20 A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



prediction, in a few months' time the minimum 

 for England and Wales became 30s., and in 

 1920 it had risen to 46s. 



This interference with the rights of an em- 

 ployer, who had been accustomed to give almost 

 any wage he chose, was naturally resented, but 

 it soon became evident to all that as men daily 

 slipped away from the land to shoulder a rifle 

 or to make ammunition, corn would never be 

 produced unless labourers were ensured, not 

 only a reasonable wage, but also a status far 

 different from that which they had held in the 

 past. In effect the Act said, "You farmers 

 must give up individual bargaining with men, 

 and join a union to discuss the payment of 

 wages over wide areas ; and you workers must 

 be organised as well, in order to elect your 

 representatives to sit on the Agricultural Wages 

 Board and your District Wages Committees, 

 in equal numbers with the farmers, in order to 

 arrive at decisions and make the Act operative." 



The result was magical. To-day, in many 

 counties, 90 per cent, of the farmers are 

 enrolled in the National Farmers' Union, and 

 300,000 farm workers are members of either 

 the National Union of Agricultural Workers 

 or of the Workers' Union. Nor did inter- 

 ference with private enterprise stop at this. 

 The hours for which labourers should work 

 without payment of overtime were to be fixed 

 by mutual agreement between employers and 



