UNIONIST POLICY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 655, 4 November 1909, Page 7

UNIONIST POLICY.

♦ MR. BALFOUR ON RURAL CO-OPERATION SMALL FREEHOLDERS. "A BUTTRESS AGAINST SOCIALISM." I (By Tclegraph-Preas AtsoclaUon-Oopjrlffht) ' London, November 2. 0- Mr. A. J. Bnlfour, Leader of tho Opposition, 1, has written a preface to ft pamphlet, "Tho f. Land for the People," by Sir Gilbert Parker it (a Unionist advocate of agricultural cc operait tion and of land banks to mnkc advances , to is small holders). 1- Mr. Balfour remarks that moro is required for the full success of tho small farmer than y tho magic of ownership, and it may bo doi- scribed in two words—"credit" and "co-opera- > tion." e Sir Gilbert Parker, in a letter to "The j Times" declares that Mr. Balfour has embodied d in his programme as the Unionist policy the i- small ownership of land. He adds that tho d Radical party hue committed itself irrevocably to tho principle of perpetual tenancy. The "Daily Mftil" declares that tlio Radicals, owing to Socialist opposition, dare not create a multitude of snail landowners. These would be a buttress nguinst Socialism. * dvo paov of a rural programme by lesser lights of tho Unionist party, such as Lord Percy and Sir Gilbert Parkin, is now followed in due course hy somo favourable generalisations from the Leader, Mr. Balfour. In tho . Unionist ranfej. policies sc*m to sprout- at the bottom and grow to the top. Tho gradual capture of the party by tariff reform is a caso in point) each year has se«n Mr. Balfour adopt some new and more advanced formula approximating more and moro olosoly to the tariff reform ideal. Last month in the House , of Commono Sir Gilbert Parker advocated ng- | nculthral co-opeiation and land banks—which . are now comprehended in Mr. Balfour's "co- . operation" nnd "credit"—and hie present . pamphlet is no doubt an elaboration of a pro- . gramme which has for some timo been casting , its shadow before. Tho land bank? sit! lend , money on tho security of small freeholds, for the Unionists look to the small freeholder to check tho Socialists. For a good deal of the proposed agricultural co-operation, tho Irish i syotem identified with tho name of Sir Horace 1 .Ji," 1 ?, n( i reMnf -'y dcEofibcd in detail, will be studied. Unices thej offer tbo country , something auxiliar) to tariff leforni, ninny Unionists feel that they will bo out-pro-grammed by the Liberals.l