Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-04-22
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MONDAY. April &c, 1873.
TaE AeRIcuLruRA1 LABoRERs, srRIKE has

MONDAY. APRIL &c, 1873.
The AGRICULTURAL LABoRERs' STRIKE has
given England a new sensation and not pleas
ant one. Its seat is in Warwickshlre, the centre
and heart OF England, county not surpassed
in fertility or that quiet rural beauty which is
delight TO all foreigners and the special pride
of Eugsbmen. Tourists speak with enthusiasm
of its leafy lanes, its picturesque Indigenous, its
garden-lke fields, its peaceful villages, its noble
parks and lawns, Its castles, stately and beauti-
full, whether entire or in ruins The American
traveller finds his dreams of Arcadia more than
realized in this favored region; yet even there,
III the midst of beauty and apparent plenty.
there is wrong and misery and discomfort.
There, as elsewhere in England, three classes
of people get their living from the soil: the
landlord, who does nothing; the farmer
his tenant, who supplies the capital and
directs the cultivation; and the laborer,
who does all the actual physical work.
The proceeds of the croo ale shared
among these three. The landlord of course ex-
acts the highest rent that a solvent tenant can
afford to pay, and there is no lack of competi-
ton TO aid him in keeping up his price, He is
nobleman or Squire of an cold county fam
lily" very likely, whose lands have come down
to him from bis ancestors, whose income is from
ten thousand to two hundred thousand dollars an
nually, who lives in London during "the season"
and on his estates the rest of the wear, except
when he is travelling on the continent or else.
where, and whose existence is doubtless the
highest type of physical comfort and luxury 10
be found on earth, with ample opportunities too
Tor intellectual culture, if he chooses to avail
himself of them.
The farmer keeps the rent and wages as low
as he can, so that he may be sure of interest on
his investment and handsome return for his
own services He is, if we may trust the faithful
ness of the portraits we find in English contem-
porary literature, generally narrow minded and
ignorant, seryile to his superiors and resoute to
maintain between himself and his dependents,
the laborers, gulf as wide as that whose ex-
istence he recognizes between his own and the
landlord class. The laborer at the bottom of
this industrial pyramid, bears the weight ofboth
classes above him. What is left of the profits
of the land, after his superiors have taken all
they could, is his, and little enough he finds it.
There is always an abundant supply Of laborers,
and hitherto they have had no means of exact
ing larger share of the products of their toll
than their employers were willing to allow
them, Life and certain degree of health
were necessary or they could not work. so wages
have been graduated to keep them, as an Eng
lish writer saws, "just above starvation point"
The laborer himself has had no voice in deter
mining what his wages should be. He must
anything better. To make provision for old
age is impossible; if he does not die at his work
he must 90 to the poor-house. This is the nat
ural course; and he can hope for nothing
better. He is deusely ignorant and imbruted by
constant toll, priyation, and a sense of helpless
ness and dependence. His home is too often
hovel, where comfort and decency are alike I'M
known. He must live and support his family on
less than three dollars week, when he is in
full work, and yet it is said that the condition
of the agricultural laborer in Warwickshre is
better than in any other part of England.
In all but the name, he is essentially serf
as his forelathers were. The patient, plodding
habit which his ignorance and his hopelessness
perpetuate, is hereditary with him. The idea OF
lettering his lot by emigration has never
dawned upon him and, if it had, it is as much
beyond his power to 20 10 America as to go to
the moon. The laborer and his family are not
altogether overlooked or neglected by their su-
periors. The curate looks in upon them some
times and impresSes upon them the duty OF
difference to their betters, and perhaps the
squire's wife or daughters pays them an occa-
siOnal patronizing visit, which is kindly meant,
just as one might be kind to a horse or dog,
and with hardly more consciousness on either
side that there is anything in common between
the giver and The recipient of the favor.
But new spirit has entered into the War
wickshire laborer; his awe and reverence for the
Equality seem to have left him in some measure,
and BIT shows strange consciousness that he is
man and has rights which he must look after
for himself, with the help, not OF the squire and
the parson, but of his bletnren. He has de-
manded sixteen billings a week. and, failing 10
get it, has organized a strike after the model Of
those which the trades unions nave made fami-
liar to the manufacturing capitalist To the
farmer this is a bewildering novelty. Joseph
Arch, a cottager who was once farm
hand and has accomplished the extreme
ly rare feat of raising himself one de-
gree above that rank, is the leader in this
movement which deserves to succeed, and will
have the hearty good wishes of Americans at
least. Their demands are moderate enough;
the wages they ask would be less than four dol.
lars week They have used no violence as yet
and show no disposition to do SO. That they
should have learned from the trades unions the
power of associated effort is extremely discon-
certing TO the farmers and squireS, whose profits
or rents must give way if the demand is success
fully enforced, as it must be in the end.