LAND &~ 'VATER Decemher 7, 1916
The Ind llstriollS Apprelltice alld Patriotisnl
By G. K. Chcsterton
T
HE Ycry word "industrial" suggests S0111e-
thinr; of· the ·narrownl'S~ which so long made
industrialism insuflicicnt. The mere derivation
in'·oh·es somethinr; unimaginatin' which mi~ses
thc main part of the labours of men lIlHler the sun.
There really was a notion that a man must be industrial
ill order to be industrious. There is nothing in which
we shall find ourselws more hicky in our Alliance with
France and \\;th Russia than In a certaia widening
of experienc(' about the possibilities of rural industry,
such a"5 those two gn'at peasant countric'S can gh·e.
Widel\" as the Fn~nchman ancl the Russian differ in their
high ·'.llld di,·crse types of virtue, they are alike i.n the
fact that they have done all their great work by 1I1dus-
tIT: but ha,·e done it without industrialism.
·But this truth does not merely belong to our Allies;
it helongs historically to o·urseh·es, for it belonged \"Cry
decidedly to our ancestors .. It is notable that eyea when
the Englishman became a town mOU"5C he still talked with
the tongue of a country mouse. It is still more notable
that this was particularly true when he talked of thc more
acth·c moral duties incumbent upon mice and men. EYen
1he 111en of the ~Ianchester School were compelled to
praisc the yirtues of industry in a terminology taken
1rom thc ~elds far beyond ~Ianchester.
Links with Country Life
The Early Victorian mcrchants cncouraged children
to bc not slothful in business by reciting" How doth the
little busy bee"; though thcy already had a rathcr hazy
idea. about how he doth. A mercantile youth of the
carly niryeteenth century may well haye. -been fldjurcd
to work hkc a beaver; and had merely thc lmpresslOn that
he, was being told, somcwhat unreasonably, to imitate a
hat. All the links ,,;th a country life, howcver, would
not. thllS'· ha\"e been lost betwecn one gencration and
another. Even to this dav thc proverbs of business,
in its· literal sense of being -busy, are proverbs coloured
by the countrysidc and somewhat incongruous in the
strccts" .A man in the middlc of a London fog briskly
announce? that he is going to make hay while the
sun shines.. A man standing on a hard asphalt pave-
ment is needlessly recommcndcd not to let the grass grow
under his feet. ' character conspicuously absent in the English char-
The carly mistakc of the Manchester philosophy,
contradicted even by those common forms of specch
which it still had to employ, cut off many Englishmen
for a .generation or two from many sentimcnts which. in
thc long run are found necessary to thc \"cry manhood
of man. Thesc must bc recovered by modern industry
if it is tq becomc once morc human; and they are not
confined to this curious dclusion that thc country is
ahvays a garden of idleness. Thc delusion did exist,
though it would not have becn consciously formulated
it ,,·as re~lly a vice of thc Victorian timc or its artists;
to rcgard the country as a picture gallery, and even its
l1aturali~ts as a Natural. History Museum. It was, of
cour~e, a confusion of thought; for thc Bradford wool
merchant \,"ould h~l\'e found himself .in a condition of
much cry and little wool, if shepherds really pass~d their
livcs in pastoral piping and dancing. But it was no un-
common confusion; and referred back to the chicf fallacy
of what may be caDed thc )Ianchester culture, its complete
lack of historical imagination. ' ,
This can perhaps bc most convcniently ilIvstrated
uridcr a single image. The Industrious Apprendce in the
picturcs· of Hogarth became an incarnation of that
mercantilc morality which steadily increased after
Hogarth's time. He was the man who camc to London
with t\,·opence in his pocket and became Lord :\Iayor·
of London bv mere hard work. He was thc industrial
hcro-I miglit almost sa" the industrial saint, of the Indi-
vidualists; who set first amon~ human virtues the
industry of the Industrious Apprentice. Hc was, to usc
the' highly athcil'tic expression, a self-made man.
And vct thcrc was in the very words .. Industriom:
Apprenficc" an. historical truth which all tllc5e· men
misscd. At least one of the facts about the Industrious
AI~prentice was that he was an apprentice; that he wa's a
c1l1ld of the 1lJedia~\'al system of apprcnticeship. l-iogarth
li,·ed among the Iin~ering remains of a more human
tradition which made his slightl\' wooden moral it vat kast
1110ral. Tll(' Indi,·idualist ,·crsion of the Inciustrious
Apprentice could not hc called too moral; it was rather
simply moral. It did 110t encourage thc apprcntice so
much to be a prig as to be a more or less respectahle
rascal. But the old system of apprenticeship, inherited
from the Guilds of the middle Ages, at least lent some
moral meaning to its praise of personal industry. Appren-
ticcship wa~ a school and not merely a scramble. \rc
shall be fortunate if we can return to something of thE
sort, if the real virtuc of industry is to he anything hilt
the Individllali~m of a pickpocket. .
Nlanchester Mor'ality
But a~riculture and apprenticeship are not the
only examples, nor the wor"t examples, of this
hiatus in the historic sense which weak(,l1ec\ thc
~Ianchester morality. The most vital instinct which
early Indllstrialism l1eglected was thc instinct of patriot-
ism. In another sense thc citizen of thc new cities
was cut off from the land; in the more sacred SCllse
of the fatherland. In another sense the ncw apprentice
forgot hi" service and hi" lh·ery ; he too often learnt to
look at least coldly ancl distantly at the heraldry of the
English uniform and the service of thc English Hag.
This defcct in the )lanchester doctrine must not indec'd
be exaggerated, in the scnse of being misunderstood.
Men like Cobden. remaii1ed \"Cry English in their char-
acter, just as wc havc already seen that they remained
very countrificd in their pro,·erbs.
But the ahstract theory of Cobclenist Capitalism was
ccrtairtly international, and often evcn in thc bad sensc
of" being anti-national; and this more theoretic sidc was
thrust the more forward through thc accident which ga,·e
so much of the leadership of early Individualism not to
Englishmen but to Scotchmen. This does not imply, of
course, that Scotch men are not patriotic; but rather that
the same thing which makes most of thcm rather ex-
cessively patriotic (a fine power of fanaticism in· t he Scotch
acter) makes a few of them capable of a political asceticism
which can do without patriotism altogether. In any
casc thcre was a degrec of truth in thc taunt that the
new towns and thc new trades werc cut off from patriotism
becausc tHey were cut off from history. .
It is onc of the first, if not the first, good clement of thi~
war that the taunt is no longer true. This war is, what-
c,"er e1sc it is, the putting of the very modern and com-
plex machinery to a ,·ery simple and ancient moral pnr-
pose. If thc Industrious Apprentice is crying "Shells!
Shells! " instead of " Cluhs ! Clubs! " it is so far a widen-
ing of his mind that it takes him not only outside his
own country hut outsidc his own tmvn into his own
country. 'fhc great war is the return of England to
Europe. But the great war is also thc rcturn of ~Ian­
chester to England. I am not here talking about par-
ticular political and economic doctrines with ,,·hich I
agree or disagree; I am talking of a ccrtain moral at-
mosphere which to· those outside it must always scem
cither tawdry or sentimental; of a t1ag and of thc memory
of our fathers.
In this matter there cannot he the shadow of a doubt
of the enormous reaction towards ~ationalism which
overtook our industrial society when the gauntlet was
thrown down in Belgium. A man must be utterly ignor-
ant of the rudiments of thc Labour Problem before the
war, if he supposes that anything short of a furiotl~
enthusiasm cOllld ha,·e induced the organised artisans
to suspcnd the Trades Cnion Rules for ten minutes.
Even the material manifestations, the external excite-
ment of machinery infinitely multiplied and output
at the top of its energy, carries with it the character
of on(' of those crises in which men ha,·c c1isco,·ered some-'
 ,Decem,ber 7, I9 I 6 LAND &' 'VATER 23
something that is very new bec>ause it is very old. E\'en of economic reformers 'no longer talk the cant of cos-,
the.risejn \vages, compIicqted as)t is 1;>y the rise in prices, mopolitanism. One of the, most r~volufionary: ul\d
is a sort of symbol of the positive' side of war; the side imaginati\'e of· these groups chooses the name of
that makes it something \'ery different from mere des- .. Xational Guilds." I will wager that twenty years ago
truction. The CU'ie is of course mnch stronger than this ;. the name would have heen "International Gnilds."
for the patriotism of the artisian is the key not only to ~ay, the sort of Socialism which specialised in using the
his content but to his discontent. Even in the ex- \'cry word" International" as a sort of substitute for
ceptional cases where he is merely ,angry, it -is almost the word" God" has now contributed not only its n~ost
wilOlly a patriotic anger; founded on his cOI1\'iction, famous but its fiercest members to the formation Q.f a
right or wrong, that profits are being secreted at the ex- "~ational Socialist Party" which might alnlO:;t the
pense of the w;lole national scheme.. The Industrious called Jingo. . '
Apprentice, is not now being indllstr:ious for himself, \\'hatever we have to fear in the future, we,ha\'e not
ur even merely for his l;uild, but for his nation and . to fear that hideous spectre of hUl)1anity,"'stLippcd
for the overwhelming millions of normal Europeans of all its human 10\'es and loyalties. We have not to
everywhere; the nation is the one great window upon the fear that sort of catholicism which is not' so much
history of the worlel, a union of all beliefs as a union of all unbelicfs; nor
One thing is substantially certain; that whatever shall we be called upon to accept ,as the l~arliam<?nt, yi
industrial system rises in the new England, it will be ?lIan. the Federation of the World, the ~ort of cosmo-
English. It is notable that even the most ad\'anced, politan club which consists at the best of exiles" aJid at'
and what the com'entional would call audacious, the worst of spies . .. I":

Effect of War, on Agriculture

' By ChristQpher Turnor
a nation our organisation, if we can be said were promised a greater supply of , labour-saving . ma~

A , to have an organisation, .was on a peace basis.

Our systems of finance, industry, and food supply
were all based on the supposition that the world
would never ilgain he troubled by a great war-cer-
tainly not by the greatest war in all history. When
it came upon us with its astounding suddenness all oin'
views had to be reformed, and at a m0ment's notice
,,'e were forced to begin organising our popUlation. The
result is that the total output of our factories is higher
than it was before the war, and this in spite of the with-
drawal of millions of men.
In this general,increase inl the output of \Var materials
onc industry stands out as a striking exception to the
rule, agricultur~, the industry that provides home-
grown food. 1 hough in the e,arJy stages of the war the
truth of it was scarcely recognised, few to-day would
deny that food is a material of ,war; in fact some have
e\'en reached the stage of understanding that the carry-
ing on of a great ,,~ar is as dependent upon an organised
agriculture (i.e., food supply) as it is upon the
military organisation. Alas!' that this truth was not
understood from the very outset-or rather that the
. Gowrnment did not realise it years ago in days of peace
as other European Governments did. This really is the
chinery-the promise was not made good. To-day
the number of steam plough plants has been greatly
reduced. In June, I9I6, a minimum staff for each farm
was agreed upon by the' Var Office and the Board of Agri-.
culture. Even before this arrangement canie into' force'
many farms were staffed helow the minimum, and
in practice the scale has not been strictly.adhered to.
~ot only has agriculture suffered from n:lany cases
of excessive withdrawal of men' by the, mili tary
authorities, it has also lost many men who have gone
into other work, temp'ted by higher pay. "', '.
This could have been obviated only by the n10biliza-
tion of the whole manhood and wolnanhood of the nation.
and the allotting to each individual his own spliere of
national service. Such a mobilization of the' i1ation
was naturally distasteful to the whole race of poIi~ician5-:
it would constitute a certain interference with' the in-
dividual against which our pre-war doctrinaires are
still battling. And yet such a mobilization wmild have
enabled the Government to weigh the importance from
the national and war point of view of the different in-
dustries, and to have arranged to leave the \~hal in-
dustry of food production sufficient man:p~\,;cr not
only to maintain but increase its output. I

key to the present situation as far as the food supply
of the nation is concerned, If the Government had fully
realised the strategic and ,_economic importance of' a
secure food supply over which they had complete con-
trol \ye should to-day find ourselves in a very different
position. The effect of the war upon the agricultural
industry would have been very different. If the Govern-
ment had understood the vital national importance
of land and of the industry of food production WG should
pl<esmnably ha\'e seen the Government classing farms
as munition factories and taking the necessary measures
to secure their effective working.
But in times of peace our greatest and most \'ital
indnstry was neglected. And so in time of war. Men
Owing then to. the Government's attitude towai-ds
the land, how has the war affected agriculture? ,~t 111ay
be stated briefly and it is a sad record. In 'I9I5' ,more
wheat was grown than in I9I4-partly owing to the
high price which wheat was making and partly owing
to the appeal of
the Board of Agriculture to farmers to
grow more wheat.
But this increase of wheat was at the cost of other'
arable crops-it did not mean that more food was pro-
duced, for the official report shows that the area under
grass increased by 10,000 acres. . Yet it 'is a'r~ble 'land
that produces the' greatest amount of food p'er acre.
Professor T. H. ·1\Iiddleton's recent report*; upon this
subject should be read by everyone. 'J !

born and hred on the land. quite naturally appealed
to militarv authorities as the best raw material out of
which to {urn the finished soldier, so that \vithout weigh-
ing the consequences all effort was directed towards
getting every possible man from the land. If during
the last fifty years we had been developing 'the rural
population as Germany has developed hers the industry
could have stuod the drain hetter, for there would ha\'e
been a grea ter rcsidnul11 0,£ men over military age to work
on the land;, there would, have been a larger poplllation
of cOllntry-bred women to replace the men of fighting
ase that it was expedient to take for the army.
The Prime ~]jnister annullnced that it was esscnti,11
to maintain the SIlPI~y uf home-grown food-and farmers
wcre pro\lli~cd utliciaIIy that essential ~kiI)ed men would
1I0t be taken from the farm, All empty words-essential
:--kiIlcd labourers were taken from tJ1C farm. Then they
In I9I6 the area under wheat was less than that of
I9I5 by 254,000 acres, and for I9I7 the shrinkage will
undoubtedly be still greater. Further in II)I6 the area
m;der .. bare fallow "-i.e., grO\vin~ no crops whate\'er-
was greater than the pre-war average by II2,0~0 acres.
Bur still more serious than this decrease in the annual
outPlI't is the shrinkage in the capital \'ahlC of land fr0111
the agricultural point of view. Owing to lack of l,abollr
the standard of cuIth'ation is becoming lower-the lan<.'
is being let down. '
We fhaIl 11a\'e to pay for this. The Prime ?\1inistcI
recently appointed an AgricuItllfal Reconstruction
C(~\1lmiHee, which is I belie\'e to report on what aItera-
dons ill the system of agricultur~ will be necessary to
* The ·rcrcnl ,It>ve!opmwt of (;cnnan !lsricll,lh~.rc. By T. H.
1\1 id,d:ctl,n, <::11,
\\ \1113n and Son •• 4U.