Many Socialists propound the doctrine that the first and the principal object in re-creating the rural industries must be the bettering of the wages of rural labourers, and that the State should secure them better wages by arbitrarily reducing rents. The object, it need hardly be mentioned, is rather to destroy private capital in accordance with the Socialists' tenets than to benefit the labourers. The Fabian Society, for instance, claims, "It is necessary for the State to interfere, partly to secure the better utilisation of our national resources, partly to increase our agricultural population. The class most needing protection, the labourers, must be dealt with first in order to raise them to a decent level of comfort. A living wage must be secured to them, and, as a consequence, the farmers' rents must be fixed at a fair level. An agricultural court must be set up in each county to regulate wages and fix rents. Continental success in agriculture depends on co-operation, and that in turn is associated with the peasant-proprietor system. That system for sundry reasons cannot be adopted here, but its advantages can be obtained through security of tenure. The small farm system should, therefore, form the basis of our reconstruction, free play being left for a graded system of farms where possible. In each county an agricultural committee should have compulsory power to acquire land and let it out to tenants, chiefly smallholders. It should have power to advance capital to individuals on the collective guarantee of its tenants, and it should be its duty to organise the collection of farm produce and its disposal in the market."[728] FOOTNOTES: [713] Blatchford, _Britain for the British_, pp. 111, 112. [714] _Socialism True and False_, p. 18. [715] _Some Objections to Socialism Considered._ [716] _Ibid._ [717] Blatchford, _The Pope's Socialism_, p. 8. [718] Hazell, _The Red Catechism_, p. 11. [719] Blatchford, _The Pope's Socialism_, p. 9. [720] Kautsky, _The Social Revolution_, p. 30. [721] Bax, _Essays in Socialism_, p. 41. [722] _Social-Democrat_, November 1907. [723] Pedder, _The Secret of Rural Depopulation_, p. 18. [724] _The Revival of Agriculture_, p. 17. [725] Sidney Webb, _Socialism True and False_, p. 12. [726] _What the Farm Labourer Wants_, p. 4. [727] _Allotments and How to get Them_; _Parish Council Cottages and How to get Them._ [728] _The Revival of Agriculture_, p. 22. CHAPTER XIX SOCIALIST VIEWS ON BRITISH RAILWAYS AND SHIPPING