1922.] 



Labour on the Farm. 



703 



consider he had lost up to January, 1920, owing to the failure 

 of the rise in his wages to keep pace with the rise in the cost 

 of living, would only be recovered by April, 1923, provided his 

 wages and the cost of living remained stationary at the present 

 level, or both fell in the ratios in which they have fallen since 

 the appointment of the Conciliation Committees. 



According to the index figures as published in the Labour 

 Gazette, the cost of living reached its maximum in November, 

 1920, when it stood at 176 points above the pre-war level. Since 

 then it has dropped fairly consistently until by April, 1922, it 

 stood only at 88 points above the standard. It is interesting 

 therefore to consider how closely the rise and subsequent fall in 

 agricultural wages agreed with those which obtained in other 

 industries. 



Rise of Agricultural Wages Compared with those of other 

 Industries. — Briefly it may be stated that as compared with those 

 that have obtained in other industries agricultural wages were 

 slow to rise, and have again been slow to fall, that while as far 

 as can be traced the maximum increase of wages in the agricul- 

 tural industrv has onlv been exceeded bv the maximum increases 

 in the wages of the building trades labourers and railway 

 workers, the increases which prevailed in March, 1922, were 

 onlv approached by those which prevailed in the printing trade ; 

 and that while at that time agricultural wages stood at 148 per 

 cent, above the pre-war level, wages in the woollen trade were 

 95 per cent., in the cotton trade 61 per cent., and miners' wages 

 only 45 per cent., above pre-war level. 



While in an article of this description it is impossible to quote 

 the wages variations in all the 24 industries, it appears that 

 from the agricultural worker's point of view the rise in agricul- 

 tural wages with the rise in the cost of living will bear comparison 

 with the increase granted in any other industry. 



In the comparisons which have been made it must, however, 

 be remembered that the figures relate to percentage increases 

 and not to actual increases. Owing, then, to the low pre-war 

 rate of farm wages, any actual increase obtained is reflected as 

 a greater percentage increase than would be the case in other 

 industries with a higher pre-war rate of pay. 



It has already been suggested that while from the labour 

 point of view wages should be determined by the cost of living, 

 yet the employer demands that they should be determined by 

 what the industry can afford to pay. An estimate of this latter 



