The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-04-18 00:00:00

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CORRESPONDENCE ON THE AGRICUL-

TURAL LABOUR QUESTION.

A "Dorsetshire Clergyman" writes to The Tinvs : -

Sir,—A clear conception of the limits within which
alone a Labourers' Union can be effectual would tend
greatly to diminish unreasonable hopes and fears alike
upon this subject. The three prevailing types of cases
may be illustrated thus in simple terms. Given 100
men in any district, and work sufficient for only 90,
the excess of hands must soon inevitably make itself
felt through the defection of the weaker brethren and
other causes. No Union under such circumstances could
long maintain an inflation of wages. On the other hand,
reverse these figures, and suppose 90 men, with work
round them requiring 100 hands. A Labourers'
Union, directed from some convenient centre, at once
enables the men to profit by the situation. If the advan-
tage is pushed too far, an immigration of fresh hands
is the sure result, followed by a fall in wages. A third
and commoner type of case is where those figures more
nearly approximate, and where there is but a narrow
margin on one aide or the other. Such facts soon be-
come patent to intelligent observers in every neigh-
bourhood. It is only an enfeebled sense of what is Inc
to the agricultural labourer which can deny him of all
men the right so to organize his class as to take ad-
vantage of these fluctuations in the labour market,
when thiy'are in his favour; while "migration" and
emigration are his natural remedy when they are
against him.
I am siirlpiteil to find the tone of educated society
in this country still remaining unfavourable upon the
whole to the Union movement. I aro fully alive to
the faults which float upon the surface of the move-
ment rather than belong to its essence. It has been
mixed up with agrarian schemes and inflammatory
language on the part of sonic of its leaders in the Press
and on the platform; but this would melt away like
dross, according an the essential merits of the move-
ment were recognized and appreciated by a larger pro-
portion of the educated classes. The common objection
to "paid agitators" was well disposed of at the Bath
Congress by Mr. LI. Davies, who pointed out that the
soberest of religious societies required equally the aid
of professional advocates.
The great merit of a Labourers' Union seems to me
the support it gives the men in country districts far
removed from the market town against farmers willing
to profit by their ignorance and isolation to give them
lead than the current rate of wages of the district.
Every country clergyman must be perfectly acquainted
with such instanced. The Union is not a terror to
liberally disposed fanners. Another preponderating
merit of the Union, in my opinion, is the outlet afforded
to supernumerary hands by the information obtainable
through its officers of the prospects of work in other ilis-
tricts. Many a clergyman has only too much reason
to be thankful to the movement for the opportunity
thus afforded, through its agents in the neighbouring
town, of a fresh start in life by "migration," or emi-
gration, to some unsuccessful member of his parish. If
the only permanent result of the movement were the
establishment of a well-informed Labour Agency in
every central town, a great improvement upon the
past would have been secured. It only remains to
recognise the Agricultural Labourers' Union as a fait
accompli, and to trust that with the due appreciation
of its just limits, either for good or for evil, the
wilder talk of some who supported it hitherto will dis-
appear.

The two following letters are from Tuesday's
Times :

Sir,--Of your courtesy I beg leave to answer the "East
Essex Farmer." I will not waste the most precious inches in
the world by a fight about the word "legitimate," but I will
take at once the pith and marrow of his letter.
The farmers, he says, might be right in locking out their
men if they struck b w arise of a shilling, but are wrong when
they lock them out because they join the Union. But the
very end and aim of the Union is a much greater rise than a
shilling. This seems to me the pendantry of punctilio and is
like saying "it a man fires a pistol at your head, seize him ;
hut do not be so ungentlemanly as to hinder his loading it,
although you know what he is going to do"
To anticipate imminent and evident attack is always fair
fighting, and the farmers are facing foes who know no nice
rules of the lists, but are ready to strike against the cut of a
man's coat if it tends 1,, lower wages. The question of pru-
dence is entirely for the farmers to decide, and they are as
shrewd a set of men, as I know and need no advice gratis
from outsiders.

I call the "East Essex Farmer" as a witness on this head
for though I do not agree with him, still I hold that the calm
and reasonable words which he writes show that he belongs
to a clam most unlikely to lose the head in peril, or to in-
dulge in that virtuous indignation and that irresponsible
enthusiasm which are always the parents of injustice, and
which become almost wicked when the grave interests of
TEXPLE.

stake.

Sir,—Permit me to suggest to the farmers and labourers in
the locked-out districts that a resort to arbitration in the
present struggle is for the sake of all parties much to be
desired. There would, as it seems to me, be little difficulty
In arranging the scale of wages. Nor it, think there would
be much more difficulty in framing such terms of mutual
agreement as that while the Union, which on no account
ought the labourers to abandon, would remain as an
indispensable instrumentality for improving the condi-
tion id the peasantry in moral as well as pecuniary
respects, it might be so guarded as to prevent its
being unfairly used, as the farmers seem to appre-
hend, as a surprise and a trap tor them in those often
sudden and serious emergencies to which, in consequence of
weather, agriculture more than any other business is subject.
If they could but see it, the welfare of farmers and labourers,
as I have always held, is identical, and the country has far
too deep an interest in the welfare of both parties to wish to
see a see a suicidal struggle indefinitely and unnecessarily
prolonged.—Your obedient servant,
EDWARD GIRDLESTONE, Canon of Mato'.
Bristol, April 10.