WHAT OF THE HARVEST? 251 



the re-establishment of the industry of agriculture, will be most 

 unsatisfactory and unacceptable unless it secures to the labourer 

 (i) an adequate wage ; (2) good housing free from the tied- 

 cottage system ; and hereby requests the Parliamentary Com- 

 mittee to use their best endeavours to secure these in any measure 

 or effort that may be made to deal with this question." 



Mr. R. B. Walker was the chief spokesman for the agri- 

 cultural labourers. In the course of a speech he said that 

 " in certain rural parts men were even charged for buckets 

 of water for ordinary use, and even that charge had gone 

 up to the extent of 50 per cent." He quoted Mr. A. J. 

 Balfour's famous declaration, that " if the owner of every 

 insanitary dwelling was hung at his doorpost he would not 

 weep his eyes out." 



Mr. Prothero, in replying, said he could see no solution 

 to the tied-cottage system other than that the cottage 

 should be let direct to the labourer by the landowner and 

 not by the farmer. 



Mr. J. H. Thomas asked if an appeal could be made to 

 the proposed Wages Boards in the case of unfair evictions. 

 Mr. Prothero expressed his opinion that such Boards would 

 be able to deal with those cases. Unfortunately, though, 

 as after events proved, neither of Mr. Prothero's suggestions 

 were effectively dealt with under the Act. 



On February 23, 1917, Mr. Lloyd George made his 

 memorable speech in which he outlined the new agricul- 

 tural policy committing the nation to guaranteed prices 

 to farmers for wheat and oats during a period of six years, 

 Able-bodied agricultural workers were to have a minimum 

 wage of 255. a week. 



It should be distinctly understood though that the 

 minimum wage had no connection with guaranteed prices. 

 As a writer in the Wages Board Gazette aptly observes : 



" There is no real connection between the two, and any attempt 

 to make a guaranteed price of wheat a corollary to an Agricul- 

 tural Wages Board should be strenuously resisted as having no 

 foundation in history. Wheat growing, it must be remembered, 

 forms a very small part of the English farmers' output of agri- 

 cultural produce. No minimum price is guaranteed for milk, a 

 necessity as great as bread, for meat or for fruit and vegetables, 



