The Rural Exodus. By P. Anderson Graham. (Methuen.)— This volume,
one of the series, "Social Questions of To-Day," deals with a subject which has been more than once discussed in this journal. It may certainly be studied with much advantage. It cannot be too often repeated that the results obtained by so- called commissioners, who go to make reports for political journals, are worthless, and worse than worthless. A man may write in such a journal, as Mr. Graham has done, and write with complete inde- pendence, but he must not write for it. There are Balaks who send an obstinate Baalam very promptly about his business. In this volume, the chapter on "Church and Parson" will be read by the clientele of the Spectator with special interest. Mr. Graham puts speeches, so to say, in the mouths of a typical parson and a typical dissenting minister, and does it admirably. "The Dullness of the Fields" is another interesting chapter ; so is "Can Wages be Raised ? " The melancholy answer is, "They are much more likely to drop." As for allotments, "it is not the agricultural labourer who is keen after them, but the artisan of the small towns." The chapter on "Small Farms" is not encouraging to those who build their hopes for the rural future on the "Small Holdings Act." Mr. Graham gives the experience of four successive tenants of a small farm. They are all now living, and he talked with them all. Whenever a small farm succeeds, the success, in our 'opinion, is exceptional. A family in the neighbourhood pays a London price for milk, or some other piece of luck falls in the owner's or tenant's way. Otherwise, the low prices and outrageous cost of transport ruin him.
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