ich present injustices would
be corrected. I hope you are able to follow me?"

"Perfectly. It is easy for me, who have nothing to lose, to follow your
logic. You will have more trouble convincing those whose pockets it
would affect."

"I am not so sure of that. Humanity is pretty sound at heart, but we
can't abandon the boat we're on until we have another that is proven
seaworthy. However, it seems to me that I have found a solution which
I can apply in my individual case. Have you thought what are the three
greatest needs, commercially speaking, of the present day?"

"Production, I suppose, is the first."

"Yes--most particularly production of food. And the others are corollary
to it. They are instruction and opportunity. I am thinking especially of
returned men."

"Production--instruction--opportunity," she repeated. "How are you going
to bring them about?"

"That is my Big Idea, as Linder calls it, although I have not yet
confided in him what it is. Well--the world is crying for food, and in
our western provinces are millions of acres which have never felt the
plow--"

"In the East, too, for that matter."

"I know, but I naturally think of the West. I propose to form a company
and buy a large block of land, cut it up into farms, build houses and
community centres, and put returned men and their families on these
farms, under the direction of specialists in agriculture. I shall break
up the rectangular survey of the West for something with humanizing
possibilities; I mean to supplant it with a system of survey which will
permit of settlement in groups--villages, if you like--where I shall
instal all the modern conveniences of the city, including movie shows.
Our statesmen are never done lamenting that population continues to flow
from the country to the city, but the only way to stop that flow is to
make the country the more attractive of the two."

"But your company--who are to be the shareholders?"

"That is the keystone of the Big Idea. There never before was a company
like this will be. In the first place, I shall put up all the money
myself. Then, when I have prepared a farm ready to receive a man and his
family, I will sell him shares equivalent to the value of his farm,
and give him a perpetual lease, subject to certain restrictions. Let
me illustrate. Suppose you are the prospective shareholder. I say, Miss
Bruce, I can place you on a farm worth, with buildings and equipment,
ten thousand dollars.