WHAT OF THE HARVEST? 271 



in these rural areas that the minimum wage is compulsory, 

 though round the coal-pits and ironstone works and quar- 

 ries many of the farm workers were receiving 503. for the 

 forty-eight hours week. He thinks it is quite remarkable 

 that in a grazing county so many men have joined the union. 

 He has about eighty branches to look after, each branch, 

 averaging about thirty-eight members. 



" The tied cottage is an abuse," he adds, " which will have to 

 be fought by getting workers on the R.D.C. and the C.C., and 

 a plentiful supply of cottages at a nominal rent." 



Mr. T. Roberts, the organiser for the N.A.L.U. for Cum- 

 berland, Westmoreland, and Furness, has a more difficult 

 task to perform to organise farm labourers in rural areas 

 where trade unionism has never taken root, and where 

 men are not only habitually boarded, but also have to sleep 

 with their masters. In these counties, too, the annual or 

 six-monthly hirings have assured farm labourers of a regular 

 wage, wet or fine. 



He held his first meeting on August 24, 1918, and opened 

 a branch of nine men at Dalton-in-Furness. He himself 

 acted as secretary pro tern. The second meeting was held 

 on a Sunday morning, September i, 



" in Mr. Dunn's cowshed, at Roos, near Barrow-in-Furness, 

 where a branch of twenty-four stalwarts was opened. During 

 the meeting the farmer's wife came into the cowshed to feed the 

 calves and enquired as to ' whether the meeting was for the 

 benefit of the farmers, or what ? ' " 



The next meeting was also held on a Sunday morning, 

 on the seashore, and though the farm labourers had to rush 

 off to rescue twenty sheep which were sinking into the 

 quicksands ; and despite many of the men being wet 

 through, they stayed to the meeting and opened a branch of 

 eighteen. 



As the Union is opposed to hiring, the organiser has a 

 difficult task to get men to join, for it means a definite break 

 with the farmers who insist upon the continuance of the 

 hiring system. Though the northern farmer, as a rule, 

 feeds his hind or farm-servant fairly well he is sometimes 



