BACK TO THE LAND

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 79, 30 September 1933, Page 9

BACK TO THE LAND

MOVEMENT IN BRITAIN A scheme for developing a model farm training station in Lancashire to fit unemployed for settlement on the land is being considered by a special committee under the chairmanship of the Archbishop of Liverpool (Dr. Richard -Downey), says the "Christian Science Monitor." " "Cultivation of the land to tho full extent of its capacities is the" onry remedy for unemployment which really touches the root of the problem," said Dr. Downey at a recent meeting to consider establishment of a training centre. "Tho 'back to the land movement' will, incidentally, put an end to the superficial view that .unemployment is due to over-population," he continued. "The land of this country (Great Britain) is well able to support a great many more people than inhabit it at present. Prince Kropotkin, an admitted expert in agriculture, declared that the British Isles could easily , "maintain some 70,000,000' people if the idle land were properly cultivated. The fact is that our cities and largo towns aro over-populated, while the countryside becomes more .and more deserted. Surely the obvious remedy is a more equitable distribution of the population, and this can bo brought about only by a 'back to the land movement.' The ] land alone affords new opportunities of' work and creative wealth. . . . "The drift from the rural areas to the towns continued until the crisis of 1931. It is obvious, therefore, that there must be many amongst the unemployed who, from, their early training in agriculture, are capable of taking up small holdings of their own without-any previous training. "There still remains the question of settling urban workers and their families who have been divorced completely from all real and Vital contact with the land. In1 their case it must first be proved that they can bo trained within A certain period and that they can make good upon the land. Hence the necessity for a training farm or station."