A National Policy. 59 



on any productive output we can estimate, will never satisfy 

 the awakening- workers in the rural districts. However 

 effective the Trade Unions may become, they cannot force 

 wages beyond the point the industry can bear, and I see 

 nothing- in the present production of agriculture, nor in 

 the production we may hope for within the limits of the 

 present system which will enable the workers to satisfy 

 their legitimate demands. Nor is there any security in 

 the fixing- of minimum rates of wages. At best all we 

 can hope from such legislation is to fix a minimum 

 standard of human needs which the wages must enable 

 the worker to satisfy, but how inadequate that standard 

 may be can be judged from the rates fixed at a time when 

 the cost of living was mounting against the workers, and 

 the industry was better able to provide a reasonable 

 standard than at any previous time. But even more 

 important than the standard of living considered merely 

 from the subsistence standpoint is the opportunity the 

 industry offers for bringing out the latent abilities of the 

 workers. Agriculture makes no such call on the workers 

 to-day. It is a closed industry, which does not attract 

 technical or manual workers from other spheres of life. 

 The workers are born into the industry and seek to escape 

 from it. It does not offer opportunities, develop the 

 abihties, or stimulate the ambitions of those engaged in it. 

 Other industries attract skill and brains by the oppor- 

 tunities they offer. They draw from all classes, and 

 welcome ability. Agriculture by its structure and 

 organisation does not attract, and fails to keep its own. 



We require fundamental changes because the present 

 system is not capable of such changes as will sufficiently 



