i8 
Land & Water 
May 23, 19 1 8 
by the regulation of other conditions. So with the Wages 
Committees. It is their duty to fix a wage. That involves 
taking a standard day. And the decision of this question 
enahlesthe Wages Board to regularise employment. In some 
parts of the country the labourer is sent home when it is wet 
and he loses a day's pay. The Board can forbid tliis. It 
can again help to make employment more regular by fixing 
hourly and daily rates rather higher than the weekly rate. 
Moreover it has to assess the vahie of allowances in kind 
which enables it to penalise bad housing by refusing to 
allow anything for a house that is defective" , Thus these 
Committees come to supervise a great part of the econom\- 
of the farm, and they may be made the means to a general 
improvement of conditions. 
Most important of all is the influence of such a body on 
the growth of Trade Unionism. In every case Trade Boards 
have led to the development of the workmen's organisations, 
and agriculture will follow the same law. In counties where 
farmers have been in the habit of refusing to employ labourers 
who belong to a Union, they are now sitting at the same table 
with Union officials. There were many who feared that the 
labourers would not have the courage to present their 
case before a Wages Committee, but this has proved an 
idle fear. The labourers are represented partly by 
officials of the Agricultural Labourers' Union, partly by 
ofiBcials of such Unions as the General Workers' Union, which 
include agricultural labourers among their members ; men 
who are accustomed to the atmosphere of discussion and 
, negotiation. The whole tone of agricultural life will be 
immenselv affected by tlii-; development. 
A Stimulating Influence 
We have then in these Committees a very stimulatin;.; 
influeiue on rural life. Farmers, labourers,' and persons 
representing the outside world are brought together ; 
labourers have to organise their forces and to feel their 
strength ; it is cver\where recognised that the scandalous 
wages of the past must not return. The wages recommended 
by such Committees as have reported vary from 30s. to 35s., 
these wages mark an advance, and of course they are fixed 
as a rule for a shorter working daJ^ But the\/ are too 
low ; for a Special Sub-Committee appointed by the Wage-; 
Board has laid it down that tlw wage paid must be such as" to 
enable a labourer to pay rent for a five-room dwelling in 
proper state of repair, with satisfactory sanitary arrange- 
nients, an adequate water supply, together with garden ground 
of not less than an eighth of an acre. It is, of course, most 
satisfactory to have such a standard established, but it is 
•quite clear that the wages recommended fall short of it. On 
the other hand, once a Wages Board is set up, there is a 
medium in which public opinion can work, and it is certain 
that agricultural WRg.s will rise. This machinery will 
also be of use in introducing a Factory Law into 
agriculture. There is no reason why the" agricultural 
labourer should be denied the protection that the town 
workman receives'from the law. 
The other institution that we owe to the vvar is the County 
Agricultural Committee. The Corn Production Act guarantees 
certain prices to the farmers, but it imposed on them a certain 
discipline. Under Part IV of the Act the Board of Agriculture 
IS empowered to enforce a certain standard and type of 
cultivation on the farmer. This control is wide and drastic 
If a farmer is negligent or wasteful, if he refuses to put his 
land to the best use, if he allows rabbits to become a pest 
if in general he does not conform to the standard imposed 
by the Board, he may lose his farm. These powers ha\e 
been delegated by the Board to the War Agricultural 
Executive Committees. In many cases the Committees have 
acted with vigour, inflicting penalties for waste and bad 
farming and the excessive preservation of game. It is a 
weakn«s in the organisation of these Committees, that though 
they have powttr to punish a bad farmer, they have no powm- 
■to protect a good one. These Committees will remain in 
existence with these powers as long as the Corn Production 
Act IS in force, i.e., till 1922, and although nothing but the 
critical position of the country would have reconciled the 
farmers to this revolutionary scheme, it is obvious that the 
machinery will serve very useful purposes after the war 
For in agriculture, not less than in other industries, organ- 
isation is urgently needed if the industry is to be developed. 
And there is no industry where development is so vital to 
the nation as the fundamental industry of all. Everybody 
agrees that the land must produce more food ; that the natioii 
cannot afford wasteful farming ; that private pleasure must 
not be allowed to take precedence over public needs. 
On other sides reform is necessary to give vitality and 
significance to rural life. We want to encouratje small 
holdings of different types : to introduce land settlements 
for soldiers ; to give agriculture the promise of a career 
to men with brains and no capital. The regeneration of 
rural life means the development of co-operation, of village 
clubs, of village industries, of new methods not of production 
only but of buying, selling, transport and communication. 
By making village life various in jts employments and its 
interests we shall restore the old type of village society. In 
a later article we shall examine the bearing on all these 
questions of the new revolution that is imminent with the 
development of electrical power. At present it is only 
necessary to point out that the War Agricultural Committees 
will be invaluable as representative bodies for stimulating 
and guiding the development. For that purpose one reform 
is obviously essential. There is no reason for the presence 
of the Textile Trade Unionists on the Cotton Control Board 
and the Woollen Control Board, which does not apply to the 
case of the Agricultural Labourers and the War Executive 
Committees. "These Committees must include the represen- 
tatives of the Labourers' llnions, so that they may speak 
with 'the authority of the industry as a whole. " The Govern- 
ment would have been wiser to recognise this principle from 
the first. As it is, there have been complaints in some 
parts of the country that Executive Committees have used 
their power unfairly in dealing, at the time of a labour 
dispute, with the question of exemptions from military 
service. For the future there can be no doubt that these 
Committees must be organised, on the principle that has 
been applied with such success to the textile industries. 
Note.— Mr. Arthur Baring's letter in Land & Water of May 2nd, 
on the subject of the assault on Mr Bingham Baring, does not affect 
my account of the brutahty of the punishments inflicted on the rioters 
m 1830. Of Mr. Bingham Baring's part in the proceedings I have 
nothing to say. The fact that he used his influence oil the side of 
mercy— which I am interested to learn— suggests that he took the 
siune view as the people of Micheldever of the conduct of the judges. 
In Barracks : By Sherard Vines 
Desolately, the Last Post 
Cries down the windy barrack square. 
Whirls and quavers, and is lost 
In the blue frost 
Beyond the air. 
Yet that sobbing quality, 
Not wholly of our earthly scale. 
In their brazen harmony. 
Pierces the 
Unending veil. 
Lightto sleep goes after light , 
Step echoes after step to bed. 
While the bugler every night 
Plays in sight 
Of all the dead. 
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