48 THE GREEN RISING 



the direct purchase of land by the government. The 

 only tangible result that has been obtained from this 

 movement up to the present time has been the adop- 

 tion in England of the principles of taxing land 

 values. 



Previous to the World War, the actual accom- 

 plishments of rural syndicalism in England cannot 

 be said to have been very great. Bad farming sea- 

 sons in the late nineties caused a great reduction in 

 membership in these organizations, but unusual 

 activities of trade unions just before the War began 

 in 1914, resulted in a revival of agricultural labor 

 unions. In fact, two local agricultural laborers' 

 strikes occurred, which was something unusual in 

 English agrarian life. Farming became profitable 

 when hostilities began, and war conditions re- 

 quired every possible encouragement to production. 

 The National Agricultural Laborers' Union and the 

 agricultural section of the Workers' Union greatly 

 increased in numbers in 1920 and 1921. While these 

 organizations numbered only 18,288 members in 

 1914, the number has increased to 350,000 since the 

 War. In other words, almost half of the whole 

 number of agricultural laborers of England have 

 become farm unionists. Their organizations are 

 modeled after the trade unions. The more extreme 

 element in these organizations favors a policy of 

 land nationalization. Their most signal accomplish- 

 ment, however, has been in securing better terms 

 for agricultural and industrial day laborers. 



