Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1920-08-23 | Page 4 | Rise of Farm Labor

I RISE OF FARM LAEOR Revolution in England ' But a bloodless one ! If one were writing in the exclamatory style of the movie see-hario see-hario author, the above is the waj in which lie would start telling about one of the greatest end most noteworthy labor movements nol bnly in England but In the whole world. For it would tell how the laborer on the English farms, hitherto hither-to the most oppressed, the most underpaid, underfed, underclothed, j worst-housed of all English working men, has suddenly begun to de j mand and receive his human rights. 5 The very absence of -lOiHHMi farm workers in the army caused A England for the first time i,) realize how importanl a cog in her machinery ma-chinery is the man who lills the fields, plants the seeds and reaps the harvest. The result is that he is now nol only enjoying highei wages and shorter hours, but is beginning more and more to exerl his strength through his own unions and is making a fight for better bet-ter housing and better educational facilities for his children When the war broke out the average wage of the farm laborer was about $3.80 per week But with the German submarine menace, il became necessary for England to inerea.se her own inod crops ( Therefore, a i rn production aet was passed by parliament It guaranteed guar-anteed a certain price to the farmers for their vsheat and it bestowed the boon on the farm laborers of fl minimum wage of $" per week This became the law on ugusl 21, 1917, and i ver sm. i then the worker has gradually gotten more wages until now he has an aver-, aver-, nge of about s.s '.i i demanding a minimum of $H and has his eye i on an ultimate $ 1 ' Moreover, he is using a weapon hitherto unknown in Anglo. Saxon countries in disputes between farmers and then- help. He is Actually striking in eert.'in parts of England, and there is a thie.it of lugger strikes all over if his demands ;ire not satisfied'