PART TWO 



THE UPSTANDING CROP 



1872 



THE Revolt of the Field as the agricultural labourers' move- 

 ment of 1872 has been called, was one which sprang from the 

 agricultural labourers' cottage home with its empty larder, 

 and from no other source. At its birth it was an economic, 

 not a poltical revolt. It was a cry for bread, and not for 

 votes. 



" The agricultural labourer of 1873," wrote Mr. Herbert 

 Paul, " coals and blankets notwithstanding, was worse lodged 

 and worse fed than the cattle. . . . The wages earned did not 

 suffice for the decent maintenance of more than a single indivi- 

 dual. If he had a family he was dependent either upon aid 

 from outside or at least from his own children." 1 



Indeed, it might be said that the histoiy of the agricul- 

 tural labourer from 1870 to 1914 is a story of the keen heroic 

 edge of life endured on cash wages rising and falling between 

 2s. and 33. a day. 



It is true that later on its leader, Joseph Arch, despite 

 his own early convictions, converted the movement into 

 a political one ; but there is no doubt that at the beginning 

 of the revolt Arch himself presented a cold shoulder both 

 to the professional politician and to the professional trade 

 union organiser. Had he listened less to the blandishments 

 of the politician and more to the advice of the trade union 

 organiser, he would probably have saved his union from 

 the wreckage of later days. 



No trade union organiser came out from the towns to 

 agitate amongst the agricultural labourers in country places 



1 History of Modern England, by Herbert Paul. 

 23 



