The Rural Labourer 



industry should and must inevitably benefit 

 himself. 



The provision of small holdings, as touched 

 upon earlier in this chapter, will also apply 

 here, for the more the labourer produces the 

 more he will be interested in seeing fair prices 

 maintained for agricultural produce. 



Doubtless the adoption of a system of profit- 

 sharing would also help. I have heard a labourer 

 suggest that there should be a minimum wage, 

 and that the increase should vary with the price 

 of wheat ; but this would not be practicable, and 

 the question of how to reach the rural labourer 

 and bring him into the agricultural movement 

 still remains a difficult problem deserving of the 

 most careful attention, for numerically the 

 labouring class is the most important in the 

 agricultural community. To this end the 

 development of small ownership, if not unduly 

 forced, will certainly greatly help. 



One must clearly recognise the existence of 

 an apparent divergence in the interests of farmer 

 and labourer before it is possible to suggest 

 measures which would tend to minimise that 

 divergence. The labourer unduly magnifies the 

 difference of interests. The farmer wants low 

 wages and high prices ; the rural labourer 

 wants high wages and low prices. 



The difference in the attitude of farmers and 

 labourers towards the question of the cost of 



129 L 



