STIRRINGS OF NEW LIFE. 161 



bedroom in his little cottage at Gresham, for the use of 

 which the Union was never charged a penny. By the end 

 of December, 1906, fifty branches were opened and 1,500 

 members enrolled ; and by the end of the first financial 

 year 3,000 members had joined and over one hundred 

 branches had been formed. 



When the 133. a week secretary had cycled over 4,000 

 miles, it was decided to appoint Mr. Thomas Thacker, of 

 East Dereham, as organiser, with Mr. W. G. Codling as an 

 occasional assistant, who was paid, I believe, the modest 

 sum of 2s. for every village meeting he attended. 



The path of an organiser, never easy at any time, 

 was beset with great difficulties now. Mr. Codling had 

 walked many a mile, willingly giving his time to 

 the cause of the farm workers, before he received his 

 stupendous fee of 2s. He had, however, to surmount many 

 a difficulty before he attained the position of a properly 

 paid organiser. As a Parish Councillor he was regarded as 

 fairly harmless, but when he became a member of a Rural 

 District Council the particular preserve of farmers on 

 returning home at night he received his dismissal from his 

 employer. A kind of boycott seems to have been instituted 

 against this active member of the Union, and work being 

 almost unobtainable, the Union, which was unable through 

 lack of funds to appoint him as an organiser, made a collec- 

 tion and presented him with a hawker's basket ; and thus he 

 tramped the countryside equipping himself with the know- 

 ledge which was so useful to the Union in after years. 1 



The Small Holdings Act of 1907 seemed to give the 

 agricultural labourer a chance at last to get his footing on 

 the land, so that he might stand the equal of the peasant 

 proprietors of nearly every continental country. 



Compulsory powers were now given to County Councils 

 to purchase land at the market rate, the Board of Agri- 

 culture being the final arbiter. Holdings up to 50 acres, 

 or of the value of 50 a year, could be acquired for approved 

 applicants. Moreover, Parish Councils had greater powers 



1 In 1919 as Labour Candidate he defeated Lord Hastings for the 

 Norfolk County Council. 



VOL II. M 



