UNIONS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS 411 



Combination was, therefore, met by combination. Strikes proved 

 an ineffective weapon. Employers were able to supply the places 

 of the strikers, either from the general labourers who stood outside 

 the National Union of Agricultural Labourers, or from the un- 

 employed and casually employed population of the towns. In 

 July, 1874, after a prolonged struggle of six months, the Union 

 suffered a severe defeat. Numbers, as well as funds, began to 

 dwindle. Inside the Union there was a spHt. Between it and the 

 more recent Federal Union (1873) arose more or less open hostihty. 

 The disastrous period of 1875-1884 began to tell on the position of 

 labourers, in regard both to amount of wages and to regularity of 

 employment. They could no longer maintain their weekly pay- 

 ments, and their leaders advised against resistance to reductions. 

 Much of the advance in wages which had been gained was lost ; 

 but it was through the Union that the parhamentary franchise 

 was won. 



Cjniics may say that it was the parhamentary vote which gave 

 the labourer his first real step upwards. It made him the most 

 important of the three classes which constitute the agricultural 

 interest, and, from that moment politicians have tumbled over one 

 another in their eagerness to secure his support. Be this as it may, 

 there can be no doubt of his substantial progress since 1884. Most 

 men of the class are still poorly paid ; many are precariously 

 employed and poorly housed ; among aU, poverty is chronic, and, 

 though destitution is certainly rare, the dread of it is seldom 

 absent. But, speaking generally, labourers in 1912 are better 

 paid, more regularly employed, better housed, better fed, better 

 clothed. They are better educated and more sober. Their hours 

 of labour are shorter. They are secure of a pension for themselves 

 and their wives in their old age. Thej^ can, if they choose, make 

 then- influence felt in the government of their parish, the admmistra- 

 tion of their county, the direction of the affairs of the nation and of 

 the empire. Their wives and children are no longer driven by 

 necessity to labour in the fields. What more can labourers want ? 

 may be impatiently asked by some. Others, conscious that all 

 is not yet well, may ask with anxiety — Avhat more can be done ? 



It would be difficult to answer either question. Labourers, as 

 individuals, may know what they want. It is generally some 

 particular piece of land. But, as a class, they have not formulated 

 their general aspirations in definite form : they are conscious of 



