i8o THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



provisions of the Civil Code with regard to contract of service 

 apply to persons engaged in Agriculture, and political activity 

 or agitation in connection with Trade Unions is not a legal ground 

 for terminating a contract of service. Freedom to combine, 

 therefore, is acknowledged at last all over Germany. Agricul- 

 tural Trade Unions are, however, of quite modern growth even 

 in countries where they have for many years been legal, and in 

 some cases farm workers are not combined in a specialised Union, 

 but are admitted into a Union of other workers. Many agricul- 

 tural labourers in England are members of the Workers' Union. 

 Irish farm workers are members of the Transport Workers' 

 Union, and it appears that in Belgium and elsewhere the Associa- 

 tion to which they belong has religious or other views as an 

 essential part of their programme. Nor are the Unions every- 

 where very strong. At the recent International Congress of 

 Land Workers it was estimated that only 10 per cent, of the 

 Italian and 30 per cent, of the German land workers were repre- 

 sented, while 50 per cent, of the land workers of Great Britain 

 are enrolled in one or other of the Unions which admit agricultural 

 labourers. Whatever the explanation of this may be, it seems 

 clear from the prominence given to the claim for the right of 

 combination in the programme of the International Conference 

 which is due to be held this year at Geneva in connection with 

 the League of Nations, that the promoters consider that this claim 

 has not been fully conceded everywhere, at any rate to the same 

 extent as is admittedly the case in England. 



The second item in the list of points that go to make up complete 

 freedom of contract is the abolition of all payment in kind, and 

 the remuneration of the worker by a cash wage only. Truck has 

 long been abolished in every civilised country, except in Agricul- 

 ture and domestic service ; but, nevertheless, in every country, 

 even where farm workers do not live in the farmer's house, a 

 more or less highly developed system prevails by which a labourer 

 gets part of his income in food or other allowances. It is popular 

 in some places, and, as the articles can be consumed by the 

 recipient or otherwise used for his own benefit and need not be 

 sold, the system is not open to the abuses usually associated 

 with truck ; but it is clear that with the growth of industrial 

 organisation the recipient of wages in kind is in a less satisfactory 

 position than one who can lay out his wages in whatever way he 

 chooses. In England the system of payment in kind has been 

 in a moribund condition for a long time, and the few allowances 

 that survive form a very small part of a worker's income. But 

 even in Scotland we find the old system still in vogue. Thus, 

 in Wigtownshire a ploughman who in 1919 earned 30$. a week 

 also received in allowances house and garden, 100 stones of oat- 

 meal, i ton of potatoes, 5 tons of coal, and other small articles, 



