THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT. 97 



the Gasworkers' Union, skirmished round about country 

 towns. 



Yet it was not from town trade unions that the most 

 constant evangelists issued, preaching a new economic 

 doctrine year after year, and who did most to revive the 

 spirit of organisation amongst agricultural labourers. These 

 new missionaries entered remote villages in the eastern, 

 southern, and midland counties, not by trains, or on bicy- 

 cles, but in gipsy vans, some painted red and others painted 

 yellow ; the difference in the two colours being that the 

 " reds " wished to restore the land to the people by means 

 of the Single Tax, whilst the " yellows " wished to accom- 

 plish this by means of nationalisation. For landowners it 

 was a choice between a Red or Yellow Peril. 



The Land Nationalisation Society took the initiative in 

 1889 with open-air meetings in the Wisbech and Swaffham 

 districts. In 1890 Mr. Hyder made a journey with the 

 Land and Labour Lecture Cart through Norfolk, Suffolk, 

 Essex, and thence to Leicestershire, and back through 

 Northamptonshire and Cambridge to Dereham in Norfolk. 

 It was in 1891 that the first Red Van appeared in Suffolk, 

 sent out by the English Land Restoration League with the 

 object of obtaining reports on the conditions of rural life and 

 at the same time of assisting the newly formed Eastern Coun- 

 ties Labour Federation to organise farm workers ; and in 

 the same year the first Yellow Van surprised the rustics 

 of Middlesex, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Somerset- 

 shire ; and keeping up the gipsy tradition toured through 

 Wales and thence across the north Midlands to Sutton in 

 Lincolnshire. 



In the following years, and indeed right up to the out- 

 break of the great war, the Land Nationalisation Society 

 sent out its Yellow Vans not only through the Midlands 

 and the north of England, but even as far north as 

 Edinburgh. 



The Land Nationalisation Society did not attempt to 

 organise the labourers, but only asked them to show their 

 acceptance of the principles of land nationalisation by 

 holding up their hands. The lecturers, however, soon 



VOL. n. n 



