THE FOREIGNER. 183 



gaining economic independence if the wages are withheld, and 

 it is a clear sign of progress from status to contract when the 

 worker succeeds in getting his wages paid promptly and regularly. 

 Money loses half its value when paid at the end of a year, 

 or six monlhs, as it was to the labourer of Brandsby in the 

 eighteenth century. Even when paid monthly the result is 

 that debts accumulate, and it is not surprising that those who 

 attach importance to the position which economic freedom gives 

 to the worker press for a weekly payment of wages, and for such 

 a payment to be made on Friday, so that full advantage may 

 be taken of the Saturday afternoon for shopping. In many 

 parts of England this is now customary, but there are still places 

 where wages are paid fortnightly, and in some districts it is usual 

 to keep a week's wages in hand. An even worse system is in 

 vogue in some places where the full wages are only paid at the 

 end of the term of service, sums being advanced as required in 

 the meantime. Conditions are generally more backward in 

 other countries than in England. In Berwickshire for instance, 

 and I suspect elsewhere in Scotland, wages are calculated by 

 the week, but are paid monthly. In France, wages are calculated 

 by the day or by the month, never by the week ; and it is a 

 point on which the Unions have had to insist in their agreements 

 with the employers, that wages should be paid regularly on 

 Saturday night. As a rule, however, except perhaps in Holland, 

 farm workers on the Continent are not paid more often, I believe, 

 than once a month. 



In the discussion which followed Mr. W. R. Smith, who had 

 then recently been elected President of the newly formed 

 International Land Workers' Federation, observed that the 

 establishment of that body afforded evidence of a change 

 in the position of rural workers. The conditions of one 

 country affected those of other countries and it was desirable 

 to link them up and to obtain mutual knowledge. Mr. Rea 

 said he had been looking at some old account books which 

 belonged to his father and grandfather and the contrast in 

 method of payment for service then and now was very 

 marked. Going back almost a hundred years he found, 

 that the labourers employed by his grandfather were paid 

 only 5 in cash in a half-year, the rest of their remuneration 

 being in kind, including free housing, potatoes, wool, wheat, 

 barley, and oats for breadmaking, etc. Conditions were much 

 harder, but he thought not less healthy. The labourer was 



