AGRICULTURE FOR SCHOOLBOYS.
[To Tax EMT., Or 2111 " arxer.0.1 Sin,—The question of boys of school age being pressed into agricultural work during the mobilization of His Majesty's present forces will be more and more urgently debated as the spring advances, and one at least of your readers would like to find advice upon it in the Spectator. Farmers will be more and more insistently asking for workers in the place of the anon who are enlisted, and on the other side the outcry will grow more shrill from those who see in the demand a device of that queer, strangely surviving beast, the "village tyrant," to exploit cheap labour and to keep wages down and the children of the poor in ignorance. It was extremely satis- factory that, when the question was raised in the House of Commons on March 4th, Mr. Asquith gave simple and direct utterance to what his common-sense dictated. It comes to this fit men of the right age cannot be better employed anywhere than in His Majesty's forces for the time being, and therefore should not stay in the field at home ; they have actually left their work there by scores of thousands since the last hay and corn harvests. The shortage has perhaps escaped some superficial observers during the winter, but it has existed. For instance, during a winter when the Baltic ports have been practically closed and timber in strong demand at good prices, how many labourers, often employed in felling trees in the winter, have been avail- able for this profitable work ? Practically none. Meanwhile agricultural production needs to be increased rather than decreased or merely maintained. The deficiency of men must be made up by women and boys. Old men hardly affect the matter, as rural labourers do not give up work so long as they are fit to do any. Some labour-saving machinery may be installed where farming is conducted on a large scale and there is ample capital, but neither this nor Belgian labour will renemlly solve the difficulty. Women and boys remain. Let me deal with the women first. On the whole it is a good thing that female agricultural labour has diminished. In the North, where it is still common, it will probably expand this year ; in the Mid- lands, and where the disappearance of the dairymaid is recent, it will probably revive. In more sophisticated districts, such as the Home Counties, I doubt whether the young women will do anything so unconventional as to milk a cow. Their ignorance of such work will probably be a smaller obstacle than their habit of mind. In many districts therefore, particularly near London, there remain only the boys to make up the deficiency, and I think that before the hay harvest the demand for boy labour will become irresistible. It will be well that we should consider in time how the most good and the least harm may result. Everybody must loss or go without something on account of the war, and if some boys lose some education, how can the loss be minimized ? First of all, the law generally should stand as it is, enforcing attendance up to fourteen years of age. Probably no one will wish to see the law repealed in this respect, for the exceptional and temporary character of exemption should be kept in prominence. Nor should the laws or by-laws prohibiting the employ- ment of children be set aside employers would become indiscriminate in engaging boys unless they realized that they may still be liable to prosecution. The present system of examinations for labour certificates is not very satisfactory, and merely to develop it would not induce satis- faction. My experience of rural schools leads me to think that the safest scheme would be one which may sound cumbersome, but would not in practice be so in country districts where "everybody knows everybody." The farmer, knowing of a likely boy whom he wishes to employ, should apply to the parents. The parents, if willing, should apply to the school managers, who, after consulting the teacher, should grant or refuse leave for whole time or half-time. They should then inform the school attendance officer of their decision. The local Attendance Committee should delegate their discretion to prosecute or refrain to the managers, even if they demand information and keep some supervision. In support of this scheme I would say that the demand should come from the farmers. It will be the parents' business to see that the boys are not " sweated " either with too heavy work or too long hours or too little pay. (Incidentally, I would say that any half-time arrangement needs great care : the balance of active and sedentary work may be excellent ; it may be most objec- tionable.) Then I would give discretion to the managers, because those much-abused voluntary workers have a far more intimate knowledge of the persons and circumstances than the County Committees or Attendance Sub-Committees. They probably know the farmers, the parents, and the boys, the conditions of the work, the homes and probable prospects of the boys. But I would insist on their taking the teacher into consultation. He should know best which boys would lose least by missing some, of their literary education, and which might even be said to be likely gainers by early specialization in the technical education of agriculture. lain quite aware that the last clause sounds like specious hum- bug, and do not pose as thinking that many boys would gain thereby before the age of fourteen years. But I believe that with trouble taken on these linos we could get the needed advantage of the boys' powers, and could with a good con- science lay the blame for their loss on those who brought the war upon us.—I am, Sir, &e.,
THE CHAIRMAN Or A SCHOOL ATTENDANCE COMMITTEE.
[We cannot believe that any boys will be injured mentally by working in the fields "during the war only," and we are quite sure that a great many of them will be benefited physically if ordinary care is taken to prevent their doing unsuitable work ; for example, carrying heavy weights.—Faa Spectator.]
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