278 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



" During 1912-14 fifty branches were opened and upwards 

 of 2,000 members were enrolled. Conferences were held, rates 

 of wages tabulated, and presented to the local Farmers' Union, 

 but were rejected. Still, wherever branches existed, wages rose 

 at the rate of 2s. to 6s. per week. Where no branch existed, 

 wages remained stationary. 



" A strike was raging when the Great War broke out. The 

 result was disastrous to many branches, the members enlisting 

 en bloc. The strike was closed, propaganda ceased, and I took 

 up work again in another sphere. I was reappointed in April, 

 1919, and now have upwards of 5,000 members and the member- 

 ship is rapidly increasing. 



" The remarkable fact was that few farmers in Herefordshire 

 were paying 255. a week when it became law, thus showing the 

 fallacy that wages were paid according to the prosperity of the 

 industry. Very few farmers pay above the minimum, and the 

 scarcity of cottages combined with the tied-cottage system 

 the curse of the agricultural labourer's life make further 

 advances difficult. 



" So cruel has been the tied-cottage system that it will be well 

 to cite a few cases. In 1914, when the men of N. Herefordshire 

 were standing out for i6s. to i8s. a week of sixty hours, they 

 received lawyers' letters from their employers ordering them to 

 quit their cottages. I have many of the original notices in my 

 possession. In S. Herefordshire a workman who had been a 

 wagoner for thirty years to the same farmer, was sacked for a 

 younger man and ordered to leave his home in less than two hours. 

 He became insane, and an inmate of the asylum for months. 

 Another case in S. Herefordshire which occurred during the war 

 was that of a labourer who had worked on the same farm for 

 forty years receiving notice to quit. His three sons had volun- 

 tarily enlisted. Two of these were killed and the third returned 

 home to see his dear old dad die a week after. In less than a 

 week after the burial the farmer, a very wealthy man, ordered 

 the poor old widow to quit her home to make room for a young 

 man. The returned soldier, to save his old mother's home, 

 offered his services to the farmer, which were accepted, but he 

 sacrificed a higher position elsewhere to prevent his mother 

 being turned out. 



" But the Union has now taught the labourer to respect him- 

 self, and given him confidence, creating a more manly and inde- 

 pendent spirit which will act for the good of the community." 



Mr. Howard, the Workers' Union organiser in the Basing- 

 stoke district of Hampshire, writes to say that in some parts 

 of his district 90 per cent, of the men are organised and that 



