206 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



Food 



Fuel 



Rent 



Clothing 



Insurance 



Sundries 



s. d. 



13 9 



1 4 



2 O 

 2 3 



o 4 



O 10 



This estimate did not allow for any expenditure on tobacco, 

 beer, newspapers, amusement, railway fares, postage, church 

 or chapel collections, etc. 



All families living below this sum necessary for the main- 

 tenance of physical efficiency were living below the poverty 

 line, and with five exceptions Northumberland, Durham, 

 Westmoreland, Lancashire and Derbyshire the average 

 earnings in every county in England and Wales were below 

 it! 



" Let the reader try for a moment to realise what this means. 

 It means that from the point of view of judicious expenditure, 

 the be-all and the end-all of life should be physical efficiency. 

 It means that people have no right to keep in touch with the 

 great world outside the village by so much as taking in a weekly 

 newspaper. It means that a wise mother, when she is tempted 

 to buy her children a pennyworth of cheap oranges, will devote 

 the penny to flour instead. It means that the temptation to 

 take the shortest railway journey should be strongly resisted. 

 It means that toys and dolls and picture books, even of the 

 cheapest quality, should never be purchased ; that birthdays 

 should be practically indistinguishable from other days. It 

 means that every natural longing for pleasure or variety should be 

 ignored or set aside. It means, in short, a life without colour, 

 space, or atmosphere, that stifles and hems in the labourer's soul 

 as in too many cases his cottage does his body." 1 



Little wonder that Cardinal Manning, who at one time 

 lived amongst farm workers in Sussex, said : 



"The land question means hunger, thirst, nakedness, notice to 

 quit, labour spent in vain, the toil of years seized upon, the breaking 

 up of homes ; the misery of parents, children, and wives ; the despair 

 and wildness that springs up in the hearts of the poor when legal 

 force, like a sharp arrow, goes over the most sensitive and vital 

 rights of mankind. All this is contained in the land question." 



A series of articles from my pen appeared in the Daily 

 Chronicle dealing with the minimum wage, housing, small 



1 How the Labourer Lives. 



