68 THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



The motto should have been " An adequate wage, but 

 free individual bargaining in all else." 



Local custom varies from farm to farm even in the 

 same county, and it is not only the farmer who may 

 prefer a particular method of dealing with " confined " 

 labour, but the men themselves ; and the method 

 may be very different from the one laid down by the 

 Wages Board. Again, the rate fixed for young unmarried 

 men was undoubtedly too high, in comparison with the 

 wage granted to the married man with a family. In 

 short, the present Wage Boards undoubtedly suffer from 

 a want of elasticity. 



Many farmers hold the view that they would willingly 

 do without the Government's guarantee of a minimum 

 price for wheat if they could also be rid of the Wages 

 Board ; I cannot agree with this view. In the first 

 place, the guarantee is a valuable recognition of the 

 important principle, that the nation cannot ask the farmer 

 to produce a certain crop without guaranteeing him 

 against loss in its production. In the second place, I do 

 not believe that public opinion would consent to the 

 abolition of Wage Boards. 



There is a more practical question : are the present 

 constitution and procedure of the Wage Boards all that 

 can be desired, or should alterations be made ? 



I think that men who have had practical experience 

 of the working of Wage Boards will agree that there is 

 much room for improvement ; the present system under 

 which the employers sit on one side of the table and 

 the workers on the other, and the appointed members 

 upon a raised dais, leaves much to be desired. A real 

 round-table conference, with the members sitting without 

 reference to section, would be more conducive to 

 discussion^; really, the need is for Whitley Councils to 



