GROWTH UNDER STORMY SKIES. 195 



The Chancellor even then might almost be regarded as an 

 asset to reaction. It may be very well after all to have a 

 Harlequin who can tickle the palate of the people by refer- 

 ences to dukes, but who leaves ducal incomes undisturbed. 

 Mr. Lloyd George lost his chance of becoming the Cobbett 

 of the twentieth century. Indeed " the raging-tearing 

 campaign" (vide Tory papers) forcibly recalled a story told of 

 Abraham Lincoln, who when opposed in Court by a vocifer- 

 ous and turbulent counsel : " He reminds me," said Lincoln 

 to the judge, " of the farmer who was overtaken by a 

 thunderstorm and knelt down to pray. ' Oh Lord/ he cried, 

 cannot we have a little less noise and a little more light.' 



^ H^ * ^ 



Yet politicians and others who live in the stately homes of 

 England were soon to have a rude shock. In May 1913 a 

 strike broke out in South West Lancashire, and where it was 

 raging mightily stood the country house of Lord Derby, 

 which the King of England was about to visit. 



Whilst Mr. Lloyd George and Lord Lansdowne had been 

 making their political speeches, the cost of living had been 

 steadily rising, and Lancashire was the first county to express 

 its feelings in no uncertain voice. Rents and retail prices 

 had risen in Lancashire and Cheshire to 13-3 above 1905. 1 

 But it was not only a question of wages ; it was primarily a 

 matter of hours ; and the refusal of the farmers to negotiate 

 with the men's leaders led to the gravest agricultural strike 

 in this country since the days of Joseph Arch. 



In the autumn of 1912 the farm workers in South- West 

 Lancashire were entirely unorganised, and as many of them, 

 especially the wagoners who took market garden produce 

 into the large towns, had to work exceedingly long hours 

 they appealed to the National Agricultural Labourers' L T nion 

 to help them to improve their conditions. Mr. George Ed- 

 wards seized the opportunity and the Union quickly grew 

 in strength, forming nearly thirty branches during the winter. 



The district was aptly described by Country Life- thus : 



" To many of our readers the district will at once ' come home 

 when we add that it is the country of the Grand National and 

 1 Cd. 7733. Vide Appendix. 



