WHAT OF THE HARVEST? 291 



I gather, however, from the workers' representatives 

 who sit on the Central Wages Board that the appointed 

 members have behaved with commendable fairness. These 

 gentlemen, and the one lady, Mrs. Roland Wilkins, bear 

 names which are honoured by all classes of the agricultural 

 community ; but I do not feel quite so sure that the ap- 

 pointed members on the District Committees were selected 

 with the same care by the Board of Agriculture. Decisions 

 arrived at show that the appointed members on these Dis- 

 trict Committees invariably tipped the scale on the side 

 of the farmers. When workers' representatives were mak- 

 ing demands for 2 a week and the farmers refused to go 

 beyond 305., there were but few instances where the ap- 

 pointed members gave their vote for a rate of more than 

 a shilling or two above the farmers. The appointed mem- 

 bers may attempt to justify their decision by the assertion 

 that the workers made too high a demand, but this falls 

 to the ground in the light of the decision of the following 

 year when the minimum rates ranged from 365. 6d. to 

 425. 6d. and the hours were materially shortened. 



On the workers' side of the District Committees, the 

 trade union organiser is generally the chief spokesman. 

 Yet the farm workers are beginning to feel their feet, for 

 though most of them have never opened their lips on any 

 public body before, it is extraordinary what advances 

 they have made in the art of expressing themselves. For 

 the first time in their lives they sit on an equality with 

 farmers and draw the same payment for their public work. 1 



It is a common error to regard the farm labourer 

 as stolid as an ox in a fattening stall. Wordsworth grasped 

 the truth when he wrote of the peasant : 



persons in different counties whom I knew to possess a sympathetic know- 

 ledge of the life of the rural poor. One or two of these were eventually 

 appointed, but I was not so fortunate with a lady whose knowledge of 

 the farm workers of her county exceeded that of any other educated person 

 of my acquaintance. I thought if it was pointed out that her grand- 

 father was a Baron, whose peerage dated back to the middle ages, she 

 would pass without further scrutiny. Unfortunately enquiry was made 

 of the Lord Lieutenant of the county, who replied, " By no conceivable 

 stretch of the imagination could this lady be called impartial." 

 1 That is IDS. and their travelling expenses. 



