PROPOSAI^S FOR LAND REFORM 113 



The Report discusses at some length the question whether the wages 

 paid to agricultural labourers are sufficient to keep them and their fa mili es 

 in health, but refrains from making a calculation of the total sum necessary 

 to maintain a family of average size in a state of physical efficiency. 



It expresses, however, the belief that if such calculations were made it 

 would be found that, except in a few counties, the average weekly wages 

 of ordinary agricultural labourers would faU below the standard. Illustra- 

 tions are given of the severe struggle through which an agricultural lab- 

 ourer and his wife must pass in order to bring up a family. 



Turning to the results of low wages, the Report states that, after the 

 lowered vitaUty due to insufficient feeding, the disastrous effects of low 

 wages upon the rural housing problem are next in importance from the 

 national point of view. The labourer's wages, it is stated, are not sufficient to 

 enable him to pay a commercial rent for his cottage, and the custom has 

 grown up of letting cottages at rents at which it does not pay to build 

 new ones. To this question a special chapter is devoted later in the Report, 

 the conclusions in which we shall notice presently. A further effect is emi- 

 gration or migration to the towns, of which low wages are the principal, 

 but not the exclusive cause. The influx of the rural dwellers into the towns 

 is stated to increase the severity of the competition for work in towns and 

 to lead to the displacement of town-born workers. 



Declaring that there is urgent need for a higher standard of wages, the 

 Report points out that there are three ways in which wages might possi- 

 bly rise, apart from any legislative action. These are : 



(a) The growth of small holdings. 



(&) The growth of agricultural prosperity combined with a shortage of 

 labour. 



(c) The growth of trade-unionism. 

 The conclusion is, however, drawn from a discussion of these possibilities 

 that there is no reason to believe that wages can be effectively raised by 

 any of these means, and it is urged that the best hope of the labourer is that 

 the State should come to his assistance by enforcing a higher wage. It is 

 recommended that Wage Boards should be set up, with the duty of fixing the 

 wages of agricultural labourers at least at such a sum a^. will enable the 

 labourer to keep himself and an average family in a state of physical effi- 

 ciency and to pay a commercial rent for his cottage. 



In support of their recommendation the Committee maintain that 

 increased wages wiU result in more efficient labour, but they suggest reforms 

 which, in their opinion, will enable the farmer to pay a higher wage and they 

 further recommend that where, in spite of the advantages derived from these 

 reforms, the farmer is still faced with a burden unduly severe, he should 

 be compensated by a corresponding reduction in his rent. The foll- 

 owing figmres, which are not to be taken as strictly accurate, show roughly 

 the relation between rent and wages in England and Wales. 



