THE AGRICULTURE BILL.
[To Inc EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."J
8,F,---There is one point with regard to this Bill on which all will agree: the discussion as to its merits is being carried on (Mite as in old times. It is true that the penny Press (formerly Ike halfpenny Press) devotes little attention to the measure, but the penny Press is a law unto itself, and it is doubtful nhether, if it had existed in the days when Catholic Emancipa- tion or the first Home Rule Bill were before the country, more than an inch would have been devoted to these, and we can "611"0TI3' assert that the inch would have been occupied by n yell on some point quite immaterial to the main point at '.`soe. The measure is framed to secure the assent of the
Interests involved. The consumer qua taxpayer pays the DIP". i.e., the guarantees and the cost of control—no small
item—and in return gets the control of the industry and the promise of increased production; the tenant farmer is sub- jected to control and the Wages Board, and in return gets re- called "security of tenure" and guaranteed prices; the labourer gets the supposed advantages of the Wages Board, and in return has to take his share of taxation for the guaran- tees. It is clear that the popularity of the Bill amongst those interested depends on their estimate of the bargain as it affects them. I realize at once the "cleverness " of the measure as a piece of political mansuctude. The whole point is whether the Bill is not too clever, and whether. under discussion, the supposed value of the bargains is not disappearing into thin air.
We coins back to the essential question : Will the Bill make for the prosperity of the agricultural industry as a whole? For after all neither the consumer, the farmer, the labourer, nor the landlord can benefit if the industry be diffident as to its future. It has been said that " security " is the touchstone. but surely "confidence " is the real elixir. Can we have con- fidence if third party interference, i.e., State control of cultivation and wages, is to reign? Men can °Almelo and are willing to take the risk of weather and prices, but no law of averages lias ever been framed to reduce ths whims of bureau. cratie bodies to a mathematical proposition. Maximum pro- duction can only be secured by giving the maximum of confidence for the fixed capital of the landlord invested in land and equipment of land, the maximum of confidence for the tenant's floating or working capital, the maximum reward for the labourer's brains and sinews. Each is complementary to the others, and unless the Bill can be shown to secure all thee
it is self-condemned.—I am, Sir, Sue., Resricus.
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