GROWTH UNDER STORMY SKIES. 199 



it is true, rich harvests, but much of Lancashire soil gets its 

 " back broken " and is soured by the poisonous fumes from 

 the great alkali and copper works and coke ovens, and soot 

 falls like a funeral pall over the farms which skirt the large 

 manufacturing towns. Owing to this bad atmosphere 

 abortion and tuberculosis are rife among cows and the ani- 

 mals' nostrils are found to be sooted up. Round the great 

 industrial areas trees, hedges, fruit tree and flowers are 

 blighted and killed. 



If fanners were able to pay 22s. in Lancashire why did not 

 the farmers in Norfolk pay more than 135. ? It showed once 

 more that payment of good wages was not dependent upon 

 prices or climatic conditions. It was a matter of custom in 

 Norfolk, and the farmers of Lancashire had to pay more for 

 labour because of the competitive industries of the adjacent 

 towns. 



During the Lancashire strike another strike broke out at 

 East Chinnock, in Somerset. It was occasioned by the 

 action of one of the farmers discharging two men belonging 

 to the Union. 



Very strong feeling was evinced over the foolish action 

 of the authorities in bringing in the police to protect the 

 farmer and the "blackleg" labour he imported, even to 

 escort them to church ! An agreement was eventually 

 arrived at with the employers resulting in the advance of 2s. 

 a week for the men and is. a week for lads. 



The Lancashire strike painfully proved to Mr. George 

 Edwards, that veteran fighter for the agricultural labourer, 

 that his advancing years and increasing ill health 1 could 

 not sustain another such exhausting campaign, and his 

 assistant, Mr. R. B. Walker, was elected to take his place. 



Stalwart trade unionist though he was, Mr. Edwards 

 had the foresight to realise that without a statutory minimum 

 wage an advance in wages would never be secure, for it was 

 in the spring of this year that he wrote the following 

 words : 



" On the farmer's own figures, the labourer's wages in Nor- 



1 Mr. Edwards sustained an irreparable loss in the death of his wife, 

 who had been his inspiring comrade in all his life's work. 



