The Agricultural Wage It is the local paper, too, which
carries the story of the munificent increase of one shilling a week in the wages of male agricultural workers of over 21, accompanied by the usual outraged protests from the farmers themselves—" the farm labourer could now buy more for his money, and it was all nonsense to talk about starvation wages." The standard rate of agricultural wages in East Kent is 3.4s. To me this is either a starvation wage or else my ideas of starvation are a little strange. I am glad to read the proper retort to such a protest : "according to farmers, the agricultural industry is always in a bad way. They never heard of anyone making money until the question of compensation arose, when the Government or Air Ministry wanted to take over a piece of land." Meanwhile the drift of men from the land increases, and, as it increases, the vigour of rural life proportionately lessens. In my own village., during the last eight years, not a single young man has left school or other employment to work as an agricultural labourer, whereas a dozen have left the land to work at something else, preferably in towns. That makes clear to me, at least, what the countryman thinks of the difference between thirty-five shillings and starvation.
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