144 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



to use a schoolroom without lamps. The trustees of a cer- 

 tain chapel after much heart-searching decided to let the 

 Union have the use of the chapel, on condition that the meet- 

 ing followed the lines of a religious service. This Mr. Beard 

 assures us was more than a little difficult for him, " but quite 

 easy for John Simpson , who had been a lay preacher. ' ' When 

 the time came, however, the trustees being apprehensive 

 of the devotional capacities of trade union officials dele- 

 gated one of their own members to take charge of the service. 

 Mr. Simpson preached the sermon on a text based on one 

 of the hymns selected, " Who is our neighbour ? " Al- 

 though it was agreed that the sermon was a good one 

 the audience was evidently puzzled and not a member 

 was enrolled. 1 



" A post card lying on my desk," writes Mr. Beard, " posted 

 to me so long ago as 1900, reminds me of a refusal. This time it 

 was from an Oddfellows' Committee which was our last hope in 

 that village. The first was the National School, next the Wes- 

 leyan Chapel, and then the two public houses. The reason was 

 not far to seek. The squire was a National School manager ; the 

 leader of the Methodists was head carpenter on the estate ; the 

 first public house belonged to the Hall, and the Annual Rent 

 dinners were held there ; the second one had as a landlord a man 

 who was a farmer as well; the secretary of the Oddfellows' 

 Committee was a farmer and builder, and the Committee were 

 the squire's gardeners and estate workmen and village tradesmen. 

 This kind of a ring was frequently met with and against it there 

 was little hope." 



This ray of hope generated by the Workers' Union which 

 penetrated the Midlands at the end of the nineteenth 

 century, flickered and sank to a mere spark, until the great 

 whirlwind of war which swept over the world fanned it into 

 life again. 



1 The Workers' Union Record, August, 1919. 



