THE RURAL PROBLEM 31 



average County Council would consider the interests of the 

 labourer safe in its hands. It has also been suggested that 

 the wage might be fixed, as rents are fixed in Ireland, by an 

 independent tribunal of a legal character. But this would 

 omit one of the most important features of the scheme. It 

 cannot be too strongly urged that the periodical election by 

 the men of their own representatives on the Local Boards is 

 fraught with the greatest promise for the organisation and 

 independence of the agricultural labourers of the future. 



§ 3. The Amount of the Wage. 



It now only remains to discuss how much the minimum 

 wage should be. The whole question of the minimum wage 

 in any industry involves important issues of political theory. 

 Should the wages be calculated to cover only the barest 

 necessities of life ? What are necessities ? Is the wage to 

 be on a family basis ? If so, how large may the family be 

 assumed to be ? The average family of three children is really 

 little more frequent than the family of four, five, or six. Are 

 women to receive permanently lower wages than men ? 

 There are good reasons for believing that the ultimate solu- 

 tion of these difficulties in modern countries will be found in 

 the direction of fixing generous wages for adults on an indi- 

 vidual basis only, and looking to some other form of provision 

 for the children, as for other non-working sections of the 

 community, the aged and the sick. Indeed such provision is 

 already being made in certain States of America. But as 

 things now are in England, the family of the agricultural 

 labourer depends for existence on the wage of the father, 

 and the task of the moment is to raise those wages sufficiently 

 to provide at any rate the minimum of civilised life for a 

 family of the average size. 



A reference to the tables given in the last chapter will prove 

 conclusively that this cannot be done at present prices under 

 21s. a week, even calculating rent at the low figure of Is. But 

 the present overcrowding will not disappear until the dearth 

 of cottage accommodation is removed by the provision of new 

 cottages. It will be shown in the next chapter that if the 

 new cottages are to be provided at economic rents, the rent 



