ABSTRACT
Any agricultural policy which proceeds on the basis of an increasingly severe restriction of food imports will to that extent impede the solution of our most pressing national problem—namely, the reduction of unemployment in the depressed areas occupied by the exporting industries. Money raised for the purpose of subsidizing agriculture should, in general, be raised in the same way as other money required for purposes of State. The subject of land settlement is distinct from, though connected with, that of agriculture in general. The purchase of imported food in exchange for exported manufactures was, of course, a part of our national free trade policy. A land settlement policy must, of necessity, be slow and gradual in its operation, and it cannot be expected that it will be able to make a very large contribution to the immediate problem of unemployment.
