38 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



filled with a crowd arrayed in smock frocks and fustian 

 jackets, and in shabby gowns covering the half -starved, 

 haggard wives. 



There and then it was resolved that the union should 

 be called the Waiwickshire Agricultural Labourers' Union. 

 The minimum wage determined upon was i6s., ten hours 

 only to be worked a day, with a four o'clock stop on Satur- 

 days, and that all overtime should be paid at the rate of 4d. 

 an hour, Sunday work being regarded as overtime. 



So great was the throng that an overflow meeting was 

 held in the street, at which Archibald Forbes took the chair. 

 Inside the hall Sir Baldwin Leighton, the Hon. Auberon 

 Herbert, Mr. E. Jenkin, M.P., Dr. Langford, of Birmingham, 

 and Mr. Jesse Collings spoke. Here it was announced that a 

 friend at Birmingham had sent the Union a donation of 100 

 through Mr. Dixon, M.P. Other cheques, varying from 50 

 to 100, began to flow in. 



The farmers retorted with a lockout. When the lockout 

 commenced, the Union had only 55. in hand, which consisted 

 of pennies and halfpennies contributed by the labourers. 



The lockout lasted for about three months, when the. 

 resistance of the farmers was broken down. Wages imme- 

 diately rose to 145., 155. and i6s. a week. By May the Union 

 numbered 50,000 members, and it was in May that it was 

 decided to link together the local unions formed in several 

 counties into a National Union. Lincolnshire had, for 

 instance, between 3,000 and 4,000 in a union ; Cambridge 

 had over 2,000, and Huntingdon the same. 



This meeting of the various agricultural labourers' 

 unions, held on May 29, was a very remarkable one. 

 Eighty men, all bona-fide farm labourers, sat, represent- 

 ing twenty-six counties. Mr. G. Dixon, M.P. for Birm- 

 ingham, presided. The National Agricultural Labourers' 

 Union became an acomplished fact, with Joseph Arch as its 

 chairman and Henry Taylor its secretary. Mr. J. E. M. 

 Vincent was elected treasurer and Messrs. Jesse Collings, 

 E. Jenkins, A. Arnold, and W. G. Ward were appointed 

 trustees. The entrance fee was fixed at 6d. and the contribu- 

 tion at 2d. a week. 



