ABSTRACT
Trade Union contributions from agriculture must of necessity be low. Highly-industrialised countries are the smallest agricultural populations, and the largest percentages of landless wage-earners. In urban industry, the wage-earner makes what at least appears to the agricultural worker a free contract. At International Labour Conferences every possible obstacle has been raised, first to any discussion of agricultural conditions, and—when that failed—to any discussion likely to lead to effective decisions. A long agitation for the inclusion of agriculture in unemployment insurance was the main urge behind the Act of 1936 which extended this insurance to farm, garden and estate workers. A second agitation has been concerned with the improvement of housing and water supply. In England the standard of rural housing is low; in Scotland it is lower, and the conditions there for the single men who live on farm premises has produced strong language even in an official report.
