The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-01-13 00:00:00

lE4t Sitrat4ri4 (Narita.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 1872.

AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS.

Oliver Goldsmith, who was a very charming
poet but a very poor political economist, tells us
that there was a time are England's griefs began,
when every rood of ground maintained its man.
It is a pity he did not tell us when that time was,
for even if England was merrie England then
—supposing there were such a time—her griefs
must have begun. Countries, like individuals,
must have their sorrows in all ages, and if it
was before England's grief began that this curi-
ous state of things existed, why—it must have
been, to say the least, a very long time ago.
The same favourite poet and sorry political eco-
nomist also tells as that when a bold peasantry,
their country's pride, are once destroyed they
can never be supplied. If ever our peasantry
are destroyed we, or our successors, will see
about that. Our own impression is that so long
as there is a demand for a peasantry—to say no.
thing of their alleged boldness—they will be
supplied. It is only a question of supply and
demand after all—a question of work and wages
by agreement. But at present there need be no
fear of our peasantry being destroyed. We
hear a good deal about the drain from rural to
town districts, and at specially busy times of
the year there is occasionally some difficulty in
procuring an adequate number of agricultural
labourers for exceptional heavy and pressing
work. But these are only exceptions to the rule,
and our bucolic labourers have not the slightest
intention of being destroyed. On the contrary
they are becoming, in various directions, rather
." bold" in asserting their rights and claims,
while on the other hand iauthy.viiers and Linnets
are beginning to see that it is absolutely neces-
sary that due attention should be paid to tile
labourer's positiou in order that it limy he is
The lot of the agricultural labourer, on t:..c
whole, is not a pat-titularly enviable one. His
position of course tillers in different places, ,
owine to a yeni! ty of eireninsttinces. The la-
bourer's individual charocter, his health, or want
of it ; the char :cter of his empleyer ; the cot-
tage iu which toe labourer and hit fionfly live or
herd together; the mati's associates and temp- I
totions, or the good hi:here:es that are brought
to bear upon ulna—these and it site other eircum•
'dances affect the lover grades if life in the
agricultural districts. But take that life es a
whole, atal it is undeniable that reform and its-
prevenient are imperatively needed. In thou-
sands of cases the pay of the agricultural
laboarer is too low for the virtue of self-depen-
dence, and it has to be eked out by various
forms of charity, with the Poor Law Union as a
final goal. Continually hovering on the verge
of pauperism is the condition of far too many
of our "bold peasantry, their country's pride."
It is by no means agreeable to admit this fact, :
but fact it is, and we must not shut our eyes to
it. We can easily admit the justice, on the
other hand, of the remark with which each an
assertion would be frequently met—that the la-
bourer gets as much as he is worth. Indispu-
tably true in multitudes of cases; decidedly
coetrovertible in numerous others. But the
question of pay, which is now coming to the
fore, is mixed up with many others w hich are
also now demanding unwonted attention, not
only among the employing classes in the agri-
cultural world, but among the public generally,
as well as of course among the agricultural Is-
bouring class. It is now being increasingly felt
that the entire position of the agricultural la-
bourer might to be improved, and that he ought
to do something to help himself. If it is too
late for Hodge himself to learn to read and
write— though in this respect it is never too
late to nend— he inust see to it that his children
at least have the elements of education ; and if
Ito will not see the advantages of that which he
has never possessed, lie must be made to send
his children where these advantages can be had
te next to nothing, or for nothing, if need he.
And then 11,,,1r:e'5 home—if that swo it old Sax-
on word can be employed in reference to his
fl welling—must beiniproved. Less cored for by
the employer than is his stable or cow-house, we
usti4 tire I.olllolhiqry improvement, on general
sanitary principles, if reform can be obtained in
no other way. And it is to be hoped that ere
long legislation may circumscribe some of
llodge's peculiar temptations in the shape of the
beer-shop, as great a cnree in the village as the
got• palaceis in the town. We will not enter on
the thorny question of " oermissive prohibi-
t;•,,,,” but, nmionbtedly, the entire licensing aye
tem demands reform in the interest of the agri-
cultural labourer as well as that of other classes
itat cannot more be done than is already done
to supply some healthy, hearty, thoroughly
emuseinent and recrectien, fur the long
ev.•iiioes w:ien . g-i•stiltural labour is mit impoe
ionnity ? jeer,- lisp be the only club-
, tor such it realty is- -that the labot,rer can resort
It? Working iee's clubs have tone much
good ; agricriltoral laboin ors' club; might do
nitwit more. lit some way or other we must pay
more attention to Hodge than he has hitherto
had. The labour market is everywhere more or
less active, and agricultural labourers are begin
niug to feel, and to make others feel, that the
have rights and elaints which have been to
much neglected. These are not the wen to le
•' destroyed and there is itotiong to be gab e.
by their ig repressed; they should be itialtn
led, and for the benefit of the communih:.
at large.

beitii

guide'd