The Workless and the Land By SIR FRANCIS ACLAND, M.P.
SPEAKERS for the Government in the recent House of Commons debate on unemployment pinned their faith predominantly to long-range cures. The only measure of present relief to receive, their blessing was the scheme to help unemployed and impoverished men in the cultivation of allotments,. For this scheme, now starting upon its fifth season, the Prime Minister. gave well-deserved praise to the Society of Friends. As anyone knows who has hind experience of their work at home and abroad, their name is a guarantee that money given will be expended with practical wisdom, with the minimum of overhead costs, and without pauperizing those who are helped. Surely under no other leadership would it have been possible to help the same number of men (62,000) last season, when Government aid was wholly withdrawn, as in the season before, when the Government provided all the funds an'd services which were required. And now that the' Government are again helping with a limited grant in aid, those who are administering the scheme contemplate nothing less than doubling the number helped—though the work is in many ways becoming steadily more difficult.
It was finding how many of the unemployed miners in South Wales had land experience and land love that started the Friends on their beneficent way. There is a true and pleasant story abOnt the early days : A man who had only debts and an old knife got hold of a bit of ground, and went round collecting potato parings. He found that some of them had eyes and sprouted, and pulled through a winter on their produce. In the second season the Friends provided. some more land, some seeds and a spade, and by autumn he had all his debts paid off, and his house was full of food for the winter. And *in his complete contentment—using the Welsh counterpart of the phrase, "I wouldn't want to call the Queen my Aunt "—which expresses the utmost human felicity—he said, "And now I wouldn't want to call Lloyd George my Uncle."
The scheme, as a result of experience and successive simplifications is now this : if a man will put up, before delivery of the goods, about five shillings (this means that last year £16,400 was contributed, in instalments, by the allotment-holders themselves), he can obtain an amount of seed potatoes, concentrated fertilizer, lime and a supply of garden seeds, amply sufficient for a ten-rod plot, and any tools he wants for about two shillings each extra. The retail price of these supplies Would be over 11, and the .difference between the sum paid and the wholesale price is made up, with Covenunent, help, by private subscriptions which are still needed, and corning in. (Allotments Committee, Friends House, Euston Road, London, N. 1). The men have to form themselves into an Allotment Society Which is very easily done (particulars from the National Allotments Society, 40 Broadway, London, S.W. 1) or else join. an existing Society. This is necessary both to facilitate administration, and to give them a chance of secure tenure of land when better times come and the assisted scheme can be discontinued.
There is no fear that central or local efforts will be insufficiently supported, but there are two difficulties— access to land on sufficiently easy terms to give the men a start, Which is the lesser, and, in the districts of long- continued unemployment, the men's apathy. Local Authorities' arè rather apt to believe that if there are a few vacant plots on their allotment estates no action on their part is called for. Actually they should follow the example that the best of them have already set, and provide land well in. advance of the demand, using their power of spending on allotments up to a penny half-penny rate so as to let the land rent free for the first year, and at not more than sixpence a rod for the second. Often even if this power is used the need will not be met, but there is no help for that, except from funds raised locally. The Government have at present not agreed to use emergency powers for the quick temporary occupation of land, or to contribute, under the Land Utilization Act, to the expenses of Local Authorities in acquiring it. Use of either of these powers would directly assist the expansion of the scheme, and would stimulate. effort by concentrating public attention upon its importance. There were in England and Wales half a million more allotments, during the War than there are now.
But the Government, the Authorities and private Subscribers may all do their duty to the full, the un- employed men will still bar the way to their own salvation. Loss of physical and mental stamina has made the men in South Wales and in parts of the North and Midlands "two-thirds dead and the other third pretty cold " as the organizer for a Welsh county expressed it. This is the central tragedy of the position. And nothing but close and constant personal contact with the men themselves can overcome this paralysis of the will which Steadily tightens its hold. That is why the work of the Churches, of Rotary, of men and women of goodwill, now in many districts being abundantly given, is of such supreme importance and value. If through a Club or other organization men can be thawed out and their interest in life can be restored all will go well—without this progress is very difficult.
And the difference, once a man starts on his plot is amazing. No one could guess how many hours, winter as well as summer, he will cheerfully and usefully spend on his land or in the ugly little hut he will build on it. Tubercular men recover, men on the edge of mental breakdown become normal and happy, if work is going anywhere it is a plot-holder who obtains it, his children can be picked out from the others in school, and perhaps better than anything else his wife becomes cheerful again, if only because, as one of them put it, "there's nothing worse always about the house than what a man is."
One further point is worth mention. The Allotment Scheme as worked at present is in no sense a solution* of the economic problem .connected with unemployment. The men are not allowed to sell what they grow ; if they do they risk losing part of their benefit or relief. The most that can be said is that it saves them buying potatoes and by introducing many sorts of vegetables into their dietary gives it a better balance and thereby • adds to its nutritive value. But more men want plots than can get them. The Government should take. advantage of the present cheapness of land and money to settle selected men, who have shown their capacity by making a success of allotments, in colonies of small- holders, working in family groups, but buying and selling co-operatively under skilled guidance. The neces- sary legislation for this was passed by the last Govern- ment, but was kept in cold storage. It should now be taken out. It is certain that the scope of the allot- ment work itself might be multiplied many times over within a few months if there were real Government. encouragement.
Previous page
