GROWTH UNDER STORMY SKIES 231 



estate except on his lordship's farm. The seven dismissed 

 men were never reinstated, but found work in the district. 

 Thus the fight ended, and soon, very soon, there was another 

 battle cry sounded both for masters and men, and it 

 was not long before one of these men who had been fighting 

 for freedom at home laid down his life fighting for the free- 

 dom of little nations, despite the fact that he was refused 

 a living wage and a roof over his head in the land of his 

 birth. The pride of the aristocrat surely was humbled 

 before the exalted patriotism of the peasant. 



Evidently the shackles of feudalism had not been severed 

 by July 1914. But what of Mr. Lloyd George's great Land 

 Campaign, it may be asked, with his promises of land, of 

 higher wages, of " free " and abundant houses ? In May 

 of this year in a preface to a little book written by Mr. 

 Rowntree ] Mr. Lloyd George wrote : 



" More than half the wage earners in the most ancient, the 

 most worthy, and the most vital of our industries are living on 

 wages which do not allow them and their families the same 

 amount of nourishment which they could obtain in a workhouse 

 or a prison. Many thousands of them are lodged in dwellings 

 which are damp or insanitary or too small to provide for the 

 decent separation of the sexes. 



" Future generations will ask with astonishment why this 

 great, rich nation, nineteen centuries after Christianity began 

 its work in the world, tolerated with so little indignation so 

 shameful a blot alike on its religion and its civilisation. . . . 

 The attack must be made from many sides and by main' methods. 

 It must be made witli untiring energy and, above all, with uncon- 

 querable hone. Legislation cannot do everything, but it can 

 do much, and it can do some things which no other power can 

 accomplish. At any rate, the Government of which I am a 

 member is firmly resolved that the strong arm of the State shall 

 be used to obtain for the labourer a living wage, a decent house, 

 and the right to cultivate, in independence and security, the soil 

 of his native land." 



From the clatter of political tongues sounded during this 

 year, it seemed as if noble earls and landed plutocrats were 

 rushing off to their armouries, to defend their old and new 

 estates to the last ditch against the expected surging tide 



1 The Land and the Labourer. 



