THE LABOURERS 443 



with the co-operative idea. But if the intelligence and 

 mental activity of the farmer is stimulated he will 

 realize for himself the intolerable position into which 

 he must sink under the present system of credit, and 

 as soon as he sees clearly that such methods are neither 

 inevitable nor customary, he will find a way out for 

 himself, either through ordinary channels or by the 

 formation of a mutual credit society wherever the banks 

 are unable to undertake his type of business. But the 

 awakening of the farmer must go hand in hand with, 

 if not precede, any action of the State in his favour. 



The third estate of the farming community the 

 labourer is perhaps in the worst case. He is by no 

 means the serf that he is sometimes represented as 

 being ; his wages rose even during the depression, and 

 now all over the country are equivalent or rather more 

 than equivalent to a pound a week ; but, considering 

 the comparatively skilled character of his work, he is 

 much worse paid than his fellows in any other industry. 

 His hours are very long, his holidays few or none, 

 and he has no trade union to protect him from the 

 occasional tyranny of his employer. Not that the 

 farmer is a bad master as a rule, but sometimes, from 

 inability to appreciate the changed conditions under 

 which labour has to be managed, he plays the bully 

 and mishandles his men, to his own detriment. The 

 farmer's general complaint is that the majority of his 

 men are not worth their wages, and that is very prob- 

 ably true ; they will have to be more highly paid still 

 before they will earn their money. Men are paid far 

 too much by customary scale, whether they are good 

 or bad workers, and the farmer does not sufficiently 

 consider how he can make them earn more both for 

 themselves and for him. There is very general com- 

 plaint that the knowledge of the old crafts is dying 

 29 



