism, as in fact it is. The Government has he had received the same measure of injustice from supplied its members with a salary of £400 per Parliament as the public, who are the sufferers by annum each. Some of them get two salaries by this. trade-union irresponsibility, he would either have arrangement, as the Dundee branch of the Indehad to contribute against his will or have become pendent Labour Party has just shown, though Mr. what he and his brethren are pleased to call a "black- Keir Hardie waters down the Dundee grievance to leg." He has received the benefit also of a provision five or six members. In return the Labour Party that before a trade union can start a political fund it makes it as easy as possible for the Government, in shall ballot its members. If the ballot is in favour the House of Commons and at elections, where oppoof such a fund, dissentients may contract out by sition would be inconvenient to the Government; giving notice in writing of their unwillingness to though they perform a farce from time to time which contribute. These ballots are now being taken, and everybody sees through, and in the performance of some of the results have been announced. In each it sometimes, as at Leicester and Chesterfield, get case, though the decision has been for establishing snubbed even by their own societies. Where will

this party now turn to obtain funds for political and municipal campaigns from which nobody but the Government obtains any advantage? The big minorities on the ballots foreshadow the bankruptcy of the party in means for political and municipal action. After the Osborne decision they attempted to refill their depleted treasury by raising voluntary funds, in place of the illegal contributions they had formerly levied, but it was an utter failure.

IT

FISCAL REFORM UP TO DATE.
I. BIG FIGUres.

T is ten years since the Board of Trade issued that celebrated Blue-book which everybody kept at his bedside and took with him for light reading on his summer holidays. It was prompted by the new proposals for fiscal reform which Mr. Chamberlain had just begun to commend to the country. Pages 32 and 33 of that most interesting volume summarised the position upon which the movement for reform, in its industrial aspect, was based. It was undoubtedly a serious position. Our exports of manufactured goods to foreign countries were obviously declining. In 1890 they had stood at £83,629,000; in 1902 they had sunk to £69,837,000. The situation, as fiscal reformers carefully pointed out, had been saved by our trade with the Empire. In 1890 our exports of manufactured goods to all British colonies and possessions were valued at £79,154,000, but they had risen by the year 1902 to £95,959,000. The totals were however far from satisfactory, for in 1890 our exports of these articles to all destinations amounted in value to £228,805,000, but in 1902 they were only £227,645,000. It is not surprising that, quite apart from any Imperial considerations, the benefit of our long-standing fiscal policy should have been vigorously questioned.

Probably a great many people in 1903 who were not professed fiscal reformers expected that the movement for reform would succeed long before ten years were over. It is true old-established traditions, especially in this country, are not easily reversed. It took seven years for the AntiCorn-Law League to achieve its purpose. But ten years is a long time for a political propaganda to continue and still be without any immediate prospect of success. During such a period many changes must take place in industrial and economic conditions throughout the world. One might expect that in the course of so many years a cause would be fully established or entirely discredited by the proofs of accumulated experience. It has been said, rather cynically, that no opinion is worth having that cannot be changed in ten years. The agitation for fiscal reform seems to be an exception to these rules. For a whole decade it has been promoted with a determination and a resource which have never been equalled in our political history. Yet its victory has still to be won. Its enemies are neither defeated nor disheartened. If there be any sign of wavering, it is rather on the side of the reformers than of their opponents.

has been enormously developed. But there have, no doubt, been deeper psychological causes which it would be difficult to analyse and define. Here we are only concerned with the fact that by the irony of fate the opening of the fiscal reform agitation, with its gloomy vaticinations of collapse which has burst all dykes and submerged all recorded and and decline, was followed by a spring-tide of prosperity, conceivable flood-marks. Fiscal changes always come about through the pinch and pressure of necessity. "It was the rain that rained away the corn-laws," writes Cobden's biographer. But the floods of the past decade have been those of unbounded and unimagined prosperity. Our foreign trade has easily surpassed in value the thousand-millionpound figure. A Blue-book issued by the Board of Trade sets down the sum of our imports and exports for 1912 at the grand total of £1,343,601,761. Omitting re-exports and taking only exports of British produce and imports for British consumption, the total stands at £1,120,126,000 (imports, £632,903,000; exports, £487,223,000). This represents an advance on the 1902 figure (£746,000,000) of over 50 per cent. Such anticyclonic weather as this is not congenial to agitations for fiscal reform.

It is well however not to jubilate over even these stupendous figures until we have considered them relatively as well as absolutely. How have our trade competitors been faring in the meantime? Has our free-importing system enabled us to get a bigger share in the "boom" than countries which pursue a Protective policy? On this view I fear we shall have to chasten our enthusiasm. From a selection of statistics kindly supplied to me direct from the Board of Trade I have made out the following tables with all the arithmetical accuracy I could command:

66

Mill. £

158

70

150

100

118

124.5

Mill. L

170

37

249

90

Great Britain, increase (1902-12). Germany, United States, These figures scarcely prove that our free-importing system gives us any advantage during times of prosperity. In the 'slump" that is inevitably coming it will, I fear, be a still more serious disadvantage. The general lesson to be drawn from this comparative study is that England is rapidly sinking to the third place in over-sea trade. Germany has almost touched the thousand-million-pound figure (£966,100,000 in 1912), and, it will be seen, is advancing at a much more rapid pace than ourselves. In respect of total exports we are just on the point of surrendering the premier place to the United This paradoxical result is not without its explanations. States. Indeed it is past praying for that we should maintain Mr. Chamberlain started his policy at a time when the that commercial supremacy of ours which not so very long Unionist Party, which was to be responsible for it, was ago seemed unchallengeable. We have twenty million coming to the end of a long tether of political power. The fewer people than Germany and forty-seven million fewer Liberals would have come in, fiscal policy or no fiscal policy. than the United States. With fairly equal endowments of It was in all fairness their turn, and the pendulum swung national character and enterprise these differences must in violently in their favour. The second explanation is that the the long run be decisive. Let us furthermore remember that new policy was launched on the eve of an industrial to be third in wealth is to be third in defensive power. "boom" such as the world had never before witnessed. we fall behind in man-power and money-power our Some day perhaps a competent economist will expound the banaoooxparía, our standards of two keels to one and origin and source of this amazing tidal wave of prosperity 60 per cent. superiorities will grow harder and harder to which has swept over the face of the earth and even now maintain. Viewed quite dispassionately these tendencies shows no conspicuous sign of abating. The improve- seem to counsel an ever closer union, along all lines of ment in communications, the opening of new markets interest and policy, between England and her daughterand the development of old have had much to do with it. States. England has surely a right to add their strength to The consuming power of the Indian peoples, for example, hers in these comparisons with the great national organisations

As

FOR

OR some months past the London County Council, or rather its Education Committee, has been busily occupied in re-modelling the system of evening schools. Throughout the month of September last big posters were placed upon the advertisement hoardings to give prominence to the new scheme, and every effort was made to attract the attention of the public. The new system has now been in operation some time, and no doubt its development is being closely watched by those responsible for it. The three leading reforms that have been introduced are, first, a better grouping of the pupils and a more scientific classification of the schools; secondly, the raising of the standard of the teachers engaged under the new scheme; and thirdly, the encouragement of what is termed "non-vocational " education-that is, instruction which is not directly associated with the wage-earning career of the pupil. These reforms have been generally hailed with approval by educational workers and in the Press. But there are certain aspects of the scheme to which no attention has been directed.

advantage of them. By the new scheme it is hoped to secure a greater measure of public support, and, if this is achieved, it will be difficult to dispute that the scheme has. justified its existence. But if one reads the official reports. of the County Council, or knows anything of the views of enthusiasts for National Education, it must be obvious that this new scheme, like its predecessor, is foredoomed to failure in this respect. In fact, those responsible for State and municipal education have already in preparation another scheme for securing that the public shall utilise the facilities provided. In short, it is proposed to introduce compulsion.

A circular has already been addressed to the big employers of labour in London which (to quote an official London County Council report) explains "that the failure of the voluntary evening-school system will mean the establishment of a compulsory system with statutory obligations." And the same report frankly admits that "it is only where compulsion exists that an (efficient) standard of attendance can be attained." One is at once tempted to ask whether it is proper for members and officials of a local education authority to announce publicly what changes in the law Parliament may feel it necessary to make. It may be that, if local authorities cannot provide educational facilities which the public want, the fault lies in them rather than in the public, and it is possible that Parliament may take this view. It is possible also that the public may refuse to provide money in order that their representatives and officials may still further dragoon them into doing what they do not wish to do. This attitude of the County Council is a singular example of the anomalies of democracy. The will of the people" has to be bent to the will of Stateand municipal officials.

66

The truth is that the provision of facilities for continuing education after school-age is successful if inspired by the proper spirit. Quintin Hogg was successful at the PolyIn the first place the new scheme was admittedly intro- technic, the founders of Ruskin College have been successduced in consequence of the failure of the old system. The ful, and similar success has followed many other independent County Council confessed to "serious defects in the atten- foundations. Twelve men with more brains and energy dance," and that "nearly one-third of the evening-school than money once joined together and called themselves the students-forty thousand out of a hundred and thirty" Pumping Water into Empty Buckets Society "; each thousand-are ineffective "; and, further, that there was member took up a subject and helped the others to learn much truth in the statement that the evening schools consisted largely of "tired pupils taught by tired teachers." Bitter complaint was made that a large proportion of those who enrolled themselves as students failed to attend the classes to the end, and that, consequently, many of the classes had to be closed. In fact, the old system failed because of the lack of support of those whom it was intended to benefit. The new scheme does not appear to have attracted more pupils, for, during the first week, there was an increase over last year of 329 pupils in the technical institutes and schools of art, but a decrease of 8,649 in the commercial and special institutes. It is only fair to say that a decrease in the number of pupils was anticipated, and that improvement was hoped for, not in the number of students enrolled, but in the regularity of their attendance. too early yet to ascertain whether this hope will be fulfilled. Out of the failure of the old system there arises one crucial question that those in authority do not appear to have considered. How far is it the function of a public body to provide educational facilities that the public do not require? It may be argued that the essence of any system of compulsory State education is that the State knows better what is best for the public than the public do themselves. There is an element of truth in this, because the State, having to assume responsibility for the derelicts of society (such as paupers and criminals), has a right to prevent the creation of these derelicts if it can. This was the argument of the founders of National Education in 1870, and the justification for the compulsory teaching of elementary subjects, reading, writing, and arithmetic. But how far this principle ought to be extended is an important consideration which the County Council has apparently neglected. Under the old system of evening schools cenain facilities were provided at the public expense, but the public failed to take

it. That is the spirit in which education is really valuable. But when a bureaucracy, nominally representing the public, forces, or attempts to force, education down the throats of an unwilling public, failure is the only possible result. The great mistake of the educational work of the last twenty years has been the crushing out of individual effort and the establishment of State or municipal control. Voluntary schools may be less perfect in a sense than State institutions, but they possess the proper spirit. The function of the State and municipality should be to help and co-ordinate voluntary institutions. Yet all the efforts of Parliament, the Board of Education, and the local education authorities have been concentrated in absorbing all independent foundations into a cut-and-dried official scheme. Ever since the It is London County Council has been responsible for education, college after college, and school after school, have been destroyed as independent units, and transformed into mere cogs of an official machine. There is now a huge and inhuman bureaucracy, and the local educational institutions cannot, in consequence, feel the stimulating influence of liberty and self-government. Doubtless it looks very well on paper to have all the schools of London tabulated and classified into a well co-ordinated scheme, and to have all the administrative work centralised. But officialdom always ignores the human factor, and it is a human instinct to want to "paddle your own canoe."

The County Council schemes for evening education fail because they are bureaucratic. No compulsion would be necessary if the Council would place more confidence and power in the hands of the local institutions and in those who are responsible for them. The ideal of the bureaucrat is not an educated public, but a perfect scheme of education. Until this fact is appreciated, failure will be written across official schemes.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT.

A SETTLEMENT OF SMALL OWNERS.

BY PATRICK PERTERRAS.

advice and expert guidance at command, the intelligent but uninstructed man who will work may confidently set up as a small farmer and at once become successful.

Fruit and vegetables form the bulk of the output from Fairby. Most of the small holders also keep poultry, though poultry-keeping is not generally recommended to the inexperienced man except as an auxiliary industry. Some pigs are kept and there is a range of pigsties at the depôt, where those who have no accommodation for pigs on their holdings may house them for 6d. a week apiece. The only dairying is done by one settler, who supplies the others with milk, and in doing so finds a sufficient business. The holdings vary in size from two to twelve acres.

Experience is not insisted on as a qualification. In selecting from the many applicants energy and character are considered far more than technical knowledge, and the wisdom. of this course has been completely vindicated. If the settlement had done nothing else, it would have served a most OME weeks ago Mr. Tollemache's book, The Occupy-useful purpose in establishing beyond a doubt that, with sound ing Ownership of Land, was reviewed in THE OUTLOOK. Exception was taken to some of the author's views with regard to agricultural co-operation, and it was argued that the extremely well-organised group of small holdings at Fairby, to which he refers, though a great advance on the unorganised groups of the past, must in turn be surpassed by groups organised on genuinely co-operative lines. I believe that contention to be incontrovertible. It does not follow however that the Fairby group is not destined to be entirely successful. There is no reason why it should not become co-operative. Its success indeed seems to be already assured, and it is with sincere satisfaction that I see it tending more and more towards co-operative methods. If, as I believe will be the case, the plan adopted at Fairby proves merely an approach to co-operation through the temporary employment of outside capital on joint-stock lines, cooperators need not object to it. The example may well be one which in similar conditions they might follow. It is said in support of the Fairby plan that when it is proposed to settle men on the land who have little or no experience of either agriculture or co-operation, some kind of paternal administration is essential to begin with, and that co-operation, if later considered desirable by the settlers themselves, will follow. I am not prepared to assert that in the circumstances indicated the Fairby plan may not be the best.

Some account of the Fairby settlement, and the means by which it was brought into being, may be interesting. At the outset it may be said that the admirable work accomplished at Fairby has been done by Mr. George Humphrey, the present managing director, and his brother, Mr. Leonard Humphrey, the chief agricultural expert and formerly an official of the Irish Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. The estate has recently been added to considerably, and the original number of fifty small holdings will probably be more than doubled within the next few months. When the land was purchased it consisted of fruit-orchards, pasture, and arable land, all in very good order. The scheme of the syndicate which bought it was to cut it up into small holdings, building a house on each in accordance with the requirements of the occupier. Each accepted applicant was advised as to the class and size of holding most suitable to him and as to the employment of his capital. As a rule a cash payment, equal to 25 per cent. of the price of the house and land, was demanded on taking possession, the balance being payable in instalments spread over twelve years. An arrangement has since been made with a building society by which the payments may, if desired, be spread over twenty years. All the occupiers must become purchasers either for cash or on the instalment system. There are no permanent tenancies.

In a central position there is a depôt, which is at once the social and business centre of the group. Each small holder can hire labour, implements, or horses at reasonable rates. Through the depôt he can market his produce and buy his requirements. There is a store where domestic necessaries may be purchased; and a credit bank is being established to supply capital, if required, to those who, having invested in the estate, have a sound security to offer. There is also a well-equipped jam factory and fruit-bottling establishment. Skilled technical advice is provided, so that the least experienced men can hardly go wrong and will gradually gain knowledge in a practical school which is always up to date. The depôt also serves the purpose of a club, possessing a library and common reading-room. Social and business meetings take place frequently. The settlers' wives have formed themselves into a ladies' guild and are already organising a supplementary industry, which will probably take the form of carpet-weaving, to be carried on in their homes. It will be seen that the system makes it especially easy for those who are not adepts in agriculture to set up on the land.

I must record, as an example of the manner in which small holders settled in a group and working together can obtain advantages which individually would be quite out of their reach, the way in which the important strawberry-crop is dealt with at Fairby. The fruit is gathered soon after 4 A.M., and a motor immediately conveys it to London, where it is on sale by 8 A.M. the same day. In the evening any fruit which may remain unsold is brought back to Fairby by the same motor and at once made into jam or "pulped" for winter jam-making. Similar methods are applied to other kinds of produce; and when difficulties arise about the disposal of anything produced on the estate, the matter is carefully thought out by good business brains, and if a solution is possible it is sure to be arrived at.

So far all the settlers have cultivated almost exclusively in the open, and there is little glass to be seen on the holdings. But the management have just erected a long range of glass for experimental purposes. It is proposed to test various. kinds of hothouse crops; and when it has been proved beyond a doubt that any particular form of produce can be raised profitably, the syndicate will be prepared to advance money to settlers to put up the necessary glass for themselves. It may perhaps surprise some readers to know that without any glass a good worker can extract a reasonable living from two acres of ground. It is found that the net income from that area at Fairby comes to about £70 a year.

'

It will be seen that the Fairby system provides not merely the economic advantage of buying or selling in common, but some of the social amenities which co-operation affords. And it is clear that ultimately the settlement can become entirely co-operative. Already it has been decided to offer the store to a co-operative society consisting of the settlers. I understand that another co-operative society for sale and purchase is contemplated by some of the settlers themselves. And when the original syndicate has sold and been paid for all its land it will have fulfilled its function, and all the central institutions created by it can then be taken over by the settlers.

I may add that a portion of the Fairby estate has been set aside for what are residential rather than agricultural small holdings. Houses costing £800 or £1,000 or more, with two or three acres of land attached, are obviously not intended to be supported from such small landed estates. But it seems very sound policy to associate with the community at Fairby a certain number who do not rely on agriculture for their living. It takes all classes to make up a complete community.

Like

The Fairby system is simplicity itself, and for that very reason its originators deserve the highest credit. Columbus with the egg, they have shown how easy of solution a baffling problem may be when approached intelligently. What they have done may be done again, and their system may be applied to many forms of agricultural enterprise. They have rendered a great service to the cause of rural development. They do not profess to be philanthropists, but nevertheless they have brightened the lives and added to the happiness of those who have taken advantage of their scheme.