THE FARMERS' ALLIANCE AND ITS CRITICS.
THE unanimity displayed by the leading representatives of the Conservative party, on the platform and in the Press, in denouncing the Farmers' Alliance, either openly or covertly, is more creditable to their courage than to their sagacity. That any uprising amongst the farmers, with a view to reso- lute action in favour of agricultural reform, is necessarily an- tagonistic to Conservatism, as commonly understood, is clear enough to every thoughtful observer ; but that Conservatives should incontinently blurt out the confession that it is so, is, to say the least, somewhat rash and impolitic. Here is a case in which an independent body of farmers, many of whom are Conservatives, by name if not in reality, have combined to advocate and push forward a distinct series of objects calcu- lated, as they believe, to place the agriculture of this country on a better footing than that.whichit at present holds; many of these proposed reforms have been endorsed by Farmers' Clubs and Chambers of Agriculture, long before the Farmers' Alliance existed ; and the leaders of the new movement have emphatically denied that they are actuated by party motives, or that they will allow party influence to interfere with the attainment of their ends. Why, then, are they denounced as secret enemies to the Conservative party,— the party of so-called " farmers' friends ?" We can quite understand that county representatives, who have delighted in posing as the special friends of their agricultural constituents, as long as their hitherto easily deluded clients were satisfied with vague professions, are somewhat dismayed when they are asked to prove their friendship by definite action for the re- moval of agricultural abuses ; but good tacticians as they have usually, shown themselves to be, we should have expected that they would dissemble their alarm. They have played with the proposals put forward by the Alliance as long as they knew that the proposers were unorganised, and therefore powerless to do much mischief. Even now they scarcely venture to impugn .any of those proposals, as far as the general .principle of each is concerned, though they may object to the extent to which the principle would be applied by thorough-going agricultural reformers. In short, having no ease, they "abuse the plaintiff's attorney." A more complete exposure of political charlatanry has seldom been effected by the resolute action of earnest men, united for objects.of genuine reform. By denouncing the Farmers' Alli- ance, and warning Conservative farmers not to join it, these gentlemen have virtually admitted that their professed friend- ship for farmers is not of a kind that can be put to the test, and they have gone far to open the eyes of their clients to the truth of the statement of a writer in the Fortnightly Review, that the Liberals are.the natural allies of the tenant- farmers.
No doubt, the first object of the Farmers' Alliance—the better representation of farmers in Parliament—is a direct challenge to the existing county Members ; but it is not, on the face of it, a challenge to the Conservative party, who would scarcely admit that to obtain the better repre- sentation of farmers, it is necessary to substitute Liberals for Conservatives. Several county Members have admitted the desirability of having more farmers, like Mr. Read, in. Parliament ; and no doubt, if they could secure men as faithfully devoted to their party as Mr. Read is, they would not object to a few of their friends giving place to such men. But they know perfectly well that few Conservatives would endorse the programme of the Farmers' Alliance, and they feel that, with such a necessary condition, the better repre- sentation of farmers in Parliament would mean the accession of several Liberals to the seats,now occupied by members of their own party. Hence, again, their opposition to the Alli- ance is easily comprehensible. It is only the openness of their antagonism which is surprising, because of the exposure which it involves. The better representation of farmers does not necessarily imply direct representation, thongh a few members of the class would be an acquisition to the House of Commons. Few farmers can afford the expense of sitting in Parliament, even if they were to be elected free of cost. There are, how- ever, numbers of candidates for Parliamentary life who are thoroughly and earnestly in favour of agricultural reform ; and the dread lest these gentlemen should be selected to replace them is the secret of a great deal of the antipathy which the present County Members, and their representatives in the Press, manifest towards the Farmers' Alliance.
The opposition which we have thus explained will do the Alliance no harm, if it is clearly understood by the farmers. The case was very clearly put by one of the leading members of the Alliance the other day when, after disclaiming all party objects, he said :—"If the Conservative party is opposed to the objects of the Farmers' Alliance, then the Farmers' Alliance is necessarily antagonistic to the Conservative party, and not otherwise. Even then the antagonism is not of our seeking, and is not based on party prejudice. If Liberals oppose us, we shall be equally antagonistic to them. We simply seek to organise a great party in favour of agricultural reform ; all who are in favour of that are our friends, and all who are opposed to it are our foes, in a public sense, though we feel no personal antipathy to them. But really, we ought to have a plain answer to a plain question. Do Conservatives desire the people of this country to understand that they are the enemies of agricultural reform ? If they do, we shall know how to deal with them ; if not, let us hear no more of the charge that the Alliance is a party association." Here we have the question in a nut-shell, and we commend it to the consideration of our agricultural readers.
Another charge against the Farmers' Alliance, which we find persistently reiterated by Conservative speakers and writers, is that of setting class against class. This is one of those catch-phrases which are frequently made to do duty in the absence of legitimate argument, and it is susceptible of pre- cisely similar explanations to those which have been adduced in reply to the charge of party objects. If the landlords as a body are opposed to the reforms proposed by the Farmers' Alli- ance, then the Alliance is necessarily opposed to the landlords. That landlords as a body are opposed to the thorough reform.of our land system, there is, unfortunately, no doubt ; but it is a complete misnomer to describe the advocacy of reforms sought by one class and opposed by another as " setting class against class." It is objects, not men, which are opposed to each other. It is true that the Farmers' Alliance seeks to deprive landowners of certain legal rights and privileges which are unfair and oppressive to tenants, as well as injurious to the nation at large. It is also true that if farmers are to obtain better representation in Par- liament, many landlords willbe turned out of the places which they now hold. These, however, are incidents which are un- avoidable accompaniments of agricultural reform, as long as landlords refuse to give up voluntarily what they unjustly hold, and to represent fairly those who have trusted them, Still, there has been no attempt to raise antipathy ; but, on the contrary, it has been distinctly disavowed, and a few land- lords who agree with the objects of the Farmers' Alliance have been gladly welcomed as members.
The criticism of those who complain of the leaders of the Farmers' Alliance for leaving the most important measure of agricultural reform—the reform of the laws affecting the set- tlement and transfer of land—out of their programme, is more worthy of attention than are the objections we have just noticed. These laws are the fundamental obstructions to the permanent amelioration of our land system, and until they are dealt with, very little real good will be effected. Unfortunately, farmers are not at all generally awakened to the mischief resulting from the limited ownership of land, although they cannot help seeing that it is accountable to a great extent for the inability or disinclination of owners to improve their estates. Estimating at more than its real value the advantage of low rents, they have a great dread of seeing the large estates split up, and sold to men who will drive hard bargains with their tenants. There is some reason for this dread, but it is based to a great extent on an imperfect and short-sighted com- parison of advantages and disadvantages. Where land has been let at less than its commercial value there have almost invariably been conditions attaching to the tenancy which have more than counterbalanced the benefit of a low rent. Now it is seen that, under the altered conditions of farm- ing, rents at one time thought to be low are in reality too high,
and a more or less munificent doling out of out-door relief has been necessary to keep, the tenants on many large estates
from being obliged to give up their farms. Rents are soon likely to find their commercial level all over the country, and it will then be seen that the supposed advantage of holding on easy terms as to rent, under limited owners who would not spend money in improvements, and who, for the moat part, placed onerous restrictions upon their tenants, and in many cases inflicted heavy losses by preserving a large stock of game, has been very much over-rated. It may also come to be seen that, in spite of the low interest to be obtained on the pur- chase of land, tenants will be better off in the long-run if they take every good opportunity of purchasing farms, and so in- suring the full advantage of all improvements which they
may make upon them, than if they hire. larger acreages, with the inevitable disadvantages of tenancy to put up with. Still, the fact remains that at present farmers gener- ally are averse to interference with the laws affecting the ownership of land, and the leaders of the Farmers' Alli- ance were anxious not to frighten away their timid followers. They felt, too, that the reform of these laws was advocated generally by advanced Liberals, and that it would probably be effected without their help. Therefore, as a matter of policy, they decided to leave this important object out of their pro- gramme, at least at starting on their new undertaking. We believe that this timid policy was a mistake, and that it is now seen to be so. It has estranged from the Alliance many thorough-going reformers, who would otherwise have joined it, while it has failed to conciliate the enemies of Liberal views. In short, the objects of the Association are too advanced for it to hope to gain many Conservative adherents, while it is not complete enough to excite the enthusiasm of the Liberals, who must be its chief supporters. It is quite right to keep the Alliance independent of party politics ; but as an Associa- tion for the promotion of agricultural reform, it should be thorough, even if it has to go a little in advance of the great body of the tenant-farmers. The Conservatives have shown, by their open hostility, that it is useless to truckle to their prejudices, and that a bold policy will be the most suc- cessful. We trust, therefore, that the Alliance will render its programme complete, by including the reform of the Land Laws amongst its objects. When this has been done, we have no doubt that many persons outside the ranks of the farmer class will become members, and so greatly increase the resources and influence of this hopeful organisation. The interest of the public in agricultural reform has been wonderfully stirred by the severe depression that has fallen upon farming as a business,, and by the multiform evils which have resulted to all classes of the people. A great battle will have to be fought before our land system can be placed on a satisfactory basis, and the farmers should not be left, even if they can be trusted, to fight it alone. The Farmers' Alliance should be an associa- tion, not of farmers only, but of agricultural reformers from all classes of the people.
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