WHAT OF Till- HARVEST.' 273 



The terrible long customary hours have been considerably 

 curtailed since the Agricultural Wages Board came into 

 existence. Prior to 1918 he contends it \vas customary 

 to work in summer, thirteen to fifteen hours per day, and in 

 winter Sunday's work would average seven hours. 





The Workers' Union started organising Yorkshire in 

 1911. Their East Riding District organiser, Mr. J. A. 

 Aldous, worked as a farm labourer all his life until 1918, 

 when he was appointed organiser. 



I was brought up in South Suffolk," he writes, " where I 

 worked until seventeen years of age. The. workers in Suffolk 

 at that time were receiving I2s. per week, and I, being small, 

 was receiving bs. and my parents had to keep me- on that amount, 

 In Yorkshire wages wen- then 15*. ; and hired lads fourteen 

 to seventeen years of age received 5 to ('15. The hours of work 

 were very long. In spring hired lads used to work from 4 a.m. 

 to ,S p.m. When the W.U. began to organise in Yorkshire in 

 1911 we managed to get leaving time on a Saturday from 5 to 

 (> p.m. A number of estates gave the half-day, but the farmers 

 greatly objected. Wages rose very slowly from 1914 until the 

 minimum wage of 25s. was established in August, 1917. 



" The instant the weekly men received 25*. instead of 15*., 

 hired lads who received 20 got 40, and casual men for thresh- 

 ing received 8s. per day instead of 4S. 



" What the workers require most now is recreation and edu- 

 cation, f should like, to see night schools established, because in 

 four years at a night school I learnt more than I ever did at a 

 dnv school. Many a man never reads a newspaper, to say no- 

 thing of books, and is easily led astray, especially in politics. 

 \Yc have still to educate them that they should elect men from 

 their own class to represent them. 



" The tied house remains the curse. We have power now to 

 gi t some land, but those who live in tied cottages dare not apply, 

 never knowing when the employer is going to get out of bed tin- 

 wrong side. 



" One. C.C. landowner said the other week that he did not 

 believe in allotments, because if a man had done his duty he 

 would not require any work after tea- as much as to say, if he 

 w;isn't tired he ought to be. 



" Small holdings in Yorkshire have not been as successful 

 as one would wish, owing to land being often unsuitable, too 

 heavily rented, too scattered, and most of all, because the small 

 holder tries to farm on the same lines as the farmer. 



VOL. II. T 



