156 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



of vital urgency, for day by day the conditions 

 are becoming worse instead of better. 



It is, however, useless to talk about good 

 cottages with an " economic rent," or advocate 

 an extension of the school-age, to men earning 

 from 12 /- to 15/- a week 



What is at the root of their economic misery 

 what is it that denudes our villages of the 

 young and active, that condemns those who 

 remain to dwell too often in damp and dilapi- 

 dated hovels, that allows the minds and souls of 

 our villagers as well as their limbs and muscles 

 to be controlled by their employers, that 

 crushes out their independence by a system 

 of degrading patronage ? The principal cause 

 of all these evils is simply the payment of low 

 wages. Can anybody deny the facts ? If we 

 exclude harvest and hay money which is 

 almost invariably extra payment for long 

 stretches of overtime, and specially laborious 

 work and various " allowances," differing 

 widely in kind and amount, according to local 

 custom, but in any case a vicious method of 

 giving wages the average income of our 

 agricultural labourers stands at a very low 

 level. There is then one essential factor in 

 the betterment of the labourers' lot and that 

 is higher wages. If the Government can 

 help the comparatively well-paid and highly- 



