40 Agriculture and the Community. 



other industries amounted to a much higher figure. The 

 average for all industries in England and Wales, including 

 those in which over 50 per cent, of the employees are 

 women, in which production is low, was £10^. In some 

 industries the value of production per person amounted to 

 nearly ;C2oo per annum." (" The Position of the Rural 

 Worker in Industry," A. W. Ashby.) Unless the pro- 

 ductive value of labour in agriculture can be effectively 

 increased there can be no sound basis for building a 

 progressive industry. 



There is a grave social danger too in the sentimental 

 association of prices and wages in agriculture. Quite a 

 number of well-meaning persons, whose emotions are 

 more easily stirred than their brains, are eager to sub- 

 sidise farming in order to secure the labourer's wages. 

 They see no way of protecting the worker against low 

 wages except by a legal minimum, and they are quite 

 ready to give the farmers a guarantee of prices which will 

 enable them to pay the rates enforced. The farmers are 

 not slow to point out what they believe is the necessary 

 connection, and from time to time proposals are mooted 

 for an inclusive union of farmers and workers to promote 

 the common interest. The policy would be disastrous to 

 the workers. Their standard of living would depend upon 

 the political power of the agricultural vote in a Parliament 

 which is bound to be elected from predominantly industrial 

 electors. Success would mean a permanently subsidised 

 industry which would necessarily be an unprogressive 

 industry, more intent on farming votes than on cultivating 

 the land. There might be an immediate gain to those 

 engaged in the industry at the expense of the general 



