THE WELL-FED LABOURER.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPEOTAT08.1 SIR,—Mr. Fawcett, in a recent election address at Bethnal Green, when arguing against the lock-out of Agricultural Labourers in
the Eastern Counties, and in favour of their having higher wages, is reported to have used these words :—" It may be said, ' what are the farmers to do if they give higher wages?' Does the far- mer think that he would gain any advantage by underfeeding a horse, or keeping him in an ill-ventilated stable ?" By implication, he advises the farmers to pay higher wages, because labourers, being well-fed and well-stabled, would, like horses under the same conditions, be sure to do more work.
This is an argument which has been much used, but it does not seem to be sound. Men are not horses. Feed up a horse, and you can almost make sure of taking out the increase of energy in so much more work. Feed up a man, and you may or may not get proportionately additional work from him. He has a will as well as you, and is free to use it ; he may use it in resolving not to work, or only to work as much as is barely necessary. Again, wages have almost universally increased of late years, but does the well-fed labourer do more work, put more individual energy into it now, than he did twenty or ten years ago? Ask the " gangers" about their navvies, who are some of the highest-fed workmen in England, and see what they will tell you. And this complaint is not confined to the employers of this roving class. Certainly it is a widely-uttered complaint of many and various employers, that individual workers do notdo as much work as they used to do when wages were less. And workmen themselves are not slow to allow that this is true, and very likely are able in part to justify it. I believe that Jam not behind Mr. Fawcett in wishing that agricultural labourers should have unrestricted op- portunities of combining for their mutual good, and in regretting the ill-considered action of the farmers in the Eastern Counties, indeed it is for these very reasons that no arguments should be addressed to either side which are liable to be shaken by absolute reasoning or by reference to facts. It may be answered that piece-work is the evident remedy for the idleness of the well- fed labourer, but farmers say that it cannot be used in all agri-
cultural operations.-1 am, Sir, &c., HENRY J. BULKELEY.
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