WHAT IS WRONG WITH BRITISH AGRICULTURE ?
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Ste,- —As my views on co-operation have been quoted in a recent letter in the Spectator, I may perhaps be permitted to make a few remarks on the rural problem.
The agricultural problem in England arises, in the main, from the working of two interlocking economic systems : the first called " the vacillating price system," the second " the competitive distributive system." They were adopted in this country in the first half of the last century : they were going to cure all our evils, but, in fact, have alWays been disastrous to agriculture.
The main results of the first, the vacillating price system, is that (1) prices al-Ways vary, which makes farming a gamble, and (2) the wholesale price constantly runs down below what is sometimes called the " economic " price, and in recent days the " standard " price. When this happens, there is a tendency which is operating to-day, to place the farmer in such a position that the less he produces the better he does.
The main results of the second system (the competitive distributive system) is that the cost of distribution is greatly increased, the wholesale price is forced down and the retail price goes up. For this problem co-operation provides no solution, but a solution is provided by the introduction of another economic system based on " standard prices " and " orderly marketing," with in this country the limitation of imports. The character of this alternative system, sometimes called " the stable business system," is well known to all persons who have made a serious study of the problem, though not possibly to politicians and the public.
When it is understood it will be adopted, for there is little doubt that when adopted it will result in doubled production of food, the employment of from half a million to a million more men in agriculture at a good rate of wages, fair profits to farmers and reduced retail prices. There is no compromise between the two systems.—I am, Sir, &c., Rural Reconstruction Association,
MONTAGUE FORDHAM,
Council Secretary,
Leplay House, 65, Belgrave Road, London, S.W.'.
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