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instance, of a farmer (who told me this himself), regarding last year's 

 potatoes : "I had 48 acres of potatoes ; I sold 308 tons at 11 a ton 

 for eating purposes, and 50 tons at 12 10s. for seed potatoes a total 

 sum of 4,013. The total cost in rent, labour (both horse and manual), 

 seed and manure, came to 1,300, leaving a net profit of 2,713. And 

 you are paying for that to-day ! But we say : Pay the labourer who 

 does the work surely he has the right to more than he is getting, 

 to enable him to approach to a Christian life. We want a living wage, 

 the abolition of all the different standards of hours of work ; and we 

 want you to realise that you can do much to help us, for 



Down the ages men have struggled 



Some have fallen in the strife ; 

 Yet step by step they mounted upwards, 



That we, their children, might have life. 

 Then let us carry on that struggle, 



Till it may be truly said 

 Men and women, little children, 



Are assured their daily bread. 



MR. JESSE ARGYLE (Working Men's Club and Institute Union) : My 

 sympathies are entirely with the agricultural labourer in this struggle. 

 No class has been more hardly dealt with in the country, and I think 

 the remedy for their position will have to be found in the proper organisa- 

 tion and development of the industry, and on trade union lines, and not 

 in the expansion of small holdings. Mr. Ashby said there were about 

 half a million employed in agriculture, and the idea of giving each a 

 small holding, and at least 25 acres, was absurd. In addition there are 

 also about 270,000 farmers and their relatives getting a living out 

 of the land, and if we take away their land we must at least leave them 

 small holdings for themselves. I- agree as to the hard work and poor 

 living for small holders, as I have experienced some of it. In my early 

 youth I spent a few years with an uncle who was in a way a small 

 holder, and my scanty school hours were robbed to hoe, dig potatoes, 

 look after the pony and the pigs, and other like jobs ; and in order to 

 make up a living we had also a stall in the market. Probably the reason 

 why rural workers put up with the long hours and hard living is because 

 to some extent there is no inducement in country life for anything else. 

 There is practically nothing else to do but work and sleep, possibly 

 varied by a visit to the tap room when there is sixpence to spend. 

 In addition to giving good wages, we have to make their lives more 

 attractive, and to try to take away the dreary dulness and monotony. 



MR. A. G. CARTER (Coventry Trades Council) : Owing to the tied 

 cottage system the agricultural labourer especially where the Union 

 is unable to collect enough men to form a branch is absolutely in 

 the hands of the farming class. I have a particular instance in mind 

 where a man voted at the last election against the wishes of the farmer ; 



