Agricultural Organisation 



from the farmer. The one thing that can cure 

 this tendency is to make the labourer reahse 

 that he plays a most important part in the 

 agricultural industry, and that what benefits the 

 industry benefits every individual connected 

 with it ; especially he must see that in this 

 movement of agricultural reform the interests 

 and just aspirations of the labourer are clearly 

 recognised. 



The great difficulty lies in the organisation of 

 Labourers' Unions. Personally, I have some 

 hopes that the co-operative societies now being 

 formed for the purpose of acquiring land may 

 develop still further and assume a political 

 character. I do not know at all how the ex- 

 ecutive of the Agricultural Organisation Society 

 would take such a suggestion, — not well, I 

 fear. 



There is no blinking one's eyes to the fact 

 that the other agricultural societies, though they 

 may profess a willingness to see the labourers 

 united, take no practical steps to set a move- 

 ment on foot to this end. This is regrettable, 

 because if the labourers cannot be united to 

 aid forward the agricultural movement, I fear 

 they will be united by Socialists or Labourites 

 against it. Naturally the rural labourer is the 

 hardest man to induce to combine, but it is 

 only a question of time before the leaders of the 

 labour movement will make an attempt to 



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