GOVERNMENT POLICY CONDEMNED.

The farmers of England and Scotland have decided to strike against the agricultural policy of the Government, and threaten to go out of business – so far as cereal raising is concerned – until a more reasonable view of the situation is taken by those in authority. From Yorkshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Warwick, Cornwall, and elsewhere comes news of this serious decision. A representative meeting of East, West, and North Riding farmers has passed a resolution “refusing to accept the decisions of the present Wages Board unless the Government gives a guarantee of prices commensurate with the proposed increased cost of production.” That is the crux of the whole agricultural situation. The fear of the agriculturist is that the Wages Board will spring another rise a few months hence. “National Labourers” are asking for 50s a week, and a member of “the Rural Workers’ Union” has suggested 60s as a minimum wage. The farmers’ viewpoint, in short, is that if the Government insists on raising the labourers’ wages and shortening their hours, and the prices of farm produce fall, nothing but disaster looks the industry in the face. Mass meetings are being held all over the country, at which resolutions are passed protesting against an agricultural policy which increases costs of production hut strikes no compensating balance for the producer in return. The farmer agrees that a few agricultural labourers are quite worth their two guineas a week wages; but the majority are not, and his pockets will not stand the drain of having to pay for labour which has little productivity. Other trades, they point out, can meet the demands of labour by making the general public pay, but the farmer has to sell his products to a sinking market, and one which may possibly be in time at the complete mercy of the speculators on the other side of the world. The farmer asks for guaranteed prices for a number of years to come – ten at least. Some agriculturists want a Royal Commission to inquire into the status of their industry, but others pray for immediate action on the part of the Government, ere irreparable injury is done to the industry which will take years to restore. Certain it is that much land will go back to grass or out of cultivation altogether unless immediate action is taken to give the farmer confidence in his own business. The mischief of the decisions of the Wages Board is already working, for it is not that the best labourers would not get high wages to-day – they would – but the inexperienced labourers are not worth the money decreed, and so have to be discharged unless the employer wishes to go bankrupt. Unemployment on the land will be acute soon if the Government does not intervene.

WHAT FARMERS ASK FOR.

What farmers who doubt the future of their industry ask for is a measure of expediency to last sufficient years to give it a fair trial. They say: Let wages and approximate minimum prices of products be now fixed for a few years, and then, if advisable, let a Royal Commission go back to first principles and map out a programme to last ten or twenty years. That, it is pleaded, would allow time to see how the land scheme, housing, questions affecting exports and imports, and other projects with which he Coalition Government are struggling, would work, and enable all interested in agriculture to approach and consider more calmly broad fundamental points for a commission to thrash out. In the meantime, whether it is to be a Royal Commission, a Whitley Council, or some other “joint board,” that is to ease the farmer’s mind, to speed up the cultivation and sowing – both now lagging – and inspire confidence and enterprise in all branches of the industry – whatever is to be done should be done quickly. Successful tenant farmers are being turned adrift to make way for soldiers’ settlements, house building, and little plots; industrial millions are clamouring for cheap food, which the farmer, who is paying double for everything. is expected to produce; and, made timid by the last wages order, many farmers are taking smaller holdings or retiring altogether. Land-owning farmers, unable to secure an adequate return for their outlays, are selling their estates, most particularly in the North of England.

“FREEZING” THE MILK TAP.

Much indignation is expressed by West Country farmers at the decision of the Food Controller fixing the wholesale price of milk lower in the West than in other parts of the country, and there are hints that the milk supply will be entirely suspended if the Ministry of Food persist in their attitude. At a meeting yesterday the Devon branch of the National Farmers’ Union it was stated that one of the matters which would be seriously considered by the conference would be the desirability of “freezing the tap” – that is, a total stoppage of the supply of milk if the preferential rates are continued. A resolution of protest against the rates was passed, and it was unanimously decided to support the Somerset branch of the union in a protest to the Ministry of Food on the matter.