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place is now at the bottom of the form he now has a minimum wage 

 above that of the railway worker. Claud Hamilton's boast used to 

 be that the G.E.R. could always get men for the railways at Is. a week 

 more than they could earn on the land : we are not now going to allow 

 him to use the agricultural labourer to make profits for the railways. 

 It may interest you to hear a little of the Norfolk Movement, as we 

 call it to-day. In Norfolk there are now 10,000 members of our Union, 

 and I think we shall get the wages to 30s. instead of 25s. in that district. 

 If you want work on the land there, you now have to produce your 

 Trade Union card before you get it. That has been brought about in 

 four years. We at first asked for 2s. a week increase ; the farmers 

 would not listen, but we said we would take Is. and ask for more. We 

 asked for more later, and got 2s. Then we wanted the farmers to meet 

 us and remember that in Norfolk you have the strongest Farmers' 

 Federation in England, both financially and in membership. They 

 would not meet us, and they organised a blackleg system to stop us 

 from bringing the men on a particular farm out on strike ; perhaps 

 there were men in Bradford who were receiving 5s. a week from the 

 Norfolk Farmers' Federation to be ready at their beck and call but 

 again we spiked their guns. We asked the men to a conference of every 

 branch of the Union, and asked for power to demand more wages 

 not how much, but more and then asked the Farmers' Federation 

 to meet us and settle the matter as amicably as possible. They would 

 not listen to this we were paid agitators, creating discord and discon- 

 tent among the working classes ! The men agreed to put in their 

 notices, and like the Boers in the Boer war we adopted guerrilla 

 tactics. We put the notices in on one farm and left the next one, and 

 so on. One farmer, who had received 43 notices, asked one man 

 what he had sent in that scrap of paper for, and the man told him 

 he had argued with him for nearly 40 years on the question of wages 

 and hours, but was always talked over, and that he was now employing 

 a man who knew more about it than himself. Every man of the 43 

 told him the same thing every one of the 1,000 men referred the 

 masters to the head office ! After a conference of more than two hours 

 we obtained 3s. After this we got the Federation to meet us again, 

 and agree to 1 a week, and they further agreed that any federated 

 farmer who did not pay 1 a week would not get help with the blacklegs. 

 We got wages to 22s., and now we are asking for 30s. ; and there is 

 not a man in Norfolk who belongs to our Union who says that 30s. is 

 the final. We want a real living wage for the agricultural labourer, 

 and I will say that the Government's proposal for 25s. a week is a mere 

 misleading term. It includes all the perquisites house, rent, etc. 

 If we get the 25s. without any stipulation, it means that the farmer 

 can go to the labourer who is getting 24s. a week, give him the 25s. 

 and charge him 2s. 6d. a week for rent, which will be Is. 6d. a week 

 knocked off. I have heard what Mr. Ashby says, that the English 

 labourer produces 90 per annum ; but up'against that is the evidence 

 of the Duke of Marlborough at any rate he is not an agricultural 



