THE STATE OF RURAL INDUSTRIES
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sta,—We notice in the Press of Monday, April 6th, a report of a speech by the Earl of Oxford and Asquith to the annual meeting of the Sutton Courtenay Village Hall, in which the following passages occur :—
" In the old days, large numbers of village industries, apart from agriculture, were carried on by manual labour, before the advent of machinery and steam power, which gave diversity of occupation and vigour to village life, which was an asset to the country. They could not bring back that state of things. In industrial history, as in other history, it was impossible to retrace footsteps."
We cannot, of course, bring back sixteenth-century con- ditions in the twentieth century, and no sensible person
wants to try to. But is there still such a natural and over- powering tendency towards centralization and urbanization that any attempts to revive rural industries are based on a forlorn and futile hope ? If we look forward to the time when twentieth-century industry both in town and country adapts itself to twentieth-century conditions, the re-estab- lishment of country industries supplementary and alternative to agriculture seems not only desirable but quite within the realms of probability and worthy of effort.
For example, while steam power during the last century and the commercial advantages of large scale factory pro- duction centralized industry and population in the towns, to-day the petrol and gas engine, the motor lorry and the cheap car, as well as high urban costs, are working in some degree in favour of the country. These and the provision of cheap electric power in country districts—and the latter is surely not a forlorn hope—may become important factors in the decentralization of industry, and the revival of country life. Mr. A. VV. Ashby in his Rural Problem wrote :—" The essential problem of the decentralization of industry is one for the engineer ; it is that of the decentralization of power at low costs."
Again, listen to Mr. Henry Ford, usually considered the apostle of the latest methods of mass production :-
" The belief that an industrial country has to concentrate its industries is not, in my opinion, well founded. That is only a stage in industrial development. . . . Industry will decen- tralize. . . . A great city is really a helpless mass. Everything it uses is carried to it. It lives off the shelves of the stores. The city cannot feed, clothe, warm or house itself. . . . And finally, the overhead expense of living or doing business in the great cities is becoming so large as to be unbearable."
The country is not at present such an industrial desert as many townsmen tend to think, though the progressive depletion of village craftsmen is serious enough. In 1921, there were in England and Wales 3,340,000 occupied people in rural districts, or some 2,340,000 apart from those engaged in agriculture. Of small country businesses, there were over 11,000 smithies, 4,700 wheelwrights' shops, 3,100 master saddlers, 13,000 carpenters' shops, about 4,000 cabinet makers. These represent only a small proportion of the total population ; but they are important in our country life, not only because many of them are essential to agriculture, but also because they form on the whole a skilled, independent and self-respecting class of men working for themselves, intermediate between rural employers and their labourers. with much more convenience to the farmer than the town garage.
With the introduction of the lathe, bandsaw, mechanical power and welding plant, the village metal and woodworker is learning to hold his own, and should again be able to attract apprentices. A wise community is surely right in trying to facilitate and accelerate the change in his methods and outlook, by providing the technical and commercial advice which the village craftsman needS, as well as the same credit facilities as are offered to the farmer.—I am, Sir, &c., SIIAvrESBURY, Chairman of the Committee. The Rural Industries Bureau,
08-262 Westminster Bridge Road, London, S.E.1.
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