WHAT OF THE HARVEST* 273 



The terrible long customary hours have been considerably 

 curtailed since the Agricultural Wages Board came into 

 existence. Prior to 1918 he contends it was customary 

 to work in summer, thirteen to fifteen hours per day, and in 

 winter Sunday's work would average seven hours. 



The Workers' Union started organising Yorkshire in 

 1911. Their East Riding District organiser, Mr. J. A. 

 Aldous, worked as a farm labourer all his life until 1918, 

 when he was appointed organiser. 



" I was brought up in South Suffolk," he writes, " where I 

 worked until seventeen years of age. The workers in Suffolk 

 at that time were receiving I2S. per week, and I, being small, 

 was receiving 6s. and my parents had to keep me on that amount, 

 In Yorkshire wages were then 153. ; and hired lads fourteen 

 to seventeen years of age received 5 to 15. The hours of work 

 were very long. In spring hired lads used to work from 4 a.m. 

 to 8 p.m. When the W.U. began to organise in Yorkshire in 

 1911 we managed to get leaving time on a Saturday from 5 to 

 6 p.m. A number of estates gave the half -day, but the farmers 

 greatly objected. Wages rose very slowly from 1914 until the 

 minimum wage of 253. was established in August, 1917. 



"The instant the weekly men received 255. instead of 155., 

 hired lads who received 20 got 40 , and casual men for thresh- 

 ing received 8s. per day instead of 43. 



" What the workers require most now is recreation and edu- 

 cation. I should like to see night schools established, because in 

 four years at a night school I learnt more than I ever did at a 

 day school. Many a man never reads a newspaper, to say no- 

 thing of books, and is easily led astray, especially in politics. 

 We have still to educate them that they should elect men from 

 their own class to represent them. 



" The tied house remains the curse. We have power now to 

 get some land, but those who live in tied cottages dare not apply, 

 never knowing when the employer is going to get out of bed the 

 wrong side. 



" One C.C. landowner said the other week that he did not 

 believe in allotments, because if a man had done his duty he 

 would not require any work after tea as much as to say, if he 

 wasn't tired he ought to be. 



" Small holdings in Yorkshire have not been as successful 

 as one would wish, owing .to land being often unsuitable, too 

 heavily rented, too scattered, and most of all, because the small 

 holder tries to farm on the same lines as the farmer. 



VOL. II. T 



