Help for Agriculture
THE adversities of agriculture have been greater during the past five years than at any time in living memory. Even the depression in the seventies of last century, when much land became derelict and a large proportion of arable land was brought down to grass, cannot be compared with the recent collapse. The Government admitted when they took office that it was their duty to help the farmer, but no sooner were they coming to close quarters with the problem than the coal stoppage and the General Strike made a complete bouleversement of our domestic affairs, and the scheme of agricultural credit had to be postponed.
At last it has been introduced, and we may say at once that it is satisfactory in that for short-term credit it goes further than we had expected, but unsatisfactory in that long-term credit—required for land purchase and other large capital expenditure—does not go far enough. Improvements can be made while the Bill is passing through Parliament, and meanwhile our chief desire is heartily to welcome it.
In every country where agriculture is one of the princi- . pal occupations credit for farmers has long been provided officially. In this country we have, talked a great deal, but have done very little. It is estimated that though our farm stock is worth about £400,000,000, farmers have obtained credit on it of not much more than £20,000,000. This has been a bad blot on our national prganization. After all, agriculture is still the largest British industry, and it is not only farmers and land- owners who are concerned in its prosperity ; it. is to the interest of every man, woman and child that food as plentiful and as wholesome as possible should be grown at home. It is also essential for the national physique that a healthy balance should be maintained between rural and urban life. It will be a bad day for England if the towns prosper while the villages decay.
In framing the Agricultural Credits Bill the Government had to decide whether to follow the example of most of the important European countries in basing a long-term credit system on a State Bank, or whether to adopt a less " socialized " plan. They decided that the English banking system was so sound that a State Bank was tumecessary. All that was'required was the co-operation of the principal Joint-Stock Banks. Of the " Big Five " all have agreed to co-operate except the Midland Bank, which promises a partial co-operation.
For the purpose of granting credits a central mortgage institution is to be established. This institution will be financed by the Banks and will raise money in the custo- mary. way on the market. It will, in fact, be a Loan Company. The Treasury will contribute a substantial amount to the reserves of the Company in order to induce the public to take up the debentures at a low rate of interest. This is an admirable provision. We cannot think of anything likely to, have a better psychological result than to place agriculture before the ordinary inves- tor as an industry in which savings and trustee money can be safely invested.
The Treasury, to be precise, will contribute three repay- able instalments of £250,000 each to a Guarantee Fund, and ten annual payments of £10,000 to the cost of adminis- tration. It will have £5,000,000 of debentures under- written and will itself contribute 11,125,000 towards this amount. The intention of the Government is evidently to stand handsomely behind the Company so that there shall be complete public confidence in its operations. Our disappointment begins at the provision that no loan on any mortgage of land and no loan under the Improvement of Land Acts shall exceed two-thirds of the mortgaged property. The loans are to be repayable within sixty years. We fear that a farmer who wishes to buy land will still find himself a little too much in the hands of the merchants. He will have to find a consider- able margin of the required money by the old methods. The ideal is to get rid almost entirely of the old-fashioned but too onerous expedients.
The Bill shows that the Company is to be concerned exclusively with long-term credit. The granting of short- term credit will be left to the Banks themselves. The Bill contents itself with making it as easy as possible for the Banks to lend money on the security of farming stock. We sincerely hope that Labour, although it has declared war on the Bill, will try to improve it rather than to destroy it. A credit scheme coming simul- taneously with the promise of the complete remission of rates on agricultural land and farm-buildings ought at last to put the farmer in good heart. It will be a perfect godsend to him to be able to borrow against practically the full value of his stock so that he need no longer resort to the ruinous practice of selling at any price he can get whenever he needs money.
By a coincidence the latest report of the Council of the Central Landowners' Association was published on the same day as the text of the Credits Bill. Anyone who has read the previous reports of the Council knows that it is by no means a reactionary body, but is composed of broad-minded experts. It is not because they desire wantonly to oppose Socialists and Liberals that the members of the Council point out that security of tenure is in no sense a panacea. On the contrary, they have very good evidence for what they say ; it is not difficult to prove that the real trouble of farmers is costs and prices.
In discussing costs the Council does not question the right of the workers to a legal standard wage, but it points out that, as the wages bill is the largest item in the cost of production and is outside the farmer's control, the farmer has some claim to balancing factors. The Council suggests, for instance, that, as under the Milk and Dairies Order the English farmer has been put to much expense in the interests of hygiene, the foreigner should be prevented from sending to this country produce which has not been subjected to corresponding sanitary conditions. What is proposed is not industrial Protection, but hygienic Protection. It is a great irony that the English farmer has at his doors some of the best markets in the world, and yet is unable to sell profitably because he is undercut by foreign competition.
We are not well enough informed to say whether the prohibition of preservatives in cream is necessary, but it is saddening to know that since it became im- possible to use preservatives for preventing cream from rapidly turning sour there has been a great increase in substitutes. A synthetic or constituted cream may be indistinguishable from the real thing in " strawberries and cream," even if not when drunk in tea or by itself, but what is the effect upon people's health, particularly upon the health of children ? We should like to know. Surely something could be done to aid the farmer without ' provoking the usual controversy. Mr. Everard, the Unionist member for Melton, is at all events trying. His Bill for putting the cream trade in the same position as the dairy trade deserve! every consideration.
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