SOME OTHER REMEDIES 215 



of agricultural labourers existed which could 

 support its just claims to an adequate share 

 in the hypothetical benefits of Tariff Reform. 

 No such combined effort on any adequate 

 scale is to be found at present, and the general 

 attitude of our farmers is hostile to the growth 

 of Trades Unionism among their farm hands. 

 I have often heard labourers asking a Tariff 

 Reform optimist why if higher prices mean 

 better wages, not a single farthing was added 

 to their weekly pittance when in 1909-10 

 wheat rose to 45/- a quarter and the loaf 

 to 6|d. 



In any case the reversal of our existing 

 system of free food would be determined, not 

 by the agricultural population but by the 

 industrial voters in the towns. The adherents 

 of a Tariff Reform policy have been driven by 

 experience to realise the immense difficulty 

 of persuading the average urban elector to 

 submit to any imposts, however slight, on his 

 bread and meat. The artisan may naturally 

 ask why the overwhelming majority of our 

 working men and women should fasten upon 

 themselves an artificial increase in the cost of 

 living in order to swell the incomes of squires 

 and farmers in the rural districts. As it is, 

 he provides the extra taxation required to 

 make good half the farmers' rates and he may 



