does not want purchasers of his cars to be treated badly by men who, properly considered, are his agents. He wishes to be, so far as possible, independent of outside supplies. He has purchased large coal-bearing areas and timber lands. He smelts his own iron and possesses huge glass works. In course of time he may go in for rubber planting and the production of tyres as well.

The few details given show that Mr Ford is not merely an exceedingly successful inventor, but that he has started a new era in manufacturing, in the art of trading, and in the art of managing workers. His example, no doubt, will influence the methods of production, distribution, and of managing labour in every industrial country. He is changing the aspect of the United States and of the world by means of his car, which is revolutionising the habits of men in all five Continents. Until recently the motor-car was the luxury of the rich and the well-to-do. In 1922 the United States had 12,239,114 motor-cars. By now they should have between 14,000,000 and 15,000,000. For every single motor-car in Great Britain there are about thirty in the United States. The agricultural and rather backward State of Texas has more motor-cars than the whole of the United Kingdom; while New York has twice as many. In this country there is a car to every hundred persons. California has one motor vehicle to every four persons.

In view of the fact that in the whole of the United States there is a motor-car for every eight persons, it is obvious that it is no longer the monopoly of wealth. Millions of middle-class men and of ordinary workers have a car. After all, a Ford car is within the reach of most American workers. It costs about 807. in English money, and as American wages are approximately three times as high as British wages, the purchase of a Ford car is no more burdensome to the average American at the price of 807. than its purchase would be to the average Englishman at 301. In fact, the position of the American worker is more favourable because wages are so high on the other side that workers there can easily put by considerable amounts, while many English workers can put by little, if anything. At the present moment, American bricklayers are earning from

$12 to $18 per day. We cannot wonder that millions of American working-men possess Fords and other cheap cars, and that they go to and from their employment in their own automobiles. Many factories have erected huge sheds for the cars of their workers. In order to stimulate the demand for cars on the part of wageearners and other men of small means, Mr Ford has introduced the policy of selling motor-cars against a deposit of $5 and an undertaking to pay $5 per week.

The country people also have taken to the motor-car. Practically every farmer has one or two. The report of the National Automobile Chamber estimates that on the United States farms there are 3,200,000 motor-cars and 300,000 motor-trucks. By now that number should have risen to 4,000,000 or more. Owing to the gigantic number of motor-cars, trucks, and tractors in use, the aspect of the United States is rapidly altering. We can best imagine the congestion in American towns and on American roads by assuming a tenfold increase of the motor vehicles in this country. New York has become so crowded with cars, and the traffic problem has become so difficult, that influential people have recommended the construction of tunnels and of aerial ways for cars; while others have urged that motor-cars coming from the country should not be allowed to enter the city. A great many farmers buy cars in order to enable their labourers to go every evening to the town as a relaxation, exactly as they used to keep horses for that purpose. The wretched paving which formerly was so general in American towns is being replaced by smooth, well-made roads, and road-making all over the States has had an extraordinary development. The Federal Government, the individual States, and the counties, are spending funds in the most lavish manner in order to accommodate the gigantic motor traffic. Expenditure on roads came to $742,011,559 in 1922; while last year alone 20,090 miles of roads were built. The United States once had perhaps the worst roads in the world.

The advent of the motor tractor is revolutionising agriculture. The horse is rapidly being displaced, not only in the towns but even in purely agricultural districts. While other farm animals are increasing in number and in value, horses are shrinking in those respects. If we

compare the official figures of Jan. 1, 1923, with those of Jan. 1, 1914, it appears that the value of horses on farms in the United States has decreased by 42 per cent., while, during the same period, that of cattle increased 4 per cent., that of pigs 19 per cent., and that of sheep 39 per cent. During the nine years 1914-1923, the number of horses decreased by more than 2,000,000, while pigs increased by 4,500,000 and cattle by nearly 10,000,000. The census of 1920 shows that the number of horses 'not on farms' was 1,705,000, which figure compares with no less than 3,182,000 in 1910. During the decade ending 1920, the number of horses not on the farms decreased by 46 per cent., while the number of horses on the farms decreased by 7 per cent."

*

The motor-car and motor-truck are taking the place of the railway to an ever-growing extent. The railroad age is being replaced by the road age. In the United States the construction of railway lines has practically come to a standstill. In other countries, even where they are highly developed, similar changes are seen. Even the pleasant winding lanes and roads of old England are being converted into motor tracks. In many thinly populated countries oversea the road and the motor truck are doing what the railways did in the opening of the Far West. European administrators have greatly stimulated the construction of roads in the wilds of Africa and Asia by presenting a Ford car or other cheap automobile to native chiefs. The popular car is changing the face of the world. Its advent in isolated districts, such as the less accessible parts of Scotland, is leading to strange developments. The people who lived placid lives there have become restless. and desire to move. The contrast which hitherto has existed between the towns and the far countryside is being eliminated, and an additional incentive is given to the rush to the towns and to the industrialisation and mechanisation of the world. The old world is disappearing, a new world is rapidly arising.

The inventive and organising genius of Mr Ford is likely to affect the food supply of the world markedly. The agricultural tractor, to which Mr Ford turned in the

These figures were recently given in the periodical 'Commercial America.'

first instance, not only economises labour and enables a given number of workers to increase their output greatly, but is bound to lead to a vast expansion of cultivation and a corresponding increase in the food supply of the world.

The Ford works are at present producing cars and trucks at the rate of about 6000 per day. Mr Ford intends to increase the output shortly up to 8000 per day, and hopes to advance the production of tractors to 1000 a day. In his opinion, the motor boom has only begun. He thinks that the United States can make use of 20,000,000 cars, and that the rest of the world will eventually require far more even than that number.

During the coaching era, the advent of the railway evoked horror and hostility among many. The world has become accustomed to railways and will become as accustomed to the rush of the motor age as well. The automobile is becoming more and more a thing for practical use; its luxury aspects are shrinking into the background. If the motor-car and the tractor fulfil a genuine economic want, their advent cannot be prevented by the hostility and opposition of those who would retain the placid peace of the countryside. If they have come to stay, as seems likely, it is in the highest interest of this country that Great Britain and the States in the Imperial Commonwealth should become self-supporting in regard to cars, trucks, and tractors. England once led the world by the inventiveness and the achievements of her engineering industry. The spirit of inventiveness still is there. Excellent cars are made in this country; but the day of the hand-made car, as that of the hand-made watch, is gone. Mass production, on the model of the Ford works, is necessary, if this country is to obtain an adequate share of that young giant industry.

The British Empire, with more than four times the area, and more than four times the population, of the United States, should be able to maintain a larger motorcar industry than the Republic. The possibilities for such an industry are boundless; but unless British makers wake up in time, the world monopoly of Mr Ford and a few other American makers will have become more firmly established than ever.

Art. 8.—AGRICULTURAL POLICY.

In recent years we have heard a great deal about 'agricultural policy.' There are constant debates in both Houses and frequent letters in the leading newspapers about agricultural policy or the lack of it. The late Government was freely criticised; first for having no agricultural policy, then for having adopted a wrong agricultural policy, and finally for having reversed it. The present Government has an agricultural policy, which, however, is described in some quarters as totally inadequate, as one of mere 'homœopathic doses,' though some generous critics are good enough to say it is a plan of attaining the Millennium by (very small) instalments. Now a movement is on foot to weld all agricultural interests into one great agricultural party, landlords, tenants, and labourers, who are to combine to uphold the claims of the countryside against the too numerous and too domineering townsmen. Such a movement is not new, since it was attempted by the late Lord Winchilsea thirty years ago when he founded the National Agricultural Union. But on that occasion the various interests would not weld together, and it failed. It need hardly be pointed out that a concordat between the different interests involved is an essential preliminary to success. The population of this country is predominantly urban, or at least non-agricultural, many of the people living in our country districts in villas or week-end resorts having no real interest in the farms which surround their residences. These suburbs are, indeed, largely 'dormitories' of London or other big cities. It has been estimated that if we add together all landowners (including among these persons who have lent money on farms or country estates), all tenant farmers, and all bonâ fide agricultural labourers, the whole agricultural population so arrived at with their families does not amount to more than one-eighth of the total population of England and Wales. Representation in the House of Commons is based on numbers, and thus we find that a great agricultural county like Norfolk has seven members, of whom two represent the City of Norwich, whereas London alone has sixty-two,