282 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



by their very masterhood to be " educated." They have 

 amply shown by their after-conduct that such " education " 

 was not thrown away, that the seed then sown did not fall 

 upon barren ground. The entire position of Industrial La- 

 bour has become changed. And the country is the better, the 

 richer, the stronger for it. It is thirty-three years since the 

 same political emancipation was extended to the agricultural 

 labourer. However, in contrast with what we did with 

 his industrial comrade, we have thus far failed to " educate " 

 him as we did his town brother. Or, at any rate, if we gave 

 him some elementary education^ — unfortunately far too 

 much moulded on the urban pattern — we took care to 

 neutralise its effects by other retarding influences. Accord- 

 ingly he remained in dependence. Thirty-three years after 

 receiving the vote the industrial labourer had made good 

 his position in practically every walk of life. He was power- 

 ful in Parliament. His co-operative societies did almost 

 the largest business in the country. He dominated at the 

 polls. Where is now similar power wielded by the agri- 

 cultural labourer ? Where are the agricultural Burts and 

 Barneses, G. H. Robertses, and Hodges ? Joseph Arch's 

 day was a brief one. And yet, in spite of his rustic appear- 

 ance — the necessity and utility of which in his own circum- 

 stances the urban observer fails to understand, and which 

 is so often caricatured — the agricultural labourer carries 

 as shrewd a head upon his shoulders as does his industrial 

 brother. He has as good raw material in him for making 

 a statesman, or a captain of business, as the distinguished 

 industrial labourers named. The merits of that raw material 

 want to be brought out by a better position, ripened by the 

 sunshine of Freedom. " The majority of our great men 

 in the States," so remarked to me, a year or two ago, Mr. 

 Myron Herrick, when discussing with me at Paris the neces- 

 sity of agricultural credit as a means of benefiting the 

 agricultural classes, " were drawn from agricultural ranks." 

 How many good men, deserving well of their several coun- 

 tries, have not been drawn from the ranks of Labour ? 

 " How many are there among us," so asked the late M. 

 Beernaerts, the well-known Belgian statesman, when 



