36 Agriculture and the Community). 



ditions of wages and employment which prevent them 

 from escaping- by the old method of reducing wages. 



The farmers have not lost any time in putting forward 

 their demands. Mr. James Donaldson, giving evidence 

 before the Royal Commission on Agriculture, 1919, on 

 behalf of the National Farmers' Union of England, put 

 what he declared were the alternatives. If the farmers 

 were to be left to their own resources to face the future, 

 without guarantees or protection, and without legal 

 restrictions on the wages they paid, they could adapt 

 themselves to the position and carry on, but it would be 

 by avoiding intensive cultivation and by laying land down 

 to grass. " The remedy for low prices is the reduction 

 of costs and the reduction of output," he said. Pro- 

 duction and employment would be reduced. " If it is the 

 wish of the nation that the farmer should maintain and 

 develop his output, whilst, at the same time meeting the 

 reasonable demands of labour, the nation must see to it 

 that when he has taken all possible steps to organise his 

 business, so that wasteful and inefficient methods are 

 eliminated, he can then get a fair return on his capital, 

 having regard to the vicissitudes to which agricultural 

 enterprise is peculiarly liable." 



There is no evidence to show that the farmers ever 

 considered the alternatives. They concentrated on the 

 demand for guarantees and have been successful for the 

 time being in imposing their policy on the country. The}' 

 have been guaranteed prices for wheat and oats, but not 

 on the conditions laid down by Mr. Donaldson. There is 

 no corresponding obligation to grow wheat and oats, nor 

 any obligation on the farmers to maintain and increase 



