GROWTH UNDER STORMY SKIES. 211 



compensation for damage done to his crops by ground game 

 coming from neighbouring land, whether such ground was 

 in the occupation of his landlord or someone else. These 

 reforms it was suggested would be of comparatively little 

 value without security of tenure. The medieval Prevention 

 of Poaching Act, 1862, which gives constables power to 

 search on the highway without a warrant should be repealed. 



Other reforms put forward in this Report concern the 

 farmer more than the labourer, and I shall therefore omit 

 them. 



The right agricultural atmosphere having been created 

 for him by investigators and publicists working in many 

 instances quite detached from one another, and belonging 

 to different political parties, Mr. Lloyd George saw the time 

 was ripe for another series of orations on the Land Question. 



A Minimum Wage of i a. week and a Reform of the 

 Game Laws constituted his two chief propositions. The 

 labourers took fresh courage as their hopes mounted high. 

 The landowners and the English farmer took fright and 

 became as brothers. Not so the farmers of Scotland and 

 Wales, who followed their David in order to obtain security 

 of tenure, and the reform of the Game Laws. 



Goliath, now definitely two-headed, issued its counter- 

 blast in a pamphlet called " The Land Problem," which 

 received the blessing of and was sponsored by both the 

 Central Land Union and the National Union of Farmers. 

 Goliath had become more cultivated, and sobered. It 

 used its brains to good effect and was careful to display 

 sympathy with the agricultural labourer, protecting him 

 from agitators who might by statutory proposals drive 

 him out on to the roadside seeking work ! 



" As to the earnings of agricultural labourers, there are no two 

 opinions, " they wrote. l " The broad fact is beyond controversy. 

 The rate of cash wages paid in some agricultural districts is very 

 low, and everyone is prepared to support any sound measures 

 which can be reasonably expected to effect a material rise." 



They criticised the statement " when the increased cost 

 of living has been taken into account, the real earnings of 



1 The Land Problem, 1913. 



