Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-04-12
English Agricultural Wages.


In the reports that our free trade stat
isticians love to give showing the i'm
provement in England under free trade,
the agricultural laborers are always
omitted. 1t was from the product OF
these laborers, says the New York Press,
that Protection was withdrawn by the
repeal of the Corn laws and adoption of
Englands free trade policy.
In 1892 the English Board of Trade be-
gan tO publish the Labor Gazette, Civ
ing official statements of various facts re-
garding labor which included agriculture
The facts given in the Labor Gazette
for 1894 and 1895 show that there has
beer practically no increase of agri| III
tural wages in rural England since tho
Inauguration of the free trade policy.
In 1S45 and for some years previous
wages of agricultural laborers were II
shillings week. The Labor Gazette for
August, 1894, gives under the head of
wages for Harvesting and Hay max
ing as follows: Lincolnshire, IS. Sd. (54
shire (Lord Salisbury's home) lis. to 12s.
(2.75 to S3) week. Wiltshire, lbs. (S3.2j)
week.
The Gazette for November, 1894, re-
porting the wages of agricultural labor
ers after harvesting, says: weekly
wages generally dropped in October in
all parts of the country in rural districts
except Northern counties, where they
only fell in few localities"
In Cambridgeshire they are reported as
having fallen to lis. and 1Os.a week(S2.T5
to $3.50. In Essex they have fallen to
1Os., and ''some are receiving 9s.and even
S." (S2.25 and $2) week. In Suffolk
are los. $3.50 week. In Suffolk and
Wiltshire los. and 9s. $3.50 and S2.25) a
week. Women's wages are generally 1Od.
and Is. go to "a cents) day.
1t will be seen from the foregoing that
the wages of English agricultural labor
ers in 1894 were actually lower than they
were in 1S45 OF course, these laborers
in common with the rest of mankind get
the advantage of the fall in prices during
that period, but, granting the increased
purchasing power of their wages, the ag-
ricultural laborers have made no substan-
tial progress during the whole free trade
regime. In other words, England's free
trade policy has practically deprived
English agricultural laborers of the ben
efits of the last half centurys progress
The consuming power of this part of
England laboring population has been
entirely arrested, and to that degree the
growth of her home market stultifed.
The natural result is that land is going
out of cultivation and the value of land
falling as well as the wages of agricultur.
al laborers. This makes England depend
more and more upon foreign markets for
her manufactured wares and grow more
hungry every day to get free access into
the United States,
In view of these facts it is easy to un-
derstand why English manufacturers
have such an affection for Cleveland and
why the London Chamber of Commerce
so hilariously dined Wilson. The only
sections of England where any percepti
BILE increase in agricultural wages has Ia
ken place are in the vicinity of manufac-
turing towns where wages are always
higher than they are in the purely agri-
cultural districts.
Do American farmers want to repeat
Englands experience and make this a
free trade foreign market country, de
pressing both the wages of labor and the
value of land?
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