12 
LAND & WATER 
August 17, 1916 
possible number of suitable ex-service men, so other 
measures calrulated to give the farmer sufficient security 
and stability of price for his produce, are essential if the 
land of England and Wales is to be farmed in such a way 
as to provide employment for the men and promote our 
National interests." 
In order to give the needed stability, the Minority go on 
to recommend the guarantee of a minimum price for 
wheat, which they advise should be based on 40s. to 
42s. per quarter for a period of ten years, and further 
suggest a bonus of £2 per acre for every acre of grass 
land brought under the plough, the payment of this 
bonus to be spread over four years, but payment of the 
later instalments to depend on the land being kept well 
cultivated. 
With regard to import duties, the Minority assume 
that if any general system of protecting home products 
against foreign competition is adopted, full consideration 
would be paid to the claims of farmers to share in such 
protection for all his products affected by such com- 
petition. They point out that no one of these three 
methods excludes either of the others, but that they can 
be combined, and are in fact complementary to each 
other. 
Compulsory Measures 
It is impossible within the limits of a short article to 
follow their report more closely, and it must suffice to 
say that their conclusions are thoroughly well supported 
by the arguments they put forward. If the methods 
• they suggest fail in their objective, they recognise the 
necessity of compulsory measures for ensuring the break- 
ing up of inferior grass land. They might have gone a 
step further, and recommended the removal of any farmer 
who is farming badly, though perhaps this point hardly 
comes within the reference to the Committee. No one 
has cause for complaint either if compulsory measures 
for breaking up pasture be adopted or if the bad farmer 
be removed. The recommendations put forward by the 
Minority, and they will be endorsed by everyone who 
has the welfare of the country at heart, are not ad\ocated 
in order to benefit either the labourer or the farmer, as 
such : they are urged as a means to an end, not as an end 
in themselves. The farmer and the labourer may be 
most highly deserving of sympathy and assistance, but 
they have no right to claim such special legislation as is 
foreshadowed in the Minority report, because they have 
had hard times in the past, or because they are such 
worthy fellows : the only ground upon which such a 
claim can be based is that they are incidental to an increase 
in the home production of foodstuffs. 
In conclusion, the Minority urge the importance of 
legislating without loss of time, so that preparations 
may be made for placing proposals before the men on 
demobilisation, finding them employment (on reclama- 
tion work as a preliminary), and more particularly that 
the men themselves may be enabled to determine whether 
agriculture can offer them a sufficient inducement to 
make it worth their while to spend their energy in her 
service. 
A Minimum Wage 
The opposition to a minimum wage requires a moment's 
examination. Farmers fear (i) that it would tend to 
promote combinations of labour, (2) disturb existing 
relations between masters and men, (3) that they would 
be at the mercy of a trade union agitation, especially at 
certain seasons' of the year, (4) that special conditions-- 
such as weather— control agricultural operations, and thus 
make regulation of hours and wages impossible, (5) that 
the industry may not be able to provide increased wages. 
As regards i and 2, it is unwise and unfair to generalise. 
There are model employers, with whom any outside 
interference might cause trouble, though as a rule these 
arc just the men who will be least interfered >vith, and 
the model employer of to-day will be the model employer 
imder the new system. There are other employers, so 
much the reverse, that whatever change takes place must 
be an improvement, since the relations of master and 
man could not be worse. And there is every grade of 
good and bad in between these extremes. As such a 
scheme will not be detrimental to the best, and will tend 
to eliminate the worst, it must have a levelling-up tend- 
ency, and thus be so much. to the good. The same 
remarks apply to' the third point, but there is this to be 
added. No strike bred and fostered by a trade union 
which will jeopardise the public food supply will meet 
with public sympathy, unless conditions are such that a 
strike is unavsidable, and no strike which fails to enlist * 
public sympathy can last any length of time, or be re- 
newed. 
No. 4 has more force behind it. The varying conditions 
of climate, soil, industrial competition, etc., make it 
impossible to recommend any flat rate of wage for Great 
Britain as a minimum, or any niunber of hours per week 
upon which to base a minimum, without defeating the 
object in view. The Minority fully realise this, and re- 
commend the creation of W'agcsBoards which shall deter- 
mine what is fair to both employer and employed in their 
respective areas. Thete is much to be said for wages being 
put on a sliding scale, to rise and fall according to the 
fluctuations in price of the staple commodities produced 
within the area of each Wages Board. 
The most important of all is No. 5 : " The industry 
may be unable to provide an increased wage." This is 
an economic question. Down to somewhere about the 
years 1907-iqio it was not able to provide it. Prices of 
commodities began to rise steadily from that period, and 
consequently the ability to pay higher wages has been 
greater. But there has been no certainty that the rise 
was more than a fluctuation, and therefore no encourage- 
ment to farmers to employ more men, or for owners to 
build more cottages. The abnormal war prices of to-day 
are temporary, and no man in his senses will launch out 
into expenditure on the chance of present prices holding. 
Rather there is a fear of such a violent reaction as will 
force them down to the level of the 'nineties. 
In its own defence the nation will be well advised 
to see that the Government should without loss of time 
pass such legislation as will guarantee stability of reason- 
able prices tb the producer. Let us say, for. example, 
an average price of 45s. per quarter for wheat. If the 
nation is not prepared to do this, an increase in produc- 
tion or in the number of producers can hardly be expected. 
If the nation wants a rural population, if it needs an 
enlarfied production of home-grown food, it must make 
it worth man's while to produce it. The nation has to 
choose, but it must choose quickly. 
L'Aieule 
By Emile Cammaerts. 
Depuis que je vis de souvenirs. 
Ton image ne me quitte pas. 
Je devine ton eternel sourire, 
J' entends le bruit chancelant de tcs pas. 
Je revois, sur le dossier du fauteuil, 
Ton visage creus^ de rides,- 
Et, reposant sur ta robe de douil, 
Tes vieilles mains, lasses et vides. . . 
Tes doigts trop faibles pour tricoter, 
Tes yeux vagues et incertains, 
Tes gestes d'accueil et de bonte, 
Toute I'eloquence menue et timide 
De ton cteur trop plein 
Et de tes mains lasses et vides. . . 
Et, dans le silence de la salle, 
Quand tu te crois seulc; 
Ta pricre pieuse et banale, 
Tournant et tournant comme une meule. 
Et broyant ton espoir si fin 
Que le sort le plus aride 
Ne pent s'empecher d' en laisscr quelques grains 
Entre tes mains lasses et vides. 
0, les vieilles, les cheres vieilles qui n'osent pas parler, 
Qui se rongent, dans leur coin, la tete sur le c6t6. 
En songeant a ceux qu' elles out vu partir 
Et qui tardent tant a revenir ! 
rAti. Rights RESERVEtil 
