That Mr. Balfour's speech has a very great deal of
truth in it we readily admit, and we hold that the country should be grateful for the warning he has given it, and for his insistence that we must not forget the greater difficulty in attempting to find an idyllic remedy for the smaller. As our readers know, in writing on the small holdings problem we have in effect entered a similar caveat against the notion that the Small Holdings Bill is going to make a new heaven and a new earth. At the same time, we think there is a case for a sober and unfanatical use of wise legislation to make it more easy for men to acquire small holdings. We should like to see more men bringing up. families on the actual produce of their holdings, and in this way comparatively indifferent to the prices obtainable for their main crops. Again, we desire to see more stepping-stones by which agricultural labourers can rise to be farmers, and small holdings supply such stepping- stones. This, however, is a small matter. The real hope of re-ruralising our population is in ruralising our industries, and this, we believe, can be done, not merely with moral and physical, but also with economic advantage. That it is healthier in every way for men to live, say, twenty to the acre rather than five hundred we cannot doubt, though we are quite prepared to believe that industrial labour carried on under proper conditions is as healthy as, or healthier even than, work on the land.
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