WHAT OF THE HARVEST? 263 



It has been a complaint of farmers that the men's 

 unions have selected for their organisers railway men, 

 miners, and other industrial workers, which makes it 

 difficult for farmers to negotiate with them. They forget 

 when they urge this in defence of their past aloofness to 

 trade union organisers, that they themselves selected a 

 schoolmaster who had been called to the Bar to act as the 

 chief organiser .of their own powerful union ; an organiser 

 who has proved himself to be exceedingly capable. 



The farmers' criticism, if well founded, is one which reacts 

 upon themselves. The unfortunate experiences of the men 

 at St. Faith's, Lilford, Potter Heigham, and other places 

 prove that a farm worker required a singular amount of 

 moral courage to undertake the duties of branch secretary, 

 and it was natural to appoint as organiser the most capable 

 of the branch or district secretaries. 



Fearing dismissal, or eviction, in many a country district 

 served by a railway, farm workers frequently sought the help 

 of a signalman, or a porter, who had some acquaintance with 

 trade unionism and was usually a better penman than those 

 who had been bred at the plough tail. Often, railway men 

 who act as branch secretaries have themselves worked as 

 youths on the land, leaving it for the higher wages and the 

 greater freedom of service on the railways. Many of these 

 men lodge in farm labourers' cottages and are as intimate 

 with the life as the farm worker himself. 



The agricultural labourer owes a great debt to the rail- 

 way worker for the voluntary part the latter has played 

 in helping to lift his fellow-worker from the mire of low 

 wages and long hours. Indeed, it was considered before all 

 the counties became organised, whichever agricultural union 

 obtained the help of the railway workers first, that union 

 was the most successful in establishing branches. 



Of the leading workers' representatives on the Agricultural 

 Wages Board, Mr. George Edwards is the most honoured. 

 No one can say that he has no knowledge of farm life, or 



1 I have heard this complaint made by farmers at a small conference 

 held in Lord Ernie's room at the Board of Agriculture and at the Royal 

 Commission on Agriculture. 



