APPENDICES. 167 



euiigratiug to Cliiua or to India with any idea that you 

 could better your position. (Cheers.) But then look at 

 the other end of the scale — look at America. In America 

 the price of food and the cost of living are higher than 

 in England. I do not know how much higher — probably 

 10 or 20 per cent. But then, as the agricultural labourer 

 in America has wages of 4s. or 5s. a day, he has a miick 

 larger margin than you have, and he is much better off. 

 So that my point is this — and I bog you to consider 

 it — namely, what you have to do if you want to imjJrove 

 your position is to see what system, what policy, will 

 give you most employment and most luages. (' Hear, hear.') 

 Now, has free trade given you more employment? (Cries 

 of 'No.') No, it has driven from the land half the 

 labourers who used to work upon the laud, and where 

 have they gone? They have gone to foreign countries, 

 away from their homes and from the people whom tliey 

 hold dear. They have gone into the towns, already over- 

 crowded; into insanitary conditions; or, they have gone 

 to the workhouse. (' Shame.') 



Feee Teade and Laboukees' Wages. 



" The effect of free trade upon the labourer of this 

 country has been disastrous. (Cheers.) But has it raised 

 your wages? Yes, to a certain extent the wages of the 

 labourer have been raised. But mark this — of all clashes 

 in the community, that of the agricultural labourers is the 

 one in which wages have been raised leasi ('Hear, hear') ; 

 and that is the consequence of the system which I am 

 condemning. I see from the great Blue-Book which was 

 piiblished lately that, while the average wages for the 

 live years ended 1902 in the case of all other industries had 

 risen 17 per cent, above the wages 20 years ago, in the 

 case of the agricultural labourer the increase was only 

 6 icr cent.! ('Hear, hear.') Now, I ask the labourers, 'Is 

 it worth your while to give your vote for a system under 

 which you are still the worst paid labourers in the United 

 Kingdom, and under which your rate of progress has only 

 been cue third of that of other classes?' What about the 

 future? If that is the record of the past, have you any 

 reason to expect that you will be better off in the 



