98 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



found that labourers, standing under the eyes of their em- 

 ployers and others, evinced a dislike to a manifestation 

 of their opinions, and adopted a plan of inviting those 

 who \vere against the resolution to put their hands up, 

 and those who were in favour of it to keep their hands do\vn. 



The Red Vans travelled whilst funds lasted, and that was 

 from 1891 to 1897. The English Land Restoration League 

 started organising labourers from the very beginning. 

 Indeed they entered Suffolk at the express invitation of the 

 newly formed (1890) Eastern Counties Labour Federation, 

 which enrolled 3,000 members in one year (eventually the 

 membership reached 17,000), though it is probable that 

 some of these members were men who worked in the towns, 

 such as Ipswich. 



Friendly gipsies fraternising with the Red Vanners, and 

 assuming that they had something to sell, would tell them 

 that Suffolk, where wages were low, was a poor county for 

 trade ; and that better business was to be done in the 

 Fen lands ! 



At the beginning of the 'nineties the most important 

 union was the Eastern Counties Federation, the strength 

 of which lay in Suffolk. In Northumberland, Cumberland, 

 and Lancashire trade unions were unknown. Arch's Union 

 had sunk to 2,254 members ; whilst an offshoot breaking 

 away from the parent society was formed in Norfolk in 

 1889. This was called the Norfolk and Norwich Agricul- 

 tural Labourers' Union, and Mr. George Edwards became 

 its secretary. 



But with the advent of the Red Van into country dis- 

 tricts, unions >oon began to crop tip in Warwickshire, 

 Wiltshire, Berkshire, Hertfordshire, and Herefordshire, 

 detached from one another and without any central 

 organisation. 



Mr. Verinder, the secretary of the Land Restoration 

 League, considered that the weakness of Arch's Union lay 

 in its centralisation, and that farm labourers became rest- 

 less and suspicious of an organisation which had its offices 

 and executive at some distant town which rendered control 

 ineffective and kept members out of touch with their leaders. 



