200 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



folk are 55. 6d. below a bare living wage. That is the Union's 

 strong argument on the platform. But forty years' experience 

 has convinced me that the labourers cannot get a living wage by 

 Trade Union effort alone. The difficulties of organisation are so 

 great that we cannot get an organisation strong enough to enforce it." 1 



As Mr. Lloyd George had refused the opportunity in 

 March, a Bill was introduced in the House of Commons in 

 May by progressive Conservatives, such as Lord Henry 

 Bentinck and Mr. Leslie Scott. But it was a poor Bill with 

 application only to certain low paying counties. 



A better Bill, which was the forerunner of the Minimum 

 Wage Part of the Corn Production Act of 1917, was intro- 

 duced in the House of Commons on May 27, 1913, by Mr. 

 G. H. Roberts. This Bill was largely the work of the 

 National Land and Home League. 



It was introduced " to provide for the establishment of a 

 Minimum Wage and the regularisation of the hours of labour of 

 agricultural labourers. Mr. Roberts said that according to the 

 latest available Board of Trade Returns the average weekly wage 

 (including allowances, etc.) of the agricultural labourer in 1907 

 was 173. 6d. But that figure was based on information supplied 

 by the employers only, and was probably an over statement. 

 As to hours of labour it was common knowledge that in rural 

 districts they were inordinately long. The Bill provided for 

 the weekly half-holiday for agricultural labourers. As to wages, 

 it followed the precedent of the Trade Boards Act. County 

 Boards were to be set up. He did not suggest that a flat rate 

 should be applied to the whole of the counties." 



Sir F. Banbury supplied the humorous opposition to the 

 Bill:- 



" Was the honourable gentleman going to regularise the 

 weather " ? he asked. " If not, the Bill would mean that the crops 

 would be ruined, through not being dealt with when the weather 

 was favourable. He would also like to know if cows were to be 

 milked on the weekly half-holiday. If there was an industry to 

 which proposals of the kind made in the Bill should not be 

 applied it was the agricultural industry." 



This agricultural expert sat for the City of London. 

 A year later, April 21, 1914, Mr. Leslie Scott introduced 

 an Agricultural Employment Boards Bill. 

 1 The Land Enquiry. 



