HOMES AND WAGES 157 



organized miners to secure better remunera- 

 tion, its strong arm may well be stretched out 

 to assist the sweated toilers of the country- 

 side. That agricultural labour may be fairly 

 described as " sweated " few could deny. 



Why should this be so ? For forty years 

 the wages of agricultural labourers have been 

 practically stationary. The days of acute 

 agricultural depression are past, and it is 

 very unlikely that they will ever recur ; it is 

 difficult to suppose, for example, that wheat 

 can ever again drop to 26/- a quarter. As a 

 matter of fact farmers are at present doing 

 very well and have been prosperous for the 

 last six years. At the same time the cost of 

 living has indubitably increased, and the 

 purchasing power of the labourer's poor wages 

 is no longer what it was ten years ago. An 

 amazing increase has taken place in our 

 national riches, more is spent every year from 

 the advancing incomes of the wealthier classes 

 in luxury and display, and pari passu the 

 industrial population has gradually and pain- 

 fully succeeded in making good its claim to a 

 slightly larger share in the wealth which it 

 produces. The poor toiler of the country-side 

 is, however, left out in the cold. The means 

 which have helped his fellow-countrymen are 

 denied to him ; his poverty, his lack of mental 



