INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE

STUDIES AND REPORTS
Series K (Agriculture) No. 8

THE REPRESENTATION
AND ORGANISATION
OF AGRICULTURAL WORKERS

GENEVA
1928

CONTENTS
Page

Introduction

5
PART I

Representation of Agricultural Workers in the
International Labour Organisation

§ 1.
§ 2.

§ 3.

§ 4.
§ 5.

The Commission on International Labour Legislation .. ¡ t
Work of the Organising Committee for the First Session of the
International Labour Conference, Washington, 1919 ; Interpretation of the Phrase, "Members of Chief Industrial
Importance"
Work of the Committee Appointed to Consider the Criteria
to be Adopted in the Selection of the Eight States of Chief
Industrial Importance, 1921-1922
The Third Session of the International Labour Conference,
Geneva, 1921
The Mixed Advisory Agricultural Committee
PART

7

14

17
22
27

II

The Definition of an Agricultural Worker

§ 1.
§ 2.

Examination of the Texts of the Draft Conventions and
Recommendations
Scope of the Question : What Constitutes an Agricultural
Worker ? The Position of the Smallholder and Similar
Groups
Employer and Employed in Agriculture
Social Protection of the "Intermediate" Groups of
Cultivators
Opinion of the Workers
Note. — The "Intermediate" Groups of Cultivators and
the International Labour Organisation
PART

29

31
32
44
50
58

III

Agricultural Trade Unionism
INTRODUCTION

66

International Land Workers' Federation
International Federation of Christian Land Workers' Trade Unions
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium

72
74
76
79
84
91

— 4 —
Bulgaria
94
Canada
96
China
99
Czechoslovakia
101
Denmark
106
Estonia
112
Finland
116
France.
119
Germany
126
Great Britain :
England and Wales
138
Scotland
146
Hungary
151
Irish Free State
157
Italy
161
Japan
169
Latvia
175
Lithuania
177
Netherlands
179
New Zealand
183
Poland
187
Portugal
191
Spain
193
Sweden
195
Switzerland
201
Union of South Africa
203
Appendix : List of Workers' Delegates in States not Dealt with in
Part III of this Report.
209

INTRODUCTION

On 2 June 1925 the Seventh Session of the International
Labour Conference unanimously adopted a Resolution requesting
the Governing Body to instruct the International Labour Office
to present, as early as possible, a report on the representation
and organisation of agricultural workers. The terms of the
Resolution, which was proposed by the Japanese Workers'
Delegate, were as follows :
Whereas the Labour Part of the Treaties of Peace provides not only
for the protection of industrial workers, but also for the protection
of agricultural workers, and whereas the International Court of Justice
has confirmed this intention of the Treaties ;
Whereas by virtue of this decision, and of the general principles of
the Labour Part, rural workers must be accurately represented in the
various bodies of the International Labour Organisation ;
And whereas the special nature of agricultural labour and the great
variety of categories of agricultural Workers in every country render
the question of their organisation and representation especially difficult
and delicate, and whereas it is important to have full knowledge of
the facts in order to avoid possible misunderstandings or even disputes :
The Conference requests the Governing Body to instruct the International Labour Office to prepare and submit as early as possible a report
showing what are the various categories of agricultural workers in
every country and also the principles upon which they are organised
and where necessary represented both in their 1 national institutions
and in the International Labour Organisation .

The Governing Body, at its twenty-ninth Session on 17
October 1925, accordingly instructed the International Labour
Office to prepare such a report. A preliminary report was
submitted to the Eighth Session of the International Labour
Conference, 1926. The present study has been prepared for
the use of the Conference at its Tenth Session. It will be seen
that the study is in the main confined to an assembling of facts.
Certain inferences which arise here and there are indicated,
but without any formulation of the final principles which should
govern the representation of agricultural workers in the International Labour Organisation. At the same time, following
the general indications of the last paragraph of the Resolution,
it is assumed that the organisation and representation of agricultural workers internationally has a very close connection
1
International Labour Conference, Seventh Session, Geneva, 1925,
Vol. II, pp. 670-671.

_ 6 —
with their organisation and representation on a national basis.
This explains the scope of the present study.
The material used for the study has been drawn from two
sources — the records of the International Labour Organisation
and of the League of Nations and special information obtained
from workers' organisations, especially from agricultural workers'
organisations.
The study falls into three Parts :
I. An enquiry into representation of agricultural workers
in the International Labour Organisation : this has
involved an enquiry into the representation of agricultural interests in general in the Organisation, and
an examination of the early official records which
preceded or immediately followed the creation of the
Organisation brings out the interesting fact that
originally some stress was laid on a definite, or even
on a separate, representation of agricultural interests
in the Organisation ; attention is further drawn to
recent arrangements which may have the result of
concentrating the discussion of agricultural matters
within the Organisation in a body which could act
in an advisory capacity to the Governing Body of
the International Labour Office.
II. An enquiry into the definition of an agricultural
worker : an examination of the texts of the Draft
Conventions and the Recommendations of the International Labour Organisation shows that they do not
offer any precise definition of what constitutes an
agricultural worker, but that in general they can
have a wide application ; national legislation and
practice, and the practice and opinion of workers'
organisations are then examined.
III. An enquiry into the classification of agricultural
workers and into national organisations of agricultural
workers in a certain number of countries ; this enquiry,
the first of its kind undertaken on an international
basis, brings out the background and character of the.
trade union movement among agricultural workers
and shows how far it is of recent growth and how far
linked up with the general trade union movements
in each country.

PART I
REPRESENTATION OF AGRICULTURAL WORKERS
T H E INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION

IN

§ 1. — The Commission on International Labour Legislation

The question of the representation of agricultural interests
was first raised at the Commission on International Labour
Legislation appointed by the Peace Conference on 31 January
1919 to examine proposals for a permanent body to secure
common international action on labour questions. The question
was discussed in reference to the composition of the delegations
to be sent by each State to the International Labour Conference.
The claims of agricultural workers (and equally of agricultural
employers) to seats at the Conference were advanced. It was
claimed that seats at the Conference should either be allotted
permanently to agricultural employers and workers, or that some
arrangement should be made whereby they could be allotted
for special Sessions.
These claims were very decidedly advocated at the fifth
and sixth sittings on 7 and 10 February 1919 by Mr. Loucheur
(France) and Mr. Colliard (France), supported by Baron Mayor
des Planches (Italy). Mr. Loucheur's suggestion was that there
should be two representatives of employers and of workers
respectively at each Session. "By this means", he added,
"it would be possible to find a place for representatives of agriculture on the side both of the employers and the workpeople,
which, especially for a country like France, was eminently
desirable. " 1 Baron Mayor des Planches stated that his country
was interested in Mr. Loucheur's proposal, as in Italy "the agricultural class was very numerous and there were a large
1
"Proceedings of the Commission on International Labour Legislation", reprinted in the Official Bulletin of the INTERNATIONAL LABOUR

OFFICE,

Vol.

I,

p.

31.

— 8—
number of agricultural organisations". Finally, Mr. Colliard,
in supporting Mr. Loucheur's proposals, "laid particular
emphasis on the hardships and the backward state of
rural conditions. It was therefore urgently necessary t o
bring the conditions of agricultural labour within the scope
of international labour legislation. Such being the case, the
workers on the land would not understand why they should
not be able to put their claims before the Conference. Their
resentment would be all the greater and the more comprehensible
because during the war they had made greater sacrifices than
any other class." 1
The first objection raised against Mr. Loucheur's proposal
was on the ground that no practical results could be achieved
at the Sessions of the Conference if the number of delegates was
too great. This point was raised by Mr. Mahaim (Belgium),
who proceeded to suggest that it would be possible to appoint
from among the Technical Advisers the Delegate best qualified
to deal with each particular subject, as it arose, and that in
this way "an agricultural representative could be chosen when
agricultural questions came up for discussion " 2 . He was
supported by Mr. Vandervelde (Belgium), who raised the
further objection that "in a highly-industrialised country
like Belgium, it would not be understood if separate representation were given to agriculture" 3 ; and again by the President of the Commission, Mr. Gompers (United States of America),
who brought forward the third point that "in some countries
like the United States, where agricultural workers were numerous, they were nevertheless very badly organised, with the
result that it would be impossible to appoint men who could be
considered as truly representing them" *.
At this stage Mr. Loucheur's proposal 5 was reformulated
by Baron Mayor des Planches in a way which would have
allowed, but which would not have enforced, the representation
1

Ibid., p. 33.
Ibid.
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
5
Mr. Loucheur's proposal took the form of an amendment to parI of Article III of the British "Draft Convention creating a Permanent
Organisation for the Promotion of the International Regulation of
Labour Conditions". The text of this Draft Convention will be found
reprinted in Volume I of the Official Bulletin of the INTERNATIONAL
2

LABOUR OFFICE, pp.

9-16.

— 9 —
of agricultural interests on each Delegation.
lation was as follows :

The new formu-

Each Delegation should consist of two representatives of the Government, two representatives of the workers, and two representatives of
the employers, but their industrial qualifications should not be specified,
whereby it would be possible to select them from the most important
national industry in each case without it being necessary to draw them
from any specified industry 1 .

The question of the separate representation of agricultural
interests had therefore been raised. In the first place, on the
hypothesis that such representation could only be given by
doubling the number of workers' and of employers' representatives — and this, as increasing the total size of the Conference,
was in itself open to objection — it was argued that the only
division which could then be made would be to allot one
delegate each to agriculture and to industry, both in the
case of workers' and in the case of employers' representatives.
This, in the case of highly-industrialised countries (Belgium),
might result in overweighting the Delegation in favour of agriculture; it might not reflect the real economic relations of
industry to agriculture ; in other words, it might be an exaggeration of the agricultural element, and this would be true for
those countries, whether such divided representation were
enforced permanently for all Sessions or only for one Session.
In the second place it was argued that agricultural workers in
certain countries were very imperfectly organised, and that this
would make choice of Agricultural Workers' Delegates difficult.
This second objection was subsequently combated by Mr.
Colliard, who declared it to be "not conclusive." and who also
met yet a third objection by stating that "it was possible to
give special representation to agriculture without being obliged
to extend it to all trades and industries" 2.
The reformulated amendment was lost, and the Commission
then turned to an alternative suggestion, which had already been
raised in the course of the discussion by Mr. Mahaim (Belgium)
and Mr. H. B. Butler (British Empire), namely, to secure representation of agricultural interests through the nomination of
Technical Advisers qualified in agriculture. Count Zoltowski
(Poland) proposed the following amendment :
Each Delegate shall be accompanied by two Advisers ; one of the
Advisers accompanying the Workers' Delegate and one accompanying
1
2

Ibid., pp. 33-34.
Ibid., p. 34.

— 10 —
the Employers' Delegate should represent agricultural
interests when
questions relating to agriculture are discussed 1.
This amendment was dropped. A previous amendment
to make the appointment of Advisers obligatory, and not
optional, had been lost, and in the course of the discussion
it was made clear that there was nothing to prevent the procedure laid down in Count Zoltowski's amendment from being
adopted, but that it could not be made compulsory, as there
would be no effective sanction 2.
The question of the sufficiency of the representation of agricultural working-class interests was again raised by Mr.
di Palma Castiglione (Italy) in the course of the discussion on
methods for appointing members of the Governing Body of
the organisation now known as the International Labour
Office. The British Delegation had suggested that of the
twelve representatives of the Governments, eight should be
nominated by the High Contracting Parties which were "of
chief industrial importance". A discussion took place as to
whether "this proposal allowed for a sufficient representation
of the working classes in countries where agriculture plays an
important p a r t " 3 . Mr. Vandervelde (Belgium), Mr. Mahaim
(Belgium), Mr. Gompers (United States of America), Mr. Barnes
(British Empire), Mr. di Palma Castiglione (Italy), and Sir
Malcolm Delevingne (British Empire) took part in the discussion. In view of the subsequent proceedings before the International Court of Justice in 1922 the conclusion formulated is
significant. It reads as follows :
The text as proposed, which referred to States of the greatest industrial importance, did not exclude the western countries, in which a large
proportion of the wage-earning classes were employed in agriculture.
The English version, taking into account the meaning of the word
"industrial" was clear. It would be satisfactory if the French translation
were made 4equally explicit. The question was referred to the Drafting
Committee .

Towards a final stage of the proceedings, when on a request
of the President the Delegations had been asked to summarise
to the Commission the results of consultations with their home
1
2

Ibid., p. 34.
For the practical application of the procedure suggested during the
Third Session of the Conference, 1921, see below, § 4.
3
Official Bulletin, Vol. I, p. 84.
4
Ibid., pp. 84-85. The Commission eventually adopted the form
which is embodied in Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles, Article 393,
op. cit., p. 280.

— 11 —
authorities during the interval between the eighteenth meeting
(28 February 1919) and the nineteenth meeting (11 March 1919),
Baron Mayor des Planches, speaking at the latter meeting, and
reporting the conclusions arrived at by the Italian Government in
consultation with a special meeting of workers and employers
convened for the purpose, once more raised the point of the
representation of the agricultural workers. He stated that
unanimous agreement had been reached in Italy on five points,
and reported that the fourth of these five points was :
Augmentation of the number of Delegates to the Conference, so that
nations which have an agricultural proletariat of considerable importance, in addition to their industrial proletariat, may secure the representation of their agricultural 1interests at the Conference concurrently
with their industrial interests .

Baron Mayor des Planches proposed to bring the matter up
again at the third reading of the Commission's proposals. At
the third reading the matter did not, however, come up in
precisely the form indicated by this speaker. The discussion
of the third reading of Article III of the draft before the Commission at the twenty-eighth and the twenty-ninth sittings on
19 March .1919 to some extent resumed the question of the
number of representatives to the Sessions of the Conference
to be allotted to each State. The adoption of the principle of
four representatives in all (two Government, one employers'
and one workers'), by eight votes to six 2 finally ruled out
the alternative suggestion of two representatives for employers
and two for workers, which, had the Commission seen fit to
recommend it, would have made it possible to provide for,
or even to enforce, the separate representation of agricultural
interests.
At the same time, the allotting of two representatives to
Governments occasioned an observation on the part of Mr.
Vandervelde (Belgium) that this would in some degree permit
of different claims being satisfied, and among the claims he
mentioned in this connection were those regarding "the representatives of agricultural interests" 3 . On the same occasion,
for various reasons, Mr. Loucheur (France) stated his agreement
with the principle of four representatives in all. Baron Mayor
des Planches explained his views in a statement which did
1
2
3

Ibid., p. 110.
Ibid., p. 186.
Ibid., p. 185.

— 12 —
not directly touch on the representation of agricultural interests.
The discussion on the representation of agricultural interests
on the International Labour Organisation was summed up by
the Commission in Part I of its report 1 presented to the Preliminary Peace Conference. After mention of the alternative
proposals which had been put forward as to the composition
of the Conference, the report added :
The Italian Delegation, which united with the French Delegation in
urging the importance of securing representation for agricultural interests, were to some extent reconciled to the above decision [that each
Government should have two Delegates as against one each to the
employers and workers] by the consideration that, as the Governments
would have two Delegates, it would be easier to secure such representation. It should also be observed that, as different Technical Advisers
may be appointed for each subject
of discussion, agricultural advisers
may be selected, when necessary 2 .

Thus we have presented, in the report of the Commission set
up by the Powers at the end of the war to examine a suitable
constitution for the coming International Labour Organisation,
two principles which touch on the representation of agricultural
workers in that Organisation. The first lays down that, in
view of the fact that the Government of each State Member
of the Organisation was called upon to send two Delegates
to each Session of the International Labour Conference, whereas
only one Delegate was allotted to the workers of each State,
representation, of agricultural workers (as distinct from other
workers) could be secured via one of the Government Delegates
in those countries where it could be argued that such representation was not secured, or not adequately secured, via
the Workers' Delegate. The second principle lays down that
representation could be secured via a Technical Adviser. It is indicated that where agricultural workers' interests are concerned
this would be a Technical Adviser to the Workers' Delegate,
while a Technical Adviser to the Employers' Delegate would
perform parallel functions on behalf of agricultural employers.
In addition, the question of securing representation of agricultural workers on the Governing Body of the Organisation,
again via the Government representative, was also raised.
Neither of these two principles is exclusive of the other.
The wording of the report quoted immediately above lends
itself to the view that the Commission had in mind that they
1
Part I of the report was adopted by the Preliminary Peace Conference
at its plenary sitting of 11 April 1919.
2
Official Bulletin, vol. I, p. 262.

— 13 —
might both be adopted and together do something to secure
the end contemplated. The satisfaction which they offer was
not complete, for the French and Italian Delegations were said
to be only "to some extent reconciled" to the decisions arrived
at.
The first principle — representation through a Government Delegate — was from time to time the subject of discussion
from 1919 to 1922.
The Italian view was reaffirmed at the First Session of the
Conference at Washington, 1919, where, on an occasion when
a good deal of discussion was taking place on principles of
representation in connection with the appointment of the first
Governing Body of the International Labour Office, Mr. di
Palma Castiglione said :
The fact that the International Commission on Labour Legislation
decided to have two Government representatives for each State is due
precisely to the reason that in that way they wanted to give opportunity
for the agricultural1 wage earners interested to be represented at the
annual Conference .

The point here made is that not agriculture in general so
much as agricultural workers are represented in this way.
Precisely the same view was advanced by the President of the
Peace Conference, Mr. Clemenceau, in a letter of 31 May 1919
addressed by him to the President of the German Peace Delegation. In reply to the objection raised by the German Peace
Delegation that the system of representation adopted in the
proposed International Labour Organisation was undemocratic,
Mr. Clemenceau replied :
The theory of the German Delegation that Article 390 of the draft
may "exclude the workers" is wholly fallacious, as the so-called Governmental representatives, at least those of the Allied and Associated
Powers, would be representatives of the people of those countries. It
is to be remembered that in many countries a very large part of the
workers are engaged in agriculture and that these workers are not
generally united in industrial organisations, and it is therefore peculiarly
appropriate that their interest be represented at Labour Conferences
through their Governments a.
1
International Labour Conference. First Annual Meeting, 29 October,
1919 - 29 November 1919, p. 198. Washington, Govt. Printing Office.
2
Official Bulletin, Vol. I, p. 321. The view here taken was also referred
to by the representative of the International Federation of Trade
Unions, Mr. Jouhaux, on 10 July 1922, when speaking before the Permanent Court of International Justice on the competence of the International Labour Organisation in agriculture. Further, by the Director
of the International Labour Office when speaking before the same
Court on 6 July 1922 : Mr. Thomas referred to the "principle of organisation" which is the necessary complement of the democratic principle
(Official Bulletin, Vol. VI, No. 4, pp. 201-202, and p. 175).

— 14 —
This shows great stress laid on the first principle — representation of agricultural workers through their Government
Delegates. It is perhaps fair to point out that these words
were written before the International Labour Organisation had
got into working order and before there had been any experience
whatever of the effectiveness of such a representation.
§ 2. — Work of the Organising Committee for the First Session
of the International Labour Conference, Washington, 1919 ;
Interpretation of the Phrase, " Members of Chief Industrial
Importance"

After the signing of the Peace Treaty the Powers concerned
advanced to the practical realisation of an organisation to deal
with international labour problems. This involved not only
the holding of a first Session of an International Labour Conference, but also preliminary steps to secure the existence of
the other part of the proposed organisation, namely, an International Labour Office and a Governing Body to that Office.
The first Session of the International Labour Conference was
held at Washington from 29 October to 29 November 1919.
The work of preparation was undertaken by an International
Organising Committee, which had been appointed by Resolution
of the Peace Conference and which sat in Paris and London from
14 April to 4 August 1919. This Organising Committee had
also to concern itself with the preparatory work for the appointment of the first Governing Body. In the course of carrying
out this second task they encountered some very great difficulties, which arose directly out of the whole problem of the
place of agriculture in the International Labour Organisation.
In a Circular Letter of 10 May 1919, addressed by the Organising Committee to the Governments, they pointed out that the
question of the appointment of the Governing Body of the International Labour Office would have to be considered at the First
Session of the Conference *, and in a telegram of 12 August,
confirmed by Circular Letter of 20 August, they further noted
that, for that purpose, if the election of the Governing Body
was to be proceeded with, the list of the eight Members of the
International Labour Organisation of "chief industrial import1

Ibid., Vol. I, p. 353.

— 15 —
ance" would previously have had to be determined. They
therefore suggested a preliminary list, with due regard to the
right of Governments to lodge objections and to Article 393 of
the Treaty of Versailles, which, if ratified, would cause any
question as to which were the Members of chief industrial
importance to come before the Council of the League of Nations
for decision 1. In consequence of the receipt of a first objection
to the text from Canada, dated 5 June 1919 a, the Organising
Committee despatched a further telegram on 8 July 1919 to
certain States asking for some necessary information. The
first item of the required information was formulated in the
telegram as follows :
(2) The total number of persons employed in industry : the figures
given should include transport and mine
workers but should exclude
agricultural and commercial workers3.
Following on the action taken by the Organising Committee,
communications to various authorities were made by some
States which objected to the preliminary list. In certain of these
communications the claims of the States to be included among
the eight Members of chief industrial importance are argued
as based in part on their agricultural interests and resources.
It will be recalled that, during the work of the original Commission on International Labour Legislation, a certain "conclusion" had been formulated, which had declared that "the phrase
' greatest industrial importance ' did not exclude the western
countries, in which a large proportion of the wage-earning
classes were employed in agriculture' ' 4 .
In a telegram from the Governor-General of Canada to the
British Secretary of State for the Colonies of 9 September 1919,
the claim arising out of the size of Canada's "industrial population" is put as follows :
With regard to industrial population, Canada outranks Switzerland 6
heavily in agricultural, mining, fishing and transportation classes e.
The same question is dealt with in a communication from the
Secretary of State for India to the Secretary-General of the
1
2
8
4

Ibid., p. 364.
Ibid., pp. 451-452.
Ibid., p. 452.
As a matter of fact, none of the protesting countries made reference
to 6this "conclusion".
Switzerland had been mentioned as the eighth State of chief industrial importance in the list of the Organising Committee.
6
Official Bulletin, Vol. I, p. 455.

— 16 —
League of Nations, dated 7 October 1919, in a way which
reserves the right of India to bring forward the item of agricultural population as follows :
I venture to submit that the most important test, and the one best
calculated to give effect to the spirit and intention of the Treaty, is
the number of workers likely to be affected by the decisions of the
International Labour Conference. Judged by this test there can be no
doubt that India is one of the eight countries of chief industrial importance. Even if no account be taken of agricultural labourers (who
number 25,000,000, and whose conditions of employment may also be
the concern of the Conference), and even if from the 20,000,000 returned
as industrial workers the most liberal allowance be made for those employed in cottage industries and hereditary village occupations, the
number of industrial workers of India, using the term in its narrowest sense, is still very considerable. Factories, mines and railways
alone provide employment for 1,887,000 persons, etc. *
The claim of India was subsequently pursued and was placed
on the agenda of the First Meeting of the Assembly of the
League of Nations 2. In the course of pursuing this claim, the
Government of India definitely quoted the number of the agricultural population of India in support of its argument that
India was one of the eight Members of chief industrial importance.
Sir William Meyer, in addressing the First Assembly of the
League of Nations on the point, at the twenty-fourth plenary
meeting on 15 December 1920, said :
Among the documents which have already been furnished to the
Assembly are statistics which show India's pre-eminent claim, and
I would merely mention here a few salient figures illustrating her industrial importance. Excluding peasant proprietors, there are nearly
25,000,000 agricultural workers 3 who come within the scope of the
International Labour Office, etc.
After the Washington Conference the Republics of Cuba
and Czechoslovakia, neither of which had obtained a Government seat on the Governing Body as constituted at that Session
of the Conference, put forward claims supported by a number
of arguments. Among these arguments the agricultural importance of either State is advanced. The statement from Cuba,
dated 5 March 1920 and addressed to the Director of the Inter1
2

Ibid., p. 456.
It was rejected by the Assembly on 15 December 1920 as a question
on which the Council of the League, and not the Assembly, was competent. See next note. .
3
LEAGUE OF NATIONS. The Records of the First Assembly ; Plenary
Meetings, Geneva, 1920 ; p. 553. For the subsequent history of the claim
of India, see below § 3.

— 17 —
national Labour Office, draws particular attention to it, as
follows :
Cuba, on the other hand, considers that it possesses the duty and
the right to be represented on the present Governing Body, not only
for the reasons set forth (i.e. because of having been one of the belligerent
nations and having collaborated at the Paris Conference in the creation
of this International Office), but also because the interests of labour
are involved not only in industry but also in agriculture ; and if in the
•composition of the Governing Body (as is the case at the present time)
other interests than those of industry are not represented, its action
cannot but prove unsatisfactory. It is of interest to note in this connection that the majority of European nations are industrial rather than
agricultural countries, whereas almost all the Latin-American States
are essentially agricultural, and Cuba is a good example of this fact,
for it alone produces one-quarter of the sugar (a product of prime
importance) consumed by the whole world, which constitutes an irrefutable claim to be represented on the Governing Body, for our labour
problems interest all nations, the more so that in the production of
«ugar and in dependent industries nearly 500,000 workers,
mostly of
foreign origin, are employed at each annual harvest 1 .
The statement from the Ministry of Social Welfare
Republic of Czechoslovakia to the Director of the
national Labour Office, dated 26 September 1920, after
the natural mineral riches and the development of
facture in that country adds :

of the
Internoting
manu-

These economic activities, aided by advanced agriculture, give Czechoslovakia an important place in the economy of the world 2.
§ 3. — Work of the Committee Appointed to Consider the
Criteria to be Adopted in the Selection of the Eight States of
Chief Industrial Importance, 1921-1922

The history of the further interpretation of the phrase
"'Members of chief industrial importance" is in part as follows.
For reasons arising out of the difficulties, already described,
attending the first appointment of the Governing Body at
Washington in 1919, it was decided early in 1921 to set up
a special Committee, composed of four members of the Governing
Body of the International Labour Office and two representatives
of the Secretariat of the League of Nations. The question of
what constituted "chief industrial importance" within the
meaning of Article 393 of the Treaty of Versailles was carefully
examined. The Committee presented a report on 31 May 1922 3 .
1

Official Bulletin, Vol. I, pp. 464-465.
Ibid., p. 466. Reference to the claim set forth by Poland is made
tielow.
3
Official Bulletin, Vol. VI, Nos. 19-25, pp. 545 et seq.
a

2

— 18 —
In regard to the representation of agricultural interests the
following remarks may be made. The Committee recommended
in principle that in determining the list of eight Members of
chief industrial importance, account should be taken of "industrialised agriculture", Which, according to their own statement,
is a term including more than industries for the working-up or
transformation of agricultural products. They noted, however,
the practical difficulties in the way of obtaining the necessary
data. The most important decision on the subject arrived
at by the Committee was as follows :
Unless the Labour Conference decides that the competence of the
International Labour Office does not extend to agricultural workers,
no reason exists why agriculture should not also be taken into account
up to a certain
point for the establishment of the industrial importance
of a State 1.
The interpretation of the words "up to a certain point"
would appear to be suggested in a passage from the Annex I
to the report. This Annex, a Memorandum drawn up by
Professor Gini, representative of the Secretariat on the Committee,
and dated 20 October 1921, was not made the basis of the
decisions of the Committee on account of the financial conditions of the time, but was defined by them as "deserving
of consideration for a future occasion". In a passage which
appears worth quoting on account of its intrinsic interest,
Professor Gini says :
This being the case, several questions remain to be settled. The first
of these is whether agriculture should be included among the industries.
It has been said that the literal interpretation of the word "industry"
varies in English and in French. It does not appear, however, that
such an important problem can be reduced to a simple question of
words. According to the logical principles which we have submitted,
when the industrial importance in the sense of Article 393 has to be
defined, the question whether agriculture is to be taken into account
depends on the extent of the competence of the International Labour
Office. If the International Labour Office has to regulate the relations
between capital and labour in agriculture as well as in other spheres,
it is logical that the industrial importance to be considered should
also include the agricultural factor ; the contrary conclusion is reached
if the Labour Office has not to consider the relations between employers
1

The Committee sat and the Committee's report was presented during
the period when the competence of the International Labour Organisation in agriculture was pending before the Permanent Court of International Justice. The conclusion quoted, however, is not incorporated
in the text of the Committee's own report, but is found in Annex I to
that report (Memorandum drawn up by Professor Gini). The discussion
on the Council of the League in September 1922, when the list of the
eight Members was determined, took place after the decision of the
Court had been given in favour of competence.

— 19

=

and agricultural workers. The decision taken on this subject a t
Copenhagen is thus fully justified ; i t was t h a t there is no reason t o
refuse to give some consideration to agriculture in determining t h e
industrial importance of a State if the Labour Conference admits t h a t
the competence of the International Labour Office also extends to
agricultural workers. It is, however, understood t h a t it is not desired
to assimilate the agricultural workers to other industrial workers, nor
the production of agriculture to the production of other industries.
A distinction can and should be established, b u t it should result only
from the respective importance of agriculture and of other industries
in the international regulation of labour.
Without attributing to the literal interpretation of the word "indust r i a l " an importance which would be in contradiction with the interpretation which we have given to the Article of the Treaty, we think
t h a t the technical interpretation of the word itself confirms this conclusion. It is only the everyday language which in some countries
draws a distinction between ihe words "industry" and "agriculture".
From the technical point of view one has no difficulty in speaking of
agricultural industries. One may in general terms define industry as
productive activity intensified on the basis of the specialisation of
labour and, consequently, on the basis of m u t u a l exchange of products.
Accepting this definition, one may easily see that agriculture does not
present an industrial character until it has attained a certain degree
of intensification. One will also perceive t h a t it is particularly in connection with such intensified and specialised production t h a t the regulation
of the relations between capital and labour is of importance. At t h e
same t i m e it is impossible t o fix an objective criterion determining
the point beyond which production acquires an industrial character.
Neither the employment of mechanical power nor the degree of organisation of the workers is a sufficient criterion. Long before all technical
improvements and all organisation of labour, during the whole of
antiquity, there existed flourishing industries.
The above remarks contain our criticism of the system proposed by
Mr. Rufenacht, who starts from the principle t h a t only forms of production other than agriculture are to be considered as industrial, i.e. those
forms of production, and those only, which do not create food. Mr.
Rufenacht goes even further. In his opinion a State would only deserve
the name industrial when its agriculture did not suffice to feed its
population. Acceptance of this view would prevent the United States
of America from being an industrial country, and would leave Germany
as industrial only in a very limited degree 1 .

After the report of the Committee had been issued, the whole
problem came before the Council of the League of Nations,
which, it will be remembered, is mentioned in Article 393 of
the Treaty as the organ which should decide any question arising
out of it. On 30 September 1922 the Council adopted a Resolution determining which were at that time the eight Members
of the International Labour Organisation of chief industrial
importance. Among these States was India. It will be recalled
that the claim of India had already been set forth before the
Assembly of the League and had been disallowed for formal
reasons a. In now presenting her claim to the Council, India
1
2

Official Bulletin, Vol. VI, Nos. 19-25, p. 561.
See above, p. 16.

— 20 —
again laid stress on the existence of a large number of agricultural wage earners in that country, arguing that it "would
be out of accord with the spirit and intention of the Labour
Covenant to exclude from consideration any class of wage
earners". The following passage sets forth her claim under
this head :
The number of males engaged in agriculture, the chief industry of
India, is
very considerable. The 71 millions, however,
shown (in Appendix B) against India include a large number of smallholders who cannot be properly described as agricultural workers ; but
farm servants and field labourers employed in ordinary cultivation and
workers in the large organised agricultural industries, such as tea,
coffee, and indigo, number as many as 27,810,130 (13,864,857 males
and 13,945,273 females). This is the true measure of the industrial
importance of India on the agricultural side in respect of the work
of the International Labour Organisation, and even if we assume
(and the assumption is exceedingly unfavourable to India) that in
Italy, Belgium, Japan, and Switzerland all those returned as engaged
in agriculture. are wage earners, India would still be of greater industrial importance from this
particular point of view than these four
countries taken together 1 .

The Republic of Poland had also formulated a claim in
continuance of a protest which had been originally despatched
against the action of the Organising Committee for the
Washington Conference in 1919, but which had been
subsequently withdrawn. This protest was taken up again
by Poland in a communication to the Council of the League
of 16 December 1921 2, and was eventually supported by a
Memorandum dated 7 August 1922 3 . In these documents
the Polish Republic argues that account should be taken
of the agricultural importance of countries in determining
claims to chief industrial importance and quotes in considerable detail figures of Polish agricultural production
(wheat, rye, barley, oats, potatoes, sugar-beet) in support of the
claim, finally advancing the consideration that agriculture
should be taken account of "at least as a subsidiary index with
a diminished weight" 4 .
In reference to these claims, where the agricultural importance
of a State was cited in support of a contention that a particular
1
Memorandum on the Claim of India to be Included among the Eight
States of Chief Industrial Importance (Article393 of the Treaty of Versailles),
n. d. See also : LEAGUE OF NATIONS : Document No. C. 622, 1922
(Claim of India to be one of the Eight States of Chief Industrial Importance).
2

3

LEAGUE OF NATIONS : Document C. 85 ; M. 35. 1922 II.

Ibid., Document C. 567 ; 1922, V.
Further decisions on this point have not been taken by any organ
of the League of Nations.
4

— 21 —
country should be placed on the list of eight Members of chief
industrial importance, it might be agreed that agricultural
workers are only indirectly represented through Government
members on the Governing Body of the International Labour
Office. Attention may, however, be drawn to the different
view to which allusion has already been made in connection
with representation on the Conference. If the Government
Delegates on the Conference itself were held by some speakers
to represent the agricultural workers, or to represent them in
some degree, the same could be argued in the case of the Governing Body, and with much greater force, seeing that a certain
number of States are bound to secure on that body one seat
only, so that, where that one seat is a Government seat, such
Government representatives might be held to represent all
the interests of that country.
To sum up the gist of Sections 2 and 3 of Part I of this study.
The history of the discussions on the Commission on International Labour Legislation, on the Organising Committee for the
Washington Conference itself, and on the Committee appointed
to establish the Criteria to be Adopted in the Selection of the
Eight States of Chief Industrial Importance, would seem to
establish the following facts : (I) that it was a view definitely
held by some representatives, and formally confirmed in the
name of the Allied and Associated Powers by Mr. Clemenceau,
that the principle of having two Government Delegates present
at the Sessions of the International Labour Conference would
assist in securing to agricultural workers representation on
the Conference which it had not been possible to secure to
them independently ; (II) that the same was argued in the
case of the Governing Body, and could as a matter of fact be
argued even more powerfully, seeing that, in certain cases,
States secure only a single seat on the Governing Body ; (III)
that the question was specifically raised and answered to the
extent that "industrial" in the phrase Members of "chief industrial importance" was held to include "agricultural" on the
Commission of the Peace Conference which laid down the constitution of the International Labour Organisation ; (IV) that
the view that (a) general agricultural interests and more especially (b) the interests of agricultural workers should be taken
into account in interpreting this phrase has never been rejected
by an organ of the League of Nations ; (V) that it was accepted,
at any rate, as regards (a), at the Copenhagen sitting" of the

— 22 —
Committee appointed to consider the criteria which should
be taken into account in interpreting the words "chief industrial
importance", though for practical reasons very restricted application was given to it ; (VI) that five States cited this item
in support of their claims to be considered Members of chief
industrial importance, and (VII) that one State, India, which
had particularly cited its agricultural working population
was finally listed by the Council of the League as a Member of
chief industrial importance and at present holds its permanent
seat on the Governing Body in virtue of that decision, but that
there is no evidence as to the precise value given by the Council
to agriculture in the claim of that State.

§ 4 . — T h e Third Session of the International Labour Conference,
Geneva, 1921

The representation of agricultural workers in the various
bodies of the International Labour Organisation, but more
especially at the International Labour Conference, became
a matter of practical urgency when the Third Session of the
Conference was to be held at Geneva in 1921. This Session
was largely devoted to agricultural matters. Not, however,
exclusively ; and other important items, namely, reform of
the constitution of the Governing Body, prohibition of the
use of white lead, disinfection of wool infected with anthrax
spores, the weekly rest-day, and an item on maritime labour,
also figured on the Agenda. The States were faced with the
problem of appointing Delegations qualified to deal with the
whole of the Agenda.
The question was dealt with in a Circular Letter signed by the
Director of the International Labour Office and sent to all
States Members of the Organisation on 4 November 1920, in
preparation for the Third Session in the following year. This
letter includes the following passage :
I have been asked whether, on account of the importance of t h e
second item of the Agenda (Agricultural Questions), the most represent a t i v e organisations of agricultural employers and workers ought not
t o be consulted in regard to the selection of Employers' and Workers'
Delegates in each country. The raising of this question would perhaps
appear to be justified by the fact t h a t in many countries the organisations of agricultural employers and workers are separate and distinct
from the industrial organisations, and t h a t therefore the nomination
of Delegates after consultation only of the industrial organisations

— 23 —
would not constitute adequate representation of the special interests
•of the agricultural employers and workers K

The letter proceeds to draw attention to the similar difficulty
which was felt when the Second Session of the Conference,
on maritime labour, was held in Genoa in 1920, and notes
that the Governing Body, when reference was made to it on
the point, passed the following Resolution :
In order to avoid possible confusion in the appointing of non-Government Delegates to the forthcoming Maritime Conference at Genoa, and
to future special Conferences, the Governing Body deems it advisable
to declare : That the third paragraph, Article 389 of the Treaty of Peace,
should be interpreted to mean :
That to all General Conferences of Representatives of the
Members (special or otherwise), non-Government Delegates should
be chosen in agreement with employers' association and workers'
federations most representative
of all sections of industry if such
organisations exist 2.

Such, then, was the official interpretation placed by the
Governing Body on the wording of the Treaty. It was the
considered opinion of the Governing Body that Workers' (and
Employers') Delegates should be chosen in agreement with
organisations representative of all sections of industry even for
a Session of the Conference dealing with special questions.
The letter then proceeds to point out a practical consideration
which should be taken into account, namely, the desirability
of ensuring continuity of policy and uniformity of principles
at the Sessions of the Conference. It is noted that such continuity and uniformity of work would become extremely
difficult if the choice of Delegates Were left to organisations
concerned with a special industry and not to the central organisations.
Neither the terms of the Resolution of the Governing Body,
nor the argument of the letter, in any way precluded choice
of a Delegate outside a central organisation ; nor, indeed,
could the liberty of action of the Governments in any case have
been limited, either in this or in any other direction, as is
expressly noted in the letter. But, whatever might be the
decision of each Government as to the choice of the Workers'
Delegate, there was another means of ensuring representation
of special industries, namely, through the Technical Advisers.
This suggestion was, of course, an old one. It had been put
1
International Labour Conference, Third Session, Geneva, 1921, Vol. I,
p. xxv.
2
Ibid.

— 24 —
forward on the International Commission for Labour Legislation of the Peace Conference, and, in noting the work of t h a t
Commission, we defined it as the second principle of possible
representation of the interests of agricultural workers in the
International Labour Organisation 1. The Circular Letter of
4 November 1920 sets it forth as follows :
But important as it is that the choice of the Delegates should ensure
the element of continuity necessary for the accomplishment of the
task of the International Labour Organisation, it is equally important
that industries specially concerned in the decisions of the Conference
should be able to explain their point of view during the Session. The
nomination of Technical Advisers was provided for precisely with the
object of securing the representation of the special interests of particular
industries when questions which concerned them came under consideration. The Treaty of Peace fixes the number of Advisers as two for
each Delegate for each separate item of the Agenda of the Session, and
the various branches of industry have, therefore, the means of ensuring
the adequate representation of their views at the Sessions of the
Conference.
Both the uniformity which is desirable in the composition of the
Conference, and the proper representation of the interests of industriesspecially concerned with an item of the Agenda, can be ensured by
calling upon the organisations most representative
of that industry
for the nomination of Technical Advisers 2 .
During the proceedings of the Conference itself another
question, namely the qualification of Delegates to deal with the
whole of the Agenda of a Session of the Conference, and not only
with certain items, was raised in a way which has some bearing
on problems of representation in the International Labour
Organisation. The Credentials Commission, to whom an objection lodged against the mandate of the French Employers'
Delegate had been referred, included the following passage in
its report :
A question concerning the mandate of the French non-Governmental
Delegates has been referred to the Commission. The French Employers'
Delegate had received from the Organisation in agreement with which
he had been appointed, a mandate limited to the questions on the
Agenda other than those dealing with agriculture. These industrial
organisations in consequence considered that there was no French
Employers' Delegate for agricultural questions. The question therefore
arose as to whether, when agricultural questions came up for discussion,
the absence of an Employers' Delegate would affect the right of the
French Workers' Delegate to take part in the discussion and to vote,
by the application of the provisions of Article 390 of the Treaty of Peace 3 .
1
2

See above, pp. 9 and 12.
Item II, Agricultural Questions, was subsequently reformulated
as Items II, III, and IV of the Agenda of the Third Session of the Conference. This permitted of the appointment of a larger number of Technical
Advisers
(two to each item (Article 389 of the Treaty of Versailles)).
3
International Labour Conference, Third Session, Geneva, 1921 ;
Vol. II, p. 612. Par. 2 of Article 390 of the Treaty reads : "If one of
the Members fails to nominate one of the non-Government Delegates
whom it is entitled to nominate, the other non-Government Delegate
shall be allowed to sit and speak at the Conference, but not to vote."

— 25 —

The Credentials Commission did not take this view. It
declared that "the Employers' and Workers' Delegates are in
fact appointed by the Governments for a Session of a Conference and not for one or two distinct questions on the Agenda".
It is perhaps relevant to note that the report of the Credentials Commission was never formally adopted by the Conference. The Conference in its place adopted a Resolution
asking for an Advisory Opinion from the Permanent Court of
International Justice on the interpretation of Article 389
of the Treaty of Versailles and on the rules which should be
observed by Members of the International Labour Organisation in order to comply with the terms of that Article in
appointing non-Government Delegates and Technical Advisers 1 .
It cannot be said that the question of the representation
of agricultural workers was ever discussed in principle in connection with the Third Session of the International Labour
Conference. Several rules or suggestions were laid down by
bodies having undoubted authority, but they were not final.
Thus the Governing Body declared that, whatever Workers'
Delegates were chosen, whether from "special industries" or
not, they must be chosen in agreement with a central "most
representative" organisation, i.e. an organisation representative
of all sections of industry. The International Labour Office,
in its Circular Letter, drew attention to this view, and added the
suggestion, already current in 1919, that representation could
be best secured through the system of Technical Advisers. The
Credentials Commission declared that Workers' Delegates
were appointed to deal with all, and not merely with part
of, the items of a Session Agenda. It may be added that the
Permanent Court of International Justice, on 31 July 1922,
declared : "In accordance with the terms of the first paragraph
of Article 389, the Workers' Delegate represents all workers
belonging to a particular Member" 2 , which is perhaps the
most important pronouncement so far made by any organ of
the League of Nations on the general principles of workers'
representation in the bodies of the International Labour Organisation.
One question may perhaps be raised : whether it is practical
to regard agriculture as a "special industry", and on this ground
1

Ibid., Vol. I, p. 522. The Advisory Opinion subsequently given by
the Court did not touch on the particular point mentioned here.
3
Official Bulletin, Vol. VI, No. 7, p. 296.

— 26 —
to limit its representation to what would naturally be secured
to a special industry through the system of Technical Advisers.
Agriculture employs, on a rough estimate, over half the workers
of the world. It was no doubt in the knowledge of this fact
that the representation of agricultural workers on an equality
with that of industrial workers (in the narrow sense of the word
"industrial") was originally raised at the International Commission on Labour Legislation. The opposite point of view was
put by the representative of the International Federation of
Trade Unions, Mr. Jouhaux, on 10 July 1922, when addressing
the Permanent Court of International Justice on the competence
of the International Labour Organisation in agriculture.
Mr.
Jouhaux said :
Supposing that agricultural workers had special representatives at
the International Labour Conferences, we should have had to make
provision for special representatives of workers engaged in commerce,
sailors, etc., and the result would have been that in this way the number
of Delegates taking part in the Conferences would have been increased
beyond measure. Perhaps, also, opposition would have been aroused
between individual interests at meetings the purpose of which is to
consider general interests ; moreover, having regard to their numbers,
the result might be that agricultural workers would obtain a privileged
position as compared with industrial labour. This is the real reason
why the Commission
on Labour Legislation did not accept the proposals
made to it 1 .

If never fully discussed in principle, nevertheless, the representation of agricultural workers at the Third Session of the
Conference, as far as it can be analysed in fact, presents obvious
points of interest.
Of the 55 States which were members of the International
Labour Organisation at the Conference in 1921, 15 were not
represented at that Session, 14 sent Government Delegates
only, while the remaining 26 sent Delegations which included
Workers' Delegates. Of those 26 workers' representatives,
4 represented agricultural workers' organisations directly,
namely, those from Austria 2, Finland 3, Latvia, and Norway 8 .
Of the eight items on the Agenda for the 1921 Session of
the Conference three dealt with agricultural subjects. The
maximum possible number of Technical Advisers for each
1

Ibid., p. 203.
In the case of Austria the Workers' Delegate fell ill and was replaced
by a representative of the agricultural workers' union, who had up to
that time attended the Conference as an Adviser.
3
Both in Norway and Finland the principal general workers' organisations had refused to appoint a Delegate.
2

— 27 —

Workers' Delegate was 16, and the maximum possible number
in all would have been 156 for agricultural items and 260 for
the other items. In fact only 18 States sent Advisers to Workers'
Delegates. The total number of these Advisers was 71, of
whom 15, coming from eight States, were directly representative of agricultural trade unions. In one case only did a
Workers' Delegate who was himself directly representative
of a Union of Agricultural Workers have an Adviser for the
agricultural items.
Thus of 26 States sending Workers' Delegates 11 had secured
the advantage of knowledge of agricultural questions on these
Delegations by means of an appointment of a Workers' Delegate
or of an Adviser representing agricultural workers' unions.
§ 5. — The Mixed Advisory Agricultural Committee 1

The representation of agricultural workers on one other body,
an organ (in part) of the International Labour Organisation,
remains to be considered. This is the Mixed Advisory Agricultural Committee. This Committee is a mixed committee, as
its name implies, including equal representation from the International Labour Office, on the one hand, and from the International Institute of Agriculture, Rome (not a part of the League
of Nations), on the other, the purpose in establishing the Committee being to advise on the collaboration to be observed
between these two institutions in enquiries into agricultural
problems.
The recommendations of the Committee are addressed
both to the Governing Body of the International Labour
Office and to the Permanent Committee of the Institute.
The Committee was originally composed of 6 members,
of whom 3 represented the Governing Body of the International
Labour Office. In 1926 the number of the Committee was
enlarged to 12, of whom 6 represent the Governing Body. The
6 seats thus allotted are distributed equally between Governments, employers, and workers ; thus agricultural workers
throughout the world, in so far as acting through the League
of Nations, are represented by 2 seats on a Committee of 12.
These two workers' seats are held by two out of the workers'
representatives on the Governing Body itself ; selection is made
1

See also the Note appended to Part II of the present study.

— 28 —
by decision of the Governing Body. It will easily be seen
that, if this is the case, the principles governing representation of
agricultural workers on the Governing Body also govern their
representation on this Committee.
Until 1926 it was usual to appoint experts to attend certain
meetings of the Committee. These experts were appointed
by the Committee itself. Care was had to include the appointment of persons described on one occasion in the proceedings
of the Committee as "social experts' ', i.e. experts in the social problems of agriculture. Among these "social experts" have been
three who quite specially represented the agricultural workers,
namely, the secretary of the International Federation of Land
Workers (who was at the same time the general secretary
of the. German Agricultural Workers' Union), the secretary
of the International Federation of Christian Land Workers'
Trade Unions, and the general secretary of the National
Agricultural Workers' Union of England and Wales. At the
third session of the Committee, in January 1927, it was decided,
however, not to nominate any list of experts of the Committee,
though the Committee retains the right at all times to call and
hear experts. This decision will have some bearing on the
opportunity of agricultural workers to convey their opinions
directly to an organ of the League of Nations; their
general representation, through the two workers' representatives who are members (not experts) of the Committee
remains untouched. Moreover, at the thirty-fifth Session of
the Governing Body, in April 1927, a suggestion was accepted
that the six members of the Advisory Agricultural Committee
representing the International Labour Office, together with any
experts whom they might wish to convoke, could meet as a small
separate body to advise the Governing Body. This, the most
recent decision on the whole subject, may eventually result in
providing an organ — even if only with consultative powers —
which would concentrate in its hands discussion on agricultural
agenda within the League of Nations, and might prove a very
useful organ through which agricultural workers could make
their wishes known.

PART I I
T H E DEFINITION OF AN AGRICULTURAL WORKER

The first Part of this study has consisted of an examination
of the representation of agricultural workers within the International Labour Organisation. At the outset it was stated that
the organisation and representation of agricultural workers
on an international basis depended on their organisation and
representation on a national basis. The second and third
Parts will therefore deal with the latter question, namely,
national organisation and representation. The present, second,
Part will deal with the general principles involved and will discuss
the question : what constitutes an agricultural worker ?
§ 1. — Examination of the Texts of the Draft Conventions and
Recommendations

The first step is to examine any preceding decisions of the
International Labour Organisation. In reviewing the scope
of the Draft Conventions and Recommendations dealing with
agriculture, it will be seen that they may vary from Convention
to Convention and Recommendation to Recommendation.
The Draft Convention concerning the Rights of Association
and Combination of Agricultural Workers covers "all those
engaged in agriculture". The Draft Convention concerning
Workmen's Compensation in Agriculture applies to "all agricultural wage earners" and the Recommendation concerning
Social Insurance in Agriculture to "agricultural wage earners".
The Draft Convention concerning the Age for Admission of
Children to Employment in Agriculture applies to "children
under the age of fourteen years", and the Recommendation
concerning Night Work of Children and Young Persons in
Agriculture to "children under the age of fourteen years in
agricultural undertakings" and to "young persons between the
ages of fourteen and eighteen years in agricultural undertakings",
no distinction being made between paid or unpaid employment nor any reference included to the position of the parent,
whether wage earner, tenant, or owner, or not connected with

— 30 —
an agricultural undertaking at all. The Recommendation
concerning the Prevention of Unemployment in Agriculture
covers "agricultural workers". The Recommendation concerning Living-in Conditions of Agricultural Workers applies to
"all accommodation provided by employers for housing their
workers either individually or in groups, or with their families".
The Recommendation concerning the Development of Technical Agricultural Education states that an endeavour shall
be made to develop such education and to make it available in
particular "to agricultural wage earners on the same conditions as to other persons engaged in agriculture". The Recommendations concerning the Protection, before and after Childbirth, of Women Wage Earners in Agriculture and concerning
Night Work of Women in Agriculture apply to "women wage
earners in agriculture (agricultural undertakings)".
It will be seen that the scope of the decisions of the International Labour Organisation includes in the first place wage
earners in agriculture and agricultural workers ; in the second
place, children under the age of fourteen years who are employed
in agriculture ; and, in the third place, can also include persons
engaged in agriculture, even if not wage earners. The scope
of the Recommendation on technical agricultural education
would seem to be even wider than "all persons engaged in
agriculture" and to extend to persons outside the industry
of agriculture.
Important also is the text of the Advisory Opinion given by
the Permanent Court of International Justice on 12 August
1922. This Advisory Opinion reads :
The Court is of opinion that the competence of the International
Labour Organisation does extend to international regulation
of the
conditions of labour of persons employed in agriculture, etc. J

Thus an analysis of the texts of the Draft Conventions and
Recommendations shows that the Conference has placed
the limits within which they are to apply very widely in certain
cases where the subject matter handled by the Convention or
Recommendation seemed to require such coverage. The
right to place those limits widely, to include "persons employed
in agriculture", would appear to have been confirmed in the
Advisory Opinion of the Permanent Court of International
Justice.
1

Official Bulletin, Vol. VI, No. 10, p. 350.

— 31 —
§ 2. — Scope of the Question : What Constitutes an Agricultural
W o r k e r ? T h e Position of the Smallholder and Similar Groups

The general utility of the conclusion noted in the last paragraph, namely, that the field of application of the previous
decisions of the International Labour Conference is a wide
one, is obvious. The texts of the Draft Conventions and
Recommendations show that the Organisation claims to deal
with agricultural labour on no narrow basis ; they do not help
much, however, towards any formal definition of an agricultural
worker. If it is necessary to proceed to such a definition, help
must be sought elsewhere, always bearing in mind that if and
when the "agricultural worker" has been defined, the Conventions and Recommendations are there to apply to the "international regulation of the conditions of labour of persons
employed in agriculture'".
The definition of an agricultural worker depends upon the
delimitation of the two words "agriculture" and "worker".
The definition of the word "agriculture" is a question of
very great importance to the International Labour Organisation. "Agriculture" presumably includes in all countries the
cultivation of crops and their harvesting, and stock-tending
and stock-breeding. But here agreement ends. Even forestry
is not in all countries a part of the agricultural industry ; where
it is simply an extractive industry, i.e. lumbering, it is not
always counted as agriculture. Horticulture is in an even more
doubtful position : horticulture is much more "industrialised",
using that word in a narrow sense, than is ordinary field work,
and sometimes claims to be counted as a non-agricultural
industry. Moreover, there are various branches of horticulture, commercial market gardening, floristry, etc. ; and there
is park-keeping and private job gardening. Again, there are
all the industries "allied" with agriculture (dairies, distilleries,
beet-crushing works, etc.). These allied industries are usually
industries working up agricultural products. At the other end
there is work preparatory to agricultural work, namely, clearing, drainage, irrigation, and even road-making, which are sometimes counted in agriculture, but not always. One need not
raise such small points as hunting, osier-gathering, etc. ; a
number of these minor points could be raised. The International
Labour Office has not yet had an opportunity of examining
the question in detail. For the purpose of the present study

— 32 —
it must therefore be left aside ; it is sufficient to draw attention
to the fact that in the text of the Draft Convention on Sickness
Insurance for Agricultural Workers prepared for the Tenth
Session of the Conference this year, no change has been
made in the principle hitherto adopted by the Conference of
leaving the definition of "agriculture" to each country 1.
The definition of an "agricultural worker" is closely
connected with the definition of "agriculture". What is
the position of an electrician employed on a farm where
there is a large electric plant ? Of a rural craftsman
employed at times on a farm? Of a mechanician travelling
with a threshing machine ? Of a resident worker living
in the farmhouse and doing partly domestic and partly
agricultural work (this is a well-known point of controversy) ?
Such are a few of the questions which ought to be answered
before any clear and authoritative definition of an agricultural worker can be laid down.
The delimitation of the word "worker" is a very wide problem and involves arguments which apply to all industries.
However, it may be observed even at this stage that these
vexed problems are particularly acute in the case of agriculture and merit separate examination without necessarily
involving a decision as to what is a "worker" in other industries.
The present study does not deal with all these questions, but
confines itself to one question of principle, which is important,
namely : does the agricultural "worker" comprise only the
wage-paid worker ? Or are there not, ranged between the
wage-paid worker and the large-scale landed proprietor, a
large number of tenant cultivators and even of owners of small
farms or plots, who, while on the one side they approach the
land-owning class proper, on the other merge insensibly into
the class of the wage earner, so that it becomes impossible to
say where the group of agricultural "workers' ' really ends ?
EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYED IN AGRICULTURE

The reason why it is difficult to draw a definite line between
employers and employed in agriculture is because a definite
separation of capital and labour in different hands does not
exist. It is true that the capital required to carry on an agri1

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR C O N F E R E N C E (Tenth Session, May 1927) :

Report on Sickness

Insurance.

Geneva, 1927.

— 33 —
cultural undertaking, at least in all developed countries, is
considerable. One might consequently have expected, in analogy
with what has happened in manufacturing industry, a great
concentration and accumulation of agricultural land in the
hands of a small class of agricultural capitalists. This has not
taken place very markedly. Even where large areas are
owned by a few persons, as, for example, is the case in Great
Britain and in large districts of Central Europe, technical
difficulties and, not least, difficulties of management have
prevented the concentration of the exploitation of the soil
in a relatively small number of big undertakings. Cultivation
takes place instead on a number of holdings having each their
responsible chief. The more intensive agriculture becomes,
the smaller becomes the area which can be run from one centre.
But with the replacing of the large-scale estate by several
independent undertakings follows also the splitting up of the
economic risk. The possibility of heavy losses for single persons
is diminished, but, at the same time, also the possibility of an
accumulation of large profits.
In fact, the state of affairs at present is that there exists a
large number of persons running their farms without employing
any workers. From the point of view of economic theory it is
sufficient to call such persons "exploiters", i.e. persons who
run undertakings at their own risk and for their own profit ;
not so for the International Labour Organisation, which has to
distinguish between employers and employed. Where in this
scale should the exploiter, who is not an employer, be ranged ?
He is obviously an exploiter, for he works at his own risk ; but
he is no employer, for he employs nobody but himself. But
the fact that he does "employ himself", i.e. does do work comparable in kind, amount, and in the conditions under which
it is performed with that done by wage-paid employed workers
is sufficient to make his labour conditions of interest to the
International Labour Organisation.
Does Part X I I I of the Treaty cover labour not done on
account of another person, i.e. independent labour or selfemployment ? If so, what representation is there, or can there
be, in the International Labour Organisation, for persons contributing such labour to agriculture all over the world ? Should
representation, for instance, be accorded in so far as such
persons can prove that they rank with wage-earning and employed
workers from the point of view of their national law, their
3

— 34 —
economie rewards, and their general social environment, and
excluded — at any rate from the Labour delegations — in so
far as they form a class apart, with interests distinct from, or
even alien to, those of the employed workers ? The independent
worker is still a common enough phenomenon in the manufacturing world, even if disappearing or at least losing in relative
importance. The special difficulty for agriculture is that in
some countries he forms the principal group of persons at work,
by comparison with whom the Worker employed for wages
forms a smaller class.
In other words, while wage earning in agriculture is quite
general, it is far from being universal, and it would appear to
be a task incumbent on the International Labour Organisation
to consider by what means and on what basis its constitution
can be construed and applied to cover this situation.
Moreover, in certain important countries the number of such
independent workers is rapidly increasing owing to processes
of agrarian reform, even to the diminution of the numbers of
employed workers. Economically their position is often very
weak, and what they enjoy in the way of legal independence
is forfeited in part by their need for economic assistance.
The fact may be cited that at the outset the smallholder
or tenant starts without the possession of initial capital. Proof
of this may be drawn, for instance, from the very high percentage
of working capital (quite apart from mortgages on the holding
itself) which is being given under modern systems of agrarian
reform to new settlers. Moreover, the small cultivator fails
to accumulate capital in the course of his exploitation. The
most that he does is to pay off the debt on his farm, and this
process may take the best part of his natural life. It has been
picturesquely said that the smallholder "spends his whole
life in paying for his farm".
After death the smallholding, where it has been owned by
the cultivator, ought not to be treated merely as fluid savings
and divided among the heirs. The tendency to treat a smallholdings as capital and, under equalitarian laws of inheritance,
to divide that capital after death among the children of the
owner has only been disastrous and has so broken up the surface
of the earth that it has positively in some places destroyed the
value of the very thing it was sought to hand on. A small
piece of land is not really capital as capital is understood in the
modern world. For this reason modern agrarian legislation

— 35 —
insists on maintaining in perpetuity the integrity of the smallholding, treating it invariably as a means of production or tool,
and not as realisable capital.
Again, the smallholder and small tenant have the same
standard of living and of comfort as the wage-earning worker ;
their annual budget is practically the same, rent assuming in
the budget of the small tenant the place taken by taxes, interest, and repairs in that of the small proprietor. Opportunities
for education and recreation are almost identical with those
of the wage-earning agricultural worker. Housing is similar
in character. It is important to note that there is, as a rule,
a well-marked social distinction between the "farmer" and the
smallholding class.
Finally, the smallholder automatically takes his place in
the wage-earning market either at regular seasons of the year,
or when his smallholding fails him ; he competes for employment
and for wages 1. This is perhaps the most considerable point
of interest which he offers to the International Labour Organisation. The smallholder can, on occasion, undersell the
wage-earning worker, and there have been complaints on
this score ; as a potential labour force the smallholder is,
in any case, always of importance. It may be added that
his sons and daughters mostly enter the labour market in
the usual way.
To these classes we now have to add a whole series
of groups of small cultivators, of very various importance
in different countries, who are not even legally independent.
By far the most important of these groups are the share-farmers.
Share-farming is widespread in France, Italy, Portugal, Spain,
in the Balkan countries, in Greece, and in Turkey, in vast
tracts of the eastern world (China, Japan, etc.), South America,
and also in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United
States of America. In the last-named countries share-farming;
is possibly a transitory phenomenon, but it is difficult to prophesy..
It has already been stated that the accumulation of considerable fluid capital in agriculture is not easy. What was
said above of the small tenant's want of capital applies, with
only slight modification, to the position of the share-tenant.
Where capital is not very plentiful, it is convenient to share the
1
There is an important class of smallholders or small tenants who •
are regularly employed in crafts or in manufacturing undertakings...

— 36 —
responsibility of providing that capital between two persons,
and it is in this way that share-renting arrangements in agriculture are apt to grow up. Share-tenancy has been developed,
and very admirably developed in spite of certain minor abuses,
to solve this difficulty. In certain parts of the world the small
cultivator has never been in a position to acquire an independent
farm properly equipped ; it is therefore an arrangement between
him and his landlord that his landlord should supply him with
fixed and working capital, i.e. stock, buildings, seeds, fertilisers,
etc. But no man owning capital is willing to supply it without
security in goods unless he can retain a certain control over it.
The security offered by the share-tenant is not in goods but
in the labour of himself and of his family, and it is this exchange
of capital as against labour which is the characteristic of the
share-tenancy system, while the shared management of the
land, the control retained by the landlord, is the very heart
of the arrangement ; that control partakes of the nature of the
control exercised by an employer over services owed by an
employee. The ultimate sharing of the harvest — which is
so often quoted as the hall-mark of the system — is only the
final statement given to arrangements which have been permanently operative throughout the year.
An explanation of share-tenancy can also be given from the
landlord's point of view. For him it is a question of want
of the necessary labour with which to work his land (use his
capital). His offer of dart capital is thus an inducement
to labour to come forward. Thus either party, in view of the
scarcity of a desired commodity (working capital, labour) is
willing to enter on what is practically an exchange in kind
instead of going into the open market and there securing what
he wants at cash rates.
In view of the fact that share-tenancy arrangements are
in effect an exchange of capital against labour, the classification at law of share-tenancy is not simple. Wherever a landowner in releasing surplus land accepts an arrangement which
is not either definitely a tenancy agreement or definitely a
labour-employing contract, the person who helps him in cultivating that surplus of land is in an ambiguous position. Or,
rather, his relations are not so much ambiguous as double :
the element of labour (contract of service) and the element of
the use of the land (tenancy) are simultaneously present. This
ambiguity, which is inherent in the situation, is the character-

— 37 —

istic of a large number of arrangements which have as their
object the cultivation of the earth's surface. There seems to
be a distinct tendency to evolve a point of view which is in
advance of the actual legal texts on the subject. The comments
of lawyers, especially in Italy, tend to favour the opinion
that such contracts are employment contracts and to regard
as unimportant the tenancy aspect. In general, it is interesting to observe that Governments and administrations often
have a sympathy for, and an appreciation of, the economic and
social situation of such groups which is very imperfectly
expressed in the laws of their country. Resource is often had to
a variety of voluntary arrangements of social insurance, etc.,
which can be applied without the inconvenience of having to
introduce an obligatory system.
Share-tenancy (métayage) in France, Italy, and Spain. —
Share-tenancy is a very widespread form of cultivation over
eastern and southern Europe. Apart from some very large
share-tenancy farms — which do not fall within the present
study — share-tenancy holdings are almost invariably small
family enterprises. In France they are regulated by the Act
of 18 July 1889. Section 1 of that Act reads :
A lease of part settlement or
contract by which the owner of
a certain period to a holder who
that the produce be shared with

share-tenancy shall be defined as a
a rural estate leases such estate for
engages to cultivate it on condition
the lessor.

In Italy such contracts fall under the Civil Code.
1647 of that Code reads :

Article

The person cultivating an area on condition of sharing the produce
with the lessor shall be defined as a share-tenant or settler (colono),
and the resulting contract shall be defined as a share-tenancy or settlement. The general principles governing the hiring of goods and more
particularly governing the hiring of land shall be applicable to such
contracts. . .

In Spain the Civil Code defines share-tenancies as partnerships.
Article 1579 of that Code reads :
The letting of land on share-tenancy for cultivation, stockbreeding,
or for manufacturing or industrial establishments, is governed by the
provisions relating to partnership agreements, by the stipulations made
between the parties, and, in default of these, by the custom of the district.

Partnerships, hiring of land, and hiring of goods are all mentioned in the Codes of these countries as principles to which
reference can be made in the definition of share-tenancy, and,
were these definitions final, it would have to be conceded

— 38 —
that at law share-tenancy formally ranks with one or other of
these forms of contract. There seems, however, to have been a
certain change in the point of view of lawyers and authorities
responsible for Governmental acts since these Codes were issued.
The most important action taken is the recent decision of the
Italian Government to rank share-farmers as workers for purposes of industrial classification under the Act on Corporations of
3 April 1926 ; this Act regulates and organises all Italian
industry, and for that purpose classifies persons occupied in
industries as employers and employed. By Royal Decree of
1 July 1926, which contains the regulations for the carrying-out
of the Act, share-farmers are to constitute separate associations
which shall be constituent bodies of the higher-grade agricultural workers' associations ; owners and tenants of small properties, on the other hand, are ranked with employers (§§5 and 34) ;
this apparently applies even to the cultivators of the smallest
holding, but since the issue of the Decree the question of tenancy
has been referred to a Committee, in view of the vehement
protests of the workers, protests supported by the authoritative
opinion of Professor Serpieri, some time Under-Secretary of
State for Agriculture 1 . As a matter of fact, where holdings are
really small, they are mostly run on the share-farming system,
and, as already stated, share-farmers rank as workers. The
decision laid down by the Decree is particularly interesting as
it puts an end, at any rate for the present, to a great deal of
discussion and dispute on the subject. Previous legislation
had been inconsistent, but opinion was clearly coming round to
regarding the share-farmer as a worker rather than anything
else. Thus a recent well-informed Italian writer states "from an
economic point of view the contract (of share-tenancy) is fundamentally different from a contract for the hiring of goods" z.
This more modern view attributes considerable importance to
the labour side of the arrangement, and views the Italian sharetenancy contract as a mixed one, participating both in the nature
of a labour contract and also of a contract for the hiring of land
or of goods 3. The recent official decision has now the effect of
making the labour element the decisive element.
1

See P a r t I I I of the present study, under Italy.
Mr. COSTANZO in the International Review of Agricultural
Economics,
J a n . 1924, International Institute of Agriculture, Rome.
3
Cf. among other authorities, Mr. S E R P I E R I , formerly Under-Secretary
(for Agriculture) in the Ministry of National Economy in his Sludiisai
contratti agrari.
2

— 39 —
In recent French opinion there is a tendency to couple the
share-farmer rather loosely with the employed worker. The
Act of 3 January 1924 on Chambers of Agriculture, in defining
the various classes of persons entitled to elect to the Chambers,
ranks owners of property, then share-farmers, small tenants, and
managers, etc., and finally workers, as three separate groups.
An official body like the National Labour Council, at a meeting
of 19 February 1927, has gone further and accepted a programme
which included some important recommendations to improve
the position of share-farmers ; this is a good illustration of a
point of view' which recognises the share-farmer's need for social
protection, though not at present classing him as a worker, and
bears out what was said above, that general opinion is often
in advance of legislative texts on this subject l .
The present point of view of the Spanish Government is
that the share-farmer, though not a wage earner, must to all
intents and purposes be treated like a wage earner, inasmuch as
he is a worker. Even the small independent worker, i.e. the
owner or tenant of a small piece of land, approximates, though
somewhat less closely, to the social position of the wage earner.
This opinion is based on the findings of the National Social
Insurance Conference, convened by the National Social Affairs
Institute at Barcelona in 1922. The Spanish Government
states :
Spain is a country which lias a very high percentage of independent
workers whose economic position is not appreciably better than that
of workers in many wage-earning occupations. Artisans and small
tradespeople are a very numerous class and so are small agricultural
proprietors. Each year these groups increase and it may be anticipated
that in some districts new sections of small proprietors will be created.
Besides, there are more than 600,000 families which cultivate land
belonging to someone
else without being paid wages (tenant-farmers,
métayers, etc.) 2 .

The Spanish Government goes on to state that the exclusion
of these classes from social insurance has caused dissatisfaction
1
For insurance legislation in France and for workers' opinions, see
below, pp. 44 et seq., and also the following note.
a
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE (Tenth Session, Geneva,
1927) : Report on Sickness Insurance, p. 47. In 1921 the French
Government was in favour of the compulsory social insurance of sharefarmers and produce-sharing farmers (cotons) together with wage-paid
workers. INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE (Third Session, Geneva,
1921): Report on Special Measures for the Protection of Agricultural
Workers, p. 85.

— 40 —
and that, at the Conference mentioned above, the representatives
of agriculture put forward the inclusion of small proprietors
and settlers in compulsory insurance arrangements as one of
the demands of agriculture. The Government expresses itself
as sympathetic to measures for protecting the position of these
persons.
Thus in these three countries there seems to be a certain
evolution of opinion going on, which tends to range the sharefarmer, and with rather less certainty the small independent
owner or tenant of land, alongside of the wage-earning worker.
Share-tenancy (Teilpacht), tenant-workers' contracts (Heuerlingsvertrag), in Germany, In Germany the tendency is undoubtedly towards the disappearance of these intermediate contracts.
They linger, under the name of Teilpacht, in vine and tobaccogrowing districts.' The last census, however, which noted the
extent of the system was that of 1895 ; there were then 38,396
undertakings covering 48,735 hectares which were (sometimes
in part only) cultivated on a share-tenancy system.
Commenting on this an authoritative source states :
The share-tenancy system can from one point of view be regarded
as a sub-form of tenancy, from another as a form of labour contract. . . .
In view of the fact that the share tenant's holding is also the place of
his employment, it may be stated that the labour andx the tenancy
relations are simultaneously regarded as a single contract .

The tenant-workers' contract (Heuerlingsvertrag) is perhaps
more widespread. Under it the landlord requires a number of
days' work, varying between 30 and 250 per year, from his
tenant-worker.
The tenant-labourers (torpare) in Sweden. Very significant
is the position of the Swedish tenant-labourers or torpare.
The torpare are tenants of cottages and of asmall plot of ground ;
but they are employees in so far as they pay for their farms not in
money rent, but by contracting to do two or three days' labour per
week on their employer's farm. Their double relation as
tenant-employees is extremely well brought out under the
Accident Insurance Act of 1917, for under this Act they are
compulsorily insured against accidents in respect of work done
1
"Teilbau u. Teilpacht" in Handwörterbuch der Staatsivissenschaften.Jena, Fischer, 1911.

— 41 —

during the days they work on their employer's farm, but need
not be insured in respect of work done on their own torp 1.
The tenancy and labour relationships could scarcely be more
closely united. When the labour side of the contract is only
one degree strengthened, we have the group of the domiciled
workers or statare. These are regular employees enjoying
in some cases the use of a small plot of land, who beyond any
doubt enter into a contract of service. The close relationship
between them and the torpare shows how gradually the tenancy
may pass into the labour contract 2 .
Share-cropping in the United States of America. For purposes
of record the share-cropping of the United States is noted here,
as it seems too characteristic a form of share-tenancy to omit
in an investigatory report. The system is extensively adopted
in the Southern States. Historically it has origins not unlike
that of the metayage system in western and southern Europe ;
in other words, it was an arrangement originally designed to
meet the poverty of the cultivating tenants and which has since
been retained. The slave population released after the Civil War
in the South was totally without capital or resources ; on the
other hand, it was the only rural labour force in the country.
A system which supplied labour to land, and land and equipment
to labour was eminently practical.
What is interesting to observe is that in the States where
cropping agreements are used they are interpreted in opposite
directions by different Acts. The croppers are definitely
ranked as employees under a South Carolina Act of 25 February
1904 s . The Code of Georgia incorporates a negative statement
only, namely, that "the relation of landlord and tenant does not
1

Statement from the Swedish Social Board to the International
Labour Office.
2
International Labour Review, Vol. XII, No. 4, Oct. 1925.
3
An Act to amend section 357, Criminal Code of Laws, 1902, Vol. II,
relating to violation of labourers' contracts. The Act reads in part :
"Any labourer working on shares of crop, or for wages in money or
other valuable consideration under a verbal or written contract to
labour on farm lands, who shall receive advances, either in money or
supplies, and thereafter wilfully or without just cause fails to perform
the reasonable service required of him by the terms of the said contract,
shall be liable to prosecution for a misdemeanour", etc. The system of
advances is part of the cropping system, and it is clear from the above
wording, and from the title of the Act, that under that system the
cropper is held to enter into a contract of service.

— 42 —
arise" as between the person who lets the land and his cropper*.
On the other hand, the 1923 Code of Alabama is absolutely
precise in the opposite sense 2. The same is true in Mississippi,
where the relation of landlord and tenant is held to obtain 8.
This contradiction in State law is significant. Moreover, while
at the last Federal census (1920) croppers' lands were handled,
for purposes of convenience, along with tenancies, nevertheless,
the official analysis of this part of the census included the
following passage :
It is significant to compare the conditions of croppers and other
much supervised share-tenants with t h a t of labourers working for
fixed wages. In other words, while tenancy in theory represents merely
a method of holding possession of land, in practice it sometimes works
o u t into a method of obtaining labourers to work on the land. For
while t h e cotton-belt cropper has possession of his little 30-acre t r a c t ,
his possession is hedged about with so m a n y restrictions and so much
supervision t h a t it does
not amount to very much more t h a n the mere
possession of a job 4 .

Share-crop rents in Canada. Share-tenancy, in the sense
of the payment of rent as a proportion of the crop grown, is
quite the commonest form of a tenancy in the wheat growing
districts of Canada. These are true share-produce agreements,
peculiarly suited to one-crop enterprises. They range from
arrangements where the landlord supplies only the land,
receiving one-third of the crop, to arrangements where the
landlord supplies land and one-half of the equipment (twine,
seed, etc.) receiving one-half of the crop, or supplies land and
the whole of the equipment and receives two-thirds of the
crop. While the first two forms of agreement, which are
the most common, scarcely include any elements which set
up a contract of service, the last which is, however, more exceptional, is often little more than a contract of service, seeing
that the tenant supplies nothing but his labour.
1
Section 3707 : "Cropper.
Where one is employed to work for p a r t
of the crop, the relation of landlord and t e n a n t does not arise. The
t i t l e to the crop, subject to the interest of t h e cropper therein, and the
possession of the land remain in t h e owner."
2
Section 8807 (4742, 4743) : "Relation between party furnishing land
and parly furnishing labour. When one p a r t y furnishes the land and
t h e other p a r t y furnishes t h e labour t o cultivate it, with stipulations,
express or implied, to divide t h e crop between t h e m in certain proportions, the relation of landlord and t e n a n t , with all its incidents,
and to all intents and purposes, shall be held to exist between t h e m . "
3
Schlicht v. Callicolt, 76 Miss. 487, is cited.
4

UNITED

STATES

DEPARTMENT

OF

COMMERCE,

BUREAU

OF

THE

CENSUS : Farm Tenancy in the United States. By B. A. GOLDENWEISER
and Leon S. TRUESDELL. Census Monographs IV, p. 115. Washington,
Govt. Printing Office, 1924,

— 43 —
Share-milking in New Zealand. Yet another form of mixed
contract of a peculiarly interesting nature is the share-milking
contract of New Zealand. Here the capital advanced as against
the labour of the other contracting party is not merely land,
but land with stock, indeed, stock in the first place. In a model
agreement drawn up by the South Auckland Dairy Association \
under the heading : "Status of Parties," it is expressly laid
down that the agreement shall not be deemed to have created
a partnership, nor shall the milker be deemed in any way a
tenant of the land he uses ; he shall be deemed the bailiff only
of the stock of the owner. A further article gives the owner
of the land and stock certain rights of dismissal and engagement
over the persons for whose services the milker sub-contracts.
Yet the general tenor of the contract makes it difficult to regard
the. milker merely as the paid agent of the owner. It is, in
fact, a true mixed contract, combining relations arising out
of the hire of goods and those arising out of services to be
rendered.
The above are a few out of many examples which could be
cited of the various forms taken by agricultural contracts
relating simultaneously to services and to goods. Some remarks
supplied to the International Labour Office in connection with
the last-named type are illustrative of the permanent economic
factor which underlies almost all these varying types. It is
stated that the custom of share-milking in New Zealand sprang
up out of the economic needs of the dairy industry in its earliest
days, when the country was still one of virgin fertility and
capital was fluid. It was adopted because it "gave more satisfaction to the owner", but also because it "gave many of the
necessities of life to the family man' ' ; the share-system, it is
stated, "has been the stepping-stone for many a man to get
a farm on his own account". But with the passing away of
these special economic conditions it is presumed that sharemilking in New Zealand will cease, and the reason given is
important : because dairying will become a science, in which
agricultural knowledge, chemistry, business ability, and education will be the necessary equipment of the successful man.
In other words, the mental and material capital which will
have to be put into the industry will have to be immensely
increased. Share-tenancy and similar systems are recognised
1
Copy supplied to the International Labour Office by the Secretary
of the New Zealand Labour Party.

_ 44 —
methods — they are one of the old inherited forms of the selforganisation of the agricultural industry — the economic
purpose of which is to supply the actual cultivators of the
earth's surface with the means of carrying on their task; this
is their social justification. They give to labour its "means
of production". But they cease to do so where agriculture
has entered on a phase of complicated capital expenditure.
These intermediary forms then no longer suffice ; they are
too individualistic, too slightly guaranteed, too liable to disturbance, and above all on too small a scale to be at all convenient. But where they do exist — and sufficient evidence has
been quoted to show that they are known over a large part of
the earth's surface and under the most varying conditions —
they are far from being accidental, haphazard, or mere survivals,
but are intrinsic to the economic agricultural conditions of
these particular countries at these epochs ; they are, in fact,
a common stage in agricultural development. This is a powerful
argument for not neglecting them in any survey of world agricultural conditions or in any system of world representation
to be given to agriculture.

SOCIAL

PROTECTION

OF THE "INTERMEDIATE"
CULTIVATORS

GROUPS

OF

It may reasonably be inferred that industrial or social protection legislation expresses or expressed at the time of its enactment current opinion on the classification of the "intermediate"
groups of cultivators, whether with the wage-earning workers
or in some other way. The net result of the examples cited
below will be to show that general statements are difficult.
Legal practice varies from country to country, sometimes even
within a country, according to the subject-matter or the date
of the relevant Acts. Nevertheless, the remark is justified that
quite often industrial legislation takes notice of the sharetenant and similar groups as well as of the wage-earning worker ;
the further inference that, by so doing, it necessarily classes
these groups as workers is much more doubtful.
The present analysis is confined to that type of industrial
legislation which aims at the social protection of the worker.
There are. three conditions which may arise in reference to the
intermediate groups of cultivators : they may be excluded alto-

— 45 —
gether : they may be voluntarily admitted to a system of insurance, which is compulsory or voluntary ; they may be compelled to enter a system of obligatory insurance.
The first condition — exclusion — undoubtedly amounts to
a proof that the groups are in certain countries not classed
as workers. The exclusion is not usually an express one, but in
the form of an article stating that the benefits of an Act are
reserved to workers employed for wages, or some corresponding
phrase. Special cases of doubt are decided in the courts.
The Workmen's Accident Compensation Acts of the States of the
Commonwealth of Australia may be quoted, requiring, as
they do, a contract of service or apprenticeship as a condition.
Yet here it is interesting to note that one State — Queensland —
expressly widened its Act by amendment to include sharefarmers 1.
The second condition, that of the admission of the intermediate groups as voluntary contributors to some system of
voluntary or compulsory insurance is of great interest. It
proves that in many countries social insurance legislation takes
note of these groups as of persons requiring social assistance
or social protection ; this inference is greatly strengthened
where the voluntary insurance system is partly or largely backed
by State grants, for in that case the insured persons are enjoying
benefits which are established not merely for private, but
for social community purposes. It does not follow, however,
that they are classed as workers. Some social insurance laws
are quite general in their scope and cover either all persons
fulfilling certain conditions or else all persons fulfilling certain
conditions and occupied in a specified industry. In neither
case is any inference to be drawn as to the beneficiaries being
actually employed workers or ex-workers. Interest rather
arises where in the very act of admitting the intermediate
groups to the benefits of social insurance care is taken to draw
up definitions excluding persons who can be genuinely classed
as employers. It follows that the intermediate groups are
obviously held not to be employers, and to exclude the intermediate group from the class of employers is a step of considerable significance.
1
Workers' Compensation Acts, 1916 to 1921 ; section 3(3&) inserted in
1921 reads : "Every share-farmer and every wages-man employed by
any share-farmer shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be
a worker employed by the owner of the farm."

— 46 —

Definitions in such cases sometimes attack the problem
directly by stating that the insurable person, etc., may not
employ more than one, sometimes more than two, workers
himself ; some grace is necessarily allowed, for many smallholders require some outside help, often of a seasonal nature, but
are by no means thereby to be classed with the employing farmer
even on a medium-sized farm. In other cases the law requires
that the smallholder or share tenant and/or his wife and children
shall themselves be doing manual work on the farm. Definition
is also sought more indirectly, but nevertheless effectively,
where it is stated that such holdings must not be over a certain
area, or must not carry more than a certain number (usually
very few) animals, or must not produce more than a certain
revenue. These conditions, or some among them, are also found
in combination. More severe is a definition which will be
noticed below under our third condition — obligatory insurance
— excluding the cultivator of a holding sufficiently large in the
main to support life for himself and his family. In this case
the inference is significant, namely, that the beneficiary shall
at least in part be dependent on employment for wages.
Insurance legislation which enforces compensation for accidents allows the voluntary insurance of small holders or share
tenants, e.g. in Bulgaria (independent cultivators, etc., whose
annual revenue does not exceed 50,000 levas) * ; Denmark
(small employers not employing workers subject to insurance
and themselves earning less than a specified amount ; all market
gardeners) 2 ; France (cultivators usually working alone or with
the help of members of their immediate family, or relatives, or
with occasional paid or unpaid outside help) 8 ; Germany (owners
of agricultural undertakings may, by the rules of the accident
insurance institution within whose circumspection they fall,
be rendered liable to compulsory insurance ; if not compulsorily
insured, may insure voluntarily ; further, the governments of
the States may prescribe to what extent and under what conditions they are to be insured ; practically all agricultural employers have been insured compulsorily in virtue of this provision)4 ; Austria and Czechoslovakia (insurance against industrial
1

Act of 6 March 1924.
Act last amended on 28 June 1920.
3
Act of 15 December 1922 and Decree of 29 July 1923.
4
Second Notification of the Federal Insurance Code, Third, Fifth
and Sixth Books, 9 Jan. 1926, sections 548, 550, 922, 1034.
2

— 47 —
accidents is open to employers whether their undertakings are
liable to compulsory insurance or not) 1 ; Netherlands (all
employers and any person engaged in agriculture on his own
account may insure voluntarily) a 3.
Insurance legislation which makes provision for sickness
allows the voluntary insurance of smallholders or share tenants,
e.g. in Belgium (leaving it to mutual insurance societies to
define their membership ; there are no exclusive provisions
against any class of persons laid down by legislation) \ Bulgaria
(independent cultivators, etc., whose annual income does not
exceed 50,000 levas) 6 , Denmark (persons without private means
beyond a moderate amount belonging to the labouring classes
and persons in a similar economic position, e.g. small farmers, handicraftsmen, salaried employees, etc.) 6 , France
(the same principle as in Belgium ; a Bill has passed through
certain stages giving special facilities, inter alia, to smallholders
and share tenants whose annual income does not exceed 10,000
francs) ', Germany (employers, including agricultural employers,
working alone or employing not more than two insurable paid
workers and whose annual income does not exceed 2,700
Reichsmarks) 8 , Poland (all persons whose annual income does
not exceed 7,500 zloty) 9 1 0 .
Insurance legislation which makes provision for invalidity,
old age, or against death allows the voluntary insurance of
smallholders or share tenants, e.g. in Belgium (voluntary insurance for all persons whose annual income does not exceed
15,000 francs) u , Bulgaria (independent cultivators, etc., whose
annual income does not exceed 50,000 levas) 12 , Denmark (all
persons insured under sickness insurance are compulsorily
1

(Austrian) Act of 20 July 1894, sections 5 and 6.
Act of 20 May 1922, section 99 (1) and (2).
3
The list of countries is not set forth as exhaustive.
I
Act of 23 J u n e 1894.
5
Act of 6 March 1924.
6
Act of 10 May 1915, amended on 6 May 1921 and on 14 Dec. 1923.
' Act of 1 April 1898 ; Bill adopted by the Chamber of Deputies on
8 April 1924.
9
Notification of the new Text of the Federal Insurance Code, 15
Dec. 1924, § 176.
9
Act of 19 May 1920, § 8.
10
The list of countries is not set forth as exhaustive.
II
Act of 10 Dec. 1924.
12
Act of 6 March 1924.
2

— 48 —
insured against invalidity) \ France (smallholders, share tenants,
and artisans who habitually work alone or with a single worker
or with the members of their family residing with them, also
wage-paid workers whose annual income is over 10,000 and
does not exceed 12,000 francs) 2 , Germany (employers, including
agricultural employers, under 40 years of age and not employing
more than two workers) s , Italy (small proprietors who pay taxes
not exceeding 500 lire per year ; for share tenants, see below
under compulsory insurance) 4 , Luxemburg (persons not over
40 years of age, employing habitually not more than two paid
workers and whose annual income does not exceed 4,500 frs.) 56 .
The third condition, that of compelling the smallholder
and share tenant to enter an obligatory insurance system, results
in some countries in ranging these two groups pretty definitely
with the workers ; in other countries, however, no certain inference of this nature can be drawn.
In Italy ' Legislative Decree No. 1480 for compulsory insurance
against accidents in agriculture of 23 August 1917 (as amended
on 20 March 1920) stipulates in its first section that three
classes of persons shall be insured, namely, (a) workers employed
for wages, (b) landowners, share tenants, and tenants and their
wives and children habitually doing manual work on their
holdings, and (c) managers, bailiffs, etc., employed in agricultural
or forestry undertakings whose earnings do not exceed 20 lire
per day. If an analogy may be drawn from another Italian
Decree, No. 603, of 21 April 1919, on old-age and invalidity
insurance, the inference is that the share tenant and smallholder
is hereby classed not only with the workers, but as a worker.
For section 1 of this second Decree runs :
1

Act of 6 May 1921, amended 29 March 1924.
Acts of 5 April 1910 and 18 April 1922 ; section 36 (2) of the 1910
Act lays down that the landlord of the share tenant shall himself contribute to the insurance premiums ; it is a fair inference that the landlord
is in part the employer and the share tenant in part the employed person.
In other respects the Acts group by income level rather than by type
of employment ; thus even wage earners whose salary exceeds 10,000
francs would be in the second group, of persons insuring voluntarily,
not in the first, of persons compulsorily insured.
3
Notification of the new Text of the Federal Insurance Code, 15 Dec.
1924, § 1243.
4
Royal Decree of 30 Dec. 1923.
5
Act of 6 May 1911.
6
The list of countries is not set forth as exhaustive.
7
On the new classification of share-holders and small tenants in
Italy, see Part III, Section on Italy.
2

— 49 —
Insurance against invalidity and old age shall be compulsory on
persons of both sexes who
work for hire in the following capacities
Among the persons specified in (1) of the present section shall be included share tenants and tenants who habitually perform manual labour
in their respective undertakings, and who do not as a rule employ more
than one person not belonging to their own family for the purpose of
•working the land held under a share tenancy or tenancy agreement.
These provisions were annulled by Royal Decree, No. 3184,
•of 30 December 1923, and share tenants and tenants Were
excluded from the benefits of this type of insurance ; it may,
however, be stated that the exclusion was for financial reasons
and should not affect the theory of their position at law. Nevertheless, it is again to be noted that Regulations of 28 August
1924, issued in pursuance of the Decree of 1923, class the smallholder and share tenant as aii employer in respect of any workers
whom he may engage and as such subject him to the necessity
of paying contributions on their behalf.
Another instance of the grouping of the smallholder and
share tenant with the agricultural worker can further be quoted
from Portugal. Decree No. 5638 of 10 May 1919 on compulsory
insurance against invalidity, old age, and death, states that
in addition to wage-earners there shall be insured small industrial and commercial employers, small tenants and proprietors
Avhose annual income does not exceed a certain amount.
An instance of rather a different type is an unemployment
relief Order issued by the German Federal Government on
14 November 1924 (amended 18 January 1926) K The Order
defines classes of undertakings exempt from payment of unemployment relief premiums and among those undertakings are
agricultural or forestry undertakings cultivated by persons who
are in part employed for wages but who at the same time are
proprietors or tenants of holdings sufficiently large "in the main
to support life for the cultivator himself and his family". The
definition, it will be seen, draws the line much more severely
than in some of the cases cited above — the net result is certainly to exclude rather than to include the small proprietor.
The determination of what is a holding sufficiently large under
the terms of the Order is in the hands of certain local authorities.
A form of semi-compulsory insurance against unemployment
1

Reichsarbeitsblatt, 24 Nov. 1924. The wage-paid worker having a
long engagement or right to long notice, is also excluded (from contributions), so that the line is really drawn not between holding of land and
landless persons, but between exposure to risk of unemployment and
non-exposure.
4

— 50 —
obtains in Denmark. Voluntary as from the State, the trade
unions make it compulsory on their members. But only wagepaid labourers are admitted to insurance, and in order to
distinguish between labourers and smallholders certain rules
have been drawn up. According to these a smallholder in order
to be classed with agricultural labourers must not have land
valued at over 3,000 kroner, or more than one small horse, two
cows and a heifer, and must prove that he is working at least
200 days per year for an employer *.
OPINION OF THE WORKERS

A point of great interest is the attitude of the organised
unions of wage-earning agricultural workers on this question
of the "intermediate" groups of cultivators. Are such intermediate groups admitted to the agricultural trade unions,
and if so, on what conditions ? The question has been specifically addressed to organised agricultural wage earners
all over the world in communications sent out by the International Labour Office, and a summary will be found in Part III
of this study of the answers received up to date, country by
country.
If there were a strong body of opinion among organised workers
that the "intermediate" groups of cultivators belonged to their
ranks or, vice versa, that they did not, this opinion would be
a very good guide to the International Labour Office. It is,.
however, clear that no such decisive opinion exists, although,
on the whole, organised agricultural workers are friendly to
the small cultivator and anxious to retain his support.
The following illustrative facts may perhaps be noted. For
further information reference should be made to Part III of this
study.
The attitude of the two existing international federations of
agricultural wage-earners is as follows. The International
Federation of Land Workers, which is affiliated with the International Federation of Trade Unions (Amsterdam), at its third
congress in September, 1924, passed an interesting resolution,.
which is here quoted in full in translation.
It is proper to establish the fact that in many countries small landed
proprietors (smallholders) are additionally employed for wages as workers in agriculture and forestry. The employment relation is often
1

The list of countries is not set forth as exhaustive.

— 51 —
not a permanent one, but an occasional one, for instance, seasonal
labour. The interests of such persons are as much affected by the organisation of gainfully employed workers as they are by organisations
to encourage independent proprietors.
In recognition of this fact the Third International Land "Workers'
Congress records its opinion that the organising of the small agricultural
proprietors, who represent proletarian standards of life, can take place
within the framework of agricultural workers' organisation.
The Congress records its opinion that the organising of these classes
of the rural proletariat can be of use to assist the struggle of the wage
workers employed in agriculture and forestry.
The Congress further records its opinion that the organising of these
small proprietors (smallholders) will also contribute to assist the organising of those classes of land workers who are employed as separate
workers (farm servants) on large farms.
Finally, the Congress is of opinion that the co-operation together
of all groups of the rural proletariat in organisations of land workers
and smallholders, either acting jointly or being identical, is in the
common interest, and therefore recommends affiliated federations to
pay special attention to this question and to take note of it in drawing
up their regular reports to the Secretariat of the Land Workers' International.
The Congress leaves to the separate national federations the question
of the organised classification of these groups and the representation
of their special interests, as in view of inadequate experience it is not
yet possible to lay down general principles r.
This resolution was passed at the instance of the constituent
Austrian organisation, which at that time was particularly
interested in the admission of smallholders into the ranks of the
wage-earning workers. Since then the Austrian organisation
has itself entered upon a slightly revised policy. The resolution is perhaps rather a statement of principle than an immediate
working policy.
The International Federation of Christian Agricultural
Workers' Trade Unions, which is affiliated with the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions, was constituted at a congress held at Coblenz, 27-28 April 1921. Article 5
of the Constitution of the Federation, adopted on that occasion,
reads :
The following may be admitted as members of the Federation : all
national federations and all national unions of land workers which
accept Christian principles as a basis, which accept the present statutes,
etc. 2
At this congress two organisations representing the intermediate groups of cultivators had representation, namely, the
National Federation of Share-Tenants and Smallholders, Italy,
1
2

Original in German.

: First International Congress of
Christian Land Workers' Unions. Studies and Reports, Series K, No. 7.
Geneva, 1921.
INTEBNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE

— 52 —
and the Italian Federation of Small Proprietors. These organisations were (in 1926) not affiliated to the International Federation of Christian Agricultural Workers' Trade Unions, but
the first had been affiliated and both were considered still
eligible for affiliation and were, in any case, affiliated to the
General Federation of Christian Trade Unions of Italy ; however,
inferences must not be built on this isolated situation ; more
especially do objections seem to have been felt to the affiliation
of an association of small landowners. The opinion of the
International, as conveyed to the International Labour Office
through its secretary, is that there is very little inclination
in the Federation to give to the word "worker" an interpretation so wide as to allow of the inclusion of all persons working
on the land. In view of the multifarious forms under which the
social organisation of agricultural labour appears, it is very
difficult to draw an absolutely hard and fast line, but the
Federation will probably be unlikely — if confronted with the
question — to depart very widely from the idea of the
"worker", and if they admitted share-farmers would scarcely
go so far as to admit regular small tenants, etc. That, at
any rate, is the state of affairs as far as it can be stated at
present.
Of action undertaken by national organisations the most
interesting has undoubtedly been the step at one time taken by
an Austrian union. After a special section for smallholders
had been formed on 17 March 1923 within the Union of Austrian
Agricultural and Forestry Workers, the following year a revised
constitution was adopted at the third congress of the union
on 15, 16 and 17 August 1924, of which Article 5 frankly
threw open membership in the union to wage earners and to
smallholders on identical terms. The Article reads :
Membership is open t o all person of both sexes engaged in
forestry, horticulture, lumbering and allied occupations ;
all owners of agricultural undertakings who can be reckoned
farmers, vinegrowers, or small tenants. The Executive
can also allow other persons to become members.

agriculture,
further, to
to be small
Committee

This action was, however, rescinded in June 1925. The
statement of the union notes that the rapid growth of the smallholders' section, and certain differences in the interests of the
two groups, led to separation by mutual agreement and
consent. The Smallholders' Section has therefore become

— 53 —
an independent body, but has a joint committee with the
mother union.
Similar action was contemplated by the Union of Agricultural
and Forestry Workers in Czechoslovakia, which was founded
in 1919 in continuation of the old Austrian Union of Agriculture
and Forestry Workers. This union had entered into negotiations with the Central Union of Smallholders, and an
amalgamation had been discussed. The idea was, however,
abandoned.
A statement to the International Labour
Office from the Union of Agricultural and Forestry Workers
notes that "the interests of the members of these two bodies
are after all not identical. The success ful furtherance of those
interests requires special methods. The special interests of
each organisation, and the special methods required to further
them, make a separate organisation necessary in each case.
Amalgamation was therefore rejected, but questions of common
interest are discussed in collaboration as they arise." The
larger agricultural unions in Czechoslovakia all have a policy
of admission of smallholders, etc., to membership, but in varying
degrees. The Bohemian organisation attached to the Christian
trade union movement is desirous to secure smallholders as
members in order to prevent lowering of agricultural wages
by competition. The union affiliated to the Federation of
Czechoslovak Trade Unions comprises smallholders when they
do paid work for an employer, but has transferred to separate
smallholders' organisations a number of members who have
received plots under agrarian reform legislation. The union
affiliated to the National-Social movement has also tried to
cater for the interests of the smallholder.
In France, as has already been made clear, smallholders and
share-tenants are a numerous and important class. Attempts to
organise them go back more than twenty years, but have been on
a local basis. Examples of these local organisations may be mentioned. Thus a federation was formed in the Bourbonnais in
1904 and existed until 1912. This federation never affiliated
with any regular trade union body, and, indeed, at a congress
held in 1908 expressly rejected such contact *. On the other
hand, another small body of organised share-tenants, etc.,
the Federation of Tenants, Share-Tenants, and Resin Collectors
1
SOUCHON : La Crise de la main-d'œuvre agricole en France; Paris,
1914. Cf. on the general situation, REMBAUD : La Question des fermiers
généraux en France et à l'étranger; Paris, 1913.

— 54 —
of the Landes, which had originally been established in 1906,
was after the war affiliated with the National Federation of
Agricultural Workers, and consequently through this union,
with the General Confederation of Labour x . The National
Federation of Agricultural Workers itself has a policy on the
subject of contact with intermediate groups of cultivators
which is clearly laid down in its constitution. Only unions
composed of paid workers are admitted to affiliation, but these
unions are empowered to admit on their own responsibility
small proprietors, tenants, and share-tenants who work alone
with their families. Recent literature published by the Federation states : "It is the rôle of the Federation to
unite
into one and the same group vineyard workers, forestry and
horticultural workers, share tenants, etc." 2
The General Confederation of Labour, one of the principal
trade union bodies in the world, is thoroughly in favour of
drawing into its ranks not only the three million wage-earning
agricultural workers in France, but a proportion of the five
million odd small proprietors, tenants and share-tenants whom
it is estimated exist in the country 3. Definite efforts have from
time to time been made in this direction. The latest which has
come to the notice of the International Labour Office was the
calling on 21 November 1926 of a mixed conference of representatives of agricultural labour and representatives of sharefarming in the south-west of France (where the local organisations
of share-farmers to which reference was made above exist),
for the special purpose of discussing the relations of sharefarmers to agricultural workers' organisations. The Conference
was unanimously of opinion "that share-farmers and tenants,
although wage-earners of an unusual type, should unite with
the other workers of the General Confederation of Labour" ;
further, the ultimate ideal was stated to be complete abolition
of share-farming in favour of more progressive forms of production 4. Another congress, held at Toulouse, on 24 October 1926,
1
Le Travailleur de la Terre, Feb. 1924. L'Information Sociale de Paris,
27 March 1924.
2
TARRÈS : Le Syndicalisme paysan dans les Pyrénées Orientales, 18941924, p. 23. Paris, Fédération nationale des travailleurs de l'Agriculture, 1924,
3
La Confédération Générale du Travail et les terriens : un programme
de revendication et d'action, p. 57-58. Paris, Confédération Générale du
Travail, 1919.
1
Communication to the International Labour Office.

— 55 —
also assumed a solidarity of interests between share-farmers
and wage earners, though, of course, the actual demands put
forward by the two groups were not the same 1. From the
side of French general trade unionism there is thus no hesitation
in welcoming the share-holder, and perhaps even the smallholder.
Except in the districts mentioned, however, effective action
has been slight, and this is no doubt traceable to the same general
causes as still hamper the organisation of agricultural wageearners in France.
In Italy also share tenants and smallholders are a very
numerous and important class. The question of their admission
to trade union organisations of wage-earning agricultural workers
has always been a difficulty. An original resolution in favour
of socialisation of the land, adopted after much discussion, at
the constituent congress of 1901, from which the principal
organisation, the National Federation of Agricultural "Workers
had its birth, might seem to have settled the question as against
the admission of owners or tenants of land ; the practice of
the next twenty years, however, showed the local organisers
of the Federation by no means in agreement, some admitting,
and some refusing to admit, share-tenants, etc. More especially
was the policj' of mere exclusion largely abandoned after the
war, in view of the rivalry for employment between the regular
wage-earning and the small tenant classes, a proof of an identity
of economic interests.
The attitude of the Fascist trade unions to the question, from
1923 to 1926, is discussed below, in the section on the representation of the intermediate groups of cultivators at the International Labour Conference 2. In any case the classification
of share-holders with workers has recently been settled by
the Italian Government. What is interesting is that the workers
themselves wish to go one step further, and to claim small
tenants as workers. They claim that "the tenancy contract
should be considered a true labour contract", and set this
forth in a significant resolution adopted by a congress of agricultural workers' associations for central and south Italy on
7 March 1927 3. It is to be observed that under existing Italian
law the intermediate groups of cultivators must be ranged
1
2
3

Industrial and Labour Information, Vol. XX, No. 9.
See below, pp. 60 et seq.
See below, Part III, Section on Italy.

— 56 —
either with workers or with employers; they cannot be an independent class.
In Sweden the constitution of the Swedish Agricultural
Workers' Union admits to membership farm workers, women
farm servants, statare, tenant-workers, small farmers, stablemen
or stockmen, dairy staff, day labourers, farm smiths and carpenters, etc. More striking still is the composition and membership of the Union of Forestry Workers and Timber Floaters.
This union comprises those engaged in these operations without
regard to whether they are landless workers or smallholders,
and claims to have achieved collaboration between these twogroups.
In Hungary membership in the Union of Agricultural Workers
is very wide, and includes all workers of the soil, whether resident
or non-resident farm workers, or share-reapers, or small tenants.
In Estonia membership of the recently formed Association
of the Rural Working Population is open not only to all agricultural workers, but to all rural dwellers who live by their
own work and do not employ others against remuneration.
In the United States of America the constitution of the
Farm Labour Union of America admits farmers or farm labourers,
namely, any actual labourer or producer of farm products,
whose interest is farming.
On the other hand, a strong feeling against smallholding in
principle exists among the agricultural workers in Great
Britain. Both the National Union of Agricultural Workers
(of England and Wales) and the Scottish Farm Servants'
Union have expressed themselves as averse to the extension
of smallholding. Nor must the admission of smallholders to
agricultural workers' unions in other countries, nor friendly
relations with smallholders' organisations, be assumed as an
expression of approbation on the part of agricultural workers.
of smallholding as a good principle in the farming of landEven the French organisation, which definitely wishes to
include the smallholder within its ranks, has placed on record
its ultimate belief in other methods for carrying on the
cultivation of the soil.
The general facts are these. This is a question which agricultural trade unions have not always been called upon to
meet, at least not as stated in set terms. In practice it is
easy to admit to agricultural trade unions persons who own
land when they can make out any sort of a case to show that

— 57 —
they are also employed workers. It is unlikely that such persons
would apply for admission to workers' organisations unless
they were thoroughly in sympathy with the workers' point of
view : there may even be a propaganda movement here and
there to persuade them to join the agricultural trade unions.
But when it comes to affiliating whole separate bodies of such
workers, practice is much more hesitating. The more progressive trade unions realise the importance of their relations with
this class so closely allied to them economically, socially, and
morally. Moreover, it is an admitted fact, the bearings of which
must be fully grasped, that agricultural trade unionism itself
is most imperfectly developed. In some countries — France
is a good example — there is a strong general trade union
movement, and a very weak, almost non-existent, agricultural
trade union movement. In other countries — Greece is an
example — there are very few employed agricultural workers
who could form an organisation movement on regular trade
union lines ; here it would rather be a question whether the
(co-operative) organisations of smallholders could be persuaded
to admit a few wage-earning agricultural workers. In the
British Dominions and the United States of America the situation is again quite different. Family farming predominates
and, although family farming occasionally employs a hired
worker, yet it is not in any sense carried on by an employing
class. On the other side, it is difficult to group the family
farmer with what is strictly known as smallholding. The
conditions are different and the whole state of agricultural society
is more fluid than it is in some countries where smallholding
in the almost technical sense of that word and share-farming
are old-established methods of carrying on the cultivation of
the soil.
The International Labour Office has the impression that
the trade union world is not unfavourable to the smallholder,
provided that the accepted principles of trade unionism are
not infringed by any action taken or contemplated on his
behalf. What makes any statement difficult is the general
weakness of the agricultural trade union movement. Were
such a movement influential and powerful, it could perhaps
afford to carry along with it the smallholder.
It is no doubt easy to exaggerate the importance of a special
group or class. However, the small cultivator who is economically in a weak position has some special claims on the

— 58 —
Organisation if the spirit of the Treaty of Versailles is to be
effective. A mere glance at the economic conditions prevailing
in a number of countries should suffice to show the unwisdom
of ignoring the smallholder, the share-farmer, the small tenant,
and all these groups of cultivators. To ignore such groups
is to ignore a large proportion of the whole number of
persons who cultivate the surface of the earth. If the
workers' organised movement does not recognise such groups
it is thereby proved inadequate, and if the International Labour
Organisation does not recognise them, then that Organisation
is also proved inadequate.
The upshot is that we have this additional difficulty
superimposed on our original difficulty of the representation
and organisation of the agricultural worker. It is difficult
enough to know how the wage-earning agricultural worker is
to claim his right place in the Organisation. When we realise
that the question does not end here, but that there is a further
question of the cultivator who is in all respects a worker but
yet not an employed worker, it is clear that the representation
and organisation of agricultural workers is not a simple question
for the International Labour Organisation.
The wider question of the whole place of the agricultural
worker and of agriculture in the Organisation raises issues of
great importance. The relations of agriculture, to "industry"
are not fully worked out, but it is at least probable that the
next twenty or thirty years will see some changes.
NOTE. — The "Intermediate" Groups of Cultivators and the International
Labour Organisation
(a) The Agricultural Advisory Committee
Reference has been made on more than one occasion on the Governing Body and on the Mixed Advisory Agricultural Committee (which derives its powers in part from the Governing Body) to smallholders, sharefarmers, and other similar groups. The question came under discussion
in a rather incidental way in the course of deciding
the exact composition
of the Advisory Agricultural Committee 1 . This Committee, as has
already been stated, is a body which was set up in 1922-1923 for the
purpose of advising on the collaboration to be observed in enquiries
into agricultural problems between the International Labour Office
and the International Institute of Agriculture, Rome.
The result of such discussion as took place was that the Governing
Body rejected the proposal specifically to classify these groups for
special representation on the Committee, and the question was set aside.
The first occasion on which the position of these groups was discussed
was at the Eleventh Session of the Governing Body, January 1922,
1

See above, pp. 27 et seq.

— 59 —
arising out of a motion (Mr. Zumeta's motion) passed a t the previous
(Third) Session of the International Labour Conference, Geneva, 1921,
calling for t h e constitution of an Agricultural Committee. This Committee was envisaged as a joint one, t h a t is, with equal representation
for employers and employed. The question of the representation of the
intermediate groups was mentioned, and the existence a n d importance
of "joint" bodies, i.e. bodies including every t y p e of cultivator, large
landowners, smallholders,
share-tenants, etc., and even wage-earning
workers, was noted 1. I t was proposed t o reserve, on a Commission of
seventeen persons, three places for "representatives of the joint unions
or of co-operative organisations".
In opening t h e discussion on this document t h e Workers' Representative for Switzerland (Mr. Schüren), speaking on behalf of the Workers'
Group on the Governing Body, objected to the proposal for special
representation of mixed bodies and co-operative organisations.
He
pointed out t h a t the resolution passed a t the previous session of the
Conference on Mr. Zumeta's proposition had definitely named a commission on which employers and workers would have equal representation.
He proposed therefore t h a t there should be no direct representation
of such mixed or co-operative bodies, b u t t h a t their representatives
could be included either among the employers or t h e workers 2 . This
objection, coming from the workers' side, was sufficient, and a t the
n e x t meeting of the Governing Body, in April 1922, the suggestion of
special representation for t h e intermediate or mixed groups
of cultivators was definitely abandoned in view of his remarks 3.
Moreover, when the Agricultural Advisory Committee finally came
t o be constituted in 1923, t h e original suggestion was enlarged, with a
consequent alteration in the composition of the Committee. It was set up
as a mixed committee of six members, three of whom represented the
1
Minutes ef the Eleventh Session of the Governing Body, pp. 73 et seq.
The following passage occurs in a preliminary document submitted by
the International Labour Office as a basis of discussion: " I n o u r opinion
employers' organisations on the one hand, and workers' organisations
on t h e other hand, should certainly remain t h e essential basis of t h e
representation of the world of agriculture. It is on t h e basis of businesslike and fair discussion between employers and wage-earners t h a t the
measures of international protection which are t h e proper objects of
our Organisation must necessarily rest. Nevertheless, we must not
forget t h a t in many countries the vast majority of agricultural workers
consists of independent cultivators. I t is possible t h a t future Conferences
will adopt resolutions having direct or indirect reference to this class.
At the Geneva Conference itself it was pointed out t h a t the rights of
association interested t h e m directly. Again, independent cultivators
are often wage-earners, in places where cultivation on a small scale
alternates with large-scale cultivation (as in Central and Eastern
Europe) and yet t h e fact t h a t these cultivators work independently
is in some cases sufficient to exclude t h e m from professional trade unions".
(The reference to the "Geneva Conference" is to discussions on t h e
Third Committee of t h e 1921 Session of the Conference.) " I n other
countries the independent cultivators are the backbone of the trade
unions and agricultural co-operative societies, and their discussions
might contribute t o t h e solution of problems which concern t h e International Labour Office more closely. Moreover, the special position of
workers in this category might be the means of supplying the Commission more readily with unprejudiced opinion, and they might sometimes
also perform the rôle of mediators."
2

Ibid., p . 40.
Minutes of the Twelfth Session of the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, Rome, April 1922, pp. 11 et seq., p. 44, and pp.
162-163, Appendix VI, Sixth Item on the Agenda; "Constitution of t h e
Advisory Committee on Agriculture".
3

— 60 —
International Labour Office (namely, one Government, one employers', and
one workers' representative), and
three an outside body, the International
Institute of Agriculture, Rome 1 . In view of this change in the character
of the Committee the question of the classification of the intermediate
groups in agriculture rather disappeared from view. No formal discussion
has taken place on the Committee on the subject ; but a short passage
from the report adopted by the Committee at its first Session in August
1923 at Geneva is undoubtedly of interest, as showing that the sphere
of work of the Committee is held to include the intermediate groups
of cultivators :
The meaning of the expression "workers" must, of course, be
sufficiently wide to include not only the "wage-earners" in agriculture, but also the small proprietors, whatever may be the legal
tie holding them to their property (small proprietors, small farmers,
colonists, workers who receive part payment in produce, etc.) a .
(b) Representation at the Sessions of the International Labour Conference
The question as to whether the intermediate groups of cultivators
could be, or have in fact been, represented at the Sessions of the International Labour Conference is of obvious interest.
The question was raised by the Greek Government in a letter of 9
December 1920 addressed to the International Labour Office in reference
to the forthcoming Third Session of the Conference. This is here reproduced, as it sets forth a very typical situation :
Throughout the Kingdom of Greece, except in Thessaly and
Macedonia, agricultural property exists in the form of small holdings
cultivated personally by the holder and his family. The question
of wage-earning or other employed workers cannot arise under
these conditions. In Thessaly and Macedonia large-scale properties
(the tsiflik) still exist ; but these are usually cultivated by the
agency of share-tenant settlers, working on their own account
and paying a rent in kind to the landlord ; wage-earning workers
are but rarely employed. Moreover, in view of the fact that the
expropriation of these large-scale properties for the benefit of the
tenants, which began in 1917, is in process of being carried out,
there will exist in the near future no class but that of the smallholders cultivating their holdings by means of their own labour
and the labour of their families. The number of wage-earning
workers will always be limited.
This is the reason why trade unions of agricultural workers
have so far failed to be constituted in Greece. In fact, we have no
purely trade union bodies of this kind. The only organisations
existing among cultivators of the soil are agricultural co-operative
production societies, the membership of which is exclusively
composed of the tenants of large-scale properties liable to expropriation and of small independent holders. Such co-operatives
are found throughout Greece. They have lately announced a
proposal for the formation of a Federation . . .
In view of the absence of other agricultural organisations we
are in doubt as to whether we should address ourselves to this
Federation in connection with the appointment of Technical Advisers
to our Delegates. We realise that such a proceeding would fail
to secure representation of the wage-earning agricultural workers ;
but, as has already been noted, the numerical and economic importance of this class is very limited. In any case, it would in our
opinion be more convenient to represent the wage-earning agricultural workers, whether in reference to the Delegates or to the Technical
1

The Committee now consists of 12 persons ; see above, p. 27.
(First Session, Geneva, 22'24
August 1923) : Report of the Committee, p. 60.
a

ADVISORY AGRICULTURAL COMMITTEE

f

— 61 —
Advisers, through t h e General Confederation of Labour only, even
if no co-operative organisation is affiliated thereto.
Nevertheless, we cannot lose sight of t h e fact t h a t , b y reason
of t h e very limited number of wage-earning agricultural workers,
the agricultural items on t h e agenda of t h e Conference can only
be of real interest to Greece in so far as they refer in general t o t h e
cultivating population, whether or no holders of land. Where
this is t h e case, then beyond doubt t h e best representation of
agricultural interests would be through t h e Federation of Cooperative Societies or perhaps through a delegation collectively
representative of all t h e agricultural co-operative societies in t h e
country.
Below are set forth t h e detailed facts which m a y bear on t h e represent a t i o n of t h e intermediate groups of cultivators a t preceding Sessions
of t h e International Labour Conference.
Included in t h e personnel of t h e Delegations t o t h e Third Session
of t h e Conference were t h e following representatives of share-farming
or smallholding :
1921
Government Delegates

Workers' Delegates

FINLAND

—

Mr. Heikki Laakso, Union of Agricultural Leaseholders and Smallholders.

FRANCE

—

Mr. Hodée, secretary of t h e

Na-

tional Federation of Agricultural
Workers (Technical Adviser).
GERMANY

ITALY

—

Dr. D . Guzzini, Doctor of
Agricultural Science 1 ,
(Technical Adviser).

NORWAY

—

Mr. Franz Behrens, president,
Central Union (Christian) of
Agricultural Workers ; president,
International
Federation of
Christian Agricultural Workers'
Trade Unions. (Technical Adviser).
Professor O. Gorni, secretary of
t h e National Federation of
Agricultural
Co-operative
Societies (Technical Adviser).
Mrs. Altobelli, secretary of t h e
National Land Workers' Federation (Technical Adviser).
Mr. Erik Kleve, farmer, Norwegian Small Farmers' Union.
Mr. K. Amundsen, farmer, Norwegian Union of Agricultural
Workers (Technical Adviser).

Included in t h e personnel of t h e various Delegations a t subsequent
Sessions were t h e following representatives of share-farming or smallholding :
1922
FINLAND
—
Mr. Emil Viljanen, Union of Agricultural Leaseholders and Smallholders.
NORWAY

—

Mr. Erik Kleve.

-* Connected with t h e National Association of Agricultural Co-operative
Societies.

>

— 62 —
The above cases fall into two groups (a) where the representation
was indirect, (b) where it was direct. " I n d i r e c t " representation m a y
be held to be established where a Delegate is recommended as from a
general or national organisation, to which organisation is or are affiliated
one or more federations, associations or bodies of smallholders or share
tenants.
Thus the National Federation of Agricultural Labourers,.
France (Mr. Hodée), included among its constituent organisationsassociations of share tenants ; so did the National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Societies, Italy (Professor Gorni), while t h e Italian
Land Workers' Federation (Mrs. Altobelli) was an organisation to which
was affiliated t h e Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Societies.
Further, the International Federation of Christian Agricultural Workers
(Mr. Behrens) had been in communication, at its original constitution in t h1 e
spring of 1921, with two associations of share-tenants and small farmers ..
From a formal point of view a larger number of cases of indirect
representation could be established. Were it conceded t h a t wherever
a Workers' Delegate attended the Conference recommended as from a
national federation of t r a d e unions, industrial or other, t o which national
federation was affiliated an agricultural federation, to which in t u r n
was affiliated some body of small farmers or share tenants, in these cases
such Workers' Delegate should be reckoned to represent inter alia
share-tenantry or small farming, then, undoubtedly, the list given above
could be enlarged. The representation, however, in such cases would
certainly appear remote. The instances mentioned are therefore
confined to cases where recommendation as from an agricultural organisation was established, to which agricultural organisation was affiliated some body of share tenants or small farmers.
Direct representation is undoubtedly established where a Delegate
is recommended as from a smallholders' or share tenants' association
itself. The Workers' Delegates attending the Conference from Finland
and Norway in 1921, the Technical Adviser to the Norwegian Workers'
Delegate in 1921, and t h e Workers' Delegates attending the Conference
from Finland and Norway in 1922, are cases in point.
These cases, however, are complicated by the previous refusal of
certain organisations to t a k e p a r t in the nomination of a Workers'
Delegate to the International Labour Conference. The detailed situation
is here set forth exactly as i t appears from t h e letters of credentials in
the archives of the International Labour Office.
The Letter of Credentials under date 21 September 1921, appointing
Mr. Laakso in 1921, states him to be " R é d a c t e u r . " In the letter announcing selection of the Delegation, under date 18 March 1921, from t h e
Ministry of Social Affairs, Finland, Mr. Laakso is described as "editor,
formerly agricultural labourer".
In a subsequent letter from the same Ministry under date 28 September
1921 reference is made to the refusal of the Central Organisation of T r a d e
Unions in Finland (Suomen Ammattijärjestö)
t o assist in t h e selection
of Delegates and it is stated : "in consequence of which the Delegate
nominated by the Organisation of the Agricultural Workers will represent
the whole working class in Finland". The letter of refusal (undated)
from the Central Organisation in answer to the invitation to select
reaching t h e m from t h e Ministry of Social Affairs under date 15 September
1920 states t h a t : "the industrially organised workers of Finland will
not for the present t a k e p a r t in such international conferences, in which
both the existing bourgeois Governments and employers are represented".
The Letter of Credentials under date 18 August 1922 appointing Mr.
Viljanen in 2 1922 stated him to be President de l'association des petits
cultivateurs , and appoints him
en qualité de Représentant des Ouvriers
de la République de Finlande3.
The situation as towards the Central
1

See P a r t I I I , p . 75.
"President of t h e Association of Small Cultivators".
3
" I n the capacity of Representative of the workers of the Republic
ef Finland".
2

— 63 —
Organisation of Trade Unions was the same as in 1921, as is made known
by copies of correspondence passing between that organisation and the
Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs forwarded by the Ministry to the
International Labour Office.
The Letter of Credentials under date 17 October 1921 from the
Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs appointing Mr. Kleve as Workers'
Delegate and Mr. Amundsen as his Technical Adviser, states Mr. Kleve
to be fermier1 and Mr. Amundsen to be ancien député 2 ; and declares them
to be appointed
d'accord avec les Organisations industrielles représentant
(les Patrons
et3) les Ouvriers norvégiens, à savoir (la Norsk
Arbeidsgiver4
forening ) et les "Norsk Bonde
-og Smaabrukerlag" 5 et "Arbeidernes
6
Faglige Landsorganisation" '. In letters announcing selection of the
Delegation from the Department of Social Affairs dated 23 June and
17 September 1921 the names of the same organisations were mentioned
and Mr. Kleve is stated to be petit cultivateur (smaabruker)8 and Mr.
Amundsen to be a small farmer.
The Letter of Credentials under date 22 September 1922 from the
Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs appointing Mr. Kleve as Workers'
Delegate, states Mr. Kleve to be fermier, Délégué représentant les ouvriers
norvégiens ° and declares that the appointment was made d'accord avec
l'Organisation des paysans et des petits cultivateurs norvégiens 10. In a
letter from the Department for Social Affairs under date 25 September
1922, Mr. Kleve is stated to be petit cultivateur (smaabruker) and it is
added that, as the 'Arbeidernes Faglige Landsorganisasjon
was unwilling to
propose the name of a Workers' Delegate11, Mr. Kleve had been12appointed
after consultation with the Norsk Bonde- og Smaabrukerlag .
It follows from the above facts (1) that the Workers' Delegations
from Finland and Norway in 1921 and 1922 undoubtedly represented
smallholdings ; (2) that the Delegates selected were selected, as the
Letters of Credentials show, as representative of the workers in those
countries ; (3) that, nevertheless, the organised bodies of workers
in Finland categorically objected to representation at the Conference
and the organised bodies of workers in Norway while admitting it and
"consenting to" the Delegates selected in 1921, in 1922 withdrew their
consent and co-operation ; (4) that the Conference adopted the credentials as valid in absence of any objection to them ; nevertheless, that
the absence of any objection must apparently be attributed to the general
non-participation in, and complete dissociation from, the International
Labour Organisation expressed in their own country and to their own
Governments by the organised workers of Finland and Norway.

I

"Farmer".
"Formerly Member of Parliament".
8
With reference to the Employers' Delegate.
4
Federation of Employers' Societies.
5
Union of Farmers and Smallholders.
0
National Federation of Trade Unions.
7
"In agreement with the Industrial Organisations representing (the
Norwegian employers and) the workers, namely (the Norsk Arbeidsgiverforening and) the Norsk Bonde- og Smaabrukerlag and Arbeidernes Faglige
Landsorganisation".
8
"Small cultivator (smaabruker)".
9
"Farmer, Delegate representing the Norwegian workers".
10
"In agreement with the Organisation of Norwegian peasants and
small cultivators".
II
The situation was substantially the same as in Finland.
M
There were no Workers' Delegates for Norway at the Fifth or Sixth
Sessions of the International Labour Conference in 1923 and 1924.
3

— 64 —
Consequently, it is difficult to state the Finnish and Norwegian representation as a true precedent in law and in fact.
All the above instances of representation, whether direct or indirect,
and whatever the circumstances surrounding them, were accepted
by the Credentials Committee of the Sessions of the Conference without
protest having been raised. On two further occasions, at the Fifth and
Sixth Sessions of the Conference in 1923 and 1924 respectively, protest
was raised against the credentials of a Workers' Delegate who claimed
to represent share tenanting and small farming together with organised
groups of workers, and on both occasions the protests led to prolonged
discussion at the plenary conference.
The disputed credentials both in 1923 and 1924 were those of the Italian
Workers' Delegate (Mr. Rossoni), who had been selected by the Italian
(Fascist) Government in agreement with the (Fascist) Confederation
of National Trade Union Corporations (Confederazione nazionale delle
corporazione sindicali). Protest at both Sessions was raised on behalf
of the Workers' Group by the French Workers' Delegate (Mr. Jouhaux),
who in the course of his speech in 1924 quoted Article 7 of the Constitution of the Confederation to the following effect :
The Confederation assumes the protection of the interests of
small direct producers (métayers, small landowners, tenant farmers,
handicraftsmen) so far as such interests find their justification in
the social utility arising from the intensification and specialisation
of industrial or agricultural production and leave open the opportunity for work and improvement to wage-earning workers to the
extent permitted by the conditions of the estates and the undertakings *.
And continued his speech by stating :
Therefore the regulations of the Fascist corporations provide
for the defence of both employers' and workers' interests, and I
consider accordingly that the term "mixed organisations" is aa
perfectly true and accurate description of the Fascist organisations .
In reply the Italian Workers' Delegate said :
It is obvious that the representative of the Socialist Federation
of Amsterdam does not know what agricultural organisation is
when he claims that there is no difference between agricultural wage
earners and share tenants. Everybody knows that in all countries
the share tenant has a certain holding of land to cultivate ; in the
winter he works alone or with the members of his family ; in the
summer he always employs paid workers, that is to say, paid
agricultural workers. But he himself is a paid agricultural worker.
Instead of being paid in cash he is paid by the allocation at the
end of the year of one-half
of the crops. We pay attention
only to the braccianti3, who work by the day for share tenants
and small farmers cultivating the soil alone or with the help of the
members of their family. The point raised by the representative
of the Socialist Federation of Amsterdam entirely begs the question 4.
The credentials were accepted by the Conference in 1923 by 63 to 17
votes, and in 1924 by 55 to 32 votes. On both occasions the Credentials
Committees had issued both majority and minority reports, in each case
1

International Labour Conference, Sixth Session, Geneva, 1924, Vol. I,
p. 265. (English interpretation of French text as made at the Conference.)
2
Ibid.
3
Day-labourers.
4
International Labour Conference, 1924 op. cit., pp. 265-266.

— 65 —
tlve two members of the Committee representing the Government Group
and the Employers' Group signing the majority report, while the third
member representing the Workers' Group signed the minority report.
In 1923 the majority report argued that the Confederation of National
Trade Union Corporations was not a mixed, but a workers', organisation.
In the course of their report they stated :
The signatories of the Report readily seÄOgnise that the authors
of Part XIII of the Treaty did not in their drafting provideforthe
case of joint organisations. The question arises whether industrial
organisations including both employers and workers with the
same right in the same unions can be considered as "representative"
of employers or workers.
The majority of the Committee, however, does not consider that
it is called upon to examine this question here, since it is of a theoretical nature, as the Italian Government, as well as Mr. Rossoni,
have formally1 denied that the organisations consulted are joint
organisations .
In 1924 the majority report argued that the case was exactly the
same as it had been at the previous Session and that there was no need
to re-open the question "in view of the
fact that the question was then
settled by a vote of the Conference" 2. In 1925 and 1926 the credentials
of the Italian Workers' Delegate were accepted by the Conference,
after protest had been made, without reference to smallholding".
Since the holding of the last Session of the Conference an official decision
has been taken by the Italian Government, which will have the effect
of ranging share-farmers with workers. The position of smallholders
is still under consideration 4.

1
International Labour Conference, Fifth Session, Geneva, 1923, pp.
249-250.
3
Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 525-526.
8
International Labour Conference, Seventh Session, Geneva, 1925,
Vol. I, pp. 57-78, and Vol. II, pp. 596-639 ; the same, Eighth Session,
Geneva, 1926, Vol. I, pp. 168-185 and 308-327.
* See Part III, Section on Italy below.

5

PART III
AGRICULTURAL T R A D E

UNIONISM

There are some points about agricultural trade unionism
which at once strike the observer, most of all perhaps its youth
and its very limited extent ; on the other hand, there is the
magnitude of the change which might come about if agricultural
workers all over the world were organised. The small size of
the movement (even making very large allowance for organisations existing but not mentioned in the present study) is certainly very striking, both when contrasted with the size of
the trade union movement in manufacturing industry and still
more when contrasted with the possible field of organisation
in agriculture itself.
But while the contrast between the agricultural trade union
movement as it exists and as it might be is certainly striking,
it is necessary to guard against supposing that the influence of
trade union principles in agriculture is exhausted with the
membership of the agricultural trade unions. Thus, the German
Union of Agricultural Workers states that the number of workers
benefited by the action of their union is more than ten times
the average membership of the union 1. An apparently vast
increase in the strength of agricultural trade unionism immediately after the war was followed by an extraordinarily rapid
decline ; this is the first impression given by the figures of
membership, at any rate, of various European unions. But the
officers of these unions are of the opinion that these violent fluctuations, whether upward or downward, are a thing of the past
and that the forward movement is now likely to be steady ;
nevertheless, the impetus given by the war, even if followed
by a reaction, was of enormous importance to agricultural
trade unionism, which profited by it to a remarkable extent.
The relation of agricultural trade unionism to the trade union
movement in manufacturing industry is a point of importance.
1
"Bericht des Verbandsvorstandes über die Verbandsarbeit in
den Jahren 1923 bis 1925 ; Niederschrift von der 4. Generalversammlung des Deutschen Landarbeiterverbandes, 15. bis 18. März
1926." Schriften des Deutschen Landarbeiterverbandes,
No. 17. Berlin,
1926. 183 pp.

— 67 —
One small, but important, fact may perhaps be mentioned in
passing, and that is that agricultural trade unionism has from
its earliest start adopted general trade union principles in
maintaining its right to strike. The history of agricultural
trade unionism, as given for each country in the following
Sections, has included mention of some strikes carried through
by agricultural workers during the earliest phases of the movement. Both in this and in other respects it must broadly be
allowed that agricultural trade unionists have nearly always
followed the methods and ideals already evolved by their
fellow workers in manufacturing industry. Frequently agricultural trade unions owed their very origin to the action of workers
in manufacturing industry, and sometimes have had to be
financially supported for some years by workers in manufacturing industry. A few instances are known where an agricultural trade union movement has started without connection
with the general trade union movement of the country, but
this separation has usually proved a fatal weakness.
It is clearly to the interest of the workers that there should be
one, and not two (or even more), trade union movements in
a country, one general movement embracing all industry, and
not a movement in manufacturing industry and a movement
in agriculture. Now, not only are the agricultural workers in
many countries at least equal in numbers to the workers in
manufacturing industry, but they are even a majority over
them. It might be expected that at least sometimes agricultural trade unionism would take the lead more obviously than
it does in striking out the general lines of a national trade union
movement. There are countries where agriculture is at present
the only possible field for trade unionism ; there are other
countries where agriculture is a preponderating industry ;
there are even examples where agricultural trade unionism
has played an historical part in the early history of the trade
union movement (Australia) ; and the question is certainly
one for speculation as to what is the proper rôle of agricultural
trade unionism and as to the position to which it is naturally
entitled.
Contrast with these speculations the actual state of affairsEven in the rare cases where agricultural trade unionism has
played a leading part in the general labour movement of a
country, agricultural workers are found in an inferior position.
Nowhere is this better expressed than in the phrase in which

— 68 —
agricultural workers have protested against being "secondclass citizens". The general characteristic of agricultural labour
all over the world is that it is less well protected by law than
industrial labour. In spite of the fact that the Australian
shearers made important contributions to early trade unionism
and fought one of the most historic labour battles in the nineteenth century in that continent, Australian agricultural
workers are still in an inferior position at law to industrial
workers. There must be some reason for this inferiority in
organisation and inferiority in position, and without carefully
considering what these reasons are the essentials of agricultural
trade unionism cannot be weighed.
The principle reason is beyond question the dispersion of
agricultural workers. Agriculture is not carried on in factories.
There are no aggregations of a number of workers in the same
spot and in the same town day after day and year after year.
Natural forces which give rise to trade unionism, namely,
association and contiguity, are absent. Every agricultural
trade union organiser acknowledges the difficulty of obtaining
for his union the membership, for instance, of the isolated
farm servant resident on his employer's farm. Great as are
the distinctions between the grades of workers in manufacturing
industry, they are, nevertheless, far greater in the case of grades
of agricultural workers, and these distinctions, when added to
the differences made by residence in the employer's house,
on his farm, in a neighbouring village, or in some other district
miles away from the place of work, or perhaps in a home in
some other country, are not to be overlooked and not easily
bridged. It follows that the interest shown in organisation
by farm servants engaged by the year, by day-labourers, by
foresters, by the other innumerable groups of agricultural
workers, is different in kind and in degree, and this is one of
the inherent conditions of agriculture and one to which agricultural trade unionism must necessarily adapt itself and which
places great difficulties in its path.
The other principal difficulty in the way of organisation of
agricultural workers on trade union principles is the absence of
any clear and accepted distinction between employers and
employed in agriculture. In the course of the preceding Parts
of this study, and in the course of the Sections which follow,
this has abundantly been made clear. There is therefore no
need to labour it here.
It is necessary to remark that an examination of trade union

— 69 —
organisation in agriculture by no means exhausts the facts
as to all organisation among agricultural workers. In many
countries there is co-operative organisation of agricultural
workers, which is of particular importance, and a description
of the facts of that organisation would be necessary in order
to give a proper picture of the way in which the cultivators
of the earth's surface are associated and combined. In the present
study a description of co-operative organisation has necessarily
been excluded, but its existence must be borne in mind in
reading the following Sections.
A study which began with the representation of agricultural
workers has ended in examining their organisation and their
classification, and this is not merely natural, but is essential,
as the wording of the Resolution on which this study is based
shows. No representation is possible in the international field
without organisation, and the weakness of the national organisations of agricultural workers (taken as a whole), at any rate
in their capacity as employed workers, is beyond doubt the
cause of weakness to them when they wish to make themselves
felt in the international field. It is hoped, however, that the
present study shows that an agricultural trade union movement
does exist, and that it has in it the beginnings of a vigorous
life.
*
*

*

Part III of this study will bring out the character of the trade
union movement among agricultural workers in each country,
the conditions under which it has developed, and the natural
limits of its extension. These natural limits are obviously set,
in the first place, by the general structure of agriculture in
each country. The tenure of land, whether large-scale farming
carried on with a large amount of paid labour, both regular
and casual, or peasant farming carried on by the labour of
resident farm servants, or family holdings, goes far to explain
the organisation of the agricultural population of a country,
inasmuch as it determines the proportion between the
number of agricultural wage-earning workers and the total
population engaged in agriculture. The smaller the number
of workers the greater are their chances to become independent
farmers, and this fact has a natural influence on their
eagerness or their indifference to join an employed workers'
organisation.

— 70 —

The importance oí tne distribution of land and of agricultural
population as a basis for present and future organisation justifies
the brief remarks made on these two subjects as an introduction
to the description of agricultural trade unionism in each country
in the present study. Great difficulty has been experienced
in regard to both points. In regard to the distribution of land,
the number of holdings (i.e. areas held on separate legal titles)
is sometimes stated, sometimes the number of farm businesses
or undertakings, and sometimes the number of properties
(i.e. areas united in the hands of a single owner) ; very small
parcels are in some countries included, in some excluded, and
this point is of special importance for the present study ; very
small plots (sometimes gardens to houses) often do not belong
to the agricultural population at all. Still more acute are the
doubts as to figures for agricultural workers. The date of a
census is of extreme importance in a seasonal industry like
agriculture, but has to be fixed with regard to national and not
to merely agricultural considerations. The demarcations between agriculture and industry, the record of members of the
family assisting the cultivator (especially of women), the record
of female servants as sometimes domestic, sometimes agricultural, the record of farmers' sons for a period acting as workers,
the record of persons doing seasonal work in agriculture as a
secondary trade, and other important points may vitally
affect the figures.
In addition, a description of the general grouping of agricultural workers is attempted, based both on the legal nature of their
contracts and, again, on the type of agricultural operation which
they perform. This grouping is usually based on official
documents or legislation or official statistical groupings adopted
by the authorities of the different countries. An understanding of
the existing grouping of agricultural workers in each country
is, of course, an essential preliminary to an understanding of
their organisation on trade union lines. Besides notes on the
two existing international federations of agricultural workers,
a list of all agricultural, forestry, and horticultural trade unions
known to the International Labour Office, together with notes
on the agricultural and forestry unions, is given for each country.
In Part II of this study the smallholder's position was examined from the theoretical point of view. In so far as he actually
enters the labour market as a wage-paid worker in competition
with an ordinary wage-paid worker his presence, his entry

— 71 —
into trade union organisations, or his efforts to form organisations of his own are noticed in Part III. Special stress has been
laid upon making clear the opinion of agricultural trade unions
with regard to their relations With smallholders.
Where the law on trade unionism in agriculture has been,
or is still, different from the law governing trade unions in
other industries, a note to that effect has been made ; but for
a systematic study of the rights of association of agricultural
workers as part of the whole working population of a country
reference should be made to the study on freedom of association
appearing simultaneously with the present study.
An attempt was made to collect information on the representation of agricultural workers in their national institutions
(e.g. in Chambers of Agriculture, Parliamentary bodies, etc.),
in accordance with the last paragraph of the Resolution to
which reference has so often been made in this study. It was
found, however, that this subject was too complex to enable
any brief statement to be made and reference to it has thereforo
been omitted.
It remains to add that to the Section on the agricultural
trade union movement in each country is added a list of the
names of Workers' Delegates at the Sessions of the International
Labour Conference x, together with a mention of the names
of those of their Technical Advisers who had relations with
agriculture ; the organisations in agreement with which these
nominations were made are mentioned, and note is taken of
any protests against workers' credentials. These facts should
present the necessary detailed information as to the past representation of agricultural workers at Sessions of the Conference 2.
To this may be added the information in the Appendix, which
gives a list of countries (a) which have never been represented
at the Sessions of the Conference, (b) which have never sent a
AVorkers' Delegate to the Sessions of the Conference, (c) in
which there are no organisations of agricultural workers or
in which the existence and history of such organisations was
not sufficiently known to the International Labour Office to
justify a separate Section.

1
Omitting the Second and Ninth Sessions of the Conference at Genoa
in 1920 and at Geneva in 1926 (the "Seamen's Conferences").
2
The possible representation of smallholders was dealt with in the
long Note appended to Part II of this study (p. 58).

— 72 —
INTERNATIONAL LAND WORKERS' FEDERATION

The International Land Workers' Federation (Soc.-Dem.)was
founded at an International Conference of Agricultural Trade
Unions, held at Amsterdam on 17-19 August 1920 and convoked
on the initiative of the Netherlands organisation 1 . The following
unions were represented and affiliated to the new international
Federation : Belgian Union of Agricultural Workers (Belgische
Landarbeidersbond) ; Danish Union of Agricultural Workers
(Landarbejderforbundet i Danmark) ; German Union of Agricultural Workers (Deutscher Landarbeiterverband) ; National
Agricultural Labourers' and Rural Workers' Union (England) ;
Workers' Union (England) ; Union of Agricultural Workers in
the Netherlands (Landarbeidersbond in Holland) ; Italian Federation of Land Workers (Federazione nazionale lavoratori della
terra) ; Swedish Union of Agricultural Workers (SvenskaLandarbelarefòrbundet) ; Austrian Union of Agricultural Workers (Landarbeiteroerband Deutsch-Oesterreichs) ; Scottish Farm Servants'
Union.
The objects of the Federation are, according to the constitution, to promote and maintain the industrial organisation of
agricultural, horticultural, and forestry labourers of all countries
in a strong and international federation in order to promote
the economic and social interests of all workers organised in the
International Land Workers' Federation, and to support such
joint national and international action against the exploitation
of labour as circumstances may warrant, and to maintain international working class solidarity. All trade unions and federations of agricultural, horticultural, and forestry labourers are
entitled to affiliate to the Federation, provided they recognise
the objects of the Federation as defined in the constitution and
the resolutions passed at the international congresses of the
Federation.
At a meeting of the executive committee in June 1921 it was
reported that attempts were being made to form international
organisations of horticultural workers. The executive committee was of opinion that there was no need for an international
organisation of this kind, and that horticultural workers' organisations should affiliate with the International Land Workers'
1

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR O F F I C E : First

International

Congress

of

Land Workers' Unions affiliated to the International Federation of Trade
Unions (Amsterdam, 17-19 August 1920). Studies and Reports, Series K ,
No. 1.

— 73 —
Federation. This has also taken place. For the present two
horticultural workers' unions are affiliated to the organisation.
At its foundation the Federation counted 2,104,000 members,
of which some 780,000 belonged to the German, and 846,000 to
the Italian, organisation. Already at the second congress
two years later in Vienna, the membership had fallen to 1,250,000,
mostly due to the breaking up of the Italian Federation. At
the third congress in Berlin, 1924, the membership was 448,000,
and at the fourth congress in Geneva in 1926 it was 366,000.
The table below gives the names of organisations affiliated to
the Federation and their membership at the last congress.
Austrian Land and Forestry Workers' Union ( Verband der landund forstwirtschaftlichen Arbeiter Oesterreichs)
38,000
Czechoslovak Land and Forestry Workers' Union (Verband der
land- und forstwirtschaftlichen Arbeiter) (German)
4,500
Danish Land Workers' Union (Landarbefderforbundet i Danmark)
15,000
Danish Gardeners' Union (Dansk Gartnerforbund)
900
National Union of Agricultural Workers (England)
30,000
Finnish Land Workers' Union (Suomen Maatyöväen liitto)
1,000
German Land Workers' Union (Deutscher Landarbeiterverband)
185,212
German Gardeners' Union ( Verband der Gärtner und Gärtnereiarbeiter)
9,655
Hungarian Land Workers' Union (Magyarorszagi
Földmunkasok)
3,500
Italian Land Workers' Union (Federazione nazionale lavoratori della terra)
15,000
Latvian Land Workers' Union (Latvijas Laukstradnieku
Savienibas Centrala Valde)
1,000
Lithuanian Land Workers' Union (Lieluvos Zemes Ukio Darbininuku Profesines Sajunga Centro Valbyda)
2,000
Netherlands Land Workers' Union (Nederlandsche Bond van
Arbejders in het Landbouw- Tuinbouw- en Zuivelbedrijf)
6,051
Polish Land Workers' Union (Zarzad Glowny Zw. Zawod)
40,000
Scottish Farm Servants' Union
13,834
Swiss Union of Commerce, Transport and Food Industry
Workers (Verband der Handels-, Transport- und Lebensmittelarbeiter)
200
Total
365,852

Since the Congress the following organisations have joined
the Federation, namely, the General Union of Employees in
Dairy Farms (Germany) Allgemeiner Schweizerbund) ; the
Union of Agricultural and Forestry Workers (Czechoslovakia)
(Svaz zemedelskych a lesnich delniku) ; the National Union of
Agricultural Workers (France) (Fédération nationale des travailleurs de VAgriculture) ; the Union of Swedish Agricultural
Workers (Svenska Landarbeterareförbundet). The Czech organisation sent its representatives to the 1926 Congress.
At the last congress the secretary in his report described the
situation as following :
The decline of membership from 1924 to 1926 could a t first glance be
t a k e n as a sign of the weakening of the Federation ; b u t when each

— 74 —
separate union is considered it is seen, for example, that in such countries
as Germany, Austria, and Poland, where through currency inflation
the membership of the unions had been reduced, these unions have
now essentially established themselves and stand on a more healthy
basis than they did before the war.
The same movement can be observed in other countries; e.g. in
Denmark, after the rush to the organisation and the natural reaction
therefrom, the organisation has found its equilibrium and the membership is now steadily growing. In such a country as the Netherlands,
where organisation dates back as far as1 1900, such violent fluctuations
in the membership have been avoided .

The attitude of the Federation on the admission of smallholders was indicated above, in Part II of this study. The
Federation is affiliated to the International Federation of
Trade Unions (Amsterdam).
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF CHRISTIAN
LAND WORKERS' T R A D E UNIONS

During the International Congress of Christian Trade Unions
which was held at The Hague in June 1920, it occurred to some
of the representatives of the Christian agricultural workers'
unions that it would be desirable to hold a special international
congress of the workers which they represented. After some
preliminary meetings at Cologne the conference was held at
Coblence from 27 to 28 April 1921. The following organisations,
which were represented, joined the new International Federation
of Christian Land Workers' Unions : Austrian Christian Land
Workers' Union (Christlicher Reichslandarbeiterbund) ; Union
of Horticultural, Agricultural and Forestry Workers in Belgium
(Centrale ouvrière des jardiniers, agriculteurs et forestiers) ;
German Central Union of Land Workers (Zenlralverband der
Landarbeiter) ; Netherlands Roman Catholic Union of Land
Workers (Nederlandsche Roomsch-Kalholieke Landarbeidersbond) ;
Netherlands Christian Union of Land Workers (Nederlandsche
Chrisielijke Landarbeidersbond).
According to its constitution the Federation adopts the principles of Christianity as a basis. It therefore affirms that the
economic and social life of all the members of one nation implies
mutual co-operation, and it consequently repudiates violent
methods and class warfare. The Federation considers that
society as at present constituted is in opposition to the spirit
of Christianity. It therefore aims at a radical transformation
1
Cited from Industrial and Labour Information, Vol. XX, No. 5,
pp. 209-210.
2
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE: First International Congress of
Christian Land Workers' Unions. Studies and Reports, Series K, No. 7.
Geneva, 1921.

— 75 —

of society. The Federation, in accordance with the International
Federation of Christian Trade Unions, has the following objects:
To represent the interests of agricultural workers, especially
as regards the international organisations of labour.
To serve the interests of the affiliated unions.
To encourage propaganda for the Christian land workers'
trade union movement.
To encourage mutual assistance between the affiliated unions
if the necessity arises.
All national federations and all national unions of land workers
which accept Christian principles as a basis, which accept the
constitution of the Federation, and which are affiliated to a
national federation forming part of the International Federation
of Christian Trade Unions, except in cases where there is no
federation in the country in question, and where special circumstances exist, can become members of the Federation.
At its foundation the Federation counted 224,000 members.
Soon afterwards several other organisations joined the Federation, namely : the Union of Christian Land Workers in Hungary,
the Italian National Federation of Share Farmers and Small
Tenants (Federazione nazionale mezzadri e piccoli afjltuari),
and the Italian Federation of Bee Workers (Federazione italiana
lavoratori apicolï). The Italian Federation of Small Owners
(Federazione italiana piccoli proprietari) was not finally admitted,
because it was not certain whether this organisation really
consisted of wage-paid workers. The total membership in
this way increased to 1,060,000 1.
The Federation has held no other congress since its foundation,
but a few meetings of its bureau, the last in Antwerp in
September 1926. The following unions were affiliated at that
date :
The German Central Union of Land Workers (Zentralverband
der Landarbeiter)
78,756
The Austrian Central Union of Land Workers (Zentralverband
der Landarbeiter)
4,721
The Belgian Christian Union of Workers in Food and Drink
Industries (Centrale Chrétienne de VAlimentation, de l'Agriculture et de l'Horticulture)
300
The Netherlands Roman Catholic Land Workers' Union
(Nederlandsche Roomsch-Katholieke Landarbeidersbond)
6,930
The Netherlands Christian Land Workers' Union (Nederlandsche
Christelijke Landarbeidersbond)
5,646
Total
96,353
1
Bericht über den 2. Kongress des Internationalen Bundes der christlichen
Gewerkschaften, June 1922, Innsbruck.

— 76 —

The Federation has had the same decline in its membership
as the Social-Democratic International Federation. The
secretary reported to the meeting of the bureau mentioned
above that affiliated organisations had succeeded in standing
out against the crisis which had affected the trade union
movement of the various countries in recent years. The
number of members was increasing everywhere 1 .
The attitude of the Federation on the admission of smallholders was indicated above, in Part II of this study. The
Federation is affiliated to the International Federation of
Christian Trade Unions.
ARGENTINA

There are four regions in Argentina which can be distinguished
by the type of cultivation carried on: the north, the region of
vinegrowing, the region of cereal cultivation, and the south.
Of these the north, which is nearest the equator, is principally
given up to forests or to very large estates as yet but slightly
cultivated ; the south is dry and very sparsely populated and is
given up principally to huge cattle ranches. More intensive
cultivation is found in the two central regions, and here quite
small holdings are found, sometimes even under 5 hectares.
Data as to the distribution of land date from 1914 2. There
are over 300,000 holdings in all, of which over 150,000 are under
25 hectares, and another 80,000 under 100 hectares each. The
bulk of the remaining holdings are of a size between 500 and
5,000 hectares, but there are over 5,000 holdings existing of an
area exceeding 5,000 hectares. There are even some holdings
which are recorded as exceeding 25,000 hectares ; these are vast
cattle ranches. It is difficult to state what is a small, what
a medium-sized, and what a large, holding, on account of
the different types of farming carried on, namely, either cattle
breeding, or cattle breeding and crop cultivation, or more
intensive crop cultivation, even such intensive farming as
vinegrowing. But in general a small holding does not exceed
100, or occasionally 200, hectares.
1
Quoted from Industrial and
25 Oct. 1926.
2
The figures for the area of
published in 1925 by the Ministry
from t h e 1914 census have been
Vols. II, I I I , and IV.

Labour Information.

Vol. X X , No. 4.

farms have been t a k e n from a map
of Agriculture in Argentina. The figures
taken from the Tercer Censo Nacional.

— 77 —
There is a tendency to subdivide properties in order to
accommodate the growing population, which is being largely
recruited by immigration. A common process is the acquisition
in private hands of a vast stretch of land which is farmed as
a cattle ranch, but a portion of which is gradually divided into
holdings and let out to tenants. The tenants to some extent
form a supplementary labour force for the working of the ranch
and the subdivision into tenancies generally goes with more
intensive cultivation and therefore with an increase in the value
of the property 1 .
The tenant farmers who cultivate a family holding, while
they are at law tenants and not workers, are nevertheless very
dependent on their landlords. They have perhaps a general
resemblance to share-farmers and other intermediate groups
in other countries of the world, although in point of fact actual
share-farming is not known in Argentina. According to the
census of 1914 they constituted over 46 per cent, of all the
cultivators in the country, and since that date there has been
further subdivision of properties and creation of tenancies,
especially as the price of land has risen so that few small cultivators are in a position to buy their holding outright. By
an Act of 28 September 1921 the Government intervened t o
protect tenants against economic pressure from their landlords.
The Act lays down that no tenancy can run for a shorter period
than four years, that no tenant can be obliged to sell his produce
to his landlord or to any specified person, or to insure his
crops with any specified society or person, or to purchase
machinery, or in any way employ the services of any specified
firm or person, and contracts made in contravention of these
principles, notwithstanding the consent of the parties, are
null and void. The tenant is entitled to construct certain
buildings and to make certain improvements up to a maximum
value stated in the Act, and can claim compensation for such
improvements on quitting.
According to the figures of 1908 the total agricultural population was nearly 2,300,000 persons.
Much has been done in modern times to improve the breeds
1
Nociones utiles;
published by t h e MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE;
third edition; Buenos Ayres, 1925. Cenco Nacional l'evantado el 1
June 1924; Vol. V, "Explotaciones agropecuarias" ; Buenos Ayres, 1919.

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE, R O M E : Bulletin

and Social Institutions,

1923, No. 10.

of Economic

— 78 —
of cattle which used to roam the plains in a wild state ; for
this purpose regular breeding establishments on the estancias
are now organised. The workers engaged in these establishments are capolaces (foremen), cuidadores (workers detailed
for the care of horned cattle), pastores (shepherds), and esquiladores (shearers). These workers are boarded and lodged
and receive a cash wage of different amounts according to
whether they are all-round workers, or members of a gang
(who are better paid), or foremen. The wage varies also according to the season. Married workers receive the use of a dwelling
and also allowances in kind of an amount sufficient to maintain
their families.
On the farms where crop cultivation as well as cattle breeding
is carried on, the primary source of labour is family labour.
Families are installed in one of the tenancies mentioned above
as formed out of a large estate. There is, however, a certain
amount of hired labour used on some of these tenant exploitations, namely, workers employed in preparing the ground and
in sowing operations, workers employed on reaping operations,
workers employed in the flour mills, and workers employed on
the maize harvests. All workers receive their board ; the
first group are paid by the month, the second and third groups
by the day. In addition, workers are engaged for threshing
operations and receive, in addition to their board and lodging,
piecework rates.
Vine cultivation is carried on almost exclusively on family
holdings ; hired day-labourers are employed for the vintage
and are paid at piecework rates, sometimes by the day, while
waggoners are paid for the transport of the grapes by the day.
While there are no organisations of hired agricultural workers
proper, the need for self-protection among the tenants has led
to some important efforts to organise, and this organisation
partly takes the place of the organisations of employed
workers in other countries, and is one of the most important
organisations in South America.
Following on some considerable agitation in 1911 and 1922,
the Federación Agraria Argentina was founded, with headquarters at Rosario de Santa Fé and a branch at Buenos Ayres.
After some initial success the number of branches had declined
by 1916 from 217 to 32. In that year the president was assassinated, and the congress held a month after his death was attended
by only 25 delegates. A new president, however, was appointed,
and since then the organisation has made very considerable

— 79 —
progress and has even bought two large holdings of a total
area of 22,000 hectares with a view to undertaking subdivision
and to direct leasing to its members as tenants, thus substituting
itself for a landlord 1.
In 1926 the Federation had over 17,000 members, of whom
about 4,600 were Argentine, 9,400 Italian, and 3,000 Spanish,
with a few members of other nationalities. The present membership is over 19,000.

REPRESENTATION AT THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE

1919 :

Workers' Delegale :

Mr. Americo BALINO.

1922 ( ^°*' represented.
1923 : Government Delegates only.
1924 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. José NEGRI (vice-chairman of the
Railwaymen's Association).
1925 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. Carlos Y. F. CONCI.
1926 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. Alfredo VIOLA.
AUSTRALIA

Australian agriculture 2 includes such important branches of
farming as the wool and meat industries, the dairy industry,
the fruit-growing and canning industry, the wine industry,
besides ordinary mixed farming. By far the greater number
of holdings are still held from the Crown on lease or licence.
Figures on the relative size of holdings are only available for
the land held privately, but, assuming that the sizes of farms
quoted are typical, it is clear that, however much these sizes
may differ according to the type of country opened up, yet the
average farm, especially the average pastoral farm, is very
large. This has an important bearing on the organisation of
persons occupied in agriculture, and frequent reference is made
to the factor of rural distance as a difficulty both in organising
adults and in the education of children. The resident hired
farm worker, especially, is usually out of immediate contact
with his fellow-workers.
1

Industrial and Labour Information, Vol. XVI, No. 13. FEDERAZIONE
Brevi appounti sul la Federazione Agraria Argentina (1927) ; 30 pp. (pamphlet).
3
In Australian publications, "agriculture" is commonly distinguished
from the pastoral industry. In the present study "agriculture" is
used in the wide sense to include the pastoral industry.
AGRARIA ARGENTINA:

— 80 —
A comparison of figures for 1914-1915 and 1924-1925 for
privately-held land shows that the smallest holdings, up to
50 acres, are decreasing in number ; but it is not certain that
all these holdings are true agricultural undertakings. The
largest holdings, over 20,000 acres, are also decreasing. Most
holdings are in the groups of 100-500, 500-1,000, and 1,000-5,000
acre farms ; the biggest increase over the ten-year period
indicated has been in farms of 1,000-5,000 acres 1.
In all, nearly 480,000 persons are occupied in agriculture and
another 44,000 in forestry or allied branches ; of those occupied
in agriculture in the narrower sense of that word, well over
one-fourth are in the pastoral and dairy industries. Figures
are available from the census of 1921 as follows 2 :
Other branches
of agriculture
Men
Women

Pastoral and
dairy industries
Men
Women

Together

Farmers and working
members of their
families, gardeners,
Managers, overseers,
F a r m servants, agricultural labourers.

58,206

• 4,288

232,181

3,627

298,302

6,735

25

2,691

83

9,534

69,954
1,865

140
83

94,876
3,210

1,592
32

166,562
5,190

136,760

4,536

332,958

5,334

479,588

The pastoral industry is usually operated on a large scale
and requires heavy capital ; in this and in the dairying industry
there are more persons employed for remuneration than there
are employers or relatives of employers or independent persons.
In the other branches of agriculture smaller scale production is
more possible, and here the number of employers, members of
their family, and independent workers is between two and three
times as great as the number of persons employed for remuneration.
1

COMMONWEALTH B U R E A U O F CENSUS AND STATISTICS :

Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Melbourne.
2

The Official

No. 19,1926, pp. 204-206.

M I N I S T E R O F STATE FOR H O M E AND T E R R I T O R I E S : Census of the

Commonwealth of Australia taken for the night between 3 and 4 April
1921. P a r t X V I I , "Occupations (including Unemployment)", p p .
1280-1283 a n d 1312-1315. Melbourne, n.d.

— 81 —
The type of farming is the farm run by family labour plus
important aid given by seasonal labour, but there are also a
number of permanently employed workers. General organisation,
which, owing to the large agricultural exports of the country, is
particularly directed to marketing purposes, is stronger in
agriculture, especially among small farmers, than in manufacture or industry 1 , and some interesting developments have taken
place, especially in Queensland 2. Such marketing and general
organisation, however, though it includes the working cultivator on the family farm, excludes the hired worker.
A consideration of the elaborate land legislation passed in
the Australian States would be out of place here, but it may
be stated that in recent years one of the general purposes of
that legislation has been to place a working population on the
land on "smallholdings". This must have effects on the organisation of employed agricultural workers as such. Of direct
interest to the subject of this study is the practice of sharefarming, which is referred to as a sort of stepping stone to
proprietorship, and, according to one parliamentary speaker,
as having enabled "very many people . . . to rise from the
position of rural workers or ordinary labourers until they
have been able to take up land for themselves and become
farmers" 3. The practice of share-farming started, in the form
of share-milking contracts, in Western Victoria and has now
become general *. Complete statistics are not available for the
whole Commonwealth, but the following shows the importance
of share-farming in one State, New South Wales, where sharefarming took its rise at the end of the last century and helped to
overcome some of the difficulties of extending the cultivated area B :

1918-1919
1919-1920
1920-1921
1921-1922
1922-1923

Number of holdings on
which share-farming is
practised

Number
of share-farmers

Acres
cultivated on the
share-farming system

1,530
1,501
1,668
2,246
2,457

2,675
2,423
2,761
3,449
3,970

745,886
671,972
736,327
861,075
955,557

1
Official Year Book, p. 546. There were, in 1925, 30 registered
agricultural employers' associations with 46,487 members.
2
See Industrial and Labour Information, Vol. XV, No. 9, and Vol.
XXI, No. 12.
3
New South Wales Parliamentary Debates, Third Session, 1925, p. 3325.
4
ATKINSON : Australia, p. 371. Economic and Political Studies.
6
Official Year Book of New South Wales, 1923, p. 473.

6

— 82 ^
The maximum development was in 1915-1916, when the
area cultivated on this system exceeded one-fifth of the total
area under crops in the State. A bad season then hit sharefarming hard. After 1919-1920 there was a marked revival. The
farming carried on is almost always wheat-farming, and the
share-farmer takes sometimes one-half, sometimes two-thirds,
of the crop.
Under the Queensland Workers' Compensation Acts, 191S
to 1921, section 3 (Sb), the share-farmer is ruled to be a worker
for purposes of compensation for an industrial accident. The
Acts of the other States do not lay down a principle on the point.
It is difficult to estimate the organisable employed workers
in agriculture, owing to the importance of seasonal work.
There is a wide variation between census figures, taken at
a particular moment, and annual returns of the average number
of permanently employed workers. On an average perhaps
there is seasonal work done to the value of about one-third of
the permanent work performed >. The seasonal agricultural
worker is often, during most or part of the year, a town dweller
and town worker. In any case there are no well-marked
"off" seasons in Australian agriculture; one operation or
occupation succeeds the other, so that there is a constant
movement of skilled workers from one part of the country to
another 2. In 1925 organisation on trade union lines of employed
workers in agriculture (i.e. without forestry, etc.) included
48,157 workers in eight registered unions 3 ; this was between &
and 7 per cent, of all organised workers. The figures for
preceding years are as follows 4 :

Unions (pastoral
and agricultural)
Membership

1921

1922

1923

1924

1925

9
48,893

10
43,538

8
37,584

8
46,081

S
48,157

The history of the formation and development of agricultural,.
especially of pastoral, workers'unions in Australia is an interesting
1

Official Year Book of New South Wales, p. 470 and 617.
See also under New Zealand below, where a fuller description of
the succession of pastoral and agricultural operations over the year in
the southern hemisphere is given with special reference to that country.
3
Counting sections of unions in each State as a union ; if counted for
the whole Commonwealth, there would be three registered unions.
4
Official Year Book, p. 543.
2

— 83 —
part of the history of trade unionism in Australia generally 1.
Thé period of formation of shearers' and of general rural workers'
unions was between 1880 and 1890, and the gathering together
of a great body of unskilled or semi-skilled workers in support
of trade union principles was a marked feature of these years,
and differentiated this period from the preceding decade 18701880, when unionism was principally spreading in the more
highly-skilled manufacturing trades. However, the shearers
themselves, with whom agricultural trade unionism started,
were and are a skilled body of men, numerous and well-paid
and at that time ardent propagandists of the labour doctrines of
the day. The Australian Shearers' Union was formed in 1886,
and after three years' organising work came to an agreement
with the employers' association, the Pastoralists' Union. Organisation both of shearers and of other less skilled agricultural
workers also went on continuously for some time in the Australian Workers' Union. In 1893 all unions except the Queensland
unions were absorbed in the Australian Workers' Union, and
ten years later the Queensland workers also joined this union,
which has since remained the principal organisation representing
all grades of Australian agricultural workers. The branches
of the Australian Workers' Union are affiliated to the central
trade union bodies (the Trades and Labour Councils) in the
different States.
The early organisation of the shearers had the effect of causing
the employers in the pastoral industry to organise also. Two
great contests in 1891 and 1894 took place, when the shearers
in Queensland, and in 1894 also in New South Wales, struck,
principally on the point of the employment of non-union labour
for shearing. The strikes were of a very serious character and
widely affected the industry of the Australian States. The
point at issue was not directly settled, but in connection with
the second strike the Australian Workers' Union were one of the
first bodies which formally put the suggestion of compulsory
arbitration in labour conditions 2, the result of which has been
the famous series of laws in all the Australian States based on
that principle.
1
See T. A. COGHLAN : Labour and Industry in Australia. Oxford, University Press, 1918. 2,449 pp. in four vols.
3
In a letter of 27 August 1894 from the president of the union to Sir
George Reid, the Premier of New South "Wales. COGHLAN, op. cit., p. 2106.

— 84 —
Nevertheless, agricultural workers, apart from shearers and
similar groups of skilled pastoral workers, only in part come
under the industrial arbitration or wages board legislation now
in force in Australia. The Commonwealth Industrial Arbitration Acts, 1904-1921, apply to all industries where an interState dispute arises, and this Act has been applied to shearers,
some of whose labour conditions are also regulated by a series
of Shearers' Accommodation Acts in each State. The less
privileged classes of agricultural workers, i.e. the farm labourers,
are in some States excluded from the State regulation of wages
and conditions, or enjoy only some of the rights conferred by
regulation. The legislation in each State is different. The
latest action taken has been in New South Wales, where an
Act of 1918 amended the exclusion of "rural workers" from an
original arbitration (wages) Act of 1912, but not so as to give
these workers full privileges. Further changes made in 1922
were finally abolished by an amending Act of 18 March 1926,
which for the first time placed all agricultural workers in this
State on an equality with other workers under this type of
legislation 1.
I R E P R E S E N T A T I O N [AT THE INTERNATIONAL L A B O U R C O N F E R E N C E

1919 :
1921 :
1922:
1923 :
1924 :
1925 :
1926 :

Not represented.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. Thomas B. M E R R Y , Operative Painters'
and Decorators' Union of Australia.
Not represented.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. E. J. HOLLOWAY, secretary. Trades
and Labour Council, Melbourne.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. J. CURTIN.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. George LAWSON, chairman, Trades
and Labour Council, Brisbane.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. J o h n Albert B E A S L E Y , president of the
Labour Council of New South Wales.

The Workers' Delegate has always been nominated in agreement with the Trades and Labour Councils in the States of
Australia.
AUSTRIA
I n A u s t r i a i t is t h e p e a s a n t h o l d i n g t h a t d o m i n a t e s a ; o n l y
6.1 p e r c e n t , of t h e w h o l e a r a b l e a r e a b e l o n g s t o o w n e r s p o s s e s s 1
For an application in
Union, see Industrial and
seq.
2
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Report presented to the

L A Y T O N , C. B . , and

Queensland, p u t in by t h e Australian Workers'
Labour Information, Vol. X I , No. 7, pp. 293 et
: The Economic Situation of Austria, p . 69.
Council of t h e League of Nations. By W. T.

Charles R I S T .

— 85 —
ing more than 100 hectares of land *. On the other hand, the
forests mostly form part of large properties. It is true that
from 1870 up to after the war a considerable number of farms
were bought and laid together ; but this was done by persons
wanting a summer residence or a hunting ground and not for
the purpose of creating large agricultural undertakings. Austrian agrarian reform has been restricted to a redistribution
of such properties a . The grouping of the agricultural population
is therefore largely the same as it was before the war.
In 1902 the population engaged in agriculture and living
within the present territory of the Austrian Confederation,
with the exception of Burgenland, was 3 :
Number

Proprietors
Members of their families
Officials, etc
Regular farm hands
Day labourers
Total

547,246
493,486
11,195
299,626
44,707
1,396,260

Percentage

39
35
1
21
4
100

From 1902 to 1910 the agricultural population decreased,
but this seems to have been balanced by the acquisition of
Burgenland after the war. The total figures were probably nearly
the same as in 1902 and the number of agricultural and forestry
workers therefore about 340,000.
From the post-war period occupational census figures exist
only for Lower Austria 4. In this census the only distinction
made is between independent and non-independent persons
occupied in agriculture, the latter including both working
members of a cultivator's family and wage-paid workers. From
the Social-Democratic side paid workers are estimated to include
about 450,000 agricultural workers and 40,000 forestry workers 8,
together nearly half a million persons. The same total is
quoted in the periodical of the Christian land workers' organisation 6.
A special Federal Act of 26 September 1923 applies to salaried
1

KALLBRUNNER : Die österreichische Landwirtschaft.
Vienna, 1924.
KALLBRUNNER : Die Agrarreform
Oesterreichs. Berichte über
Landwirtschaft, Vol. I l l , No. 1.
2

3

L E A G U E OF N A T I O N S , op. cit., p . 70. T h e descriptions of groups given

in the table are those adopted in this publication.
4
Statistisches Handbuch für die Republik Oesterreich, V I I . Jahrgang.
5
Information communicated t o t h e International Labour Office.
8
Die Landstimme, Vienna, J u l y 1926, No. 7.

— 86 —
employees engaged in agricultural and forestry undertakings
or industries subsidiary thereto, mainly in the performance
of work of a commercial character or in superior positions or
in clerical work. Other agricultural workers come under the
legislation of the separate States, where agricultural Codes
have recently replaced the old Master and Servants Codes ;
though their scope varies somewhat, these comprise, on the
whole, all wage-earning workers in agriculture and forestry ;
in two States members of a cultivator's family also come under
the Code when they are separately remunerated ; in one State
special legislation exists for vineyard workers 1.
About 70 per cent, of agricultural workers are farm servants
on peasant farms, while 30 per cent, are engaged on largescale. and medium-sized farms. On peasant farms 30 per cent.
of wages are paid in cash, the rest in kind ; on other farms
the proportions are reversed. On peasant farms no division
of labour takes place ; the workers must do every type of
work. On other farms 20 per cent, of the workers are dairyherd men and stablemen, 30 per cent, horse and ox drivers,
10 per cent, handicraftsmen and machinemen, and 40 per cent.
day labourers. These are the permanent workers. During
rush periods harvesters (Schnitter) and seasonal workers are
also employed ; these mostly work at piece rates, half of which
are paid in kind and half in cash. Forest workers are engaged
on large undertakings and receive, apart from fuel and sometimes
a dwelling, cash wages only, mostly reckoned at piece rates.
Many smallholders are unable to gain a living from their holdings
and therefore work at certain times of the year either in industrial
undertakings, in home industries, as day workers on large estates,
or as hewers in forests ; sometimes they do loading work in the
forests and sometimes they are handicraftsmen.
The right of combination of workers in Austria is undisputed.
Several of the State agricultural Codes expressly protect the
worker in the exercise of this right. The Act on Conciliation
Boards and Collective Agreements (Act of 18 December 1919),
however, does not apply to agriculture. Four of the eight
Codes nevertheless give to collective agreements in agriculture
and forestry the same legal force as the Act mentioned gives
to collective agreements in other industries. But the deviations
are stated to be not inconsiderable and the regulations governing
1
H. HEINDL :
Vienna, 1925.

Das Arbeitsrecht in der Land- und Forstwirtschaft.

— 87 —

collective agreements under the agricultural Codes are
incomplete, again a case where agricultural organisation stands
on a legal basis other than that applied to industrial workers.
(1) The Austrian Union of Agricultural and Forestry
Workers (Oesterreichischer Land und Forsiarbeiierverband) is
the largest union of agricultural workers in Austria. The
history of this union is as follows. In February 1906 the Union
of Agricultural and Forestry Workers in Lower Austria was
established. The next year the Union of Agricultural and Forestry
Workers in Austria was created, with headquarters at Gablonz
in Northern Bohemia. Very soon the question of amalgamating
these two unions came up. Meanwhile the majority of State
forestry workers were either indifferent or organised in Catholic
workers' associations ; salt workers had entered the Union
of Chemical Workers, which some forestry workers, mainly
Protestants, had also joined ; however, the State forestry
"workers had for some time wanted to create their own union of
State forestry workers. In 1908 about 120 forestry workers
left the Union of Chemical Workers and created their own organisation under the name of the Union of Agricultural and
Forestry Workers in the Austrian Alp Districts (it is interesting
to note that one of the first executive committees of this union
consisted exclusively of industrial workers).
In the years that followed, the Gablonz union was losing
in importance, membership having declined from 600 to 100.
The question of amalgamation therefore came up again in
1911, when the three unions were merged into one union, the
existing Austrian Union of Agricultural and Forestry Workers.
This union had at that time about 1,000 members. Its subsequent development is shown below.

1
1

Year

Number of branches

Total membership at the
beginning of the year

1912
1917
1918
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1926

130
70
30
662
—
—
657
—
383

2,000
659
1,000
60,000
71,000
71,600
59,600
40,543
37,133

2

1

In this year 36,790 men and 3,753 women.
The decline in number of branches is sometimes due to simplification of administration.

— 88 —
In 1926 the distribution of membership over the various
States was as follows :
Vienna
Lower Austria
Upper Austria
Salzburg
Styria
Carinthia
Tyrol and Vorarlberg
Burgenland
Total

1,221
20,835
3,870
582
3,862
1,940
689
4,134
37,133

It will be seen that when the war was over organisation of
agricultural workers had to start again almost from the bottom.
In 1920 the entry of many workers engaged on large-scale estates
in Lower Austria helped the union to develop. The centre
of gravity was now in Lower Austria and the seat of the
executive committee was transferred from Graz to Vienna. At
the congress in 1925 it was stated that the Union of Agricultural
and Forestry Workers had difficulties arising out of the demarcation question with the woodworkers' trade union and that
3,000 State forestry workers had gone over to the Union of
Technical Workers *, a change which is reflected in the figures.
for membership given above.
The union has sections for different groups of employed
persons, such as agricultural workers, forestry workers, sawmill workers, dairy-herd men, horticultural workers, vineyard
workers, pitch makers, etc. Any person of either sex engaged in
agriculture or forestry, horticulture, or any of the previously
mentioned occupations, or road-repairing, has the right of
membership. Smallholders who work as wage-earning workers
in agriculture and forestry can become members of the union.
They are often simultaneously members of the smallholders'
union, the relations with which are discussed more fully below.
The Union of Agricultural and Forestry Workers is affiliated
to the Austrian Trade Union Committee (Gewerkschaftskommission Oeslerreichs) and to the International Federation
of Land Workers.
(2) The Austrian Union of Estate Employees (Verband
der Güíerbeamíen Deutschoesterreichs) was founded in 1919.
1
Sources : Information to the International Labour Office. DeiLand- und Forstarbeiter, 1924, No. 17-18; 1925, No. 24; 1926, No. 2.
Verbandszeitung des Oesterreichischen Land- und Forstarbeiterverbandes,
1927, No. 1.

— 89 —
This organisation is affiliated to the Austrian Trade Union
Committee. It has relations with the corresponding German
organisation (Reichsverband deutscher Guis- und Forstbeamlen,
Berlin), and with the Agricultural Union of Estate Employees
in Czechoslovakia. All persons being officials and salaried
employees in agriculture or forestry (including hunting and
allied occupations, as well as soil improvement work) may
become members. It is, however, assumed that applicants
come under the Act on Estate Employees of 26 September
1923. The membership is 6,000.
(3) The Central Union of Agricultural Workers in Austria
(Zentralverband der Landarbeiter Oesterreichs) was founded
in 1919 under the name of the Alliance of Agricultural Workers
(Landarbeiterbund). The union is affiliated to the Central
Union of Christian Trade Unions in Austria (Zentralkommission
der christlichen Gewerkschaften Oesterreichs), to the International Federation of Christian Land Workers' Trade Unions,
and has relations with the Christian unions of agricultural
workers in Czechoslovakia and Germany. Under its constitution
the following workers may be members : agricultural workers
and farm and house servants ; smallholders and small tenants ;
road repairers ; horticultural workers ; vineyard workers ;
forestry workers ; pitch makers ; settlers ; etc. It is at presentdivided into sections for farm workers and servants ; smallholders;
road repairers. The membership is about 6,000. Smallholders
and tenant-workers who do not employ outside help may
become members, and it is stated by the union that they
frequently avail themselves of this right. Independent Christian associations of smallholders do not exist.
(4) The Union of Active and Pensioned Christian Forestry
and Salt. Workers in Austrian State Undertakings (Verband
aktiver und provisionierler christlicher Forst- und Salinenarbeiter
der Bundesbelriebe Oesterreichs) was founded on 1 June 1924.
This union is affiliated to the Central Committee of Christian
Trade Unions in Austria. It is divided into four sections :
employed salt workers ; employed forestry workers ; pensioned
salt workers and their widows ; pensioned forestry workers
and their widows. Only workers engaged in the Austrian State
Salt Works or forests and entitled to pension, together with
persons of both sexes in receipt of pensions from these undertakings, are admitted to the union, which has a membership

— 90 —
of about 2,000. Forestry workers in these undertakings engaged
on free contracts belong, if they are Christian, to the Christian
Union of Woodworkers.
(5) In 1923 a Union of Smallholders was created as a section
of the Union of Agricultural and Forestry Workers (Soc.-Dem. ;
see above). By September 1924 this union had 200 branches
and 10,000 members and published its own periodical. The
rapid growth of the smallholders' section, and the fact that the
interests of the two groups of persons engaged in agriculture
are not quite identical, led to the creation in the summer of
1925 of the smallholders' section as an entirely independent
organisation, under the name of the Union of Austrian Smallholders, Vineyarders and Small Tenants (Verband der Kleinbauern, Weinbautreibenden u. Kleinpächter Oesterreichs). The
Union of Smallholders is formed of constituent unions for each
Austrian State, except Tyrol, and has a membership of about
10,000. All persons who are owners or tenants of agricultural
land and who are engaged in agriculture or forestry have the
right to membership. This union is not affiliated to the Austrian Trade Union Committee, but states itself to be in close
relations with all "free" unions in Austria and also with the
German Union of Smallholders in Czechoslovakia. It has
a joint committee with the Union of Austrian Agricultural and
Forestry Workers. The two organisations also publish together
a yearly calendar.
The Technical Union, which really is a union of State employees
and of telegraph, telephone and postal workers, has, as already
mentioned, a certain number of forestry workers as members.
The same is the case with both the Social-Democratic and the
Christian woodworkers' organisations and, as far as smallholders
are also engaged in industrial work or handicrafts, they are
often members of the corresponding unions.
In addition to the unions mentioned above, a Union of Agricultural Workers, affiliated to the Federation of German Trade
Unions in Austria, has existed in that country, but has now
disappeared.
REPRESENTATION

AT

THE

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

1919 : Not a member of the International Labour Organisation.
1921 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. Ferdinand HANUSCH, Austrian Trade
Union Committee (replaced during the Session by Mr. H a n s
MORAWITZ, president of the Austrian Union of Agricultural
and Forestry Workers).

— 91 —
1922 : Government Delegates only.
1923 : Workers' Delegale : Mr. E. STRASS, Austrian Trade Union
Committee.
1924 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. Julius ZIPPER, secretary to the Association of Food and Drink Workers.
1925 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. Anton HUEBER, president of the Austrian
Trade Union Committee.
1926 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. WEIGL, secretary of the Commercial and
Transport Workers' Union.

All nominations have been made in agreement with the Austrian Trade Union Committee.
BELGIUM

Recent figures on the distribution of land in Belgium are
not available, but the existence of innumerable small plots
is admitted, perhaps nearly 500,000 ; even subtracting these
smallest holdings, the average size of all other holdings in
Belgium is not estimated to exceed 5 hectares.
According to the census of 1920 1 there were 610,573 persons
in Belgium engaged in agriculture and forestry, as follows :
Men

Farmers (heads of undertakings)
Members of farmers' families
occupied in agriculture. .
Salaried employees
Wage-paid workers . . . .
Total

Women

Total

214,012

38,439

252,451

76,546
647
189,873
481,078

56,369
122
34,565
129,495

132,915
769
224,438
610,573

The distinction between heads of undertakings and workers
by no means corresponds with a distinction between persons
occupying land and persons not occupying land. On the
contrary, one of the noticeable features of Belgian industrial
life is the number of wage-earning workers, both agricultural
and in manufacturing industry, who own or lease or in some way
occupy a plot of land, sometimes minute, but sometimes almost
attaining the dimensions of a smallholding.
It has further been stated that only 16 out of each 100 persons employed in agriculture are wage-paid workers (presumably
regular wage-paid workers lodged at the farm) 2 . As will be
1
Statistique de la Belgique. Recensement général du 31 décembre 1920.
Vol. III, p. 232. Brussels, 1926.
2
Times Special Supplement, 9 April 1920 (statement by Mr. van
ÖRSHOVEN, of the Belgian Ministry of Agriculture).

— 92 —
seen below, however, even these workers often occupy, and
sometimes own, a little land. In summing up the results of an
important official enquiry into the conditions of agricultural
labour in 1919, the Government Reporter states :
In order to obtain an accurate idea of the resources of agricultural
workers, account must be taken of those accessory advantages which
accrue to them in various ways. Except for farm servants, both men
and women, who are lodged and boarded at the farm and the whole
of whose time is taken up by their duties, most agricultural workers are
additionally engaged in growing crops or keeping animals
on their
own account, with the help of the members of their family 1.

The same remarks apply to a considerable number of workers
in manufacturing industry. The short distances, the excellence
of the communications, and cheap fares make possible the
combined cultivation of a plot of ground (where family help
is available) and of some wage-paid work.
The same report divides agricultural workers into two main
groups, resident and non-resident. Resident farm workers
comprise workers who are largely engaged on domestic and
only partly on agricultural work. It is noted that the resident
agricultural workers' contract in Belgium is legally a monthly
or fortnightly contract, and not, as in so many countries, an annual
or six-monthly contract ; this, however, does not mean that
resident workers do not remain for long periods on the same
farm. Non-resident workers fall into two distinct groups,
namely, workers paid by the day and usually working for the
same employer day after day, and those doing piecework or
paid by the job. The latter often come from another part of
the country and are temporarily lodged in buildings at the farm.
In some parts of the country there are very few regular day
workers.
Both resident and permanent day workers commonly have
allowances in land given to them by their employers, and this
land is often ploughed and manured by the employer. In this
way even the resident worker's position has a certain resemblance
to that of the occupier of a piece of land. Moreover, resident
workers sometimes own or lease land independently, sometimes
from their own employer, sometimes from another farmer.
The piece or job workers are employed at sowing and harvest
1

MINISTÈRE DE L'AGRICULTURE

Brussels, 1920.

880 pp.

: Enquête sur le travail agricole,

— 93 —
time, and principally on the large estates cultivating beets and
cereals in Brabant, Hainault, etc. These workers are drawn
from the class of cultivators mentioned above who combine
the occupation of a smallholding and some wage-paid work.
Their employment is organised on a pretty stable customary
basis year after year ; they work in gangs of seven or eight, and
engagement often takes place through a middleman. Between
the cereal and the beetroot harvest they often return home to
deal with their own holding. There is also an important exit
of seasonal workers into France.
In general, there is a shortage of agricultural labour for largeestate work. The varied and intensive nature of the crops grown
makes a large supply of temporary labour essential.
Market gardening in the vicinity of industrial centres is of
importance.
In general, agricultural and industrial life in Belgium is
closely allied. Merely owing to topographic vicinity there is
no great gulf between town and country. This factor is reflected
in the organisation of workers.
(1) The Central Belgian Trade Union of Workers on the
Land (Soc.-Dem.) (Union centrale belge des travailleurs de la
Terre) was affiliated to the Trade Union Committee of Belgium
(Commission syndicale de Belgique). In 1921 it was amalgamated with the Central Union of Food Workers (Union centrale
de I'Alimentation), and the joint union has since then continued
to exist under the name of the Central Union of Workers in
the Food Industry and in Agriculture of Belgium (Centrale
des travailleurs des industries alimentaires et de l'Agriculture
de Belgique).
(2) The Central Union of Horticultural, Agricultural, and
Forestry Workers (Union centrale ouvrière des jardiniers, agriculteurs et forestiers) was affiliated to the Federation of Belgian
Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des syndicats chrétiens
de Belgique), but was amalgamated in 1924 with the Christian
Food and Drink Workers' Union. The combined union is
known as the Central Union of Food and Drink Workers,
Agricultural Workers, Horticultural and Forestry Workers
(Centrale de VAlimentation, des ouvriers agriculteurs, jardiniers et
forestiers), and is affiliated to the International Federation of
Christian Land Workers' Trade Unions.

— 94 —
REPRESENTATION

1919 :
1921 :

AT T H E

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

Workers' Delegate:
Mr. Corneille H E R T E N S , secretary-general
of t h e Trades Union Committee of Belgium.
Workers' Delegate: Mr. Corneille MERTENS. Advisers : Mr. Pierre
V A E L , secretary, Harvest Workers'Union ; Mr. René CARELS,
secretary, Central Union of Horticultural, Agricultural
and Forestry Employees ; Mr. Victor PLANTEFÈVE, secretary,.
Land Workers' Union.

1923- /
Workers' Delegate : Mr. Corneille MERTENS.

Mr. Mertens has been nominated in agreement with the Trades
Union Committee of Belgium (Commission syndicale de Belgique).
His Advisers in 1921 were nominated in agreement with the
organisations of which they were members.
BULGARIA

Statistics of the distribution of land in Bulgaria date from
1908. The present national area is about 10 per cent, greater
than at that date, but the relation between the various sizegroups of farms has not changed 1. Nearly all crop land belonged
to private owners, who, to the number of 639,000, held 800,000
properties between them. Of these 120,000 included less than
1 hectare of crop land, 100,000 between 1 and 2 hectares,
240,000 between 2 and 5 hectares, and 300,000 between 5 and
20 hectares ; only 4,500 included more than 50 hectares,
together 7 per cent, of the total crop area 2. To the number
of private properties must be added 5,000 properties owned by
public institutions. An average of 5 hectares of land is considered sufficient to support a family 3 ; however, the Act on Agrarian
Reform of 1921 has defined the area of crop land and pasture
together that can be held by a family of 4 persons as 30 hectares.
Most of the agricultural workers seem to possess some land ;
only 8,000 are indicated as having none 4 . In agreement
with this is the fact that the number of "farmers" in the present
1
Kiril C. P O P O F F : La Bulgarie Coopérative, p . 13. T r a v a u x publiés
par le Comité National de la Coopération. Sofia, 1924,
2

DIRECTION G É N É R A L E D E LA STATISTIQUE : Annuaire

Royaume de Bulgarie,
3

1913-1922.

Statistique

du

Sofia, 1924.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR O F F I C E : Refugees and Labour

Conditions

in Bulgaria.
Studies a n d Reports, Series B, No. 15. 38 p p . Geneva,
1926.
4
Ibid. There are also 30,000 refugee families of Bulgarian nationality
in process of being settled on t h e land,

— 95 —
national area of the country is lower than the number of "property owners" mentioned above, which must mean that a
certain number of persons own land but are nevertheless not
classified as farmers. The figures shown in the table below
cover all types of agriculture, including forestry ; a disadvantage
is the classing together in the statistics of working members of
cultivators' families and managing staff x.
Owners themselves cultivating land . . . .
Tenants
Share-farmers
Other independent persons x
Working members of cultivators' families
and managing staff
F a r m servants on yearly contracts
Day-labourers engaged in agriculture proper
Other workers, including forestry workers,
6"tC.

_

Men

Women

465,961
55
11,585
15,422

48,766
4
1,125
1,267

422,830
26,090
62,489
29,195

951,560
3,144
96,391
5.413

117,774
1,033,627

104,948
1,107,670

. . .

Totai number of workers '.'.'.'.'.
Total population engaged
1

Such as vineyarders, tobacco cultivators, etc.

It will be seen that the number of workers, especially those
engaged per year, is very small compared with the total number
of persons engaged in agriculture.
An organisation of agricultural, forestry, and gardening
workers existed in Bulgaria, affiliated to the Bulgarian Federation
of Trade Unions. In 1923 this organisation had 2,390 members ;
it was dissolved that year when, for political reasons, the whole
Federation, which was Communist in sympathies, was forbidden.
No organisation of agricultural workers is affiliated to the
Union of Free Trade Unions in Bulgaria. This union stated
that the "land workers in Bulgaria are combined with other
categories of peasants in various political organisations, but
in no trade unions' ' a .
REPRÉSENTATION

AT THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR C O N F E R E N C E

1919 :

Not a member of the International Labour Organisation.

19221
1923 :
1924 :
1925-1
1926 /

Government Delegates only.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. J a n k o SAKASOFF.
Government Delegates only.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. Gregor DANOFF, secretary of t h e
Bulgarian Federation of Free Trade Unions.

1
Résultats généraux du Recensement de la population dans le Royaume
de Bulgarie au 31 décembre 1920. Tome I I I , "Statistique des professions (d'après la Profession principale)". Sofia.
2
Communication t o t h e International Labour Office.

— 96 —
CANADA

The distribution of land in Canada is as follows. Of the
whole area of the country (comprising vast forest reserves)
only about one-tenth, namely, 140,887,903 acres, is in occupied
farms. The total number of occupied farms is increasing with
the general increase in population, and in 1921 was 711,090.
The average area of farms is also increasing, from 124 acres
in 1901 to 198 acres in 1921 ; the increase in the average size
of the farming unit is due to the employment of more powerful
machinery, and also to the continued opening up of the prairie
provinces with their extensive farming. The availability of
land, the use of machinery for all agricultural operations 1,
and the practice of extensive farming enormously increase the
area of what would in other countries be smallholdings.
Disregarding holdings under 1 acre, there were, in 1921 only
126,771 holdings (3,161,840 acres) held as farms of 50 acres
or less, out of a total of 711,090 holdings in all covering
140,887,903 acres. In other words, about one-sixth of all
farmers had really small farms, and the total acreage of their
combined cultivation was about 2 per cent, of the total area
cultivated in the country. Even farms running between 51
and 100 acres are not so very numerous ; the bulk of all holdings
run well over 100 acres, and over one-half of the whole occupied
area is held as farms of over 300 acres. It should be remembered,
however, that occupied farms include much unimproved land,
woodland, and natural pasture. The vast majority of farms
are owned by the persons who cultivate them. On an average
each farm supports just over six persons 2.
The rural population has been losing its absolute preponderance over the urban population in the course of the last twenty
years. It still, however, in 1921, comprised slightly over half
the total population, namely, over 4,400,000 persons. Agriculture is still the most important Canadian industry in respect
of the number of workers engaged. In 1911 there were 917,848
men and 15,887 women engaged in that industry (including
horticulture), being 34.3 per cent, of the whole number of
persons engaged in all industries ; these numbers include boys
1
W . A. R I D D E L L : " T h e Influence of Machinery on Agricultural Conditions in North America". The International Labour Review, Vol. X I I I ,
No. 3, March 1926.
2

DOMINION B U R E A U OF STATISTICS :

pp. 268-271.

Ottawa.

The Canada

Year Book,

1925,

— 97 —
and girls over 10 years of age, but exclude married women not
doing paid work. The married woman on the farm in Canada,
however, is often an important part of the labour force on the
farm. Moreover, of the whole number of persons engaged in
farming, over 103,000 were farmers' sons, presumably working
on the home farm. Only about one-seventh of the total population occupied in agriculture, namely, just over 144,000 persons,
were employed workers 1.
Over 42,000 persons are employed in forestry.
Agriculture is carried on throughout the country on the
family farm system. The farmer himself, with the help of
machinery as already mentioned, assisted by the members
of his family, usually does the whole of his own work ; in this
sense farmers form one of the principal groups of independent
workers in the country.
The hired labourer, however, exists and lives with the farmer
•on the farm and usually in the farmhouse ; his contract is
often for a year. By no means all farms employ such hired
"workers, although most farmers try to obtain some help for the
harvest, in which case a contract which may run on for about
six months is offered. The position of the hired worker is
a somewhat special one, inasmuch as it is very unusual for a
man to remain as a hired worker all his life ; he usually manages
to accumulate sufficient to rent or buy land on his own account
and start as an independent farmer himself ; or else he takes
up another occupation. The following statement is presented
from a Canadian source.
The status of the hired agricultural worker in Canada is entirely
different from that of the agricultural labourer in European countries.
In Canada we have practically no permanent agricultural labourer
class. A very large percentage of the male population have been agricultural labourers at one time or another, but in almost every case
such employment is engaged in with the idea that it will only be temporary. It is usual for new settlers intending to take up land to work
for other farmers for a year or two for the purpose of gaining experience
and saving money with which to make a start on their own account.
There are also a considerable number of young men who work on a farm
during the summer months to earn money with which to pay their
expenses while studying at schools and universities during the winter.
There are again men who work on the farms in the summer time and in
lumber camps during the winter. In the fall of each year large numbers
of extra men are needed for harvesting and threshing of the western
grain crop. These are secured chiefly from the eastern provinces and
1
DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND COMMERCE, CENSUS AND STATISTICS
OFFICE : Fifth Census of Canada, 1911. Vol. VI, "Occupations of the

People ", pp. 2-3. Ottawa, 1915.

7

— 98 —
are carried to the west by special excursion trains on which a very low
railway fare is charged. Some of these men remain in the west, while
others return to their homes after the season's work. Harvest excursions are also run from British Columbia into Alberta
While I have
said t h a t there is practically no permanent agricultural labourer class
in this country, there are, of course, exceptions to this rule. There
are, for instance, a number of large stock-raisers who employ permanent
help consisting of skilled stock men. This, however, would be a very
small percentage of the men employed 1.

The many important Provincial organisations of farmers
accept hired workers as members, and it is very usual for
hired workers to join ; the membership may, of course,
continue when such an employed worker begins to farm on
his own account. In 1909 a National Canadian Council of
Agriculture was established, in order to provide a channel
through which provincial farmers might combine their efforts
when dealing with national and inter-Provincial problems a.
Organisations of agricultural workers as such do not exist.
The Trades and Labour Congress of Canada, the Canadian
Federation of Labour 3 , and the Federation of Catholic Workers,
which have memberships embracing the whole country, do not
note any affiliated organisations of agricultural workers. But
many such workers are members in respect of their other occupations performed during other periods of the year, while, as
already pointed out, workers doing agricultural work throughout
the year are organised in the farmers' bodies mentioned above.
REPBESENTATION

1919 :
1921-/
1924 i
1925 :
1926 :
1

AT

THE

INTERNATIONAL

Workers' Delegate : Mr. P. M.
Labour Congress ; president
Workers' Delegate : Mr. Tom
Labour Congress, Ottawa.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. P . M.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. Tom

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

DRAPER, secretary, Trades and
of Ottawa Typographical Union.
MOORE, president, Trades and
DRAPER.
MOORE.

Communication to the International Labour Office from the Canadian
Council of Agriculture.
' H i s t o r y of farmers' organisation in Canada in T H E CANADIAN
COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURE : A Review of the History and Work of the
National Farm Organisation of Canada. Winnipeg, 1925. 3 1 p p .
3
The Canadian Federation of Labour, through its secretary, in a communication to the International Labour Office, dated 2 February 1926,
expresses itself as "endorsing" the Resolution for an enquiry into organisation of agricultural labour accepted by t h e Seventh Session of t h e
International Labour Conference and in consequence of which t h e
present study has been drawn up, " n o t t h a t it will affect t h e agricultural workers of Canada for some time to come, b u t we are aware of t h e
fact t h a t in some of t h e European countries there are large organisations
of this type " , and on this account t h e Federation desires to endorse
t h e Resolution.

— 99 — CHINA

In China agriculture supports the great mass of the people ;
about 80 per cent, of a population of 340 millions live by agriculture. The density of this population (in some districts
600 persons per square kilometre) is remarkable. The peasant
farm predominates and, owing to the density of the population,
is very small; in the plains it varies from 1.0 to 3.4 hectares,
though larger holdings from 4 to 10 hectares, or even up to
50 hectares, also exist. Of fertile land 0.4 hectares is considered
sufficient to support a family. In southern China holdings
are still smaller, but cultivation is more horticultural than agricultural. Throughout the country share-tenancy is common.
Human labour plays the principal rôle ; even of animal labour
only a limited amount is available 1 .
There are three large groups of persons who may be classed
as agricultural workers in China.
(i) The owner of a small plot, usually a few mou 2 in area. —
If such persons cultivate their plot with the help of their family,
their children, from the age of 7 or 8 years, are put in charge
of the animals, of picking and of watering, while the women
carry on the garden work and look after the domestic stock.
In some provinces, e.g. Canton, Kiangson, and Tchekiang, women
do the same work as the men. Recourse is had to paid labour
only at the rush seasons, i.e. during sowing and harvest. These
small landowners form the bulk of the agricultural population,
the division of the surface of the land into small holdings having
been established from time immemorial.
(ii) The tenant. — Tenancy is also an extremely old institution and very widespread in China. The leasing of land does
not imply that the tenant has any capital, and the tenant is
often forced to go to outside#persons for money to buy manure
and tools, and even for the payment of such labour as he
employs. The normal payment to the landowner is two-thirds
of the produce of the tenancy.
(Hi) The agricultural worker properly so called. — This class
may be divided into three groups :
(a) The agricultural worker engaged on a long-term contract.
A person who owns neither land nor money and has no credit
1
2

Dr. Wilhelm WAGNER : Die chinesische Landwirtschaft. Berlin, 1926.
One mou = 674 square metres.

— 100 —
desires to hire out his services to landowners or land tenants.
The minimum period of the employment contract is, as a rule,
one year. Such contracts are renewed by tacit consent and
often continue until old age sets in.
(b) The worker engaged by the month. During the harvest
and other seasons a certain number of persons who are employed
in occupations other than agriculture avail themselves of
the opportunity of earning a little extra by hiring out their
services to landowners or tenants. The employment contract
is usually month by month.
(c) The day-labourer. Day-labourers in agriculture are
casual workers ; they work sometimes for one employer and
sometimes for another, though this does not necessarily imply
that they leave the confines of their village. They have no
special training and are used for any sort of work, cultivation,
husking and polishing of rice, and even on building work x.
Up to the last few years agricultural workers, although they
represent the great majority of the working population of the
country, were unorganised. It was not until 1924 that a
movement began for the organisation of peasants on the initiative, and under the patronage, of the Koumintang Party
of Canton. Since then the development of the movement
has been positively astonishing. A list of agricultural workers'
associations and of their membership, supplied by the Central
Committee of Agricultural Workers, shows the prosperity of
these workers' organisations. In 1926 there were 5,153 associations with a membership of 1,045,442 8.
The first congress of agricultural workers was held at Canton
on 1 May 1925, and a second congress on the same day in 1926.
The first congress only covered the Province of Canton, and,
indeed, only 21 districts in that Province, including a total
membership of 200,000 persons. The second congress not
only united delegates from the Cantonese unions representing
over 600,000 members, but also delegates from similar unions
newly established in eleven other Provinces. The congress
was thus of a national character. The work of these newlyestablished unions has been carried out in a more businesslike
1

Tchun Kovo Lao Tong Wen Ti (The Labour Question in China).

By MA TSAO TOUEN.
2

1925.

Min Kovo Je Pao de Canton (Canton Republican Daily News),
6 Aug. 1926.

— 101 —
way ; every Provincial union sends in a report and 31 resolutions were adopted at the congress.
In August 1926 an extraordinary Provincial congress of
associations of agricultural workers of Canton met and accepted
a resolution of "minimum demands of agricultural workers",
including the following points : reduction of tenancy rents to
a minimum of 25 per cent, of the produce of the tenancy ; abolition of arbitrary taxation ; legal restriction of the rates of
interest on agricultural loans to a maximum of 20 per cent ;
establishment of agricultural State land banks ; State encouragement to the formation of agricultural co-operative societies ;
annulment of contracts-and customs unjust to the agricultural
worker ; establishment by Government action of equitable rules
for tenancies, including the right of appeal in cases of breach
of tenancy before a peasants arbitration court ; the improvement of economic and social conditions of agricultural workers,
and regulation of the labour of women and children in agriculture ; right of agricultural associations to represent their
members in a court of law; free education in rural districts.
The setting forth of these demands serves to show the intimate
association of the interests of the paid labourer and the small
share-cultivator.
Finally, it is to be noted that a struggle is beginning to develop
between the agricultural workers' unions on the one hand, and
the landed proprietors and local chambers of commerce on the
other.
REPRESENTATION

AT

THE

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

1919 : Government Delegates only.
1921-(
1926 \

CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Statistics on which a description of the distribution of land
in Czechoslovakia has to' be based date twenty-five to thirty
years back. The statistics of 1896 show that about 30 per cent.
of the total area belonged to properties of over 1,000 hectares,
while 35 per cent, were held in farms of between 10 and 50
hectares (a little smaller in the eastern part of Czechoslovakia) ;
the remainder was mostly held in dwarf holdings.

— 102 —
These statistics, however, count the big properties, i.e. properties over 200 hectares taxed for at least 200 Austrians crowns,
as a unit, although, in fact, they frequently consist of several,
even hundreds of, farms. In the statistics for 1902 these properties are divided up, and the single farms of which they consisted are each counted, with the result that many more holdings
below 10 hectares, and especially between 2 and 5 hectares,
appear in the census, so that these groups appear to be of greater
importance than they were in the statistics of 1896.
This distribution of land has since the date of the censuses
undergone a certain development — absorption of smallholdings
by large estates, further distribution of the remaining smallholdings — but has been more definitely modified under
agrarian reform legislation, which has made about 820,000
hectares of agricultural land available for enlarging existing
dwarf holdings and creating new holdings 1. However, figures
to show the present distribution of the total area of arable
land and pasture in Czechoslovakia, amounting to 8,500,000
hectares, are not available.
The population engaged in agriculture was, according to the
census of 1921, as follows :

Holders of land
Working members of cultivators' families. .
Managing staff
Apprentices
F a r m servants and other long contract
workers
Day-labourers
Total

Men

Women

692,909
383,080
19,033
1,840

141,622
233,206
1,251
113

280,736
288,027
1,665,625

168,607
214,544
759,343

Further, the census of 1921 registered 1,164 men and 32,675
women being domestic servants employed on agricultural
undertakings. Of the managing staff about 7,000, and of the
workers 70,000, were engaged in forestry.
Smallholdings mostly employ farm servants engaged by
the year. On the bigger holdings the staff consists of "depu1
International Labour Review, Vol. X I I , Nos. 1 and 2, J u l y and Aug.
1925. Industrial and Labour Information, Vol. X X I , No. 7, 14 F e b .
1927.

—

103 —

tatists" 1 and day labourers graded according to the farm and
the kind of work they perform. The deputatist workers are,
in the official wage statistics, divided into dairyherdsmen
(the skilled dairyherdsman is said to be new in Czechoslovakia),
shepherds, horsemen, stockmen, and maids. To these must
be added, on the big estates, watchmen, forestry gardeners,
foremen, bailiffs, and other persons belonging to the managing
staff.
It has been stated, at any rate in reference to pre-war conditions, that the large estate in Czechoslovak agriculture depends
more than in any other country on the labour of smallholders
who are not able to gain their living from their own holdings a.
The smallholders, however, not only seek agricultural work on
other farms ; they are often masons, gardeners, tilers (thatchers),
etc., or they seek forestry work or do homework, such as weaving.
All statements received from organisations of agricultural
workers and of smallholders in Czechoslovakia agree that,
as a rule, the smallholder must find, for a part of the year
at least, such paid work, and that a considerable number of them
even derive their principal income from paid work. Under
these circumstances the question of the organisation of
smallholders becomes very important.
The following organisations of agricultural workers (SocialDemocratic, National-Social, Christian) exist.
(1) The Union of Agricultural and Forestry Workers (Svaz
zemedelskych a lesnich clelniku) affiliated to the Federation of
Czechoslovak Trade Unions (Oclborové sdruzeni Ceskoslovenske)
and to the International Land Workers' Federation. The
Czech union participated, for the first time, at the fourth congress
of this Federation held in Geneva in September 1926.
The origin of this union was an Association of Agricultural
and Forestry Workers started in 1902 in Pilsen, which, in
1918, was changed into the Union of Agricultural Workers.
The union never entertained direct relations with industrial
workers, but operated independently for the improvement of
the conditions of wage earners in agriculture and forestry.
When Czechoslovakia was established as an independent
State, the union developed very rapidly; its membership reached
1

See Section on Germany.

2

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR O F F I C E :

Application

to Agriculture

The Eighl-Hour-Day

in Czechoslovakia.

96 pp.

Act and its

Geneva, 1921.

— 104 —
300,000, and it employed as many as 80 officials. However,
in 1920 the Communists broke up the organisation and the
majority of the members joined the Third International. The
present union was therefore created in 1921 with adherence t o
the Federation of Czechoslovak Trade Unions, affiliated to the
Amsterdam International. The union is the largest organisation
of agricultural workers in Czechoslovakia, with a membership
of nearly 30,000. The union works in close relation with 2S
co-operative societies formed from among those of its members
who have acquired land. The union has had a membership
of 53,000, but all members to whom holdings have been allotted
under agrarian reform legislation have been transferred to
smallholders' unions.
(2) The Union of Agricultural and Forestry Workers
(Verband der land- und forstwirtschaftlichen Arbeiter) is affiliated to the Federation of German Trade Unions in Czechoslovakia (Zenlralgewerkschaftskommission des Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbundes in der Tschekoslowakef), also to the International
Land Workers' Federation. It was founded in 1919. It is
a continuation of the old Austrian Union of Agriculture and
Forestry Workers ; but, owing to the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic, it was necessary to found a new union. Any
person of either sex engaged in agriculture, forestry, or domestic
work can become a member of the union. The union has 172
branches and about 5,500 members.
This union states that all smallholders work at least a few
weeks in the year on account of another person, as holdings
are not large enough ±o provide them with the whole of their
income, while a large number are even forced to obtain
the principal part of their income by wage-paid work ; under
these circumstances, small tenants and smallholders are, of
course, also entitled to membership and a large number have
already joined the union.
There exists, however, a Central Union of German Smallholders
(cf. below), and the intention of the two executive committees
was to amalgamate the two unions. However, on examination
it was found that the interests of the members of the two unions
differed so much that the idea was abandoned, but where their
interests are common they are considered in collaboration.
(3) A Union of Horticultural Workers (Gärtnerverband in
der Tschekoslowakischen Republik) is also affiliated to the Federation of German Trade Unions in Czechoslovakia.

— 105 —
(4) A Union of Agricultural and Forestry Workers (Vseod
Borovy svaz zemedelského a lesniho delnictva Ceskoslovenské
strany sozialistické) affiliated to the Central Office of NationalSocial Trade Unions (Ceskoslovenska obec delnicka, ustredna
odborouych organistici) (the Central Office is the central
body of the trade union movement of the National-Social
Party). The Union of Agricultural and Forestry Workers
was created in February 1920. Before this date the members
belonged to the Trade Union of Industrial, Agricultural, and
Forestry Workers. It has now 23,000 members. The union
states that as a result of agrarian reform legislation agricultural
workers' organisations suffered great losses. Many workers
who acquired a holding changed their affiliation and, except
in a few cases, joined the associations of smallholders ; moreover,
a number of former workers on large-scale estates who received
money compensation for their loss of employment under this
legislation left agriculture. All persons employed as paid
agricultural workers have the right of membership in the union.
The union states that in some places agricultural workers are
members of smallholders' associations, while in others smallholders are members of agricultural workers' organisations.
The reason is sometimes political sympathies and sometimes
lower membership fees. When smallholders take factory
employment they become members of trade unions of factory
workers. They are never excluded from workers' unions and
are admitted on the same conditions as other workers. The
union has made special efforts to get smallholders as members,
for instance, by loaning them horses free. It is stated, however,
that organisation of smallholders in the union is difficult, and
that this is detrimental to the union, as smallholders are apt
to take work at lower wages than the regular paid workers.
On the other hand, the union admits that smallholders doing
no paid work have no interest in joining the union.
The union does not collaborate on economic questions with
smallholders' associations : collaboration is limited to political
action.
(5) The Union of Horticultural Workers (Odborové sdruzeni
delniku zahradnickych a kvétinurskych priruci) is affiliated to the
Central Office of National-Social Trade Unions.
(6) The Union of Agricultural Salaried Employees (Odboroue
sdruzeni zemskych zrizencu v Republice Ceskoslovenské) is also

— 106 —
affiliated to the same Central Office of National-Social Trade
Unions.
(7) The Union of Czechoslovak Christian-Social Agricultural
and Forestry Workers (Svaz Csl. Zemedelskych a Lesnich Zamestnancu), affiliated to the Czechoslovak Federation of ChristianSocial Trade Unions (Risska CeskoslovanskaVseodborovaKomise
Kreslansko-Socialni), was founded on 12 March 1925 and has
at present 12,093 members. The union does not comprise
smallholders, who have their own organisation.
(8) The Union of Christian Agricultural and Forestry Workers
(Verband christlicher Land- und Forstarbeiter) is affiliated to the
Association of German Christian Trade Unions in Czechoslovakia
(Verband der christlichen Gewerkschaften für das Gebiet des
tschekoslowakischen Staates).
The existence is noted of two Czech Social-Democratic
associations of smallholders and tenants, one in Prague with
about 60,000 members, and one in Pilsen, and of a German Union
of Smallholders. These unions are not real trade unions, but
associations to take care of the economic interests of smallholders. They are, however, affiliated to the Social-Democratic
political organisations and have very friendly relations with the
trade unions of Agricultural Workers. The German Union
of Smallholders (Zentralverband der deutschen Kleinbauern
und Häusler in der Tschekoslowakischen Republik) was established in 1920. The union states that its members can only
join a trade union when they do industrial or agricultural work
for others against wages.
REPRESENTATION

1919 )
1921
1922 I
1923:
1924
1925
1926':

AT

THE

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

Workers' Delegate : Mr. Rudolphe TAYERLE, deputy secretary
of the Federation of Czechoslovak Trade Unions.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. Ferdinand STASTNY, Senator, president
of the National-Social Trade Unions.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. Antoine CURIK, deputy general secretary
of the Federation of Christian Trade Unions.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. Charles VIKTORA, secretary of the Czechoslovak Glass Workers' Federation, Teplice.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. W. I. François STEFKA, secretary of t h e
Czechoslovak Seamen's and Sailors' Union.

DENMARK

Agricultural land in Denmark is mostly held as mediumsized farms. Thus, 57 per cent, of arable land is found in farms

— 107 —
of between 15 and 60 hectares, 19 per cent, in farms over this
size, and 24 per cent, in smaller ones. The table * below shows
to what extent farms had to use permanent outside help in
1923.
Number

Number

of farms using no permanent outside help:
using no permanent help a t all . 84,706
using the help of members of the
cultivator's family over 15 years
of age
.31,516
Together. . .

116,222

of farms using permanent outside help :
one worker
30,523
two workers
21,181
three
„
12,672
four
„
7,065
five
„
or more
8,292
Together
. . . .
79,733
Total number of farms
,
195,955

The number of farmers employing more than three workers
is small ; the majority of workers are therefore farm servants.
The table below shows the number of agricultural workers
according to the population census of 1 February 1921 2
Men

Salaried employees :
Managers and bailiffs
Assistant bailiffs, depot managers .
Stock managers
Together
. . .
Wage-earning
workers :
F a r m servants
Agricultural day-labourers
. . .
Together
. . .
Total : Salaried and wage-earning
workers
Forestry workers

Women

5,438
2,895
6,405
14,738

49
17
68
134

95,295
38,896
134,191

2,242
3,373
5,615

148,929
4,722

5,749
30

The number of women workers engaged in agriculture is
certainly too low in this table ; there are not less than 82,000
female domestic servants in rural districts, of which a considerable number undoubtedly take part in agricultural work on
the farm.
1
Danmarks Statistik:
Slatistiske E f terrei ¡linger, No. 21. Copenhagen,
1925.
2
Statistisk
Tabeluaerk: Folkelaellingen
i Kongcrigel Danmark
den
1 Februar 1921. Copenhagen, 1925.

— 108 —
At the last census in 1921 there was a tendency, however,
to class women servants as domestic servants. The statistical
authorities themselves estimate that 20,000 women servants
classed as farm servants in the census of 1911 had been classed
as domestic servants in 1921 1 . Again, many women are
married to agricultural workers and are therefore quoted as
dependants in the population census, though they work either
as milkmaids or as seasonal beet and harvest workers. The
Union of Agricultural Workers estimates their number to be
20,000 2.
To these groups of wage-earning and salaried workers must
be added smallholders doing paid work for others. According
to the census of 1921, 1,632 men and 40 women indicated themselves as being simultaneously smallholders and agricultural
day-labourers. However, the special agricultural census in
1923 affords better material for showing to what extent smallholders work outside their own holding 3 .
SMALLHOLDERS WORKING FOR OTHERS ON A CERTAIN NUMBER OF
DAYS IN THE YEAR
Days

Number of smallholders . .
Average number of days
worked per year . . . .

Less
than 50

50-150

150 and
more

Together

3,864

7,806

5,021

16,691

25

96

238

122

More than 5,000 smallholders work for half the year for others.
In this connection it may be mentioned that, the conditions
under which a cultivator may be considered as a wage worker,
and consequently has the right to enter the Unemployment
Insurance Fund for agricultural workers, are the following :
(1) He must be occupied as a wage worker in the employment of another person on at least 150 days a year.
(2) He may not own more than 5,000 crowns if unmarried and 10,000 if married (thus conforming to the general
rule of the fund).
1

Census cited, p. 84.
Landarbejderforbundets Haandbog. Udgivet af Landarbejderforbundei
i Danmark, p. 40. Copenhagen-Valby, 1925.
3
Danmarks Statistik: Stalistiske Efterretninger, No. 17. Copenhagen,
1925.
2

— 109 —
(3) His net income derived from his holding must not
exceed 1,500 crowns a year.
(4) The value of his land (without buildings) must
be under 3,000 crowns.
(5) He must not, in general, keep more than two cows
and a heifer, nor must he own a horse standing higher than
10 quarters (1 quarter = 6 inches).
Types of agricultural work are not very varied. Most of
the workers do all-round work. Male farm servants and married
permanent day-labourers are engaged mostly on field work,
but also in cattle tending ; temporary workers do field work only.
Milking is mostly done by married women.
(1) -The Union of Danish Landworkers (Landarbejderforbundet i Danmark). Attempts 1 to organise Danish agricultural
workers are known to have taken place in various parts of the
country as far back as the last decade of the past century, but
not much is known of the details of these efforts. It is certain
that these organisations did not last long and covered only
a single district. A real beginning was not made until 1906,
when the Union of Servants was established. It soon had
a fair number of branches ; members were mostly young male
farm servants. The union was not very firmly organised.
The present union describes it more as a movement than as
a trade union. From 1909 to 1915 interior struggles weakened
the organisation ; from 1909 to 1913 and again from 1914to 1915
it was divided into two unions. In the spring of 1915 these
two unions met together with representatives from the SocialDemocratic Party, the Federation of Danish Trade Unions, and
the Danish Union of General Workers. On the recommendation
of these representatives it was agreed to create a Union of
Land Workers. Each of the three big associations obtained
a seat on the committee of the new union and in return gave
financial support. This arrangement lasted until 1921 and
naturally greatly helped the new organisation.
Of great importance for the development of the union was
the decision taken in the spring of 1917 that the land workers
should create an unemployment insurance fund in connection
with the union. This fund obtained State authorisation, and
1
Landarbejderforbundets Haandbog. Udgivet af Landarbejderforbundet
i Danmark. Copenhagen-Valby, 1925.

110 —
special legislation in the autumn of the same year, passed on
account of the extraordinary unemployment following the war,
dispensed members of the unemployment insurance funds from
the rule of having to complete twelve months' membership before
being entitled to allowances. The effect was a rapid growth in
the organisation of agricultural workers.
In 1918 the first collective agreement was signed with individual employers ; in 1919 the first collective agreement for the
whole country was made with the newly-created employers'
organisation.
In the autumn of 1915 the membership of the union was nearly
2,000 : on 1 April 1918, 8,000 : on 1 August, 16,000. In 1919
the maximum reached was 32,000, but already by the next
year there were only 25,000 members ; bottom was finally
touched with about 13,000 members. This number remained
more or less stationary for the years 1922-1924, since when a
slow but steady progress can be noted. The union has now
about 15,000 members, of whom only a few hundred are women.
The union is affiliated to the Federation of Danish Trade
Unions (De Samvirkende Fagforbund i Danmark), and to the
International Federation of Land Workers. The present
constitution states that the purpose of the union is to unite
all workers employed in agriculture, and defines agricultural
workers as those workers who are employed in purely agricultural
work on farms, including waggoners, stokers, permanent handicraftsmen on large farms (Herregaarde), as well as workers who
are engaged on purely agricultural work in addition to being
engaged in another countryside occupation, such as municipal
work, stone-splitting, drain-digging, turf work, soil and forestry
work.
The union considers that the stock managers, who, in the
population census, are classed as salaried employees, should
come within the scope of the organisation. Smallholders who
supplement their income by means of wage-paid work are also
entitled to be members of the union and, in the case of those
permanently employed, very largely take advantage of this
right. No other organisation exists which takes care of the
"trade union interests" of this class of smallholders.
(2) The Danish Union of General Workers (Dansk Arbejdsmandsforbund) has no members who are employed in purely
agricultural work ; it has, however, some who are engaged in
forestry work, drain-digging, and road-repairing work. An

— Ill —
agreement at one time existed between this union and that of
the agricultural workers, according to which the three types
of work just mentioned might be carried out by members of
both unions, while purely agricultural work was to be done by
members of the Union of Agricultural Workers and work classed
as general labour by the members of the Union of General
Workers. The Union of General Workers has 83,000 members,
4,800 of whom are engaged in forestry work. This union has
been, but is no longer, a member of the Danish Federation of
Trade Unions.
The Danish smallholders are organised in about 1,100
local associations, with 82,000 members, which are again united
in six Provincial associations. Every man or woman interested
in the movement can become a member of a smallholders' association. The object of the associations is to further smallholding
from an economic and social aspect and to do what they can to
create better conditions for smallholders.
The six Provincial associations are again united in the Federation of Danish Smallholders' Associations, which, without
depriving the single associations of their independence, aims
at establishing the widest possible collaboration and harmony
between them, and more especially represents them before the
Legislature and Government authorities. The Federation is
not represented at conferences or permanent organs of wageearning workers and does not collaborate with the Union of
Land Workers. It states that smallholders taking paid
work do not, in general, avail themselves of their right to
join the Union of Land Workers, because their principal income is
derived from fairly independent holdings and their interests
are therefore best taken care of through the smallholders'
associations.
REPRESENTATION

AT THE

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

1919 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. C. F . MADSEN, president of t h e Federation
of Danish Trade Unions.
1921 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. P. H E D E B O L , secretary to the Federation
of Danish Trade Unions. Adviser:
Mr. Oscar LEVISON,
president of the Trade Unions of Danish Agricultural Workers.
1926'î

Workers

'

Delegate:

Mr. C. F. MADSEN.

The nominations have been made in agreement with the
Federation of Danish Trade Unions (De Samvirkende Fagforbund i Danmark).

— 112 —
ESTONIA
Before the recent agrarian reform in Estonia 60 per cent, of
agricultural land was held by small owners having an average
farm of about 28 hectares, 15 per cent, was rented from the
manors by small tenants holding an average of 20 hectares,
the rest of the land was cultivated in large-scale estates.
The agrarian reform appropriated nearly all estates. Rather
more than 30,000 new holdings, on an average of the same size
as the old tenant farms, were created ; but, as in some cases
a holding was given to more than one family, the average area
cultivated by a settlers' family is only about 17 hectares 1 .
On the other hand, it has been estimated that the standard farm,
large enough to support a family and worked by two horses,
should cover not less than 20 hectares of land, of which 9-12
hectares must be arable a. In actual fact, more than 50 per cent.
of Estonian farms are under this 20-hectare standard, but
on some of these farms the soil may be above the average in
quality.
Before the agrarian reform land workers fell into two distinct
classes : (1) "estate" or manor workers, all married persons
having their own household and partly paid in kind or by an
allowance of land (the number of such families was estimated
at about 36,000 8 ), and (2) unmarried farm servants lodged
and boarded by the peasant farmer.
The table 4 below shows the population engaged in agriculture
according to the census of 22 December 1922 :

1
"Statistics of Land Reform in Estonia". International Labour
Review, Vol. XII, No. 5, Nov. 1925.
2
M. MARTNA : "The Position of the Agricultural Day Worker in
Estonia". Ibid., Vol. V, No. 5, May 1922.
8
M. MARTNA : "Social Aspects of Land Reform in Estonia". Ibid.,
Vol. XIII, No. 1, Jan. 1926.
* Eesti Riikline Statistika. Rahva Tóbala Uehiskondline Kihitus 1922 a.
Ueldrahvalugemise Andmen. Vihk III.

— 113 —
Agriculture '
Men
Women

Farmers not employing
workers
74,477
Farmers employing workers
22,483
Working members oí farmers'
families :
Wives or husbands .
384
41,044
Children . . . .
Other relatives .
12,975
Together
54,403
Managing staff
683
Wage-earning workers and
servants
. . . .
33,365
Total

. . . .

185,411

Men

Forestr;
try
Wo

10,975

—

2,838

22

83,298
31,904
33,715
158,917
66

22
695

—
13

38,024

5,328

133

210,820

6,045

146

' Horticulture not included.

The majority of the wage-earning workers are to be found
on the peasant farms. The large estate workers were, through
the agrarian reform, deprived of their occupation ; only a few
thousands of them will be able to go on working on the small
number of large farms which remain in existence. Yet only
4,224 of such workers had been allotted settlers' holdings up
to the end of 1924. The majority of them now live as jobbing
workers and compete for employment with the. large number
of smallholders who are themselves unable to live from the
income derived from their holdings. It is estimated that the
number of owners of holdings who are dependent on outside
work for a livelihood is about two-thirds of the whole number
of Estonian cultivators. The competition for employment, is
further increased by the need of work among adult members
of artisan families in the villages 1.
Of interest for the organisation problem of agricultural
workers is the special class of tenants who have rented from the
peasants land on which they have constructed their own buildings. It was customarily considered that no notice could be
given to such tenants ; but after the constitution of Estonia as
an independent State opinion changed, and it was necessary
to pass tenant protection legislation, which was prolonged
each year until the whole question was settled by an Act of
1926.
The Constitution of Estonia secures both the right of association and the right to strike. These rights can only be restricted
1

Cf. "Social Aspects of Land Reform in Estonia", op. cit.
8

— 114 —
by legislation in the interests of public safety. On the other
hand, the rulings of the old Russian Penal Code have been taken
over, which limit the right to strike in some cases, among others,
when it is a question of undertakings of so-called public utility,
as undertakings of public utility are counted State and transport
undertakings and, further, agricultural undertakings. The effect
of the rulings is to impose sanctions (even imprisonment) for
such offences as incitement of a fellow worker to strike, or
incitement to a worker on another undertaking to do so or
not to resume work, or even attendance at a meeting in support
of a strike.
The general movement among Estonian workers preceding
the Russian revolution of 1905 reached the agricultural workers.
In the autumn of 1905 local groups of agricultural workers
were formed which, by means of small strikes, obtained some
improvement in their working conditions. At the same time
the possibility of a congress of agricultural workers was discussed.
The outbreak of the revolution brought all this to a stop, and
it was not until after the revolution of 1917 that the agricultural
workers' movement again became active. Local organisation
once more became effective, and at the first Estonian Land
Workers' Congress in May 1920 there were 88 local agricultural
trade unions represented, which united into a Union of Agricultural Workers affiliated to the General Trade Union Federation.
The local unions intended to organise forestry and other classes
of rural workers as well as agricultural workers proper. The
number of local branches of unions reached 180, with a total
membership of 20,000. Centralisation, however, was never
very strong, and already in 1922 membership began to decrease.
It was the large-scale estate workers who had made up the
backbone of the organisation. When these workers acquired
settlers' holdings or became unemployed, as stated above,
they left the organisation or became Communistically inclined.
At the second congress in 1922 Communist views dominated
and the political aims of the Union outweighed other factors.
At the third congress in the same year only one-fourth of the
branches were still represented. At the beginning of 1924
both the central union and the local organisations were dissolved
as Communistic, the latter without regard to whether they still
belonged to the central organisation or not.
In July 1925 a new organisation was created, viz. the Association of the Rural Working Population, which is considered

— lib —
a continuation of the old land workers' movement. The bulk
of its members are not, however, wage-earning workers proper,
but come from the class of tenants mentioned above, the defence
of whose interests has been taken up by the Socialist Party.
The existing Estonian organisations which need to be noted
for purposes of the present study are as follows :
(1) The above-mentioned Association of the Rural Working
Population (Ueleriikline Maatööralwa Uehisus). This organisation was represented at the Baltic-Scandinavian Trade Union
Conference in Stockholm in December 1926. It has lately
taken part in the efforts to create a central trade union organisation in Estonia. At the present time it has 40 branches,
with 1,000 members. All rural inhabitants who live by their
own work, i.e. who do not themselves employ wage-earning
workers, can become members of the union. Under these
conditions holders of small plots and parcels of land can join
the union.
(2) Settlers having received a holding large enough to be
considered a family holding have created their own organisation
and even form a political party. Their organisation has no
contact with the workers' organisations.
(3) There exists, as a subsection of the General Union of
State and Administrative Workers (Riigi-ja Ornavalilsuse
teenijale kesklit), an Association of Administrative Workers
in Forests (Eesti Metsateenijate Selta).
REPRESENTATION

AT T H E

N o t a member of
1919:
1921 : Workers' Delegate:
Workers' Delegate:
1922:
1923-1 Workers' Delegate:
1925/
1926 : Workers' Delegate:
t h e Estonian

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

t h e International Labour Organisation.
Mr. Mikhel MARTNA.
Mr. Karl AST.
Mr. Mikhel MARTNA.
Mr. August GUSTAVSON, president of
Association of Masters and Deck Officers..

In 1921 Mr. Martna was nominated in agreement with theEstonian Socialist Party. The following years the nominations
were not made in agreement with a central organisation of
workers, but with several trade unions, among which, however,.
there were no agricultural unions. In 1926 the nomination
was made in agreement with the Federation of Seamen and the.
Estonian Association of Masters and Deck Officers.

— 116 —
FINLAND

Large estates are still important in Finnish agriculture 1 .
However, only 9 per cent, of the total area of the largest estates
is cultivated land as against 25 per cent, of the total area of
small holdings. Considerable portions of large estates are moreover leased out as separate farms, so that the picture obtained
by studying the distribution of land among agricultural holdings
shows a strong group of medium-sized farms. In 1920 there
were 50,000 farms of between 10 and 50 hectares of arable land,
accounting for nearly 50 per cent, of the total arable land ;
54,000 farms of between 5 and 10 hectares of arable land,
accounting for 19 per cent, of such land ; and 140,000 farms
of between 0.5 and 5 hectares of arable land, accounting for
14 per cent. In addition, there existed 85,000 houses, each
with less than 0.5 hectares of land attached 2.
All holders of less than 10 hectares of arable land are considered
smallholders. The number of employers proper in agriculture
is estimated at 56,000 as a maximum 3.
In 1901 60 per cent, of the total number of all agricultural
holdings were held as tenancies, this including practically
all smallholdings and plots. The smallholders were torpore
as in Sweden, i.e. tenant workers obliged to do a certain number
of days' work for their landlord. The plots were generally
let out to handicraftsmen or casual workers (backstugusiitare).
The agrarian reform has stimulated a process already begun
before the war, and to a great extent former tenants have been
able to acquire full ownership of the smallholdings and plots
which they had been leasing. The next stage of agrarian
reform, namely, the creation of new holdings and more especially the apportioning of more land to the holders of plots, has
only just begun, so that no large decrease has yet taken place
in the number of persons engaged in agriculture who are obliged
to supplement the income derived from their holdings by carrying
on wage-paid work on account of another, or, indeed, to support
themselves almost entirely by such work.
1
Väinö VOIONMAA: Finlands
Ekonomi.
En
Oversikt. Soensk Oversällning av Ragnar Numelin.
2

Ekonomisk-Geografisk
1924.

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE : Agricultural

Problems

in their International Aspect. League of Nations Document for t h e International Economic Conference, May 1927.
3

M I N I S T È R E D ' A F F A I R E S SOCIALES D E F I N L A N D E : L'Agriculture

la situation d'ouvriers agricoles en Finlande. 1923.

et

— 117 —
The table below shows the population engaged in agriculture
on 31 December 1920.
Heads of families
or independent
individuals
Men
Women

152,448
Farm owners and tenants .
44,296
Tenant-workers
Farm servants with own .
15,261
3,460
household (stalare) . . .
Managing staff
22,103
Farm servants boarded and
lodged
Day-labourers who possess 72,547
their own dwelling (back69,190
stugusittare)
379,305
Day-labourers who do not
possess their own dwelling

Members of their
families engaged in
agriculture
Men
Women

20,170
6,516

142,357
37,872

181,536
49,045

676
202

1,784
206

2,245
269

42,044

107

177

28,037

21,757

32,984

45,565

9,753
213,836

15,322
281,578

143,210

The number of personal servants in agriculture was 380
men and 237 women. Further, 1,400 workers were engaged in
sylviculture. The number of lumber workers (hewers and
floaters) was 16,483 men and 169 women. These, however,
are classified in Finnish statistics as industrial woikers. The
figures cannot include all workers engaged in lumber work.
The number of floaters alone was indicated to be 47,000 in
1911 1. Floating and lumbering is seldom the principal occupation of the workers engaged therein. An official investigation
into working conditions among lumber workers in the spring
of 1921 showed that 61.4 per cent, of the workers had another
income inasmuch as they were holders of land or members of
the families of such holders. Even of landless workers engaged
in lumbering only 50 per cent, perform such work the whole
year round 2.
The classification of agricultural workers, as given by an official
investigation into their working conditions 3, shows that the
grouping of workers both according to their form of contract
1

2

VoiONMAA, op. Cit., p . 1 6 1 .

Finlands Officiella Statistik. XXXII. Sodala Specialundersökningar;
Undersökning angaende Arbetsförhallandena bland Skogs- och Flotlningsarbetarna. Varen 1921.
3
Finlands Offwella Statistik XXXII.
Sodala Specialundersökningar.
Undersökning Angaende Arbetsförhallandena bland Lanlarbelama under
Avlöningsaret 1919-1920.

— 118 —
and according to the type of work they perform is very similar
to that in Sweden. The investigation distinguished between
workers engaged for the year and day-labourers. The first
are skilled workers (bailliffs, foremen, inspectors, skilled dairyherds-men), farm servants and "deputatists", called statare
as in Sweden. Some of the farm servants are, however, only
engaged for half a year, the so-called summer-servants. Among
the day labourers a distinction is made between regular and
casual workers. The first work at least eight weeks in the course
of a year on the same farm ; they seem to be under working
conditions very like those obtaining in the case of workers
engaged by the year. The Master and Servants Act has put
difficulties in the way of organisation of agricultural workers.
This Act was abolished by the Act of Labour Contracts of
1 June 1922.
The existing Union of Agricultural Workers (Maaiyöväen
Liitto) is not very important. The union was founded in
1917, but in March 1922 it has been reorganised. At a
meeting where 20 local branches were represented, it was
resolved to re-establish the Agricultural Workers' Union, and
its membership rose to between 700 and 800 and in 1926 to
1132. In September 1924 the first collective agreement in
Finnish agriculture was signed between this union, as representative of the workers, on a farm belonging to the big co-operative
society "Elanto". The union is affiliated to the Finnish
Federation of Trade Unions.
Two organisations of smallholders exist, of which one is the
Union of Agricultural Leaseholders and Smallholders. It
was originally a union of small tenant-workers only, but when
the agrarian reform created many proprietors of smallholdings
it was reorganised as the Union of Finnish Smallholders (Suomen
Pienuiljelijäin Liitto). The union had at the end of 1926
a membership of 4500. It was originally founded on socialdemocratic lines. It cannot be considered as a trade union,
partly because it receives a yearly grant from the State. The
other organisation of smallholders, the Central Union of Finnish
Smallholders (Suomen Pienvilijelijäin KeskusliUlo), with 229
branches and a membership of 12,000, is non-political. The
purpose of the union is to unite the smallholders of Finland in
the intellectual and economic interests of their group. Amalgamation of the two bodies of smallholders has frequently
been under discussion. This union also receives a State grant.

— 119 —
The relations between smallholders and agricultural workers
are described in a letter of 10 August 1925 from the Finnish
Social Board to the International Labour Office. In this
letter it is stated that both proprietors and tenants of smallholdings had been members of the Union of Agricultural
Workers, affiliated to the Finnish Federation of Trade Unions.
At the date of writing it was impossible to obtain information
as to the extent of such membership.
It is stated that during recent years the trade union movement
had developed strongly and that smallholders had had a share
in it. Smallholders (but not landless wage-paid workers)
had also joined in large numbers the Finnish Agricultural Producers' Central Organisation, a political body, and also the nonpolitical Central Union of Agricultural Societies.
REPRESENTATION

AT THE

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

1919 : Not a Member of the International Labour Organisation, but
present at t h e Conference.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. Matti PAASIVUORI, president of the
Finnish Federation of Trade Unions.
1921 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. Heikki LAAKSO, Union of Agricultural
Leaseholders and Smallholders.
1922 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. Emil V I L J A N E N , Union of Agricultural
Leaseholders and Smallholders.
1923 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. J o h a n H E L O , chief of the Financial
Section in the Town Council of Helsingfors.
1924 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. Aatu H A L M E , treasurer of the Finnish
Federation of Trade Unions.
1925 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. J. E. H U T T U N E N , president of the Finnish Federation of Trade Unions.
1926 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. Aatu HALME.

Both in 1921 and 1922 the Finnish Federation of Trade Unions
(Suomen Ammaltijarjcslo)
refused to participate in the
nomination of a Workers' Delegate to the International
Labour Conference, and nomination was made in agreement
with the Union of Agricultural Leaseholders and Smallholders.
FRANCE

The property census of 1892 (the last property census
taken) gave 2,235,405 holdings under 1 hectare in extent,
2,617,558 holdings 1 to 10 hectares, 711,118 holdings 10 to
40 hectares, 105,391 holdings 40 to 100 hectares, and 33,280
holdings over 100 hectares ; together 5,702,752 holdings in all.
Of these the vast majority (4,852,963) included no more land

— 120 —
than sufficed for a very moderate-sized smallholding ; indeed,
nearly one-half of such holdings were really only little plots,
much too small to be economic undertakings. These facts
have an important bearing on the structure of the rural population of France ; many persons who own a small amount of
land have, or must seek, other means of support. An official
enquiry in 1912 revealed the fact that nearly half the agricultural
day labourers in the country owned a little land. In practice
a smallholding is defined as one up to 6 hectares, and a mediumsized holding as one between 6 and 50 hectares 1.
In spite of the prevalence of smallholding in many parts
of the country, large-scale farming is not unimportant, especially in the north and centre. Large-scale farms are sometimes
cultivated by wage-paid labour, but are also very commonly
let out into small share-tenancies or tenancies, an agent or
"middle-man" (fermier général) acting as intermediary between
the landowner and his tenants, almost as a manager intervenes
between the owner of an industrial enterprise and his workers.
The census figures for 1921 give the total number of persons
engaged in agriculture as 8,951,099, as follows.
Heads of undertakings . .
Independent cultivators . .
Salaried employees . . . .
Wage-earning workers. . .
Total

5,002,641
1,110,112
5,245
2,833,101
8,951,099

Co-ordination of these figures with the figures of the properly
census noted above is difficult, both on account of the interval
between them and because owners of land include persons who
enter into the group of "heads of undertakings", "independent
cultivators", and, as we saw above, of "workers".
There is great shortage of wage-earning agricultural labour in
France, which partly accounts for the splitting up of large estates
into small share-tenancies, already referred to, a system which
relieves the landowner of the responsibility for finding a large
amount of direct wage-paid labour. As was explained in Part
II of this study, the share-tenancy contract has many analogies
with the labour contract ; for instance, it is annual. It is
a demand from the share-tenants themselves to have longercontracts and compensation for improvements on quitting.
The smallholder himself sometimes engages a single unmarried
1

G.

RISLER

: Le travailleur agricole en France. Paris, 1922.

— 121 —
resident farm servant, or where he does not do that employs
what labour he can get during the harvest and sowing seasons.
The employment of a strictly limited amount of help is not
held necessarily to destroy his character as an independent
worker *.
The following classes of agricultural workers exist in France :
(1) The agent or bailiff (régisseur) : a person who manages
a farm on behalf of the owner, receiving a fixed salary, a house,
and usually certain allowances in kind.
(2) The farm servants (domestiques de ferme or valets de
ferme), who are perhaps the most important class of agricultural workers in France. The contract is usually for a year
and implies residence, although if the farm servant is married
residence is separate from the farmer's house. Farm servants
either do the whole work of the farm, especially on the smaller
farms, or specialise as foremen, waggoners, oxmen, cowmen,
shepherds, and sometimes as cheesemakers. Women farm
servants are often principally engaged on preparing food, etc.,
for the male workers. There is sometimes a principal farm
servant or foreman (maître-valet). All contracts are individual ;
family contracts are unknown, but it is quite usual for the
wife of a farm servant to work as a pieceworker. Wages are
partly in cash and partly in allowances, and also often take the
form of certain shares in the produce. When this is done the farm
servant contract to some extent approaches that of the regular
share-cultivator.
(3) The day-labourers are also an important class of agricultural workers. Day-labourers usually live in villages, often
in large villages, from which they proceed to their work for
neighbouring farmers. Contract is irregular according to the
nature of the work to be done, and wages are mostly paid by the
day. A distinction must be drawn between regular day-labourers
1

Cf. in addition to works cited in other notes to this Section :
A. SOUCHON : La crise de la main-d'œuvre agricole en France. Paris,
Rousseau, 1924. 552 p p .
P. R É G N I E R : L'ouvrier agricole. Paris, Doin, 1924. 280 pp.
P. CAZIOT : La valeur de la terre en France. Paris, 1914.
La main-d'œuvre agricole, 1920-1925.
Le Travailleur de la Terre, official organ of the National Federation
of Land Workers (not at present being published).
Information sociale, Paris. Articles published by Mr. R E Y during
1926.

— 122 —
who often receive board as well as cash wages, and pieceworkers,
who are employed on special work, such as harvest work, etc.
In addition to the above classes of workers, there are a
certain number of quite specialised workers such as vinedressers, woodcutters, and resin gatherers. These specialised
workers are, on the whole, the best organised, and interest
therefore attaches to them. They are almost always paid on
piece rates ; the resin gatherers are usually at the same time
share-farmers, as the resin harvest only occupies a portion
of the year. Vinedressers are very highly organised and
have from time to time bargained for the six-hour day. They
sometimes work in gangs under a gang master. The market
gardeners' workers round Paris are also organised.

It is impossible to deal with the organisation of agricultural
workers in France without dealing with the organisation of
French agriculturists in general. French agriculture is very
highly organised. The basic form of organisation is the
syndicat, or general association. The modern agricultural association dates back to the Act on Associations of 1884 and even
earlier ; the period of formation was largely between 1875 and
1890, a period during which the phylloxera was making ravages
and French agriculture was beginning to feel foreign competition
on the home wheat market.
The agricultural co-operative movement, now very firmly
established, is closely linked up with the associations, but
is not by any means identified with them. The extent of both
movements is shown by the existence, in 1925, of over 9,000
agricultural associations, with memberships varying from 10
to 30,000, but making up the large total of nearly a million and
a half persons, and united in 176 federations. Of these associations 8 out of 9, i.e. over 8,000, act as co-operative societies,
and, in addition, there are an unknown number, but between
3,000 and 4,000, other agricultural co-operative societies, with
a membership of another half-million persons 1.
It is a principle, often quoted, of all agricultural associations
to welcome the membership of all cultivators of the soil,
1
M. A U G É - L A R I B É : Syndicats
Paris, Armand Colin, 1926.

el coopératives agricoles, pp. 90 a n d ' 9 9 .

— 123 —
including agricultural workers. A well-known author on
French agriculture, writing in 1926, states, however, that
the membership of regular wage-earning agricultural workers
in the agricultural associations is apparently negligible. There
are, no doubt, a few workers inscribed as members of such
associations ; their subscriptions, according to this writer,
are paid by their employers. This membership was at one
time estimated at 5 per cent, of the membership of certain
associations, but it is doubtful if it attains even that proportion 1.
But if wage-earning agricultural workers are not actual,
they are often potential, members of such associations. The
same author points out that a certain number of agricultural
workers have very close personal connections with the groups
owning land, or owning a small amount of land, and are eligible
for membership in an agricultural association— and no doubt
do so enter as members — either while working as agricultural
employed workers or at some future period of their lives :
Agricultural workers are often owners of a small plot of ground who
do a few clays' work on a neighbouring farm ; or they may be the sons
of landholders and destined one day to be landholders themselves ;
or else they are share-farmers whoa with luck will one day be tenantfarmers or finally owners of land .

However, there are sufficient employed agricultural workers
to give rise to a totally distinct organising movement, which
draws its origin and its encouragement from the general organised trade union movement among industrial workers. This
movement has a history of some twenty years, but has had
many ups and downs, and cannot be considered one of the more
stable or well-established workers' movements of the country.
A point to note is that this movement, when it manages to achieve
a certain degree of local or national organisation (usually as
the result of action directed by the industrial workers' movement),
is ready to incorporate into its ranks local organisations of
share-farmers, etc. This is the counterpart of what was noted
above as to the frequent identity of worker and small owner
or tenant cultivator ; there the worker was envisaged as smallholder ; here the smallholder is looked on in his character as
worker.
Numerous strikes of considerable local importance had
already before the war taken place among French agricultural
1
2

Ibid., p. 67.
ibid., p. 66. CP. also p. 206.

— 124 —
workers. Mention may be made of the strike of wood-cutters
in 1891-1892, and in subsequent years the strike of the Federation of Cultivators of the South in 1904, the strike in the
Gard in 1911, and the market-gardeners' strike round Paris in
1910-1911.
(1) There was no one general union for agricultural workers
for the whole of France until after the war. At the beginning of
1912 there existed as many as 628 local agricultural unions,
but many of these were inactive. At the opening of the war
there existed four regional federations of some importance,
namely, the Federation of Cultivators of the South (Fédération
des agricoles du Midi), established in 1903 ; the Federation
of Woodcutters (Fédération des bûcherons), established in 1897 ;
the General Union of Vineyard Workers of the Marne (Le
Syndicat général des ouvriers vignerons de la Marné), established
in 1911; and the Agricultural and Horticultural Federation
(La Fédération agricole et horticole), established in 1904. At the
congress of Lyons, held under the auspices of the General Confederation of Labour in 1919, these four federations, together with
the Union of Coopers (Syndical des feuillardiers du Centre)
agreed to unite, and this decision was confirmed in the following
year at the congress of Limoges. Meanwhile the united Federation, under the name of the Federation of Workers in Agriculture (Fédération nationale des travailleurs de Vagriculture),
had actually been constituted on 1 January 1920 from 80
constituent unions, having a membership of 5,000 ; by 1 July
1920 there were 87 constituent unions with a membership
of 45,000. The membership almost immediately began to
decrease, and towards the end of the year had fallen to 30,000 x.
As so often, the fluctuating membership is not a very good
index of the rôle played by the Federation, and in the case of
this Federation seems to be strongly affected by influences
outside agriculture, especially by the activity of general trade
union headquarters. An examination of the composition of
277 of the constituent (local) unions for 1920 shows that of these
85 were vine dressers' unions of the south of France, 47 were
resin gatherers' and share-holders' unions of the Landes and
Pyrenees, 43 were market-gardening and similar unions in "the
vicinity of Paris, 42 were woodcutters' unions, 9 were coopers'
unions, and 27 were vinedressers' unions of the Champagne ;
1

No information as to the present membership.

— 125 —
there were only 24 unions scattered over the rest of the country 1.
It will be seen that the membership of the Federation is strongly
localised and specialised.
From the very start of this movement for organising agricultural workers in France the share-farmer, small tenant, and
smallholder has been welcomed into the ranks of the organisation.
In 1900, at the fifth general congress of the General Confederation of Labour, the decision of the delegates was to undertake
agricultural propaganda work and to admit as members of
agricultural unions both "those who are wage-earning agricultural workers on whatsoever basis" and "those who, owning
land, live from the proceeds of their labour without exploiting
another person". At the eighteenth general congress (1924),
on the occasion of a reformulation of the minimum programme
of the Confederation, the claims of agricultural workers were
drawn up to include legislation for "compensation for improvements to tenants and share-farmers". Moreover, when the
National Union of Agricultural Workers was constituted in 1920,
rule No. 14 of the constitution was formulated to admit to
membership "smallholders, small tenants, share-farmers working
independently together with members of their family". The
aim of the National Federation is at present defined as (a)
support of the claims of wage-earning agricultural workers,
(b) reform of legislation dealing with share-farming so as to hand
over to the share-farmer the entire management of his holding,
and (c) compensation for improvements to tenants and cultivators not being owners of land. However, to these aims is
added, as a definition of a final and ultimate objective, the thesis
that "in the revolutionary sphere, the Federation aims at substituting collective exploitation of the soil for agricultural individual craftsmanship" ". In other words, the immediate protection of the smallholder in no wise contradicts the final principle
of collective property 3 .
At local congresses the demands of share-farmers are commonly taken up together with those of the wage earners 4.
1
A U G É - L A R I B É : Le paysan français après la guerre, pp. 194-195.
Paris, Garnier, 1923.
2
L'artisanat
agricole.
3
See throughout La C. G. T. et le Mouvement syndical; Paris, éditions
de la C. G. T., 1925 ; 699 pp. Unions of share-holders are admitted
directly to the Federation. See a pamphlet, Le Syndicalisme paysan dans
les4 Pyrénées occidentales, 1894-1924 ; Paris.
E.g. a t the Congress of Toulouse, Oct. 1926. See Industrial and
Labour Information, Vol. X X . No. 9.

— 126 —
The National Union of Agricultural Workers is, of course,
affiliated to the General Confederation of Labour and has also
recently joined the International Federation of Landworkers.
(2-5) There also exist the United Federation of Agricultural
Workers (Fédération unitaire des travailleurs de Vagriculture) which
is affiliated to the General Confederation of United Labour (Confédération générale des Travailleurs unitaires) ; and three unions
affiliated to the National Federation of Civil Service Unions
(Fédération nationale des sgndicals des fonctionnaires) : (a) the
Union of Land Surveyors (Syndical des Géomètres du cadastre),
(b) the Union of Employees in the Water and Forest Administrative Departments (Syndicat des préposés aux Eaux el
Fore'ts) ; and (c) the Union of Subordinate Officials attached
to Stud Farms (Syndicat national des sous-agents des haras).
REPRESENTATION

1919:
1921 :
19221925

AT THE

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

Workers' Delegate:
Mr. Leon JOUHAUX, general secretary
to the General Confederation of Labour.
Workers' Delegate: Mr. Leon JOUHAUX. Adviser: Mr. H O D É E ,
secretary to the National Federation of Agricultural Workers.

)
i Workers' Delegate:

Mr. Leon J O U H A U X .

Nominations have invariably been made in agreement with
the General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale
du travail).

GERMANY
The final results of the big population and industrial census
undertaken in Germany in 1925 are not yet available, and use
must therefore still be made of the agricultural census of 1907
and of the population census of 1910 in order to give a picture of
the distribution of land and of population in German agriculture.
The loss of national territory under the Treaty of Versailles had
the effect principally of depriving the country of districts in
the east where large-scale farming is carried on, and also of
Alsace-Lorraine, where holdings under five hectares predominated to a degree higher than elsewhere in Germany. These
changes must be borne in mind when reading the following
paragraphs.

— 127 —
In 1907 1 the large estates, to the number of about 23,500,
nearly all situated in Prussia and in the two States of Mecklenburg, covered 22 per cent, of the whole arable area, while 260,000
farms of between 20 and 100 hectares, and 1,000,000 farms of
between 5 and 20 hectares, accounted respectively for 29 and
33 per cent, of that area. These types of farms were most
important in Bavaria and the Kingdom of Saxony and some
central German States. Another 1,000,000 holdings of between
2 and 5 hectares accounted for 10 per cent, of the arable area,
while the rest, 5 per cent., was accounted for by nearly 3,400,000
dwarf holdings. It is, however, a characteristic feature in the
economic structure of the agriculture of Germany that the
majority of the holders of these small properties, who, of course,
must gain the principal part of their income by other means,
seek employment not in agriculture, but in the manufacturing
industries and in mining. These persons join the industrial
workers' trade unions.
The preliminary results of the census of 1925 — now available
for the following States : Free State of Saxony, Wurtemburg,
Baden, Hessen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Oldenburg,
Anhalt, Lübeck, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and Schaumburg-Lippe
— show that even in the group of farms of between 10 and 20
hectares the majority of farmers employ hired labour. Though
this group is not specially distinguished in the census of 1907,
it is evident from the figures quoted above that up to 75 per cent.
of German arable land is cultivated under conditions which
require hired labour. Thus the number of agricultural workers
in Germany is very great, as is clear from the table quoted
below, which shows both the active agricultural population as
recorded at the census of the 12 June 1907 a and the estimated
figures 8 for that population in 1920 over an area corresponding
in all essential particulars to the present national territory.
In these figures domestic servants are not included.

1

KAISERLICHES

STATISTISCHES A M T : Statistisches

Deutsche Reich.
a
Wirtschaft und Statistik, Vol. I, 1921, p . 46.
8
KAISERLICHES STATISTISCHES AMT : Statistik
Vol. 202. Berlin, 1909.

Jahrbuch

des Deutschen

für

das

Reichs,

— 128

TABLE

[

1907

1920
Women

Men

Men

1

Women

(a) Holders of land . . 2,172,740
328,234 2,281,839
366,095
16,264
82,548
88,831
20,625
(b) Managing staff. . .
(c) Members of landholders'
families
engaged in agricul1,053,738 2,840,841)
(d) Wage-paid workers. 1,975,245 1,413,647Ì 3,181,249 4,769,551
Total . . . . 5,284,271 4,598,986 5,551,919 5,156,271

Forestry workers numbered about 100,000 in 1907.
Table II shows the number of agricultural workers in the
three big geographical subdivisions of Germany.
TABLE

South Germany. .
West Germany . .
East Germany . .
Total

II

Working members
of cultivators'
families

. .
. .

626,933
1,195,363
1,566,596
3,388,892

Wage-paid
workers

1,593,082
1,258,150
1,043,347
3,894,579

These figures not only correspond to the description of the
distribution of land given above, but show that the number of
wage-paid workers is considerable even in those parts of the
country where smaller holdings predominate.
The census of 1925 shows that some interesting developments
have taken place since 1907. In all States for which results
have been published the number of persons occupied per 100
hectares of arable land has increased ; only in MecklenburgSchwerin and in Anhalt have the figures gone down by a few
per cent. This interesting fact is, however, the result of two
distinct movements : a decline in the number of temporarily
employed workers, both hired and members of cultivators'
families, and an increase in the number of permanently employed
persons in both these groups. The only important exception
from this rule is Wurtemburg, where the number of permanent
hired workers has decreased ; here, however, the increase in the
number of permanently employed members of cultivators'
families is specially marked.

— 129 —
The nomenclature used for agricultural workers is not uniform
throughout Germany ; a multitudinous number of titles can
be found for the same type of worker. However, it is possible
to classify the workers according to their forms of contract in
the following groups. In connection with each group is mentioned the district in which the group predominates.
(1) Farm servants ; unmarried persons of both sexes boarded
and lodged by the farmer (south Bavaria).
(2) "Deputatists", mostly married workers engaged per
year who receive a dwelling, some land, and other payments
in kind, and are allowed by their employer to keep stock ; the
total of these rewards in kind is known as the "Deputat".
Under her husband's contract the wife has generally also to
work on the farm and the chief contracting worker often has
to put other additional labour at the disposal of his employer,
either his own sons or other members of his family, or even an
outside worker, the so-called Hofgänger ; the Hofgänger lives
with the "deputatist", whose wages in kind are calculated in
such a way as to cover the board of the Hofgänger also ; the
Hofgänger, however, receives a separate cash wage from the
employer (East Prussia, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, SchleswigHolstein, and the north-eastern part of Brandenburg).
(3) "Wage cultivators" {Lohngärtner). The "wage cultivator", like the deputatist, is attached to the farm, and his
wife is also under contract to do permanent work for the farmer.
He receives, however, less wages in kind than the deputatist
especially in respect to land and the right to keep stock (Silesia,
south Brandenburg (Niederlausitz) ).
(4) Resident day-labourers, who live in dwellings attached
to the farm and receive principally wages in cash ; if wages
in kind are given they are not sufficient to cover the needs of
the family. The wife and children often work on the farm,
but are not under contract to do so, as they are in the two groups
already mentioned (Province of Saxony, Anhalt, Brunswick,
and south Hanover).
(5) Ordinary day-labourers, often called "free" workers
(Freiarbeiier), who generally own a cottage and some land and
whose employment contract with their employer or employers
is essentially less rigid than those of the groups already mentioned
9

— 130 —
(south Hanover, Oldenburg, the Rhineland, Hessen-Nassau,
Thuringia, north Bavaria, Hessen, Palatinate, Baden, Wurtemburg).
(6) A special group of smallholder day-labourers are t h e
Heuerleuie, who are a class of tenant workers having leased
land the rent for which they acquit partly in the form of labour r
the number of days which they contract to work during the year
varies from 30 to 250. A certain number, however, are under
contract to render daily service ; in this case the cultivation
of their plots, which are very small, is left to the care of thenwives and children (west Hanover, south Oldenburg, north
Westphalia ; a similar group are the Landinste in east Holstein).
(7) Migrant workers, who are workers engaged for the season,
especially for beet work. They are often employed in gangs,
under the leadership of a foreman. Migrant workers are mostly
to be found on the big estates and are usually aliens, especially
Poles. On peasant farms the migrant worker is rare, but when
found is mostly German.
The classification of agricultural workers according to occupation is complicated, as may be expected in a country which
includes large-scale farming. Besides the general workersemployed on all types of operations, the following can be found :
(1) Foremen and other workers holding responsible
posts, usually promoted from the ranks of the ordinary
agricultural workers.
(2) Farm handicraftsmen, such as smiths, wheelwrights,
cartwrights, masons, locksmiths, etc. These are permanently engaged by a farmer and work on his farm as
required, but also do work for other persons in the district.
(3) Dairyherdsmen, called Schweizer, divided into
three sub-groups, principals, assistants, and apprentices..
(4) Pig-men, horse-men, and other special workers, such
as gardeners, coachmen, machine-men, stokers, motor
drivers, etc.
The dairyherdsmen are a group of workers of special interests
Towards the end of the nineteenth century it became customary in Germany to engage workers from Switzerland to work.

-

131

-

in the cowsheds, to be responsible for the care of stock, and to
do the milking. These men called themselves Schweizer
(Swiss). Later, when German youths were apprenticed to the
Schweizer, and after one year's apprenticeship became assistants,
the name Schweizer was retained.
Post-revolutionary legislation now gives agricultural workers
exactly the same right to associate and to combine as is enjoyed
by workers in other industries. Until 1918, however, the rights
of agricultural workers were restricted. The following remarks
refer to the state of affairs in Prussia, but in most of the other
German States the Constitution was equally prohibitory.
The Industrial Code of Prussia, issued in 1845, forbade an
agreement having the purpose of causing a stoppage of work.
On the special request of the farmers this principle was extended
in 1854 to comprise agriculture. While the new Industrial
Code for the North-German Federation in 1869 acknowledged
for industrial workers the right to create trade unions and also
to declare a strike, the rule of 1854 remained in force for agriculture for another fifty years, until the revolution of 1918.
Until that date agricultural workers were unable to create
organisations desirous of promoting their aims by means of
strikes. Apart from this, the general law of association was
a hindrance to the development of trade unions, and it was not
until 1908 that a Federal Act on the right of association was
passed and the first organisations of agricultural workers came
into existence. It may be noted that this Act, in spite of its
general liberal tendencies, expressly stated that the Order of
1854 should not be affected.
As already stated, it was the revolution of November 1918
that first gave agricultural workers full freedom of association
by abolishing the Order of 1854 (and all similar Orders throughout Germany). Other revolutionary legislation, e.g. by
making obligatory workers' committees in all undertakings,
including agricultural undertakings, employing 20 workers or
over, exercised a favourable influence on the growth of trade
unions in agriculture as in other industries 1 .
Existing trade unions in German agriculture are as follows.
(1) German Agricultural Workers' Union (Deutscher Landarbeiterverband), affiliated to the General Federation of German
1
"The Right of Association among Agricultural Workers in Germany.'
By Dr. Feig. International Labour Review, Vol. IV, No. 3, Dec. 1921.

— 132 Trade Unions, and also to the International Land Workers'
Federation.
The German Agricultural Workers' Union was founded in 1909 ;
it has always had its head office in Berlin. Previously a few
agricultural workers had been members of trade unions, mostly
in the Union of Communal and State Workers (Verband der
Gemeinde- und Siaaisarbeiier), or in the Union of Manufacturing,
Agricultural and Assistant Workers (Verband der Fabrik-, Landund Hilfsarbeiter Deutschlands), now known as the Union of
German Manufacturing Workers (Verband der Fabrikarbeiter
Deutschlands). Efforts to create a separate union for agricultural
workers date as far back as 1900, but it was not until the legislation on rights of association mentioned above was carried
through in 1908 that a special union could be founded. Only
a few agricultural workers took part in creating the union ;
in fact, the new organisation was carried through by the General
Federation of German Trade Unions and by the German SocialDemocratic Party. During its first years of existence the union
received financial assistance from the industrial workers.
The founders of the union were of the opinion that activity
would need to be concentrated on providing benefits and legal
protection for members, since the strike was forbidden by law
to' agricultural workers. The development of the union,
however, was not very different from that of unions in other
industries. Even before the war the union succeeded in carrying
through minor wage movements, which, according to the opinion of the executive, could very decidedly have been interpreted
as contraventions of the Order of 1854. The sanctions of
the Order were, however, never put into force against the organisation, although they were applied to individual agricultural
workers 1.
When the war broke out the union had a membership of
about 22,000, or one-half per cent, of the wage-earning agricultural workers in Germany. The organisation had its centres of
gravity among agricultural workers proper in north Germany
and among the forestry workers in south Germany. During
the war the membership declined to a few thousands, later
increasing to between 7,000 and 8,000 when the revolution
1
"Geschäftsbericht des Deutschen Landarbeiter-Verbandes für die
Jahre 1914 bis 1919." Schriften des Deutschen Landarbeiter-Verbandes,
No. 5, p. 7. Berlin, 1920.

— 133 —
broke out. Membership then increased very rapidly indeed,
as follows :
Year

Membership

Year

Membership

1918 . . . .
8,000
1922 . . . . 499,000
1919 . . . . 625,000
1923 . . . . 102,000
1920 . . . . 680,000
1924 . . . . 180,000
1921 . . . . 626,000
1925 . . . . 185,000
The figures show that the extraordinary progress of the first
two or three years was followed by a big reaction. The drop
in the figures is, however, somewhat misleading. It was only
after some time that the central organisation got the necessary
control over the local branches, of which there were nearly
10,000 ; the leaders of these local branches had often thought
to make good propaganda for the union by indicating as high
a membership as possible, without regard to whether their
members had really paid their contributions or ought to be
members of an agricultural union at all.
The violent drop from 1922 to 1923 was mostly due to the
inflation of the currency, which shook the confidence of members
and made them doubt the possibility of obtaining improvements
in working conditions through their union, and which completely
destroyed the finances of the union. Since the currency has
been stabilised the union seems to have developed steadily, if
slowly. The membership of the union appears small in comparison with the total number of agricultural workers in Germany,
but the effects of its activities extend far beyond the ranks of
its members. The number of persons who, as a result of the
activities of the union, received an increase in wages, was
2,350,000 in 1924 and 1,600,000 in 1925 \ Of these nearly
40 per cent, were women, although, in 1925, only 33,000 of the
185,000 members were women 2.
The following groups of workers are admitted to the union
under its constitution : agricultural workers proper, both
resident and day-labourers, waggoners, drain-diggers, milkers,
cattlemen, shepherds, stock-tenders and their assistants (Schweizer), farm-handicraftsmen, forestry workers, vineyard workers,
peatworkers, etc., but, e.g., a peatworker engaged in a purely
1
It is, of course, possible that different wage movements may have
brought about improvements in the wages of the same persons, so
that in these figures one person may have been counted several times.
2
"Bericht des Verbandsvorstandes über die Verbandsarbeit in den
Jahren 1923 bis 1925." Schriften des Deutschen Landarbeiter-Verbandes,
No. 17. Berlin, 1926.

— 134 —
industrial undertaking does not belong to the Union of Agricultural Workers.
Smallholders are not admitted to this union, with the exception of those called Heuerleiiie. Nevertheless, the union
maintains friendly relations with the Union of Smallholders
(see below), without, however, attempting to establish any
common organs or other formal ties.
(2) Union of Gardeners and Horticultural Workers (Verband
der Gärtner und Gärtnereiarbeiler), affiliated to the General
Federation of German Trade Unions and to the International
Federation of Land workers.
(3) The General Union of Employees in Dairy Farms
(Allgemeiner Schweizerbund), affiliated to the General Federation
of German Trade Unions and to the International Federation
of Landworkers, and in close relations with the German Union
of Agricultural Workers.
This union was created in 1909 by twenty-four skilled
dairyherdsmen, Swiss and German. From the beginning this
union has not only acted as an ordinary trade union — the
union was the first union which signed collective agreements for
skilled dairyherdsmen — but has to a much greater extent than
is normal among trade unions interested itself in the vocational
education of its members. As early as 1911 the union founded
a school for head dairyherdsmen (Oberschweizer) and has also
organised other courses which are followed by examinations
entitling successful candidates to diplomas, issued by the Chambers of Agriculture, as head dairyherdsmen, or as assistant
dairyherdsmen. The union has also, by lectures and
periodicals, contributed to the better training of dairyherdsmen,
with the result that the demand for really skilled workers has
increased and the interest among workers in vocational education
has become greater.
The war and the inflation period, of course, affected this
organisation. There are to-day in Germany 30,000 milkers
and cattlemen who call themselves Schweizer, though they
are not all fully-trained workers. Of these about two-thirds
are r members of this union. The head office of this union
has always been in Leipzig.
(4) The Central Union of Agricultural Workers (Zentralverband der Landarbeiter) affiliated to the German Federation
of Christian Trade Unions (Gesamlverband der christlichen

— 135 —
Gewerkschaften Deutschlands), and through it to the central
body of the three federations of Christian workers (Deutscher
Gewerkschaftsbund) and to the International Federation of
Christian Land Workers' Trade Unions.
As far back as 1902 * the Congress of Christian Trade Unions
discussed the question of the organisation of agricultural
workers and recommended the creation of a special union
for these workers. At the same time a certain number of
agricultural and forestry workers in Bavaria joined the German
Central Union of State Forestry, Transport, Assistant and other
Industrial Workers (Zentralverband der Staats-, Gemeinde-,
Verkehrs-, Hilfs- und sonstigen Industriearbeiter Deutschlands,
head office at Aschaffenburg).
Forestry workers in other German States and some agricultural
workers in Central Germany also joined this union, which was
therefore considered as the proper union for agricultural workers
wanting to organise. In 1906 and in 1907 the union signed the
first collective agreement on behalf of agricultural and forestry
workers. On 4 August 1912 the German Union of Vineyard,
Forestry, and Agricultural Workers was founded, but it was
only active in Rhinehessen and Rhinegau. At the same time,
the idea was mooted of splitting up the Central Union mentioned
above into separate unions. This was accepted the same year,
and on 2 December 1912 the Central Union of Agricultural
Workers was founded, incorporating the Rhinehessen and
Rhinegau Union with its 424 members, and receiving 2,149
agricultural and forestry workers transferred from the Central
Union in Aschaffenburg. Before the war the membership
declined to 1,700. At first the union received financial help
from other Christian trade unions. It was not until 1917 that
the union succeeded in getting a footing in the purely agricultural
eastern provinces of Prussia. The head office of the union
was originally in Essen, later in Bielefeld, and since 1919 has
been in Berlin. From the outset the union has tried to get
all classes of agricultural workers organised within its ranks.
For some years some small organisations of skilled dairyherdsmen were affiliated, but this collaboration did not last. In 1916
the German (national) Horticultural Workers' Union was affiliated to the Central Union of Land Workers, and in 1920 the
1
Eine Festschrift zur Erinnerung an das 10-jährige Bestehen des
Zenlralverbandes der Landarbeiter : Zehn Jahre Chrisllichnalionale Landarbeiterbewegung 1913-1923. Berlin, 1923.

-

136

-

Union of Farm Servants' Associations in Bavaria was amalgamated, which brought the Central Union into touch with the
workers on peasant farms in south Germany.
The average membership of the Central Union has been :
Year

1918
1919
1920
1921

Membership

7,000
56,000
89,000
104,000

Year

1922
1924
1925

Membership

103,000
78,000
79,000-

It can be seen from these figures that at the outbreak of the
revolution the membership of the union was nearly the same size
as that of the Social-Democratic Union of Agricultural Workers,
and in the case of the.Central Union also there was a phenomenal
increase, later followed by a drop. The oscillations in the
membership have, however, been less ; on the other hand, the
decrease in membership continued rather longer, so that the
recovery began only in 1925.
Any person of either sex, engaged in agriculture or forestry,
or in subsidiary agricultural trades, can become a member of
the union. The following are considered subsidiary trades :
gardening, cultivation of fruit or vegetables, vineyard cultivation, stock-breeding. Road-repairing workers are also admitted.
Smallholders are only admitted when they do paid work in
agriculture or forestry, either permanently all the year round,
or, if not all the year round, then work regularly recurring each
year.
(5) German Horticultural Workers' Union (Deutscher Gärtnerverband) affiliated to the Central Union of Agricultural
Workers (Christian), see above.
(6) The Federal Union of Agricultural and Forestry Technical and Corporation Officials (Reichsverband land- und forstwirtschaftlicher Fach- und Körperschaftsbeamte), affiliated to the
Federation of Non-Manual Workers (Gesamtverband deutscher
Angestelltengewerkschaften), and through this organisation to
the central organisation of Christian Trade Unions (Deutscher
Gewerkschafisbund). It includes a section for estate managers
( Gutsbeamte).
In addition to the agricultural trade unions mentioned, an
organisation of salaried employees in agriculture (Verband
land- und forstwirtschaftlicher Angestellten) existed until quite
recently ; this organisation was affiliated to the General Free

— 137 —
Union of Salaried Employees (Allgemeiner freier Angesielltenbund)
and through it to the General Federation of German Trade
Unions.
It is interesting to note that both the two big unions seem
to have the majority of their members in districts where most
wages are paid in kind. Whether or no this should be interpreted
as a sign of special discontent with this wage form, it shows
that the existence of rather old-fashioned forms of contracts
is no hindrance to organisation *.
An organisation of smallholders was mentioned above. This
organisation was founded in 1922 under the name of the
Federal Union of Agricultural Smallholdings (Reichsverband
landwirtschaftlicher Kleinbetriebe). In the autumn of 1925
it changed its name to Federal Union of Agricultural Small
and Medium Sized Holdings (Reichsverband der Klein- und
Mittelbetriebe) to mark more distinctly that it represents the
family holding. It unites thirteen organisations of small
farmers, of which the oldest was founded in 1919. It is not
a trade union, but an economic association. This organisation
states that in the large-scale farming districts in Germany
it is relatively easy to distinguish between a smallholder and
an agricultural worker. In the western parts of Germany,
however, it is not always possible, because the Heuerleule form
an intermediate group between the independent farmer and the
wage-earning agricultural worker. Smallholders doing paid
work for others, not in fulfilment of any contract, but for economic reasons, because they cannot get a living from their holdings,
are, according to the Union of Smallholders, considered as
smallholders when the paid work is intermittent and temporary ;
when it is all the year round, e.g. for a part of each week, they
count themselves as in the workers' class.
The Central Union of Agricultural Workers, however, as
was noted above, admits such smallholders, without regard
to the length of their working period, provided that they work
regularly each year, even if not all the year round. The principles laid down by this trade union therefore do not correspond exactly to those laid down by the smallholders' organisation.
1
Dr. Wolfang HUCHO : Die Naturalenüohnung in der deutschen
Landwirtschaft. Berichte über Landwirtschaft, herausgegeben vom Reichsministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft. Berlin, Parey, 1925.

— 138 —
The Union of Smallholders states that no objection in principle
exists to collaboration with the unions of agricultural workers,
but that no permanent liaison committee has been established.
REPRESENTATION

AT T H E INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

1919 : Not represented.
1921 : Workers' Delegate:
Mr. Rudolf W I S S E L L , General Federation
of German Trade Unions. Advisers: Mr. Georg SCHMIDT,
president of German Agricultural Workers' Union ; a n d Mr.
Franz B E H R E N S , president of t h e Central Union of Agricult u r a l Workers.
1922 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. Rudolf W I S S E L L .
1923- i Workers' Delegate: Mr. H e r m a n n MÜLLER, general secretary of t h e
1926 j General Federation of German Trade Unions.

For the years 1921-1923 the nominations were made in
agreement with the General Federation of German Trade Unions
(Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund) only ; for the years
1924-1926, in agreement with the principal (massgebenden) trade
unions.

GREAT
I.

BRITAIN

England and Wales

Excluding holdings of one acre and less there were, in 1925,
405,705 agricultural holdings 1 in England and Wales ; of these
185,668 were of a size not exceeding 20 acres, while the number
of quite small holdings (not exceeding five acres) was 75,283.
These really small holdings have been declining in numbers
during recent years, while holdings of between 20 and 50 acres
have been increasing; in 1925 there were 79,119 of these.
Altogether 46 per cent, of the whole number of holdings were
under 20 acres, but these accounted for less than 6 per cent.
of the total area, whereas holdings over 300 acres accounted
for nearly 23 per cent. (1924) 2 .
In general, While England cannot be accounted a country
1
"Holdings" are n o t necessarily independent agricultural undertakings. The agricultural and census returns do not permit of drawing
u p statistics of the number of farm businesses.
2

MINISTRY

O F AGRICULTURE

AND F I S H E R I E S :

The

Agricultural

Output of England and Wales, 1925 ; London, 1927 ; 152 pp. A discussion
will also be found in J. A. V E N N : Foundations of Agricultural
Economics,
Chapters I I I a n d IV ; Cambridge, 1923 ; 397 p p .

— 139 —
predominantly of smallholdings, yet there seems to be recently
a slight, though very slow, movement of increase in the number
of smallholdings of a size to absorb completely the work of the
occupier and his family and perhaps to make a call on some
outside labour. These smallholders do not themselves commonly compete for agricultural employment on the labour
market \ and the distinction between the farmer who is an
employer, the smallholder, and the employed worker is usually
clear. There is probably not a great deal of movement from
one class into another s . It is a marked feature of the English
smallholding movement that smallholders are so largely recruited
from classes other than agricultural workers 3, though some
interesting statistics lately collected in Wales (where there is
a good deal of smallholding) shows a number of small farmers
who have been agricultural employed workers, or who are the
sons of such workers 4. The typical farmer in England, however, is still the employing farmer whose father before him
was also an employer. The encroach of urban areas, which
results in the cutting up of holdings, the disappearance of
genuine smallholdings, and the creation of allotments and
separate parcels of land, complicate the statistics on smallholding.
According to the census of 1921 5 the persons occupied in
the agricultural industry in England and Wales (excluding
horticulture) can be classified as follows :
1

A few instances only are noted in Lincolnshire and elsewhere. BOARD
O F AGRICULTURE AND F I S H E R I E S : Wages and Conditions of Employment
in Agriculture ; Vol. I, General Report, p . 82 ; London, 1919.
2
The pro and con of the smallholding movement has been much discussed
b o t h in official and in other publications on English agriculture.
See, inter alia, Final Report of the Agricultural Tribunal of Investigation,
p p . 41-42 and 124-134 ; London, 1924.
3
Wages and Conditions of Employment in Agriculture, Vol. I, p . 168.
4
Welsh Journal of Agriculture, Vol. I I , 1 9 2 6 : " T h e Social Origin
of Welsh F a r m e r s " , by A. W. A S H B Y and J. MORGAN J O N E S .
5
Numbers of t h e agricultural population in England and Wales
are obtained from two sources (a) t h e census, (ft) t h e annual returns
of t h e Ministry of Agriculture. The last population census was in 1921,
a n d workers are classified both according t o t h e occupation t h e y themselves indicate, and according to t h e business of their employer (i.e. all
persons employed b y a farmer on his farm would be indicated as agricultural employees). The annual returns of t h e Ministry are based on
information supplied by t h e occupiers of farms. The relation t o each
other of t h e results obtained b y these various methods is very clearly
discussed in t h e official publication already mentioned in t h e second
note to this Section.

140 —

(a) Farmers, graziers
. . .
(6) Working members of farmers' families
(c) Workers :
Farm bailiffs, foremen . .
Shepherds
Agricultural labourers and
farm servants
Together .
Total . . .

Men

Women

Together

244,653

19,440 !

264,093

80,257

15,384

95,641

22,462
11,240

217
42

22,679
11,282

549,329
583,031
907,941

32,265
32,524
67,348

581,594
615,555
975,289

1
Too much dependence must not be placed on the figure for female relatives assisting in
1921, as in 1901 there were 18,618 and in 1911 there were 56,856. These changes would appear
to be abnormal.

Further, in 1921 horticulture employed (employers included)
nearly 95,000 persons, and forestry nearly 44,000, while there
were some 24,000 rural artisans employed on agricultural undertakings, so that the total number of all persons engaged in
agricultural occupations was over a million.
There has been a steady decline in the number of male
workers in agriculture for a long time past, which decline between
1901 and 1921 was about 8 per cent, of the total number.
Among the reasons are the decrease in arable cultivation in
favour of grass farming, which, of course, requires less labour
per unit area, and the increasing use of machinery 1. There
has been a considerable increase in the number of regular women
workers recently, which is probably due to the number of
women who took up land work during and after the war a ;
this to some extent lessens the total decline in the number of
all agricultural workers during the course of the last twenty
years. In any case, the number of women workers of all classes
in agriculture would appear not to be adequately indicated
by the census. The annual agricultural returns of the Ministry
of Agriculture for 1921 indicate nearly 126,000 women workers
in agriculture, of whom over 52,000 are stated to be casual
1
The number of workers in charge of agricultural machinery has
increased from 5,085 in 1901 to 9,770 in 1921.
2
A very considerable social prejudice amongst the workers themselves
against women's work in the fields (as apart from work at or about the
farmhouse) was for long a feature of English village life ; it is probably
a reminiscence of the great evils of the "gang" system of employment
of women and children, which was regulated by legislation in 1867 and
has now practically died out. See Lord ERNLE : The Land and the People ;
Chapter "VII, " Women on the Land" ; London, 1925 ; 257 pp. For gangs
see under that word in PALGRAVE'S Dictionary of Political Economy,
Vol. II, London, 1917.

— 141 —
workers. In fact, the enumeration whether of such casual
women workers (fruit gatherers, hop pickers, potato planters,
etc.), or of the wives and daughters of farmers assisting, or
of domestic servants at the farmhouse, is uncertain.
Since 1921 there has been a further decline in all classes of
agricultural labour.
Comprehensive Government enquiries into the state of
employment in agriculture have been held from time to time.
The latest (not the latest enquiry into agricultural conditions
generally) was published in 1919 1 . It examines in detail
the permanent factors in the employment situation, and is
not confined to a review of the special war or post-war
situation.
The agricultural employment market of Great Britain has
for a century been dominated by the superior attractiveness
to the worker of employment in the great industrial towns. It
is a very old complaint that the best workers are drawn to the
towns away from the countryside ; or they prefer the betterpaid railway employment at a country station, etc., to employment on a farm. The effects of this loss of the most vigorous
elements on the capacity of the agricultural workers to organise
has been very marked. The rate of the decline in the total
agricultural labour force was given above. Emigration to the
British Dominions, especially assisted emigration since the war,
affording to the worker at least the chance of independent
farming, has also its attractions.
On the other side must be mentioned the powerful impetus
given to organisation by the local wages committees or wages
boards, first set up under Part II of the Corn Production Act,
1917, later abandoned, and recently reintroduced under the
Agricultural "Wages (Regulation) Act, 1924 ; though, in the
opinion of some workers, the legal recognition of a minimum
wage can also have an injurious effect on organisation of
workers 2.
The types of farming pursued in England and Wales deal
with very different cultivations and differ a good deal from one
district to another, though, broadly speaking, there is mixed
farming throughout the country. Different sizes of farms are
1

BOARD O F AGRICULTURE AND F I S H E R I E S : Wages and

Conditions

of Employment in Agriculture. 2 Vols. 202 a n d 504 p p . London, 1919.
(The second volume consists of t h e reports of t h e district investigators.)
2
See below, Section on Scotland.

— 142 —
also found in almost all districts. The result is a very greatvariety of types of employment. Especially to be noted is
the difference in the degree of specialisation required in different
districts. For instance, in some sheep-breeding districts the
shepherd is the absolutely premier worker and ranks even above
the overseer or steward ; in other districts the head cowman
would be the first worker ; in others again the ploughman *.
Classified by the nature of their work, agricultural workers
would perhaps fall into two big groups, those in charge of
animals and those not, the latter being the less skilled ; but
on large arable farms, on the contrary, there is a very high
degree of specialised skill not directed to the care of animals.
It is thoroughly characteristic of English agricultural life that
the many degrees of skill and differences of pay and grade of
work are entirely obvious to those in the district and always
most carefully observed, making up the whole complex social
organisation of English rural life. Another distinction is
between those in permanent employ and those in less permanent
employ, the latter class almost verging on the class of true casual
labour ; but this factor again is much modified by the practice
of assigning a "tied" cottage to a worker who legally may be
on a weekly contract. This practice has a very restrictive
influence on the worker's freedom of movement, so that it has
not been unusual for workers who are ostensibly on weekly
1

The following descriptions of agricultural workers are mentioned :
land agents (managers of large estates including a number of farms) ;
farm bailiffs, stewards, overseers, foremen ; shepherds ; cowmen, stockmen (byremen), yard men ; head horsemen, single horsemen, hinds ;
waggoners and horse-keepers ; ploughmen, ploughmen stewards, milkers,
carters ; farm servants ; general labourers ; dairymaids ; pea-pickers.
hop-pickers, fruit-pickers. There are many other appellations used in different parts of the country. Of those mentioned the head ploughman, head
horseman, cowman, stockman, and, as already stated, the shepherd,
in addition, of course, to stewards, overseers, and foremen, occupy
important positions and take precedence according to the type of
farming carried on. An important, though small, group of specialised
workers in some counties are the hedgers, thatchers, and ditchers.
Workers employed on machinery are not enumerated in the above list,
which, in any case, is not exhaustive. In the last Report of Proceedings
under the Agricultural "Wages (Regulation) Act, for the Year ending
30 September 1926 (London, 1927 ; 61 pp.), the grouping of workers
is : ordinary workers ; foremen and bailiffs ; horsemen ; cowmen and
shepherds ; market gardeners and nursery workers ; seasonal market
gardeners and nursery workers ; seasonal earnings ; female workers ;
casual male workers (pp. 27-29). This is a rough classification for the
whole country, which was suggested to serve as a practical basis for
the computation of average minimum rates of wages. The variety in
these rates of wages for each group was, however, very marked.

— 143

-

engagements to remain twenty or even thirty years in the same
employment 1 .
To sum up. Characteristic of English agricultural employment are well recognised degrees of distinct skill and the absence
of mass employment ; the absence of true, seasonal labour
except for rather minor crops, of which the most valuable is
the hop crop ; the verbal weekly engagement ; the separate
cottage (plus garden) which, when a tied cottage, and even when
not, owing to shortage of rural housing, has the effect of rendering
agricultural labour rather immobile ; residence in a village of
moderate size within reach of the day's work. To every one
of these statements exception might be drawn. Thus there
is a sort of mass employment for potato work in the north,
and almost everywhere for haying and harvest work ; there is
absence of the recognition of skill in the very frequent employment of all-round "general labourers"; yearly to half-yearly
contracts are quite well-known, even written contracts ; again,
there are a quantity of "free" cottages, and some workers are
lodged and boarded at the farmhouse. It remains to be added
that there is a considerable difference between north and south
England, agriculture in the northern counties in many respects
having strong affinities with Scottish agriculture.
In one point agricultural employment in England differs
markedly from agriculture in the rest of Europe (even from that
in Scotland), and that is the entire absence of the use of land a
as part of the agricultural labour contract 8 : there are no classes
1
Thus even the distinction between casual and permanent workers
is not easy to draw, though there is one special, very well defined
class of casual worker (often women), namely, pea-pickers, hop-pickers,
fruit-pickers, etc., who are often not true agricultural workers, but either
drawn from the towns for the time being, or even vagrants ; but here
again it should be mentioned that a very large amount of such light
summer work is one by the wives and female relatives of domiciled
country workers, the two sets of workers, the "home" workers and the
"foreigners" (as they are called) keeping themselves perfectly distinct.
2
Allotments, even rural allotments (which can be quite large) are
not the same thing as a tenancy-labour contract. An agreement to
hold an allotment is undertaken apart from the labour contract and
the land for the allotment is frequently held from a third party (often
a public authority). That the English agricultural labour contract is
quite disconnected from the holding of an allotment is clear from the
fact that no arrangements are made to give the worker time for his own
cultivation : he has to use his Sundays or evenings, whence frequent
complaints that an allotment means serious overwork.
a
Other allowances in kind are normal and are recognised under the
Agricultural Wages (Regulation) Act, 1924. The basis for wages, however, is the cash basis, and it is part of the duties of local wages boards
to put a cash value on allowances.

— 144 —
which correspond with the share-farmer in France, the Swedish
torpore, etc. Tenancy and labour contracts are two totally
distinct things, at law and in practice. The absence of these
"intermediate" groups of cultivators means the absence of
a link between the smallholding movement and the worker,
and may account for the very small liking shown by English
agricultural organised workers to the smallholding movement 1.
The modern organisation of English agricultural workers 2
may be said to start with the attempt of a Warwickshire agricultural worker, Joseph Arch, who founded the National Agricultural Labourers' Union in 1872. The union was started
without any connection with the organised trade union movement of the country. The union suffered severely from the
very strong feeling which still lingered against combination
among agricultural workers ; in 1832 six Dorset labourers had
been deported for an attempt at "combination" to raise their
wages. During the whole of the middle of the nineteenth
century the conditions of agricultural workers were wretched.
The objects of the union, which enrolled a large membership,
were a general betterment of those conditions ; it had recourse
to direct action, but an initial success in 1872 (whether really
due to the efforts of the union or to other causes) in raising wages
somewhat had the unfortunate effect of causing many members
to drop out, on the grounds that the objects of the union
had now been achieved. The employers began to organise
themselves. An important lockout by agricultural employers
in Suffolk and Essex in 1873, and again in 1874 in other counties,
lasted no less than 18 weeks and cost the union £24,000. The
employers' action was directly aimed against the workers'
right of combination 3. The lockout, followed by the agricultural depression of the eighties, was disastrous to the union,
which practically disappeared. Arch himself helped agricultural
workers to emigrate overseas in despair at any chance of better1

See, for instance, the Land Worker, Sept. 1925.
G. E D W A R D S : From Crow-Scaring to Westminster ; London, 1922.
" T h e Story of Rural Trade Unionism", in The Labour Magazine, May
1923, pp. 3-4. F . E. G R E E N : A History of the English
Agricultural
Labourer ; London, 1920 ; 356 pp. (a very full account of the 1872-1874
movement). W. HASBACH : A History of the English Agricultural Labourer
{translated by R u t h K E N Y O N ) ; London, 1920 ; 465 pp. J. A. V E N N :
Foundation of Agricultural Economics ; Cambridge, 1923 ; pp. 202 et seq.
2

3

G R E E N , op.

cit.,

p.

60.

— 145 —
iiig their conditions. By 1890 fresh local societies began to
be formed, but remained without much influence until just
before the war. The war and post-war periods have witnessed
a remarkable development of the organisation of agricultural
workers.
(1) The National Union of Agricultural Workers was founded
in 1906, under the title of the Eastern Counties' Agricultural
Labourers' and Rural Workers' Union, which became in 1912
the National Agricultural Labourers' and Rural Workers'
Union. In July 1920 the organisation assumed its present title.
In the constitution the objects of the union are defined as
"to secure the complete organisation of all workers on or about
the land", and the union admits, besides horticultural workers,
workers on the roads, though at a recent conference it was
decided to maintain the present title and not to introduce the
phrase "rural workers" 1 .
During the high-wage period in the war it is claimed that
nearly 50 per cent, of agricultural workers were organised in
lilis union and in the Workers' Union (see (2) below), the
National Union having increased its membership more than any
other existing union 2. But this growth was too rapid. There
was a drop in membership during the bad years, and then
a slower rise, until in 1925 the membership was about 30,000.
The union admits horticultural workers. The union publishes
a monthly paper, The Land Worker, and is in intimate relations
with the general trade union movement in the country. It is
affiliated to the Trades Union Congress General Council, and
in 1920-1921 the secretary of the union was president of the
congress. In conjunction with the Labour Party the union
has lately undertaken a big propaganda campaign for the organisation of agricultural workers throughout the country. The
union is represented on the Central Agricultural Wages Board,
and takes a principal part in representing the workers on the
local committees under the 1924 Wages Act. The Union is
affiliated to the International Union of Landworkers.
1

The Land Worker, Aug. 1926, p. 5.
J. W. ROBERTSON SCOTT: The Dying Peasant, p. 74; London, 1926;
quoting the Wages Board Gazette, 1919. The Ministry of Labour
Gazelle, 1922, p. 388, and 1923, p. 383, states the membership of agricultural trade unions to have been 210,000 persons in 1920, 149,000
persons in 1921, and 91,000 persons in 1922. In 1923 there is mention
of a membership of 350,000 persons between the two principal unions
•catering for agricultural workers (Labour Magazine, May 1923).
2

10

— 146 —
(2) The Workers' Union is a general trade union which
admits members in any craft or industry, and which has an
important agricultural section. The total membership of the
union is large, 146,500 in 1925. The union publishes the
Workers' Union Record ; it is affiliated both to the Trades
Union Congress General Council and, in respect of its Scottish
membership, also the Scottish Trades Union Congress. The
union is represented on the Central Agricultural Wages Board
and is otherwise active in protecting the interests of its agricultural membership.
II.

Scotland

The total number of holdings 1 in Scotland in 1925, exclusive
of holdings under 1 acre, was over 76,000. Of these over 45
per cent, were holdings of less than 15 acres, while another
11 per cent, were between 15 and 30 acres ; in area, however,
these two groups of holdings made up only about 9 per cent.
of the total area of all holdings. Holdings somewhat larger,
but still to be classed as fairly small holdings, namely, those
between 30 and 50 acres, made up another 8 per cent, of all
holdings, and covered over 5 per cent, of the total area. By
far the larger number of farmers are tenants (sometimes holding
more than one farm), but in many cases landlord's capital
does not play quite such an important part as in England, as,
e.g. on sheep runs, capital lies in the form of stock rather than
in that of the land itself.
General agricultural conditions differ considerably in different
parts of the country, and this has an important bearing on the
size of farm and type of farming. Scotland is far from being
predominantly or even to any great extent a smallholding
country, and the farm which employs wage-paid labour is the
normal type of farm. At the same time the survival of a
real smallholding tradition distinguishes Scottish from English
agriculture, and it is further to be remarked that the smallholding
class is apparently much more largely recruited from the class
of agricultural workers than in England.
A special type of smallholding is the "croft" in the Highlands
districts. Crofters are occupiers of very small holdings by no
means always of an area sufficient to support a family, who draw
their living partly from cultivation of this holding and from the
1

See note on p. 138.

— 147 —
use of common grazing rights connected therewith, but sometimes also from another occupation or even from the earnings of
members of their family in other parts of the country. The
historical background of the smallholdings question has had
some influence, and since 1911 holdings under 50 acres or not
rented at more than £50 per year have been assimilated to
crofting holdings, which are protected against absorption,
against subdivision, and against termination of the occupant's
lease 1. The conditions under which crofters work are nevertheless often very poor, and their competition for employment
in the agricultural labour market can have a depressing effect
on the wages of regular agricultural workers 2.
In the 1921 census the distribution of the population actively
engaged in agriculture was as follows 3 .
(a)
(6)

(e)

Farmers
Crofters
Working
members
of
farmers' families . . .
Working
members
of
crofters' families . . .
Workers :
Managing staff . . . . .
Wage-paid workers :
Bailiffs, grieves, foremen
Shepherds
Other wage-paid workers
Workers : together .
Total

Men

Women

Together

31,556
14,964

2,349
2,550

33,905
17,514

3,768

992

4,760

2,288

1,439

3,727

828

6

834

5,230
7,442
75,423
88,923
141,499

10
16
14,882
14,914
22,244

5,240
7,458
90,305
103,837
163,743

In addition, there were some casual workers and several
miscellaneous groups, including some horticultural groups,
making up a total of all persons engaged in the industry of
about 177,000 persons, of whom about 25,000 were women.
1
Scottish Journal of Agriculture, Vol. VI, No.4, Oct.1923, pp. 373-386, a n d
Vol. V I I , No. 3, July 1924, pp. 241-257. Agriculture and State Intervention,.

by

A.

C.

MORRISON.

CARNEGIE

E N D O W M E N T FOR INTERNATIONAL.

P E A C E : Rural Scotland during the War, by various authors ; Economic
and Social History of the World W a r (British Series); P a r t V,.
"Scottish L a n d Settlement", b y W. R. SCOTT; London, etc., 1926.
Scottish smallholders were separately represented at t h e Scottish
Conference on Agricultural Policy in 1925.
2
The Scottish Farm Servant, J u n e 1925.
3
Report of the Thirteenth Decennial Census of Scotland; Vol. I l l ,
"Occupations and Industries", p p . 12, 13 ; Edinburgh 1924. John
M. RAMSEY : "Scottish Agriculture in t h e Census of 1921", in Scottish
Journal of Agriculture, Vol. V I I , No. 3, July 1924, pp. 307-320. This
article discusses t h e relation of t h e census results to t h e agricultural
returns (see note, p . 139, in Section on England).

— 148 —
The bulk of agricultural work in Scotland is done by permanently engaged, regular workers ; casual labour (except
for potato work, raspberry picking, and a few other tasks) is
is not very important. Contracts are verbal and are for longer
periods (see below). Allowances in kind, including potato
ground or a share in the potato harvest, are much more important than in England, and to some slight extent enable a distinction to be made between the wages of the head of a household
and of single workers in certain districts 1 . A special form
of family-contract, called "double-hinding", survives in the
south-east ; the effect is the same as in other similar systems —
it keeps the family together, but the injustice to the younger
generation can be marked, and contributes to the frequent loss
to agriculture (by emigration, etc.) of intelligent younger men
and women. In general, the rural exodus has been marked
in recent years ; the Dominions attract some of the best Scottish
agricultural workers.
Another feature of Scottish agricultural life is the regular
employment of women on general, not merely on dairy, work
(women, however, seldom deal with horses). Moreover, the
seasonal gang work of women (usually Irish) from June to
November is frequent in the south-west and centre. Women
agricultural workers (except the Irish workers) are almost
always the relatives of men at work on farms or of former agricultural workers ; their employment in no way breaks down the
noticeable separation between the agricultural and other classes
of workers in the country.
In general, the great skill and efficiency of the Scottish agricultural worker is frequently remarked. The type of the superskilled worker is the hill shepherd, who has work of very great
arduousness and very great responsibility ; hill shepherds form
almost a population apart, marrying within their own group.
On the crop and stock farm the standing of the worker according
to seniority and skill is most carefully observed. The classification of workers is usually : grieves and stewards ; ploughmen ; cattlemen ; shepherds ; dairymen ; orramen (skilled men
ready to do any work) ; in the absence of a grieve or steward
{who is a foreman), a married ploughman is usually the principal
worker.
The unit of agricultural economy on Scotland is neither the
1

The Scotlish Farm Servant, May 1925, p. 17, and June 1925, p. 39.

— 149 —
landowner's large estate, let out in a number of farms, nor the
village, but the separate farm itself (this tends to distinguish
Scottish farming from English). The separate, and often rather
isolated, farm implies a separate and rather isolated life for the
workers on it, and the system of housing, in cottages on the
farm for married men, frequently in "bothies" or dormitories
for single men, without any community life, has a very marked
effect on the workers' lives. The complete absence of any home
life, and indeed of any ordinary comfort, in the bothy system
is much commented on.
Another distinguishing feature of the Scottish farm worker's
life is its migratory character. The curious result of labour
contracts (six months or a year), which are longer than in
England, is not to keep the worker in one place, but to cause
frequent "shifting", estimated to take place once every three
years on an average in each worker's life ; but in many
cases workers "shift" much more frequently. The cause
is often stated to be the comfortless character of the
dwelling provided, until the practice becomes a sort of
habit. But the isolation of the farm also makes it often impossible to obtain employment for growing sons and daughters 1.
Farm workers' contracts are still master and servant contracts
under common law, and workers cannot leave except at the "term' '
(spring and autumn) ; prosecutions occasionally take place
against an offending employer for "harbouring" (i.e. taking into
his employ) a "deserting" servant, and there are frequent disputes
over other points in the law courts 2. The Act would be of
obvious importance in the event of any strike or similar movement, and incidentally the absence of freedom to contract at
any period of the year has the important effect of separating off
agricultural workers from the general industrial labour forces
of the country and making them a class apart.
The Scottish Farm Servants' Union. — A Ploughmen's Federal
Union of Scotland existed from 1886 to 1896 and at one time
1

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE FOR SCOTLAND : Report on Farm

Workers

in Scotland, by Sir James W I L S O N ; Edinburgh, 1921 ; 78 p p . Report
of the Committee on Women in Agriculture in Scotland; Edinburgh,
1920 ; 115 p p . The Scottish Farm Servant, passim. Rural Scotland
during the War; P a r t IV, "The Scottish Agricultural Labourer", by
Joseph F . DUNCAN.

J. "W. ROBERTSON SCOTT : The Dying

pp. 182-260 ; London, 1926.
2
The Scottish Farm Servant, J u n e 1925, p p . 36 and 37.

Peasant,

— 150 —
had branches in most counties. There had been previous
efforts to educate, rather than to organise, farm servants
which go very far back 1 (in any case, the general standard
of education in Scottish rural districts has always been high).
Between 1896 and 1912 no effort to organise land workers was
made. The Scottish Farm Servants' Union was founded only
two years before the war, in 1912. After a preliminary period
of depression due to the outbreak of the war its membership
rose from about 6,000 in 1916 to 23,000 in 1919, but this very
rapid increase, due to the stimulus of the war, as in other countries, was not wholly maintained and the membership now stands
at about 10,000. This implies a higher percentage of organised
agricultural workers, namely, about 15 per cent, of all wagepaid agricultural workers, than in many other countries. The
membership consists of "all classes of agricultural and rural
workers of either sex" and includes farmers' sons working in
agriculture. Difficulties of organisation are very much increased
by the constant "shifting" of the agricultural workers and by
the drain of emigration. On the other hand, there were long
before the war the beginnings of organisation in the well-known
hiring fairs (open-air fairs held for the engaging of workers at the
"term"), which amounted to a rudimentary form of employment
exchange and collective bargaining.
In 1918 the fixing of (local) minimum wages for agricultural
workers was introduced under Part II of the Corn Production
Act and lasted till 1921. This Act was not supported by the
agricultural workers for reasons which are set out by the secretary of the union 2; the union expressed its preference for
trusting to its own efforts, and still considers that greater
advantages can be gained in that way, and that statutory
fixing of wages has a tendency to make the workers pay less
attention to their own organisation.
In the opinion of the union not low wages, but long hours
and absence of leisure are the principal disadvantages of the
position of the Scottish agricultural worker, and the earliest
efforts of the union, and one of its initial successes, was the
negotiation of a Saturday half-holiday in certain districts 3 .
After having successfully negotiated many local agreements
1

The Scottish Farm Servant, Jan. and Feb. 1927, pp. 171 and 198.
Joseph F. DUNCAN : " The Fixing of Farm Wages", in The Scottish
Journal of Agriculture, Vol. VII, No. 4, Oct. 1924, pp. 374-380.
3
The Scottish Farm Servant, Nov. and Dec. 1926, pp. 128 and 146.
2

— 151 —
with agricultural employers, the first attempt at a national
agreement was made by the union in 1919 and concerned hours
and holidays ; owing to a dispute as to the classes of workers
to which it was meant to apply it had to be abandoned, but
its terms were freely adopted in many districts.
The union has recently made efforts to get hiring fairs better
organised. It continues to be very active in promoting organisation among agricultural workers, both men and women, and
is especially interested in the question of housing. The union
publishes a monthly journal, The Scottish Farm Servant. It
is affiliated to the Scottish Trades Union Congress, the National
Labour Party, and the International Land Workers' Federation.
REPRESENTATION

( G R E A T B R I T A I N ) AT THE
LABOUR C O N F E R E N C E

INTERNATIONAL

Mr. George Harold STUART-BUNNING, ex1919 ; Workers' Delegate:
chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trade
Union Congress.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. E. L. POULTON, vice-chairman of the
1921
General Council of t h e Trades Union Congress, general secret a r y of the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives.
Advisers : Mr. Joseph Forbes DUNCAN, general secretary of
the Scottish Farm Servants' Union ; Mr. Robert B. "WALKER.
chairman of the General Council of t h e Trades Union
Congress, general secretary of t h e National Union of Agricultural Workers.
1922Workers'
Delegate : Mr. E. L. POULTON.
1925
1926 : Workers' Delegate:
Mr. A r t h u r P U G H , J. P., chairman of the
General Council of the Trades Union Congress ; secretary of
the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation.

In 1919 the nomination was made in agreement with the
Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress; in
all other years in agreement with the General Council of the
Trades Union Congress.
HUNGARY

Hungary has always been known for its enormous land
properties. It is stated by a recent authority that large-scale
farming, i.e. of estates over 1,000 cadastral yokes \ occupies
6 million out of the total area of 16 million cadastral yokes
of national territory, and large-scale farming positively "suffers
from having to deal with excessively large farming areas, which
have to be divided up or leased as smaller tenancies in
1

1 yoke = 1.422 acres.

— 152 —
order to form economic farming u n i t s " 1 . This system of
large-scale landownership became relatively even more important
after the war, as the territories resigned to other countries
under the Peace Treaty were those where smallholdings were
most common 2.
The census of 31 December 19203 gives the following figures
of agricultural population :
Owners holding more t h a n 100 yokes of land
Tenants
„
„
„
„
„ „
Smallholders a n d small tenants holding from 10 t o 100
yokes of land
Smallholders and small tenants holding less t h a n 10 yokes
Share-farming tenants
Other cultivators
Total number of owners or tenants of land
Working members of cultivators' families :
Men
Women
Managing staff
F a r m servants
Other agricultural workers :
over 16 years of age
under 16 years of age
Total number of workers
Total number of persons engaged in agriculture

6,111
1,897
166,761
359,776
18,802
2,961
556,308
303,801
270,379
5,331
228,688
666,260
87,378
1,561,837
2,118,145

Since the taking of the 1920 census agrarian reform has
been carried out, but it is improbable that it has influenced
these figures fundamentally, though the proportion of land
held as holdings up to 100 yokes shows an increase from 44.2
to 50.2 per cent, between 1913 and 1925. It is estimated 4
that agrarian reform, when completed, will have comprised
1,100,000 yokes out of a total area of arable land of 9,143,808
yokes ; but of the 850,000 yokes so far distributed, from 180,000
to 190,000 only have been allotted for the purpose of increasing the size of the dwarf holdings ; of these about 90,000
1
Dr. HOLLMANN in Berichte über Landwirtschaft,
Vol. I I , N o . i,
p. 135. Berlin.
2
Dr. Baron G. H . VON TORNYAY : Die Bodenreform und ihre Wirkung
auf die Entwicklung
der ungarischen
Landwirtschaft.
Budapest,
1926. 102 pp.
3

O F F I C E CENTRAL, R O Y A L H O N G R O I S D E STATISTIQUE :

Publications

statistiques hongroises.
Vol. 71 : " Recensement de la population en
1 9 2 0 " . Deuxième p a r t i e : "Professions de la population, grandes
entreprises industrielles et commerciales par commune " . Budapest, 1925.
4
Jules DE KONKOLY T H E G E : "Les Conditions de la Propriété foncière
et la Réforme agraire en Hongrie," in Revue de la Société Hongroise de
Statistique, III e Année, N o . 4, 1925.

— 153 —
have been enlarged up to a maximum of 15 yokes. The
remainder of the area distributed has been allotted to disabled
exsoldiers, war widows, and landless agricultural workers, and
the maximum area given to any of these persons has been three
yokes, which, even in the best conditions, is far from sufficient
to support a family. The number of newly-created dwarf
holdings (up to 3 yokes) was, up to 15 November 1925, 181,836 ;
thus this number of persons has been moved from the class
of pure wage earners to the class of dwarf holders ; some of
these dwarf holdings were allotted to non-agricultural wageearners.
The group noted above as "smallholders and tenants holding
less than 10 yokes' ' are actually described in the census by two
expressions (a) "smallholders and small tenants", and (6)
"smallholding day-labourers and small tenanting day-labourers";
the second description clearly implies the identity in many
cases of small cultivator and wage-paid worker. Persons themselves claiming to be simply "day-labourers" were accepted
as such when holding or tenanting less than 5 yokes ; when
holding or tenanting between 5 and 10 yokes they were moved
up into sub-group (b), i.e. as"smallholding or small tenanting
day-labourers" — the classification shows the degrees by which
the labourer advances into the ranks of the holders or tenants
of land.
Further, electors under Act XVIII of 1920 (Representation
of Agricultural Interests) are divided into five sections, of
which one comprises representatives of agricultural workers
and servants and one of holders of undertakings of an area of
less than 10 yokes.
Of agricultural workers proper several groups exist and these
are distinguished at law. Act XXVII of 1900 regulates the
contract of service of salaried employees in agriculture. Act
XLV of 1907, concerning the conditions of employment of
farm servants, defines as a farm servant a person who contracts
to render personal and continuous service in an undertaking
against remuneration for at least a month. In practice such
workers are engaged either by the year or by the month (seasonal workers). The Act states expressly that those who
engage themselves for agricultural work against payment per
clay or against a share in output, e.g. day-labourers, piece-rate
workers, share-produce workers, are not farm servants. These
workers come under Act II of 1898. This Act again distinguishes

— 154 —
between workers hired for the job and day-labourers paid by
time.
In practice it is also common to differentiate between what
are called "occupational" and "non-occupational" agricultural
workers. To the first category belong all persons who derive
their principal income from paid labour, even if not always
from labour in agriculture ; to the other all whose principal
labour is derived from sources other than paid labour. To this
group belongs the smallholder whose farm is big enough to
support him in the main, but the limit between the two groups
is, of course, often difficult to draw.
The following list shows the groups of agricultural workers
when classified according to the nature of their work.
Permanent workers. — Mechanician ; steam-plough
mechanician, stoker, and driver; miller; miller's loader;
wheelwright ; smith ; saddler ; bricklayer ; locksmith ;
joiner ; carpenter ; well-digger ; granary watchman ;
depot-foreman ; field watchman ; forester ; principal
farm servant ; farm servant's boy ; cowman ; stableman ;
milker ; horseman ; horseman's boy ; cattle foreman ;
cattleman's boy ; store cattleman ; farm workers' cattleman ; farm workers' cattleman's boy ; foreman shepherd ;
shepherd's boy ; foreman swineherd ; swineherd ; swineherd's boy; farm workers' swineherd ; farm workers' swineherd's boy; thresher ; coachman ; staff coachman ; ox driver;
coachman's boy ; waggoner ; fiesher ; flayer ; hempman ;
tobacco man ; vegetable gardener ; vinedresser ; vinedresser's boy ; cellarman ; milk manager ; irrigation
overseer ; feeds overseer ; house servant ; night watcher ;
boundary watcher, etc.
Temporary workers. — Harvest and threshing workers
(mostly on a share-produce contract) ; roots (cultivation
and lifting) workers ; maize workers ; potato workers ;
vineyard workers ; tobacco men ; forestry workers ;
general labourers (for navvy work and irrigation, road, and
railway work connected therewith, and for harvest work) ;
helpers, etc.
It is only in countries with large-scale farming that such a
variety of agricultural tasks can be found. It is perhaps
extending the description of agricultural work very far when

— 155 —
ordinary navvy work is considered as falling under agriculture ;
but all these groups are admitted by the agricultural trade
unions.
The Hungarian trade unions are restricted in their activities
u ncler Hungarian law. An organisation to be legally established
must obtain the authorisation of the Minister of Home Affairs,
and it cannot legally establish branches without the permission
of the local authorities. Authorisation is not given when the
rules of the union aim at an organisation of, or support to,
collective action (other than collective bargaining). The penalties for disobeying the many restrictions imposed on trade unions
are numerous, but in the case of agricultural workers they are
specially severe 1.
H|(l) Though the Act on the Rights of Associations introducing
the principles still followed dates as far back as 1875, it was
not until thirty years later that the first Social-Democratic
trade union of agricultural workers was approved. In the years
1894, 1897, and 1906 great harvest strikes took place. In 1905
the Union of Agricultural Workers (Magyarorszagi földmunkasok
Orszagos Svoveiségé) was founded with the authorisation of
the Minister of Home Affairs and is thus one of the oldest existiiig organisations of agricultural workers in the world. It still,
however, has difficulties in getting the authorisation of the local
authorities to the formation of branches and in avoiding
dissolution itself. This organisation developed rapidly in the
months immediately after the war. In March 1919 it had no
less than 1,700 local branches with 500,000 members. During
1919 and 1920 all these branches, with the exception of four,
were dissolved, without regard to the fact that many of them
dated from before the war. At the end of 1924 the organisation
again had 41 branches ; according to the reports of the union
for 1922 and 1923, 127 new branches had been established
during these two years, of which 97 were again forbidden 2 ; 1922
is considered by the union as the year in which their difficulties
reached their maximum. In that year the periodical of the union
was forbidden and has not been published since. In 1925 53 local
branches were dissolved and 18 constituent assemblies forbidden.
The organisation has now 68 branches with 10,000 members.
1
See International Labour Review, Vol. VIII, No. 5, Nov. 1923, pp.
6G-1-666.
^'Reports cited in La Vie Ouvrière, 11 April 1924.

— 156 —
The constitution of the union states that membership is
open to :
all workers of the soil in Hungary, of either sex, or all persons engaged
on work allied to agriculture, day-labourers, share-reapers, resident
farm and other servants, navvies, shepherds, vineyard workers,waggoners,
small tenants, drivers, and also all persons employed in a town against
daily, monthly, or yearly wages, without regard to their trade, in so far
as they were originally agricultural workers, not possessing any other
vocational training and thus always able to return to their original
occupation.

The union does not distinguish between smallholders and
small tenants on the one hand, and agricultural workers on
the other, nor do separate sections for these groups exist inside
the union. The standpoint of the union can be seen from the
provision of the constitution adopted in February 1925, which,
however, has still to be approved by the Ministry of the Interior.
The revised Article runs as follows :
All members of either sex can become ordinary members of the union,
who are employed in agriculture, forestry, horticulture, or in any other
branch of primary production, whether permanently or temporarily,
against daily, monthly, or yearly wages, more especially persons who
are agricultural workers or persons engaged for several months but not
belonging to the regular resident farm or house servants, share-reapers,
navvies, vineyard workers, horticultural workers, forest workers,
carpenters or woodcutters, resident farm servants, stockmen,waggoners,
shepherds ; further, smallholders, small tenants, and dwarf holders
who cultivate their land alone or together with their families employed
in any of the above occupations.

The revised constitution lays down the creation of separate
sections for agricultural workers, navvies, horticultural workers,
forestry workers, assistant workers, smallholders and dwarf
holders, resident farm and house servants. This organisation
is affiliated to the Union of Hungarian Federations of Trade
Unions (General Council) (Magyarorszagi Munkasegyesiilelek
Szövetsege) (Szakszervezeti Tanacs), and also to the International
Federation of Trade Unions.
(2) There also exists a Union of Christian-Social Land
Cultivators and Agricultural Workers (Keresztényszocialisla
Földmunkasok
es Földmivesek Orszagos Szövetsege). The
union states its membership as 30,000.
The union was founded in 1908. Its first efforts were directed
to organising workers and smallholders in the separate local
districts. The earliest form of organisation was known as the
Christian Social Union, which devoted itself to the improvement
of agricultural labour conditions. Mutual aid associations were

— 157 —
formed within the framework of the unions and these associations
in many places developed into credit societies : here and there
distributive co-operative associations and funeral benefit societies
were also formed.
In several places, moreover, some very excellent joint tenancy
societies were formed, which are still functioning in more remote
districts. In general, the local associations took an active part
in local life and got their candidates elected on to local and educational bodies. These activities were almost entirely destroyed
by the war and by the revolution. After the Communistic
period the form of organisation changed and trade union
branches were formed which operated chiefly with an economic
purpose. The objects of these branches were particularly to
assist their members to acquire sites for dwelling places and
parcels of land under the terms of the reform of property
legislation.
Efforts to improve labour conditions were also made, but
the surplus of labour in agriculture made this of little avail.
The present programme of the national union embraces both
economic purposes and reform by means of legislative action.
The constitution admits not only agricultural workers, but
also smallholders and farmers ; even holders of large farms,
when they agree with the objects of the union, can become
members. Every farmworker, peasant, day-labourer, farm
servant, or worker employed in an allied occupation, who is
over 16 years of age and lives a moral life, can become an
ordinary member. This union is affiliated to the Federation
of Christian Trade Unions (Keresztényszocialista Orszagos Szakszervezetek szoveísége).
Other organisations of agricultural workers or smallholders
do not exist. It is thus be seen that it is only a proportion of
all agricultural workers in Hungary who are organised.
R E P R E S E N T A T I O N AT T H E INTERNATIONAL, LABOUR C O N F E R E N C E

1919 : Not a member of the International Labour Organisation.
1921 : Not represented.
1922-i
1926 Workers' Delegate:
Mr. Samuel JASZAI, secretary-general of the
— — ' Hungarian Trade Unions (General Council).

IRISH F R E E STATE

Ireland has always been a country of small and of dwarf
holdings. However, a great deal of consolidation has been
effected by measures taken over a long period of years to

— 158 —
relieve "congested" districts 1 . Neglecting holdings under
one acre, which are of little agricultural significance, we find
in 1911 the bulk of holdings under 50 acres in extent ; holdings
over 100 acres made up only 6.2 per cent, of all holdings 2.
Both the smallest and the largest holdings SIIOAV a continuous
decline, while holdings between 15 and 100 acres tend to increase ;
this is the result of the legislation referred to, the decline of
population, and the change over to dairy farming (see below).
The total number of holdings (over one acre) has also decreased,
e.g. from 438,613 in 1914 3 to 354,484 in 1923. Greater changes
have taken place in the number and size of holdings than are
generally realised, but the following table will suffice to show
the decline in the smallest type of holding, which, no doubt, have
been principally affected by consolidation measures. The figures
for 1841-1909 refer to the whole of Ireland and those for 1923
to the Irish Free State 4.

1841
1861
1891
1909
1923

Number o! holdings
1-5 acres

Percentage of
all holdings
over 1 acre

310,400
85,500
63,500
61,900
35,176

44.9
15.0
12.3
12.0
9.9

The number of persons actively engaged in agricultural
occupations in 1911 was 780,867 (721,669 men and 59,198
women 5 ). Apart from horticulture, forestry, horsebreeding,
and some minor occupations the majority of male persons
engaged were classified as follows :
Farmers and graziers
Working male members of farmers' a n d graziers' families.
F a r m bailiffs
Wage-earning workers :
(a) agricultural labourers, cottagers, shepherds . . .
(b) farm servants (indoor)
Others

328,473
169,246
1,519

133,397
62,467
1,400
696,502
1
R t . H o n . W . F . B A I L E Y , Estates Commissioner : The Irish Land
Acts : A Short Sketch of their History and Development.
Dublin, 1917.
48 p p .
2
Figures for Ireland. Census for Ireland, 1911 : General Report with
Tables and Appendix, p p . 300-301, 430-431. London, 1913.
3

INTERNATIONAL I N S T I T U T E of A G R I C U L T U R E : Agricultural

Problems

in their International Aspect. (Document prepared for t h e International
Economic Conference.) League of Nations Document C.E.I. 36. Geneva,
May 1927.
4
Journal of the Department of Agriculture and Technical
Instruction,
1923, Vol. X X I I I , No. 3, p p . 241-242 and 341 ; Dublin. See also B A I L E Y ,
op. cit., p . 10.
5
Excluding working wives a n d female relatives of farmers.

— 159 —
In addition it is stated that of 148,770 general labourers
(not entered in the above table), "the majority may be assumed
to be agricultural labourers although not having returned themselves as such" 1.
The industrial and agricultural development of Ireland was
during the nineteenth century and the first twenty years of
the present century very much affected by a continuous emigration movement, which resulted in a decline of the total
population by one-half over a period of about seventy years.
The change over from cereal to dairy grass farming (which still
predominates) was the result of the introduction of free trade in
the middle of the nineteenth century. Since manufacturing
industries were insufficiently developed to absorb the surplus
rural population, the only relief was found in this emigration.
A large number of persons, however, remained on the land
on holdings which were far from capable of supporting them
and their families with any degree of comfort. These small
peasant proprietors still form the bulk of the Irish rural population 2. According to the (majority) report of the 1922 Commission on Agriculture there is "insufficient land to give every
existing occupier an economic holding". Moreover, "it is
apparent that all rural districts in Ireland suffer through a lack
of subsidiary employment which can be offered to labourers
who are not fully engaged on farm work throughout the
year" 8 . A large part of the Irish agricultural population,
therefore, is half peasant, half labourer. The Irish cultivator
has been defined as "neither in the position of the farmer nor
of the labourer. He is the occupier of a piece of land on which
he builds his cabin, and pays a rent which is supposed to be
agricultural, but which is really not earnable out of the land,
but out of whatever other supplementary income he is able to
obtain by migratory labour or by contributions from outside
sources" 4 . He employs no wage-paid labour 6 .
The migratory labour referred to is that which can be
obtained each year in north England and west Scotland from
the beginning of the hay-making to the end of the potato1

Census for Ireland, p. 10.
Leabhar nah Eireann, 1922 (The Irish Year Book), p. 3. Dublin, 1922.
Tuarasghabhala on Choimisiun urn ar (Report of the Commission
on Agriculture), pp. 34 and 66. Dublin, n. d.
2
3
4

5

BAILEY, op. cit., p. 37.

Labour and Agriculture : An Outline of the Agricultural Policy of the
Irish Labour Party, p. 19. Dublin, 1926.

— 160 —
lifting season. About one-half to three-quarters of the earnings are saved and help the worker to support his family in
Ireland during the rest of the year. In 1915 of 7,354 migrants
(the number during the war was very low), 1,578 were landholders, and 4,760 were sons or daughters of landholders 1 .
The practice of paying wages largely in kind, especially as such
wages often include the provision of land cultivated and tilled, or
even cultivated, tilled, manured, seeded and crop-lifted for potato
growing, and the use of grazing for animals, etc., tends further
to obscure the line between the small peasant and the paid
worker 2.
It follows that a large proportion of Irish workers in agriculture are organised qua cultivators and not qua paid labourers.
The Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, founded over
thirty years ago, concerns itself with the welfare of all Irish
cultivators, but perhaps chiefly with the welfare of the small
farmers, who are estimated to form 85 per cent, of the total
number of farmers. It has stated that the paid labourer
"would be the society's chief concern were it not that so many
more of the actual workers upon the land of Ireland either
own or rent their own farms than are in receipt of wages" 3 .
The society, while desirous of forwarding the relations of employers and employed, does not profess to organise these interests
separately, but its "general purposes" co-operative societies
are always open to the membership of the paid worker *.
The Irish Transport and General "Workers' Union, founded
in 1909, organises, in its rural areas, both agricultural workers
and the closely-allied class of road workers employed by local
authorities. The membership of the union, which is large, is
not, however, by any means confined to agriculture, but embraces
a very wide range of industries and occupations. In the
larger towns it embraces most of the manual workers outside
the skilled trades, and in the smaller towns it is often the only
1

DEPARTMENT

OF

AGRICULTURE

AND

TECHNICAL

INSTRUCTION :

Agricultural
Statistics, 1915 : Report and Tables relating to the Irish
Agricultural Labourers.
Dublin, 1916. 19 p p .
2
" R e p o r t on the Operations of t h e Agricultural "Wages Board for
Ireland during the period September 1917 to September 1921", reprinted
in Twenty-First Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture and
Technical Instruction for Ireland, 1920-1921, p p . 318, 319, and 328.
3
The Coming-of-Age of the Irish Agricultural
Organisation
Society,
pp. 27-28. Dublin, 1915.
4
Annual Report of the Society, especially for 1919, pp. 38, 12, and 33 ;
also for 1920, pp. 17, 43, 4 4 ; for 1921, p . 10; for 1922, pp. 16 and 39.

— 161 —
union at work. The union is affiliated to the Trade Union
Congress (the National Centre), and its local branches are in
many places affiliated to the trades or workers' councils, which
.are local federations of trade union branches in their turn affiliated to the National Centre.
REPRESENTATION

AT T H E

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

1919-/
1922 ^°^ a m e m D e r of the International Labour Organisation.
1923:
Workers' Delegate: Mr. Tomas LACLOIN (Thomas Johnson),
secretary of the Irish Labour P a r t y and Trade Union Congress.
1924:
Workers' Delegate: Mr. Tomas O ' F U A R A I N (Thomas Foran),
member of the National Executive of the Irish Labour P a r t y
and Trade Union Congress and general president of the Irish
Transport and General Workers' Union.
1925:
Workers' Delegate: Mr. Denis CULLEN, vice-chairman of the
Irish Labour P a r t y and Trade Union Congress ; general
secretary of the Bakers', Confectioners' and Allied Workers'
Amalgamated Union.
1926:
Workers' Delegate: Mr. Luke Joseph D U F F Y , member of t h e
National Executive and past president of t h e Irish Labour
P a r t y and Trade Union Congress ; general secretary of the
Irish Union of Distributive Workers and Clerks.

All these nominations have been made in agreement with
t h e Irish Labour Party and the Trade Union Congress.
JTALY

There are no very recent statistics of the distribution of
property in Italy. In 1921 an enquiry into smallholding
in Italy was held, and the following figures were referred to.
The number of holdings was estimated at the end of the last
century at nearly 5 millions. Of these actually 3 % million
-were dwarf holdings of less than one hectare, while over 600,000
were between one and two hectares ; there were 450,000 smallholdings between 2 and 4 hectares, over 340,000 medium-sized
holdings between 4 and 8 hectares, and the remaining 250,000
holdings were over 8 hectares 1. Since then further subdivision
of property has taken place, and the number of holdings is now
estimated at 9% million, the number of owners at 8 million, the
ratio of holdings to owners being roughly 6 to 5. The line
between dwarf, small, and medium-sized holdings varies very
much according to the intensity of the farming practised, but
1

MINISTERO P E R L'AGRICOLTURA, D I R E Z I O N E GENERALE D E L L ' AGRICOL-

TURA : Per la piccola proprietà rurale e montane, Voi. II p . 48.
1922.

Rome,
li

— 162 —
the average area cultivated by one person is obviously very
small, while there are an enormous number of parcels which
cannot possibly support their owners.
According to the census of 1921 the total population occupied
in agriculture was over 10 million, which is over 50 per cent,
of the total occupied population, and was distributed as follows.
In each group are included relatives occupied in agriculture 1.
Men

Women

Together

2,292,308
25,774
485,602

1,135,214
9,772
172,516

3,427,522
35,546
658,118

1,088,970

501,006

1,589,976

64,431
4,034,185
20,234
3,010,829
3,031,063
7,085,482

14,457
1,853,483
2,420
1,258,408
1,260,828
3,116,731

78,888
5,887,668
22,654
4,269,237
4,291,891
10,202,213

Owners cultivating their

Share-farmers and simiOthers

( horticulturists,

Total . . .
Salaried employees . . .
Wage-earning workers .
Total : all workers
Total . . . .

A comparison with the 8 million holders of land will show
that only about one person in every five in Italy is entirely
without an}' land. The 3 million odd holders of dwarf holdings,
and even some of the holders of smallholdings, are undoubtedly
at the same time wage-earning workers either in agriculture
or in another industry.
It is a fact that Italian agriculture is the most varied agriculture in Europe and includes almost every size of farm and every
type of farming. The result is also a very great variety in the
types of agricultural labour contract. Nevertheless, some big
groups are easily discernable, namely, the resident farm servant,
the worker on a permanent contract, the day-labourer on a
"free" contract, the day-labourer under obligation to render
service if required (obbligali), and seasonal workers ; outside
these groups come the shareholders, whose place in the general
organisation of agricultural work in south and west Europe has
already been described in the Section on France : they replace
1

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE of AGRICULTURE : Agricultural

Problems

in their International Aspect. (Document prepared for the International
Economic Conference.) League of Nations Document C.E.I. 36. Geneva,
May 1927. The rural population figures are discussed in a book b y
F. COLETTI: La populazione rurale in Italia; Piacenza, 1925.

— 163 —
"directly" employed labour under a variety of circumstances
and form an important section of the agricultural community.
Outside this group again come the small tenants, and finally
the smallholders who are owners of the parcels they cultivate ;
the present position of the first of these two groups is discussed
below with reference to their claim to be considered workers.
Certain other groups, such as the boari1 (foremen-tenants),
coloni, etc., scarcely require separate mention, as they are covered
by the general designation used in this study of "intermediate"
groups 2. The distinction between these groups and the sharefarmers proper is that while the latter cultivate, a holding
which is self-sufficient from the agricultural point of view —
a real farm — the other intermediate groups like coloni, etc.,
cultivate a parcel of land which forms a portion only of an
agricultural undertaking proper.
The farm servant (garzone or famiglio da spesa) is a resident
worker, usually on a small or medium-sized farm, who is employed
on all operations indifferently ; he is usually the only employed
worker on the farm, and supplements the family labour ; herein
he differs from the domestique de ferme in Belgium and in France,,
of whom there may easily be more than one and who, therefore,
are often specialised workers. The farm servant receives his
principal wage in kind and is on a yearly contract. He is
usually unmarried, but if married his family resides elsewhere
than on the farm, and he visits them about once a week.
The workers on permanent contract (salariati), of whom there
are usually more than one on the same farm, are specialised
and skilled workers (corresponding nearly to the domestiques
de ferme in other Latin countries). These workers also are
on a yearly contract, and are boarded and lodged (in separate
dwellings on the farm if married). They receive a large number
of allowances, mostly including a vegetable garden and onethird of the produce of a parcel of land cultivated by themselves ;
the forms of these allowances are very various and often thus
approach share-produce arrangements, e.g. where a contract
includes on behalf of the worker the right to half the profits
of a certain number of silkworms allotted to him and reared
by him and his family.
1

This applies to the boaria in the province of Ferrara.
See in greater detail the International Labour Review, Vol. XIV,
No. 5, Nov. 1925, and Vol. XV, No. 1, Jan. 1927 : "Collective Labour
Agreements in Italian Agriculture," I and II.
2

— 164 —
As will easily be grasped, the permanent worker is largely
concerned with the skilled, all-the-year-round work necessary
in care of animals, or in such special tasks as cheese-making,
irrigation and drainage supervision, and indeed in supervisory
tasks of all kinds. He works manually, but the bulk of the
field work, and especially the laborious processes involved in
rice cultivation, are not performed by him, but by the two
groups of day-labourers.
The chief distinction between day labour and permanent
work in Italy is that the former is paid in cash by the day or
hour.
The day-labourers on a "free" contract (avventizi or braccianti,
"hands") include all those who, residing in rural districts, from
time to time offer their services to neighbouring farmers
for field or harvest work ; agricultural operations in Italy
involving a great deal of terracing and irrigation, they are also
employed on such operations ; indeed, a feature of the Italian
labour market is the collective winter contract made on a cooperative basis by a group of day-labourers for the carrying out
of such operations during the season when agricultural work
proper is not available.
In addition to the day-labourers who are free to offer their
services where they will, there are others (obbligati) who bind
themselves to be at the disposal of a certain employer, who thus
ensures to himself a certain supply of labour at critical periods
of the year. Whole families may be under this form of contract.
They are paid by the day or by the hour, like other day-labourers,
though usually at a lower rate ; on the other hand, they generally
receive a low-rented house, a garden, and are accommodated
with land on which to keep a certain number of animals ;
moreover the employer is himself bound to offer them the
first chance of work, and in view of the seasonal and general
agricultural unemployment in Italy, this is no small advantage
to the worker. Relatives of married workers on permanent
contract are sometimes bound to offer service to the farmer
who employs the head of the household.
Seasonal workers (often women for rice work) move about
from one part of the country to another, but not usually over
wide distances. They are very much in demand for certain
weeding and harvesting operations.
The history of the organisation of agricultural workers in
Italy is long and complicated, and only the briefest outline

— 165 —
can be given here 1. The movement for forming Leagues for
Betterment or Leagues for Defence (leghe di miglioramento,
leghe di resistenza) began to take definite shape in 1884, especially
in the provinces of the Valley of the Po. At first each class
of workers, day-labourers, men or women, permanent workers,
etc., made their own league, and these leagues were strongly
localised. The contrasts between the conditions obtained in
a number of neighbouring villages by such separate bodies led
to a desire for national organisation. The first joint congress
of the leagues was held in 1900 and the National Federation
of Land "Workers (Federazione nazionale lavoratori della terre)
was established in 1901, with headquarters at Bologna ; subsequent congresses were held in 1906, 1908, 1911, and 1919.
This Federation early came to rely for support on the Socialist
Party, and other organisations were accordingly formed under
the influence of other political parties. The employers followed
suit, though their organisation was not put on a national basis
until much later, 1918. As a matter of fact, practical work
on behalf of agricultural workers was carried out on a local
or provincial basis, owing to that variety of agricultural conditions in different parts of the country to which reference has
already been made. The practice of collective bargaining
became practically universal, and was applied also to the conclusion of share-farming contracts, which in Italy are on a yearly
basis. Many other interesting developments followed, and
much assistance was derived from an important agricultural
co-operative movement 2 .
The Fascist Act of 3 April 1926 on Corporations 3 reorganised
the agricultural industry in common with the whole of the rest
of the industry of the country. The right of concluding collective agreements in agriculture now passes exclusively (on the
workers' side) to the Provincial Federations of Fascist Trade
Unions in Agriculture. Other workers' organisations can continue to exist, but have not the capacity to take part in collec1

For a somewhat longer account, see International Labour Review,
Vol. XIV, No. 5, Nov. 1926, pp. 671-677. (The date of the foundation
of the National Federation of Land "Workers, quoted there on p. 675 as
1921, should be corrected to 1901.)
2
See the article in the International Labour Review already cited,
and the same Review, Vol. VIII, No. 1, July 1923 : "Conciliation in
Agriculture" ; and Vol. X, No. 5, Nov. 1924: "Community Cultivation of the Soil in Italy."
3
International Labour Review, Vol. XIV, No. 3, Sept. 1926 : "Trade
Union Reform in Italy", by G. ARIAS.

— 166 —
tive bargaining ; their members are, in any case, compulsorily
covered by the terms of the agreements made by the Fascist
organisations.
The essence of the Act is that all workers (and all employers)
have to be ranged in their appropriate organisations, and one
result of the application of this principle has been the definite
classification of share-farmers as workers and the holding of
an enquiry (still pending) into the position of small tenants.
The discussion as to the exact position of the share-farmers,
i.e. the share-farmers proper and other similar groups, has been
going on for some time in Italy 1 . Reference was made to the
general lines of the discussion in Part II of the present study.
The new Act on Corporations made it necessary to take a decision and under Regulations issued by Royal Decree on 1 July
1926 2 it was laid down that share-farmers should constitute
separate organisations ranking with the higher-grade agricultural
workers' associations.
The controversy is now transferred to the question of small
tenants. Both employers and workers claim the small tenants
for their organisations as constituted under the Act, the employers
because such tenants really are occupiers of land, the workers
because the letting out of land in tenancy is often only
an alternative to employing wage-paid labour and because the
conditions under which small tenants work are often indistinguishable from those under which the share-farmer, or even
the wage-paid worker, works ; it is further argued that the
entry of small tenants into the employers' organisations deprives
them of any separate organisations through which they could
conclude collective agreements governing tenancies, or defend
their interests against their landlords. The Regulations referred
to, however, classed the small tenant with the employer.
From the legal point of view such a decision was to be expected.
The trouble is that, for the reason stated, the correct economic
classification seems rather to put the small tenant with the
small share-farmer and certainly not with the employers.
The results have been protests, of which the following is
perhaps the most important, embodied in a resolution of the
agricultural workers of southern Italy on 17 March 1917 :
1

INTERNATIONAL

INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE ; International

Review

of Agricultural Economics, New Series, Vol. I I , 1924, p p . 3-42 : "Share
Tenancy in I t a l y " , by G. COSTANZO.
2
See Industrial and Labour Information, Vol. X I X , N o . 7, p . 239.

— 167 —
The Congress of Fascist Agricultural Unions, having examined the
special situation of the agricultural industry in certain provinces, and
aware that the assimilation of the employer to the worker is prejudicial
to the revival of agriculture in south Italy, declares that
the tenancy
contract should be looked on as a true labour contract l .

The suggestion to include the small tenant as worker has
also received the support of so well-known an authority as
Professor Serpieri, formerly Under-Secretary of State for
Agriculture, who writes :
No one can get rid of the basic fact that in the position of the small
tenant, as in that of the wage-paid
worker, it is labour and not capital
which is the dominant element 2 .

In view of the complexity of the question the Government
has decided to appoint a committee of three persons, one representing the Government (the chairman), and one each representing the National Fascist Confederation of Agriculturists (the
employers), and the National Federation of Fascist Trade
Unions in Agriculture (the workers), to study the question in
the different districts. Meanwhile any person already admitted
to membership of any organisation will retain his membership 3.
The following agricultural workers' organisations are at
present in existence in Italy, or, though no longer in existence,
are here briefly mentioned in view of their importance in the
history of the agricultural labour movement.
(1) The National Federation of Land Workers (Federazione
nazionale lavoratori della terra), founded in 1901 (see above),
had in 1920 a membership of about 850,000 3 ; the years immediately after the war were years of maximum activity. The
organ of the Federation was La Terra. The co-operative interests
of members were looked after by the National Federation of
Agricultural Co-operative Societies (Federazione nazionale delle
cooperative agricole, ceased to exist in 1922), the membership
of whose constituent societies was recruited from the membership of the Land Workers' Federation ; some of these constituent
societies were associations for the common exploitation of an
agricultural undertaking.
From its foundation the question of small ownership was
vehemently debated at the congress and meetings of the Federation ; on the one hand, there was a great desire to include
1
2
3

// Lavoro d'Italia, 18 March 1927.
Ibid., 27 March 1927.
Ibid., 1 April 1927.

— 168 —
in the organisation this great mass of small cultivators throughout
the country ; on the other, the Federation held very strong
theoretical views on the socialisation of landownership. A
solution was effected at the first congress by voting the admission of smallholders (owners as well as tenants) provided that
they accepted the theory of socialisation of the land 1. Practice
in admitting or excluding smallholders from local organisationswas somewhat fluctuating, and depended on the decision of the
local organisers.
The Federation was affiliated to the International Land
Workers' Federation.
The Federation ceased to exist towards the end of 1926.
(2) The Italian Federation of Agricultural Workers (Federazione italiana lavoratori agricoli) (Cath.) had in 1923 a membership of about 27,000.
(3) The National Federation of Fascist Trade Unions
in Agriculture (Federazione nazionale dei sindicati fascisti dell'
agricoltura).
Under the terms of the Fascist Act of 3 April 1926, already
referred to, only one registered workers' organisation of each
occupation may exist in each district, capable of acting for the
workers in collective negotiations with the employers. Such
registered organisations must have a membership of ten per
cent, of all the workers of that occupation living in that district.
The registered local organisations of agricultural workers are
now federated in provincial organisations which constitute
the National Federation of Fascist Trade Unions in Agriculture
with headquarters at Rome. The membership is stated at 700,000.
There are separate local organisations for each of the following
classes : workers on a permanent contract ; day-labourers.
(two groups) ; share-farmers. Il Lavoro d'Italia is recognised
as the organ used by the Federation. The Federation is affiliated to the National Confederation of Fascist Trade Unions
(Confederazione nazionale dei sindacati fascisti), and thereby
becomes a part of the whole of organised Italian industry.
REPRESENTATION

1919:

AT T H E

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

Workers' Delegate: Mr. G. BALDESI, secretary of the General
Federation of Labour.

1
ALTOBELLI : La Fédération nationale des travailleurs agricoles d'Italie— Histoire, Vie, Batailles. Bologna, 1920. 32 p p . (Also in Italian.)

— 169 —
1921 :

Workers' Delegate : Mr. G. BALDESI. Advisers : Dr. O. Gorni, secret a r y of the National Federation of Agricultural Co-operatives;
Mrs. Altobelli, secretary of the National Federation of Land
Workers.
1922 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. O. L. d'Aragona, general secretary
of the General Federation of Labour.
1923- Ì Workers' Delegate : Mr. E. ROSSONI, general secretary of t h e
1926* I Confederation of National Corporations (National Confedera) tion of Fascist Trade Unions).

For protests against some of these nominations, see above
pp. 64-65 of this study.
JAPAN

The area of arable land in Japan (6,067,015 cho in 1925)
is less than one-fifth of the total area of the country ; the remaining four-fifths are forest and wild land. Owing to the great
density of the population the average amount of land available
for each family is small. Of over 5% million farm households
in 1925 not far oñ 2 million had less than 5 tan of land (about
y% hectare or 1 % acres), over 1 % million had less than 1 cho
(about 1 hectare or 2 % acres), while over another 1% million
had less than 2 cho (about 2 hectares or 5 acres). Only just
over y2 million household had farms over 2 cho in area. It is
therefore not surprising that a large proportion of farm households have to engage in pursuits other than agriculture, though
it must be remembered that intensive cultivation of rice permits
subsistence on a plot which is astonishingly small when
compared with the minimum areas of subsistence in wheatgrowing countries. Figures are given for "farm households" 1 ;
the figures for. tenancy are added, as tenancy has an important
bearing on the question of agricultural labour (see below).
1925 *
F a r m households : t o t a l
(a) cultivating :
less t h a n 5 t a n
1 cho
2 „
3 „
5 „
over 5 cho
(b) Principally engaged in agriculture . . . .
Occasionally engaged in agriculture . . .
(c) Cultivating their own lands
Tenants
Combining tenancy and ownership . . .

5,548,599
1,951,156
1,877,185
1,185,364
322,850
137,084
74,960
3,880,284
1,668,315
1,725,034
1,525,656
2,297,909

• Figures from 1915-1925 in The Statistical Abstract of the Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry, 1925, p. 2.
1
A "farm household" is a "household" (which may consist of one
person) engaged in agriculture.

— 170 —
Figures are also available on the agricultural population
reckoned as individuals, but this question is difficult to deal
with until the results of the 1925 census are known. Figures
provided by the Statistical Bureau in 1920 give a total agricultural population (i.e. including dependants) of nearly 27 millions
(nearly 50 per cent, of the whole population) and a "Working"
agricultural population of over 9 millions. However, this
so-called working population is not necessarily to be taken as
working in agriculture. The Department of Agriculture and
Commerce in October 1920 quotes as workers in agriculture
3,117,582 persons, of whom 373,024 are described as "labourers"
and 2,744,558 as "others" (tenants engaged in part-time employment?). The relation of these 3 million persons to the 5J4
million "farm households" mentioned above is not known,
though it is clear that many farm householders and many of
their adult relations would be at any rate part-time workers
in agriculture. In any case it is certain that the number of
permanently employed agricultural workers working on account
of another person is very small, only 373,024 persons.
The vast mass of agricultural operations in Japan are therefore performed by peasants who are smallholders or dwarf
holders. From ancient times peasant organisations seem to
have existed in Japan, aiming both at the improvement of agricultural methods and the promotion of friendly relations
among the members. A new feature is the more active
organisation of tenant-cultivators in defence of their common interests. Tenancy is always on the share-produce
system and corresponds to the métayage system of Europe,
except that the capital advanced by the landlord is more
obviously in the form of land than of anything else 1.
As will be seen below, the tenants' movement during the
past three or four years has been intimately connected with the
labour movement of the country. "Whatever may be the legal
status of the tenant from the employment point of view, there
can be no doubt but that in practice the principal agricultural
work of the country is carried on by him. Operations are
carried on by human or animal labour (sometimes by human
labour only) and machinery other than tools is scarcely used.
1

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR O F F I C E : Industrial

Conditions

Legislation in Japan, p p . 7-8. By Iwao F . AYUSAWA.
Reports, Series B, No. 16. Geneva, 1926.

and

Labour

Studies a n d

— 171 —
(1) The Japan Farmers' Union.
The organisation of
tenants' defence unions started unsystematically from a
number of local associations, which show a continual
increase. At the end of 1925 there were 3,313 such local
associations (Kosakunin Kumiai), with a membership of
307,104 1 ; by November 1926 they had increased to 4,065
and the membership to 368,424 2. There was at first no one
large representative organisation, but in 1921 a body, the
Nihon Nomin Kumiai, generally known in English as the Japan
Farmers' Union, was formed and has since played a very important part in the labour movement of the country. The union
admits to membership both tenant-cultivators and agricultural
day-labourers.
The following information is taken from a Japanese source 3 :
The agricultural workers in Japan are organised in a single national
union, the Japan Peasants' Union 4 (Nihon Nomin Kumiai), founded in
1921. It is one of the most important organisations, with 788 branches
in local provinces and a total membership of 53,130 as on 8 October 1925.
The formation of a trade union of agricultural workers, comprising
smallholders and tenant-farmers was initiated
during 1921, and
the first annua] congress was held on 9 April 1922, at
Kobe,
when a membership of about 20,000 was reported. It was not the first
organisation representing agrarian workers, but since its inception various
other organisations were driven to the background
At present
the Japan Peasants' Union is numerically the biggest organisation
representing the working class interests. Mr. Suzuki, president of the
General Federation of Labour, is also chairman of the Kanto Confederation affiliated with the Japan Peasants' Union
The Japan
Peasants' Union with its 788 local branches all over the country
represents the organised labour in agriculture, and is making valuable
contributions to the progress and development of the Japanese labour
movement as its integral part.

The union has headquarters in Osaka and in 1925 had local
centres in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Miye, Hyogo, Okayama, Kagawa,
Kukuoka, and Tottori, and 508 branches in 2 Fu (urban prefectures) and 32 prefectures ; the total membership is now 53,000.
A congress is held once a year.
The union has had enormous influence especially in rural
districts, and has been very active in the political sphere. In
fact, in Japan the rural proletariat has played a premier rôle

1

BUREAU OF SOCIAL AFFAIRS : Labour Gazette, Vol. Ill, No. 11, p. 12.

2

Ibid., No. 12, p. 23.
The Shakai-Seisaku Jiho (Social Reform), No. 65, Feb. 1926.
The same as the Japan Farmers' Union just mentioned.

3
4

— 172 —
in the political labour movement of the country 1. (See also
below, under : "Representation at the International Labour
Conference".)
The following two organisations also require mention.
(2) The National League of Farmers' Unions (Zen Nihon
Nomin Kumiai Domei) is composed of unions of agricultural
tenants and farm labourers who withdrew from the Japan
Farmers' Union in April 1926. Chief leaders are Professor
Shinjiro Kitazawa, of Waseda University, Mr. Kaiten Sugai,
and others. It was this organisation which led the movement
for the formation and inauguration in October 1926 of the Japan
Farmers' Party (Nihon Nomin To), which stands on the extreme
right wing of existing political parties of workers. While the
membership of the Japan Farmers' Union is spread out all over
the country, that of this league, which counts about 15,000, is
centered chiefly in the prefectures of Niigata, Yamanashi,
Gufu, and Fukuoka.
(3) Central Japanese Farmers' Union (Chubu Nihon Nomin
Rumisi), organised in April 1924, with headquarters in the
city of Gifu, is a union of about 12,000 farmers and tenants,
Mr. Benjiro Nakazawa is the president and Mr. Bunsuke Yoshikawa, the chief secretary. Politically the union is non-partisan,
though in sympathy with the Social-Democratic Party.
REPRESENTATION

AT T H E

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

1919
1921
1922
1923
19241925

: Workers' Delegate : Mr. Uhei MASUMOTO.
: Workers' Delegate : Mr. Keiichi MATSUMOTO.
: Workers' Delegate : Mr. Yoshiharu TAZAWA.
: Workers' Delegate : Mr. Riyemon U N O .
) Workers' Delegate : Mr. Runji SUZUKI, president of t h e
J
General Federation of Labour, and president of the K a n t o
Confederation affiliated with the J a p a n Farmers' Union.
1926 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. Itaro NARASAKI, president of t h e
Japanese Seamen's Union.

In 1919, 1921, 1922, and 1923, protests were made against
the credentials of the "Workers' Delegate ; the credentials were,
in each case, confirmed. In 1924 and 1925 nominations were
made in agreement with the trade unions.
1
For the political history of the union (which is very important),
and for the formation and dissolution of the Farmer-Labour P a r t y ,
and the formation of t h e Labour P a r t y , and other "farmer" Parties
still existing, t h e reader is referred to Industrial Conditions and Labour
Legislation in Japan, p p . 95 et seq. The formation of new organisations
goes on continuously, and the list of organisations given must not be
taken as final.

— 173 —
In 1924, the Government adopted a new method of selection
of the Workers' Delegate to the International Labour Conference.
"Workers' unions with a membership of more than 1,000 were
invited to vote for the Workers' Delegate, and the Government
was to appoint officially the Delegate by selecting, from among
the three candidates who received the highest number of votes,
the one who was deemed to be best suited in consideration of
the nature of the agenda of each particular Conference. The
Japan Farmers' Union, however, has been excluded from participation in the voting and in view of its great importance,
especially in the rural districts of Japan, the history of this
exclusion is here given in some detail.
When the new policy of the Government was published early
in 1924 and workers' unions were invited to propose the names
of the Workers' Delegate and Advisers to attend the Conference,
the Japan Farmers' Union at its annual meeting decided to take
part in the vote, and in due course sent in the names of its candidates to the Government. Shortly after, however, it was
understood that the Government decided not to take into
account the vote of that union, mainly on the grounds that the
items on the agenda of the Conference had nothing to do with
agriculture, and also that the tenant-farmers, who constitute
a great proportion of the Japan Farmers' Union, could not be
considered in the same category as wage earners engaged in
industry 1.
However, protests were immediately raised against the decision of the Government. At the third conference of the Japanese
Farmers' Union, held in Osaka from 28 February to 1 March
1924, resolutions were adopted 2, demanding among others the
admission of the union in the vote, and deciding on the one
hand that the International Labour Office should be requested
1

The Government's position appears to have been that in Japan the
questions as to whether or not tenant-farmers were agricultural workers
and whether the Japan Farmers' Union was an organisation of agricultural workers were unsettled, and in this connection it was pointed out
that tenant-farmers' unions in Japan were not affiliated with workers'
trade unions as in some foreign countries, but had separate or independent existence. Then the fear was entertained, further, that the Japan
Farmers' Union, claiming a membership which exceeds that of any trade
union organisation of industrial workers, would, if admitted to vote,
dominate the election by the overwhelming number of votes of agricultural tenants and farm labourers ; thus it was felt by the Government
that it would not be just to allow in the election the domination of any
organisation as long as the question whether that organisation was a
workers' trade union remained doubtful.
2
Nihon Rodo Nenkan (Japan Labour Year Book), 1925, p. 321.

— 174 —
to state clearly that the tenant-farmers' unions are entitled to
take part in the International Labour Conference, and, on
the other hand, that the Japanese Government should be induced
to take up a definite attitude towards tenant-farmers in accordance with the spirit of the International Labour Convention 1 .
Shortly after, the General Federation of Japanese Labour,
the Japan Farmers' Union, and the General Federation of
Workers in State Enterprises jointly sent in to the Government
on 15 March 1924 a series of questions among which they
demanded the explanation for the exclusion of the Japan
Farmers' Union, pointing out the fact that the Third Session
of the International Labour Conference had already recognised
the tenant-farmers on the same footing as wage-earning workers.
A similar demand was made by the Federation of Navy Workers'
Unions on 25 March 1924 in a series of questions addressed also
to the Government, and finally, on 6 April, the Japan Farmers'
Union published a manifesto protesting against the measure
taken by the Government 2 . The protest of the union was duly
transmitted later to the Credentials Committee of the 1924
Session of the International Labour Conference by the Workers'
Delegate of Japan, Mr. Bunji Suzuki, as a document questioning
his own qualification. This incident, which seems singular a t
first sight, came to pass because, on the one hand, Mr. Suzuki,
then officer of the Japan Farmers' Union 3 , supported the view of
the union, and on the other hand the union had in fact entrusted
him with the mission of bringing up the matter at the International Labour Conference. Under these conditions the Credentials Committee reported to the Conference as follows :
The request transmitted to the Conference on this question was not
an objection against the credentials of the Japanese Workers' Delegate,
the objecting organisation having itself recognised that Mr. Bunji
Suzuki was in fact entitled to represent the Japanese workers. The
Committee therefore is of opinion that no action need be taken on this
request 4 .

The Conference having approved this report, the protest of
the Japan Farmers' Union against the Government for having
1
The Convention referred to here is obviously the Draft Convention
concerning the right of association of agricultural workers, adopted at
the Third Session of the International Labour Conference in 1921.
2
Nihon Rodo Nenkan (Japan Labour Book), 1925, pp. 595-597.
3
Besides being the president of the General Federation of Japanese
Labour, Mr. B. Suzuki was then the president of the Eastern Federation
of the Japan Farmers' Union.
4
International Labour Conference, Sixth Session, Geneva, 1924,
Vol. II, p. 517.

— 175 —
excluded it from the vote took no practical effect, and ever
since the Japanese Government has consistently maintained the
same policy as regards this question, so that the tenant-farmers'
unions have not been allowed to participate in the election of the
Workers' Delegate and Advisers to the International Labour
Conference. However, the Japan Farmers' Union has continued
its protest and particularly in 1925 it addressed a letter of protest to the International Labour Office, the gist of which
was as follows x :
The Japan Farmers' Union does not deny the qualification of Mr.
Bunji Suzuki as the Workers' Delegate, but it wishes to know whether
the Conference approves the method of selection of the Delegate adopted
by the Japanese Government, and also whether the Conference would
also exclude the Japan Farmers' Union. There is no longer any question to-day as to the fact that the Japan Farmers' Union is a workers'
organisation, and therefore, believing that the exclusion of our union
from the election is contrary to the spirit of the International Labour
Conference, we plead with the International Labour Office to recommend to the Japanese Government the admission of the Japan Farmers'
Union to the election.

For some reason or other, the letter did not reach the International Labour Office, but it will not fail to be of interest to
note in this connection the wording of the Resolution printed
on p. 5 of this study, which was proposed for the acceptance
of the International Labour Conference by the Japanese Workers'
Delegate.
Finally we must add that the Japanese Association for International Labour Legislation has taken up this matter. The
second general meeting of the Association held in Tokyo on
6 November 1926 adopted the following resolution :
Considering that the Draft Convention adopted at the Third Session
of the International Labour Conference concerning the right of association of agricultural workers purports to regard the Japanese tenantfarmers in the same category as agricultural workers, and
Considering further that the interests of the tenant farmers who live
by agricultural labour should, of course, be represented at the International Labour Conference,
Be it resolved :
That this Association request the Government to grant to the organisations of agricultural labourers, including tenant-farmers, the right
of election of the Workers' Delegate to attend the International Labour
Conference.
LATVIA

The present agricultural situation, and the history of its
development, is nearly the same in Latvia as in Estonia, in
the Section on which country a description has already been
1

Nihon Rodo Nenkan, 1926, pp. 474-475.

— 176 —
given. The agrarian reform has done away with the large
estates and about 85,000 new holdings have been created. The
distribution of land is pretty nearly the same as in Estonia.
Statistics with regard to the number of persons engaged in
agriculture are not known. From the workers' side the total
number of workers in agriculture was estimated at the end of
1924 to be about 180,000 K
Information in the possession of the International Labour
Office concerning existing organisations of agricultural workers
is as follows.
(1) The Federation of Agricultural Workers of Latvia
(Latvijas Laukstradnieku savieniba). During the fight for
the introduction of the agrarian reform this union had 16,000
members, at the end of 1924 11,800, and at the present time
has about 9,000. The decline is mostly due to the resignation
from membership of agricultural workers who have become
independent smallholders. It has, however, been recently
stated that agricultural workers who have not benefited by the
agrarian reform are again joining the union in increasing
numbers 2.
(2) The Union of Agricultural Workers (Lauku stradnieku
arodbiedriba) was founded after 1923. It is affiliated to the
Central Bureau of Latvian Trade Unions (Lalvijas Arodbiedribu
Centralbirojs). Its present membership is 650.
REPRESENTATION

AT T H E

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

1919:
1921 :

Not a member of the International Labour Organisation.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. T. R U D Z I T S , Agricultural "Workers'
Federation.
1922 : Workers' Delegate : Mr. 'Janis SVEMBERGS, secretary to the
Printers' Trade Union.
1923- ) Workers' Delegate : Mr. Janis VISNA, vice-chairman of the
1926 \
Central Office of Trade Union Organisations.

In 1921 the Central Bureau of Latvian Trade Unions protested against the nomination of the Workers' Delegate as
not having been chosen in agreement with itself. The Delegates of the Latvian Government stated at the Conference 8
that the Workers' Delegate had been chosen in agreement
1

Industrial and Labour Information, Vol. X V I , No. 10, 7 Dec. 1925.
Bulletin of the International Land Workers' Federation, No. 8,15 March
1925.
3
International Labour Conference, Third Session, Geneva, 1921, p. 610.
a

— 177 —

with two trade union organisations uniting 21,000 members
(the total number of trade union members organised in Latvia
being 26,000), in particular with the Federation of Agricultural Workers of Latvia (Latvijas Lankstradricku savieniba),
which, according to the statement made, was affiliated to the
Central Bureau of Latvian Trade Unions. Since 1922 the
Federation of Agricultural Workers has appeared to be an
organisation independent of the Central Bureau.
LITHUANIA

The agrarian reform carried out in Lithuania was a little
less radical than the reform carried out in Estonia and Latvia.
To begin with, only estates over 150 hectares were set down
for expropriation in the first instance, and, as a second stage,
estates between 80 and 150 hectares. Statistics with regard
to the present distribution of land are not available, but the
fact that the Act of 12 February 1924 on the Engagement and
Dismissal of Workers Paid in Kind applies only to farms with
more than 80 hectares of arable land shows that conditions
are a little different from those in the other two Baltic States.
The number of persons engaged in agriculture (horticulture
not included) and forestry at the census on 17 September
1923 was as follows 1 :
Agriculture
Men

Holders
of
land . . . . 214,563
Working members of landholders'
families 180,661
Managing
staff
138
Wage-earning workers 114,459
Total

1

. 509,821

Women

Forestry
Together

Men

Women Together

34,504

249,067

— "

—

—

426,788

606,449

—

—

—

8

146

391

1

392

114,735

229,194

1,545

10

1,555

576,035

1,085,856

1,936

11

1,947

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF A G R I C U L T U R E : Agricultural

Problems

in their International Aspect. (Document prepared for t h e International
Economic Conference.) League of Nations Document C. E. I. 36. Geneva,
May 1927.
12

— 178 —
The right of combination is unrestricted in Lithuania when
the objects of an association are not contrary to law. The
rulings of the Russian Penal Code concerning strikes are still in
force x.
The trade union movement in Lithuania began with the
establishment of the country as an independent State. The
largest organisations were those founded by the agricultural
workers. This peculiar fact, that the agricultural workers
founded the trade union movement, finds its explanation in
the overwhelming importance of agriculture in the economic
life of Lithuania ; 70 per cent, of the population live from
agriculture and only 10 per cent, from industry. The trade
union movement culminated in 1920 ; then it nearly disappeared.
The fight against Communism involved the trade unions.
In 1923, however, a new upward movement began, and again
it was more especially the land workers who organised.
By letter of 3 June 1925, addressed to the President of the
Seventh Session of the International Labour Conference, the
Lithuanian Government explained the situation of the workers'
organisations in Lithuania in the following way :
As Lithuanian industry is very little developed, practically no industrial workers' class exists. Organisation of agricultural workers in
Lithuania is still not definitely established...

(1) The Union of Agricultural Workers in Lithuania (Lietwos
Zemes ukio Dartruinku Profesino Sajunga) is the only union
of agricultural workers existing. It was founded in 1923,
when several unions of agricultural workers created in 1919
were united. The union has friendly relations with other trade
unions in Lithuania, especially on questions of general interest
to the workers,, such as employment, rights of associations, etc.
These relations take the form of periodical meetings of representatives.
The union is a member of the International Land Workers'
Federation and also has relations with the Federation of
Agricultural Workers in Latvia.
Agricultural workers, men and women, can become members
of the union on the recommendation of two members, and by
paying an entrance fee. The union has 59 branches, with 2,200
members. The smallholder who does not employ paid labour
other than that of his own family can become a member of
1

See Section on Estonia.

— 179 —
the agricultural workers' union. It is stated, however, that
few avail themselves of this privilege and that, when they do
so, they act from idealistic motives and not in order to obtain
economic advantages.
(2) Many agricultural workers have recently become smallholders as a consequence of agrarian reform legislation, and
have founded two new trade unions. One of these, under
the name of the Union of "Landless and Landpoor" and New
Settlers works in connection with the Social-Democratic Party
of Lithuania, the other in connection with the clerical parties.
REPRESENTATION

1919 :
1921 :
1922 i
1926

AT THE

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

Not a member of the International Labour Organisation.
N o t represented.
Government Delegates only.

NETHERLANDS

There existed, in 1921, 222,000 agricultural undertakings
in the Netherlands of more than 1 hectare in size. Of these
113,000 were of an area of 1 to 5 hectares each, 35,000 of an
area of 10 to 20 hectares, and 23,000 of an area of 20 to 50
hectares. The number of farms over 50 hectares was less than
3,000. Of the 222,000 exploiters of land 163,000 are designated
as "farmers" ; the rest were either horticulturalists, cultivating
land workers, or other persons. In view of the great intensity
of Netherlands agriculture, it must be explained that even plots
under one hectare can contribute considerably to the living of
a wage-paid worker. It is worth noting that the average area
held by cultivators of holdings between 1 and 5 hectares in
size has increased ; this is interpreted as a sign that cultivating
land workers have, many of them, acquired a little more land:
and become small independent farmers 1. This tendency is in
agreement with the state of affairs aimed at in the Agricultural
Workers Act of 20 April 1918, the purpose of which is to make
it possible for agricultural workers to obtain either an agricultural allotment plus a dwelling house in ownership, or agricultural land without a dwelling place in tenancy.
The population engaged in agriculture, including horticulture,,
1
A. H. JOUSTRA : Die niederländische Landwirtschaft.
Berichte übenLandwirtschaft.
B a n d I I I , Heft 3. Berlin, Parey, 1925.

— 180 —
sylviculture, soil improvement work, etc., at the date of the
census 1 on 31 December 1920, was as follows :
Heads of undertakings
Managing staff, foremen, e t c
Wage-paid workers

Men

Women

185,983
6,088
339,986

29,796
78
59,669

531,957

89-,543

It is not possible to give any figure showing the whole number
of women working on farms. The number quoted is rather
low. Now the total number of female domestic servants in
the Netherlands at the date of the census was 210,981, and it is
uncertain how many of these were domestic servants with
agricultural employers (and therefore probably partly employed
in agricultural work), but the distribution shows that female
domestic servants are very numerous in districts which are
chiefly agricultural.
When the preponderance of smallholding in the Netherlands
is remembered, the number of agricultural workers seems very
high, but this is, of course, the result of the very great intensity
of Dutch agriculture.
The Act of 1918, mentioned above, defines as an "agricultural
worker" any person employed in agriculture, horticulture,
forestry, stock-breeding, or peat work, whose principal source
of income is derived from employment in any of these industries.
Three groups of agricultural workers must be distinguished :
(1) Resident male and female farm and domestic servants.
(2) Permanent workers, not resident in the farmhouse.
(3) Casual workers.
A decrease in the number of resident farm servants, and
in a lesser degree of permanent workers, was noted even in
1906. This was due to the modernising of the agricultural
industry, the increased use of machinery, and the extension
of the industrialised manufacture of dairy produce, together
with other factors, including the extension of smallholdings.
In many cases smallholders are employed periodically as casual
workers, and this more commonly in sandy regions than in
regions with a clay soil. There is a good deal of internal seasonal migration, and in all the provinces at certain seasons of
1

CENTRAAL B U R E A U VOOR D E STATISTIEK : Statistiek

van

Nederland.

îsTo. 380. Uitkomsten der Beroepstelling 31 December 1920, Bedrijfsjndeeling. The Hague, 1924.

— 181 —
the year workers are employed from other districts. Agricultural workers also find employment in factories in industries
requiring labour during periods when there is less demand for
workers on the land. Examples are the beet-sugar and potatoflour industries and to a decreasing degree the chicory industry.
Agricultural workers also add to their earnings by certain
forms of home industries and by employment in transport,
drainage, and in roads and dyke work. Women in some
districts and at certain periods are employed to a certain extent
on light work in the fields. The latter form of employment
has steadily diminished since 1906, and they are now generally
employed as servants and in milking.
The trade union movement in Dutch agriculture dates further
back than in most other countries. Organisations existed
at least as far back as 1896 ; on the other hand, only a small
percentage of agricultural workers are organised, even relatively
fewer than in several other countries. On 1 January 1925 a
total of 21,053 workers were organised, and on 1 January 1926
20,077 1. Again, however, as e.g. in Germany, it is claimed
that the effects of organisation extend far beyond the ranks
of membership. The following organisations exist :
(1) The Netherlands Union of "Workers engaged in Agriculture, Horticulture and Dairying (Nederlandsche Bond van
Arbeiders in hei Landbouw-, Tuinbouw-, en Ziiwelbedrijf) is
affiliated to the Netherlands Federation of Trade Unions
(Nederlandsche Verbond van Vakvereenigingen) and to the International Land Workers' Federation. This union is an amalgamation of the former Dairy Workers' Union and the Netherlands Union of Land Workers. The Dairy Workers' Union
was founded in 1900 and in 1909 was amalgamated with the
then newly-formed Land Workers' Union. On 1 July 1920 the
membership amounted to 15,687 (of whom 341 were women) ;
on 1 January 1926 the membership was 5,988. The union
organises agricultural workers, market gardeners, peat cutters,
and workers engaged in dairies and potato-flour mills. This
union has stated that hitherto it has not officially dealt much
with the question of the admittance of smallholders ; smallholders or tenants who do work on account of another during
1

CENTRAL B U R E A U "VOOR D E STATISTIEK : Jacircijfers voor Nederland

1925-1926.

The Hague, 1927.

— 182 —
part of the year can, however, become members of the
organisation, and to some extent do so.
(2) The Netherlands Christian Union of Agricultural Workers
(Nederlandsche Christelijke Landarbejdsbond) is affiliated to
the Netherlands Federation of Christian Trade Unions (Christelijke Nalionaal Vakverbond in Nederland), and to the International
Federation of Christian Land Workers' Trade Unions. The
union was founded in February 1914 and had in 1926
5,646 members. All persons engaged as wage-paid workers
in agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, dairying, and peatextraction can become members. Smallholders are considered
as "independent cultivators" (eigenwerkers) and are therefore
not allowed to become members of the union. A few of them
are members, but only out of interest in the movement.
(3) The Roman Catholic Union of Floricultural, Horticultural, Peat Digging, and Agricultural Workers (RoomschKatholick Bond van Bloemisi-, Tuin-, Veen- en Landarbeiders) is
affiliated to the Roman Catholic Workers' Federation (Roomsch
Kaiholick Werkliedenverbond in Nederland) and to the International Federation of Christian Land Workers' Trade
Unions. The membership was 6,845 in 1926.
(4) The Union of Agricultural, Horticultural, Peat Workers,
and Workers engaged in Similar Occupations (Land-, Tuin-,
Veen- en anverwaanle Vakarbeiders), affiliated to the Netherlands
General Trade Union Federation (Algemeen Nederlandsch
Vakverbond) had 100 members in 1926.
(5) The Organisation of Agricultural Workers (Organisatie
Landarbeiders), affiliated to the National Labour Secretariat
(Communist) (National Arbeids-Secrclarial), had 247 members
in 1926.
(6) An organisation with 71 members affiliated to the Netherlands Syndicalist Federation.
Finally, 1,180 agricultural workers are members of organisations not affiliated to a central body.
REPRESENTATION

1919 :
1921 :

AT THE

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

Workers' Delegate : Mr. OUDEGEEST, president of the Netherlands Federation of Trade Unions.
Workers' Delegate : Mr P . J. S. SERRARENS, member of t h e
Roman Catholic Workers' Organisation Board.
Advisers:
Mr. M. E I C H N E R ,
secretary, Union
of
Agricultural,
Horticultural, P e a t Workers, and Workers engaged in

— 183 —

1922 :
1923 :
1924 .:
1925 :
1926 :

Similar Occupations; Mr. P . HIEMSTRA, president, Netherlands Union of Workers in Agriculture, Horticulture
and Dairying ; Mr. A. J. LOERAKKER, president, Netherlands
Roman Catholic Union of Workers engaged in Floristry,
Gardening, Peat-Extraction and Agriculture ; Mr. R. SIEMENS,
president, Netherlands Christian Union of Agricultural
Workers.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. E. K U P E R S , secretary t o the Committee of t h e Netherlands Federation of Trade Unions.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. J. NANTA, secretary to the Federation of Christian Trade Unions.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. E. K U P E R S .
Workers' Delegate : Mr. P . J . S. SERRARENS.
Workers' Delegate : M. J. ZWAGA, secretary of the Dutch
League of Roman Catholic Workers.

In 1919 the nomination of the Workers' Delegate was made
in agreement with the Netherlands Federation of Trade Unions.
In 1921 nomination was made in agreement with the Federation
of Catholic Trade Unions, the Netherlands Federation of Protestant Trade Unions, and the Netherlands General Trade
Union Federation ; the Netherlands Federation of Trade Unions
protested without success1. During the following years nominations have been made in agreement with the last-named
Federation also.
N E W ZEALAND

A great deal of land in New Zealand, although occupied,
is not yet cultivated. Holdings are very large, indeed enormous,
and agriculture is predominantly a pastoral and dairying
industry. Of the 43 million acres of occupied land (of which
25 million are unimproved and include barren land, virgin soil,
etc.) only 2 million are taken up by agricultural holdings,
while 35 million are taken up by pastoral holdings (sheep runs),
and 6 million by dairy holdings (1922-1923). The size of holdings
is as follows : 68 per cent, of occupied land is held in areas
of over 1,000 acres and 42 per cent, in areas of over 5,000 acres.
Holdings as large as 50,000 acres and over are scheduled ; these
very large holdings, however, are decreasing in number and
there is a general tendency to concentrate and intensify farming.
Only 13% per cent, of all occupied land is held in holdings
"not more than half a square mile in area" ; but, though the
aggregate area thus held is not very large, the number of holders
of these smaller holdings makes up 75 per cent, of all holders
1
This objection eventually gave rise to an application (by the International Labour Organisation) before the Permanent Court of International Justice.

— 184 —
of land. Over 40 per cent, of occupied land is held from the
Crown *.
The total number of persons occupied in agriculture was over
132,000 in 1921. Figures are available from the census of
1921, as follows. The figures include horticulture, but exclude
forestry 2 .
Employers
Farmers working themselves but not employing labour. .
Members of farmers' families occupied in agriculture. . .
Employed workers (salaried and wage-earning)
Not stated
Total

25,08341,287
10,007
55,549
152
132,07»

Dairy farming occupies the largest number of persons,
namely, over 57,000, and here there are more than 2 employed
persons to every 3 farmers ; in the two next largest groups,
namely, sheep-breeding (over 32,000 persons) and "agricultural 1 ',
i.e. crop farming (over 16,000 persons), there are rather more
employed persons than farmers 3 . Bush-felling and other
clearing operations, forestry, and saw-milling account for
about 10,000 persons (not included in the figures given above).
Agricultural workers fall into two groups, namely, general
farm workers in permanent employ, often living at the farmhouse, and skilled seasonal workers, namely, shearers, shedhands, musterers, packers, drovers, threshing-mill employees,
etc. The general farm workers, who are often young workers
and live isolated on farms great distances apart, are very
difficult to organise, especially as the bulk of general farm work
is done by the farmer himself or his sons. The skilled seasonal
workers, on the other hand, especially the shearers, owing to
the great size of the pastoral industry, though not so very
numerous, are a most important group of workers inasmuch
as the success of the season's operations depends on them.
They are sufficiently organised to enable them to benefit by
awards under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act,
the last consolidation of which was made in 1925. A number
of shearers', drovers' and packers' and other awards have
been made by the Court of Arbitration, regulating conditions
1
New Zealand Official Year Book, 1925. Wellington, 1925. 989 pp.
The figures do not include forestry.
2
Results of a Census of the Dominion of New Zealand, taken for the
night of 17 April 1921. Part VIII : "Industries, Occupations, and
Unemployment", p. 123. Wellington, 1925.
3
Results of a Census, etc., pp. 33, 34.

— 185 —
of labour for these groups in a detailed way. But so far eveiy
attempt to get an award for general farm workers has failed.
A recent attempt, made in 1925 for the Otago and Southlands
district, was refused by the court on the ground that not
enough of the farm workers in the district were organised in the
trade union making the application 1. Previous applications
were refused in 1908 and 1919.
The importance of the seasonal worker is due to the remarkable
seasonal organisation of the whole agricultural industry.
Sheep-breeding itself is divided into two distinct types. The
greater part of the industry is carried on on high, hilly, and
unploughable ground, where the sheep are left undisturbed for
six months in the year. Lower down is semi-cultivated country,
and here the second part of the industry is carried on, namely,
the fattening of lambs ; this is combined with cropping in
mixed farms. Shearing operations over the whole industry
last for about four months, and this busy period coincides
with the slack period of crop cultivation. Crops are sewn
before and after the shearing season, in spring and autumn.
In January, when shearing begins to slacken, the crops begin
to ripen ; also lambs are then fit for killing, and the important
freezing industry draws off labour for about six months. Some
labour is also wanted after the threshing for general work,
fencing, ditching, ploughing, etc. Thus there is a continuous
movement of labour throughout the year along well-defined
channels. The busiest season is the summer, when musterers
and packers are wanted in the hilly pastoral districts, and
shearers are required everywhere. They work in gangs and are
accommodated in temporary buildings, subject to inspection.
The different character of the sheep shorn in different parts of
the country, some requiring hand-shearing, while others can
be machine-shorn, is a cause of difficulty in the drawing up
of awards for wages. Another great difficulty is the fact that
awards have to be made in seven different districts ; for a
national industry like shearing, where workers move freely
about the country during the whole season, this is a great
drawback. In general, however, New Zealand is undoubtedly
a country where seasonal agricultural work is much better
1
Industrial and Labour Information, Vol. XVI, No. 13, pp. 616-619.
In disputed cases the Court of Arbitration has to decide whether an
agricultural worker comes within the class of skilled workers mentioned
in an award.

— 186 —
organised and better paid than permanent agricultural work 1.
The intense demand for labour during the shearing season
induces a certain number of smaller farmers and their sons
to offer their services as shearers. Such smaller farmers refuse
to join the workers' unions, which sometimes complain that the
services of their members are undersold in this way 2 ; many
smaller farmers are members of an employers' union s .
As New Zealand is a recently-developed country some interest
attaches to the custom of a share-contract in the milking industry,
which has in the past given workers starting without capital
a chance to work their way up to independence. The sharemilking contract is a share-profit contract, made for a year.
In a model draft agreement drawn up by an important dairy
association, it is expressly stated that the share-milker is
neither partner nor tenant of the person with whom the agreement is made. A farm and so many head of cattle are let
out to the share-milker, who, under instructions from Ms
principal, carries on a milking business for the period of the
contract. It should be observed that the share-milker, while
in many respects he is an employee of his principal, can also
employ other persons on his own account. The census of 1921
showed 730 share-milkers (including 62 women). Of these
150 were themselves employers of labour, 355 were working
on their own account but not employing others, 38 had relatives
assisting them unpaid, and 180 were working for wages (in
addition to their share of the profits). This seems to show
that the share-milking contract is in its nature a profit-sharing
contract which has nothing to do with the status of the person
entering into it. The share-milking contract implies occupation
of a house and farm, and from the worker's point of view provided
him with living for his family during a period when living was
particularly expensive ; its disadvantage was that the sharemilker was accustomed to move from one farm to another on
a fresh contract. With the development of more continuous
and scientific dairy farming it is to be assumed that sharemilking contracts will cease to be used. They have been of
interest as a "stepping stone for many a man to get a farm on
1
Information supplied by the secretary of the New Zealand Labour
Party.
2
New Zealand Worker, 19 Aug. 1926, and New Zealand Herald, 4
Sept. 1926.
3
New Zealand Official Year Book, p. 764.

— 187 —
his own account" l . The share-milking contract has some
resemblances to the share-farming contract of south Europe ;
the difference is that the capital supplied by the principal
is in the form of stock rather than in the form of land.
In general, it cannot be said that the agricultural workers
of New Zealand are effectively organised. Of 55,549 wageearning agricultural and pastoral workers noted in the census
of 1921 only 1,798, or about 3 per cent., were organised in registered
unions ; the lowest percentage of registered organisation noted
in any other industry was 24 per cent, (hotels and restaurants).
Saw-milling and forestry is a separate industry, and of 12,904
wage-earning workers 4,656, or 36 per cent., were organised in
1921, by far the larger proportion in saw-mill works.
(1) The New Zealand Workers' Union is the only national
union which makes provision for agricultural workers throughout the country. It has organised shearers and shed-hands,
musterers, packers, and drovers, and has partially organised
farm labourers, ploughmen, shepherds, harvesters, and threshing-mill employees ; it is owing to this organisation that the
awards referred to above have been obtained. Its total membership (6,000) also includes road and construction workers.
The union is affiliated to the New Zealand Alliance of Labour.
Recently an agreement has been arrived at between the union
and the Freezing Workers' Federation for the issue of a universal
ticket, which will carry a worker into both industries.,
(2) Flax workers are organised into four unions at Auckland,
Wellington, Westland, and Southland 2 .
REPRESENTATION

AT T H E

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

New Zealand has not been represented at the Sessions of
the Conference.
POLAND

Polish official statistics distinguish between smallholdings
and large holdings ; the line is drawn at 50 hectares of land
(total area). According to censuses taken in 1920 and 1921, 64
1
Information supplied to the International Labour Office by the
agency of the secretary of the New Zealand Labour P a r t y .
2
Statement supplied by the secretary of the New Zealand Labour
Parly.

— 188 —
per cent, of Polish territory is held in smallholdings, to the
number of 3,300,000 ; of these pretty nearly one-third cover
less than 2 hectares of land, the second third, between 2 and
5 hectares, and the remaining third between 5 and 20 hectares.
Again, there are only 107,500 farms of an area between 20 and
50 hectares and 6,254 between 50 and 100 hectares. Moreover,
while the aggregate area of the last class is only 436,466 hectares,
8,948 estates of between 100 and 500 hectares make up an
aggregate area of 2,121,000 hectares, and ,4,250 estates of
over 500 hectares an aggregate area of 7,936,000 hectares.
In other words, farms of medium size play no great rôle in
Polish agriculture 1.
Further, 3,800,000 hectares are held by the State or public
institutions.
Part of the land belonging to large estates has been let out
to tenants, but as a different system has been applied when
taking the census of small and of large estates these holdings
have sometimes been counted twice.
Up to the end of 1925 6,886 estates with an area of 608,219
hectares had been parcelled out under agrarian reform legislation 2.
In 1920 135,000 holdings were granted to agricultural
workers and domestic servants as part wages ; 120,000 of these
were less than 1 hectare in size. Holders of dwarf farms
(up t o 2 - 3 hectares) gain their principal living by outside work ;
holders of farms from 3 to 7 hectares their principal source of
income by work on their farm, but wage-paid work is still necessary. Farms of 7 to 15 hectares are real family holdings
completely absorbing the work of the farmer and his family.
On farms of 15 to 100 hectares the farmer, beside his own and
his family's manual labour, must also employ wage-paid workers3.
The census of large estates taken in 1920 gave some information with regard to the number of workers engaged on these
1

The Polish Handbook, 1925. A Guide to the Country and Resources
of the Republic of Poland;
Edited by Francis Bauer CZARNOMSKI ;
London, 1925. And t h e Almanach Polonais ; Paris, 1926.
•

2

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE of AGRICULTURE : Agricultural

Problems

in their International Aspect. (Document prepared for t h e International
Economic Conference.) League of Nations Document C. E. I. 36. Geneva,
May 1927.
3
L'Essor de l'Agriculture polonaise el sa portée mondiale.
Reprinted
from Le Guide du Commerce Mondial.
Warsaw, 1922.

— 189 —
estates ; the total number of workers so engaged was 620,000 * ;
for details see table below :
Permanently employed manual workers

Number
of
estates

Supervising
staff

Employed
about
Employed animals
on crops
and on
general
farm
work

Farm
servants

Rural Seasonal
artisans workers

Private
estates . 15,983 30,367 177,267 136,868 49,685 26,904 180,785
Church
2,556
1,811
2,506
347
lands .
709 . 532
4,439
Other
public
1,267
723
429
154
121
426
2,987
property
16,713 31,325 181,110 139,402 59,620 27,405 188,211

The groups of agricultural workers, to be found in Poland
are not uniform throughout the country. On the contrary,
they differ according to whether they date back to the period
when the present territory of Poland was divided up between
three States. A general description cannot therefore be given ;
the following remarks apply particularly to the territory formerly
part of Russia.
On the small farms only unmarried workers are engaged,
who are lodged and boarded by the farmer and who receive,
in addition, some wages in kind. This group exists also on
the large estates, but is not very important (cf. table above).
It is stated that this class is disappearing, because the employers
prefer married workers who have their own household and who
are mostly paid in kind. This class, the "deputatists", forms
the most important group of agricultural workers. They
receive, as part of their wages in kind, a dwelling (sometimes
in a block-building), a plot of land for potatoes, and the right
of keeping one or two cows. They are engaged per year.
The members of their family working on the estate, are paid
per day.
Another group are the "komorniks", who receive a dwelling,
half as much potato land, and half the amount of other wages
1
Siatislique de la Pologne publiée par l'Office Central de la Statistique
de la République Polonaise. Tome V, "Grande propriété foncière".
Warsaw, 1925.

— 190 —
in kind received by the "deputatists" ; on the other hand, they
receive a higher cash wage.
The day-labourers proper, sometimes called "free workers",
are mostly smallholders, whose families are not able to live
from the produce of their holding. They are mostly employed
in forestry work and for harvest work. Besides this type of
cheap labour there is a group of seasonal workers engaged from
April to October. These workers are lodged by the employer,
often in block-buildings, but not boarded by him ; they receive
part of their wages in kind. They are mostly migratory
workers, coming from the mountainous parts of the country.
The wages and allowances of all groups are covered by collective agreements.
The history of the organisation of agricultural workers is
not known. In West Poland it is, of course, that of the German
organisation before the war. With regard to Galicia, it is stated
that even in 1919 agricultural workers possessed no trade unions 1 .
At present there exist three unions of agricultural workers,
each affiliated with a central organisation, and one independent
union of horticultural workers. The unions are :
(1) The Trade Union of Agricultural Workers in the Polish
Republic (Zwiazek Zawodowy Robotnikow Rolnych), which
is affiliated with the Federation of Trade Unions in Poland
(Zwiazek Stowarzyszen Zawodowych w. Polsie, Soc-Dem.). This
union is also a member of the International Land Workers'
Federation, and has 64 branches, with about 72,000 members,
of whom 52,000 are stated to be regularly contributing members.
Smallholders are admitted to this union on an equal footing
with agricultural workers if they perform paid work in agriculture, forestry, or similar industries on account of another
person in addition to cultivating their own holdings. The
committee of the union prefers, however, to organise these
smallholders in separate sub-sections. In a circular to the local
branches of the union an invitation was given to create smallholders' sub-sections, at the same time pointing out the need.
for attracting this type of cultivator.
(2) The Union of Agricultural and Forestry Workers (Zwiazek Zobotnikow Rolnych i Lesnych), which is affiliated with the
Federation of Trade Unions (Zgednoczearie Zamodowe Polskie,
1

Op. cit., p. 362.

* - 191 —
National). The union has five principal branches with 86,000
members. This union also admits smallholders, but again
only when they perform paid work on account of another.
(3) The Christian Trade Union of Agricultural Workers
(Chrzescijanski Zwiazek Zawodowy Robotnikow Rolnych) affiliated
with the Federation of Christian Trade Unions (Chrzescijanski
Zjednocienid Zawodowe w Rzeczypospoliief Polskiej) ; this union
has about 21,000 members, of whom one-half are stated to be
regular contributing members.
(4) The Union of Horticultural Workers (Polski Zwiazek
Zawodowy Ogroduikow), not affiliated with any central Federation.
REPRESENTATION

AT THE

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

1919 : Workers' Delegate: Mr. BERNATOWICZ, president of the Polish
Workers' Union.
1921 : Workers' Delegate: Mr. WASZKIEWICZ.
1922 : Workers' Delegate: Mr. Andrzy TELLER, secretary-general t o
the Metal Workers' Federation.
1923 : Workers' Delegate: Mr. Aloytz K O T , vice-president of the Miners'
Trade Union at Kartovice.
1924 : Workers' Delegate: Mr. Andrzy TELLER.
1925 : Workers' Delegate: Mr. Leon LESNIEWSKI, president of t h e
Agricultural Workers' Association in the Polish Trade Union
Federation.
1926 : Workers' Delegate: Mr. Andrzy T E L L E R .

All nominations have been made in agreement with the
National Polish Trade Union Federation.
In 1921 the Credentials Committee had to consider a protest
made against the nomination of the Workers' Delegate ; the
credentials were confirmed.
PORTUGAL

^Figures of the exact distribution of land in Portugal are not
available. Large properties dominate in many districts, especially in the mountainous districts of the North and South,
and the dry plateau towards the centre of the Iberian peninsular.
Medium-sized and small properties are frequent in the vineyard
districts of the valley of the Douro and in the sea-coast districts
where fruiticulture is carried on. Large properties are principally devoted to stock-keeping, while mixed farming is carried
on in medium-sized properties. According to the census of
1911, the total agricultural population was nearly 334 million

— 192 —
persons, out of a total population of not quite 6 millions.
Employers, independent workers,
paid workers (other t h a n
farm servants)
Members of cultivators' families
Farm servants
Total

Men

1,107,948
533,951
16,690
1,658,589

Women

Together

334,416
1,404,867
42,204
1,781,487

1,442,362
1,938,818
58,894
3,440,074

The large estates devoted to stock-breeding employ wagepaid workers in charge of their stock and engaged during the
whole of the year, and, in addition, day-labourers for the periods
of the sowing and the harvests. Both permanent workers
and day-labourers seem often to be attached to the farm by a
contract of tenancy for a small parcel of land, the cultivation
of which they combine with their work for an employer. The
regular share-farming system does not seem to be very frequent ;
payment of rent for the parcel is, however, a payment in kind,
either on a fixed or a variable basis. The medium-sized farms
also engage, from time to time, day-labourers, and, if of a
certain size, may even employ a permanent worker or workers.
Workers, if engaged by the small farmer during special pressure
of work, are paid by the day, with or without board.
The organisation of agricultural workers is regional and
a certain number of organisations, each called Associacelo dos
iiabalhadores ruraes, are noted, with headquarters at Lisbon,
Cabeçao, Moura, Santo Bartolomeu de Messines, and Soncel.
These organisations confine their membership to the class
of day-labourers and do not appear to touch the group of real
small tenants. The organisations hold congresses from time
to time. At one congress, which was held in September 1925,
the demands were entirely devoted to the improvement of
conditions which affect workers working on a contract of
labour and not by way of tenancy, e.g. a demand for the eighthour day in agriculture, against payment by piecework, and for
the protection of women and children. Further demands
were for the nationalisation of land, machinery, etc. 1 The
movement stands entirely to the Left.
REPRESENTATION

AT T H E INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE

1919 :

Workers' Delegate:

}¿.Ín~

Government Delegates only.

1

Industrial

Mr. Alfredo FRANCO.

and Labour Information,

Vol. X V I , No. 9.

— 193 —
SPAIN

The distribution of land in Spain is a question of great importance which has given rise to many difficulties. The under«ultivation of certain areas has gone on simultaneously with the
existence of great unemployment among the rural population S
An important Settlement Act of 1907 has had as a result the
redistribution of certain areas and their closer settlement.
The following figures are given as to the distribution of land
in Spain 8 .
In all 6,662,546 holdings have been surveyed, of which nearly
5,000,000 were less than 1 hectare and presumably cannot be
counted as independent undertakings. Of holdings over 1
hectare over 1 y2 millions were in the group 1-10 hectares, and
over 110,000 in the group 10-50 hectares. This clearly shows
that smallholding is very common in Spain. As a matter of
fact, large and small property is much mixed, but a rough line
of demarcation can be drawn separating off a broad area,
largely devoted to culture of fruits and vegetables, to the
north, east, and south-east of the country, where smallholding
is prevalent. Large estates, often fringed round with smallholdings, predominate in the drier centre and the west, where
•cereals and vine are grown.
Nearly 40 per cent, of the aggregate area surveyed was held
on lease, though the proportion of the area so held differs very
much in the different provinces. Share-farming is not very
common and covers only 6 per cent of all holdings.
As was shown above, smallholdings are often of the nature
of dwarf holdings, totally insufficient to support a family.
Certain figures collected in 1924 and applying to about onethird of the country showed no fewer than 847,548 holdings
producing an average income of less than one peseta a day, while
another 147,710 holdings produced less than 5 pesetas a day ;
by contrast only 31,164 holdings produced over 5 pesetas a
d a y 3 . The population engaged in agriculture was, on the
census of 1910, 4,220,518 persons (3,861,089 men and 359,429
women).
1
Fernando de LOS R Í O S : " T h e Agrarian Problem in Spain", in
International Labour Review, Vol. X I , No. 6, J u n e 1925.
a

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE : International

Review

of Agriculture. New Series, Year X V I I I , No. 1, F e b . 1927.
3
L o s R í o s , op. cit.
13

— 194 —
In general, it may be said that the line between the owner
of land and the wage-paid worker is not very clearly drawn.
Smallholders and "intermediate" groups of cultivators are very
common, and the tenancy or other contracts by which
the occupation and cultivation of their plots are regulated show
an enormous variety 1. Referring to these groups the Spanish
Government has recently stated :
Spain is a country which has a very high percentage of independent
workers whose economic position is not appreciably better t h a n t h a t
of workers in m a n y wage-earning occupations. Artisans and small
tradespeople are very numerous and so are small agricultural proprietors.
Each year these groups increase and it m a y be anticipated t h a t in some
districts new sections of small proprietors will be created. Besides,
there are more t h a n 600,000 families which cultivate land belonging
to someone else without being paid wages (tenant farmers, sharefarmers, etc.) 2.

The General Union of Agricultural Workers (Union general
de Trabajadores de Espana), which is one of the principal national
organisations of workers, includes unions of agricultural workers.
In 1926 the General Union held an enquiry among 41 of its
agricultural unions in the provinces or districts of Andalusia,
Aragon, Catalonia, New and Old Castile, Extremadura, Levante,
Murcia, Navarre. Membership of these unions, where given,
varies within the limits of 20 and 500 persons ; all the unions
are thus seen to be local unions. Some of them are affiliated
to provincial federations. The dates of foundation of these
unions are all (with one exception) subsequent to 1900, the
period of greatest expansion being apparently toward the end
of, and after, the war.
In reply to the specific question as to whether these unions
admitted smallholders, etc., 36 answers were received, of which
12 were in the affirmative and 24 in the negative. Of the 12
unions answering in the affirmative, 2 noted that small cultivators admitted to the union worked their own holding only, and
9 noted that they took paid work on other holdings as well ;
1 did not answer this question. No union had a separate
section for small cultivators as distinct from wage-earning
workers. Relations with smallholders in general were frequently described as "good" or "cordial".
1

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE : International

Review

of Agricultural Economics, 1923 ; New Series, Vol. I, No. 1, p p . 19-36 :
"Share Tenancy in Spain." Communicated by t h e Agricultural Social
Section of t h e Institute of Social Reform, Madrid.
s

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR

CONFERENCE

1927) : Report on Sickness Insurance, p . 47.

(Tenth

Session,

Geneva,

—-195 —
Of the 24 unions which refuse to admit small cultivators,
16 noted that small cultivators in their district were accustomed
to seek wage-paid work. Some of the answers were critical
of the practices of small cultivators in this respect. The union
of Alicante states that small cultivators are opposed to their
organisation and work very long hours. The union of Acenchal
(Extremadura) states that small cultivators exploit themselves
in working for others. The union of La Neeva Era of Cadiz
states that small cultivators often ignorantly assume the attitude
of employers.
The present programmes of Spanish workers lays great stress
on the need for land-tenure reform, including the need for better
cultivation of under-cultivated areas, conciliation committees as
between landowners and small tenants, etc., and extension
of social protection legislation to wage-earning agricultural
workers and to small cultivators 1.
REPRESENTATION

AT THE

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

1919 : Workers' Delegate: Mr. Francisco Largo CABALLERO, secretary of
the General Union of Spanish Workers.
1921-1
1926 Workers' Delegate: Mr. CABALLERO.

Mr. Caballero has been nominated in agreement with the
General Union of Spanish Workers (Union general de Trabajadores de Espana).
8 W E DEN

It is the medium-sized and the small holding which predominate in Swedish agriculture 2. Nearly 50 per cent, of the arable
land is cultivated in holdings having an area from 10-50 hectares,
30 per cent, in holdings over this size, and the remainder is
distributed over a limited number of large estates, about 8,000.
Many of these are not in the hands of private persons, but are
owned by industrial companies, e.g. by saw-mill companies,
iron-works, etc. There exist no lees than 120,000 holdings of
less than 2 hectares, whose owners or tenants must obtain their.
principal living from wage-paid work ; in addition, many of
the cultivators of the 200,000 holdings between 2 and 10 hectares
1

Industrial and Labour Information, Vol. XV, No. 13, p. 567.
' The Swedish Agricultural Labourer, published by Order of the
Swedish Government's Delegation for International Collaboration in
Social Politics. Stockholm, 1921. 94 pp.

— 196 —
in area must at least supplement what they derive from
their holding in the same way. But some persons classed as
workers holding land have so much land that they need not
seek other employment. In few countries is the line between
worker and independent farmer more difficult to draw than in
Sweden.
The total population engaged in agriculture in Sweden is
over 1,000,000, which, according to the census of 31 December
1910, can be grouped in the following w a y J :
Landowners and tenant farmers
Crofters
Cottars and other'holders of small plots '. '.
Total : occupiers of land
Stewards, inspectors, book-keepers, etc.. . .
Agricultural apprentices
Bailiffs and foremen
Total : agricultural administrative staff
Married farm servants
Unmarried „
Cattlemen
Other agricultural workers
Total : wage-paid workers
Working members of the families of :
Landowners and tenant farmers
Crofters
Cottars and other holders of small plots .
Married farm servants
Total : working members of families .
Grand total

Men

Women

275,212
59 650
22'658
357,520
3,092
887
6,120
10,099
25,423
38,289
4,961
106,451
174,127

27,290
4135
10^501
41,926
8
—
—
8
42
51,193
2,211
25,248
78,694

153,946
28,327
6,605
3,930
192,808
734,551

142,852
26,443
8,705
4,008
182,008
302,636

The number of forestry workers and timber floaters at the
date of the census was 31,300. On the other hand, the Swedish
Social Board estimates the number of persons finding winter
employment in the forest districts to be between 100,000 and
150,000, districts of minor importance not being taken into
consideration 2.
It has already been stated that some of the landowners and
tenants are partly employed persons ; they therefore form the
bridge to the class of crofters, cottars, and holders of plots.
"Crofter" is the designation used by the Swedish authorities
in their English publications for a tenant-worker, called in
1

SVERIGES O F F I C I E L L A STATISTIK. F o L K M A E N G D E N OCH DESS F Ö R A E N -

DRiNGAR : Folkräkningen den 31 December 1910. I l l : "Folkmängdens
Fördelning efter Yrken." Stockholm, 1917. 455 pp.
2
See K. SOCIALSTYRELSEN : Sodala Meddelanden, 1927, No. 3, p. 198.

— 197 —
Swedish a iorpare. Originally the crofter was a person hiring
a holding and paying the rent on that holding by doing a
certain number of days' work on his landlord's farm. This
form of contract was in 1910 only in force on 33 per cent, of
crofters' holdings ; on 10 per cent, the rent had been partly
commuted for money, and on the remaining 57 per cent. * wholly
so commuted ; this calculation did not include the. crofters
in Northern Sweden, who are called crofters but really own their
holdings. The "cottars" are tenants of cottages without any
formal obligation to carry out work for their landlords. A
few generations ago they were a very poor class, but are now
better off, especially in the industrialised tracts, and do not
differ from the smallholding day-labourer class found in other
countries. Of the crofters, cottars, and other smallholders,
about one-fifth are estimated to have a holding large enough
to maintain themselves and their families.
The permanent workers themselves include a group which
is not without land, namely, the married farm servants. They
have their own household and receive a part of their wages in
kind, the so-called siat (whence their name statare), which always
consists of a dwelling, usually with a plot for potatoes, and sometimes, instead of milk, an allotment for pasturing a cow.
It may be noted that there are a large number of women farm
servants. It is indicated that there are 3,634 (111 men and
3,523 women) servants engaged in personal service. Swedish
statistics have, of course, had to deal with the difficulty of
classifying servants as either domestic servants or farm servants.
"The line between farm work and domestic work is extremely
vague. Nevertheless it would seem that male servants work to
a predominating extent on farm work proper, while female
servants are mainly employed for domestic work at the farmhouse." a
In the table the group "other agricultural workers" includes
1
Crofters who have wholly commuted their obligation to labour
for a money rent often continue to work on their landlord's farm ;
although the formal connection between tenancy and obligatory work
for the landlord-employer has been abolished, its influence still subsists
in practice. It keeps the rent low, but at the same time tends to depress
wages below their free market value. See : Arbetartillgäng, arbetslid och
arbetslön inom Sveriges jordbruck ar 1922 jämte speciaìundersòkning
vissa Ione- och arbetsförhällanden (Del. 1) ; Idem for 1923 ; (Del. 2).
Sveriges officiella Statistik ; Socialstatislik Stockholm, 1925. Summarised in
the International Labour Review, Vol. XII, No. 4.
2
The Swedish Agricultural Labourer.

— 198 —
members of the family of such workers engaged in agriculture ;
members of the family of holders of land and of married farm
servants are classified separately, because it is impossible to
estimate whether the work carried out by these persons is done
on the farm at which they reside or whether they only lived at
home and worked on the farms of others. This depends, of
course, mostly upon the size of the holding.
The total estimated number of agricultural workers, when
excluding smallholders on holdings of a size sufficient to support
a family, and including working members of cultivators' families (but not of landowners' or tenant farmers' families) is about
400,000, but "of these only 100,000 are employed on large farms
(of 50 hectares and over of arable land), and can be regarded
as giving rise to agricultural labour questions in the proper
sense of that term" 1.
Swedish statistics classify agricultural workers by occupation
into four principal groups, again divided into sub-groups :
(a) Stable and cattle-shed staff : stable foremen and
cattle-shed foremen ; grooms, dressers, shepherds, swineherds, etc.
(b) Field workers : farm foremen, head drivers, drivers,
ordinary field workers.
(c) Skilled workmen and specialised workers : gardenerforemen, smiths, joiners, carpenters, engineers, motormechanics, machinery mechanics, motor drivers, forestry
workers, gardeners, labourers, drain-diggers, apprentices,
etc.
(d) Other workers : lumber workers, wood-cutters, etc.
The more detailed classification does not apply to women
workers ; the only sub-grouping of women workers is of stable
and cattle-shed staff into milkmaids and other workers.
The right of combination is unrestricted in Sweden for agricultural workers as for other workers, but until recently the
Master and Servants Act of 1833 bound agricultural workers
engaged under that Act to their service a whole year, always
running from 24 October. This date was thus the only date
on which a strike comprising all organised agricultural workers
could begin ; as it was just before the winter such a strike
1

Ibid.

— 199 —
promised small success. This Act was repealed on 25 May 1926.
In 1898 agricultural workers in Scania created a trade union
in order to obtain better wages, but when those better wages
were obtained the union was dissolved. In 1904 a Union of
Land Workers in Scania was created, with the assistance of organised workers in Malmö. This organisation progressed rapidly
in the next four years, and succeeded after several strikes, which
in some cases lasted a long time, in getting collective agreements
for wages and labour conditions in certain districts. The Union
of Land Workers in Mid-Sweden, createdin 1906, was independent
of this union 1. Its membership was specially drawn from
workers on farms belonging to industrial undertakings. The
two unions were amalgamated in 1908 to form the existing
Union of Swedish Farm Workers, which asked for, and was
admitted to, affiliation with the Confederation of Trade Unions
in Sweden. It had at that time about 10,000 members. Then
•came the reaction. After the agricultural workers had obtained
some improvement in their wage conditions through their union,
they showed less interest for their organisation and, partly
owing to the influence of a strike of municipal workers in Malmö
in 1908, and especially as an effect of the general strike in 1909,
left the union in such numbers that its finance was undermined and further progress made impossible. The union
had to withdraw from the Confederation, and it was not until
ten years later, in October 1918, that, through the initiative
of the Confederation, a reconstruction took place, or rather
that a new Union of Swedish Farm Workers was created by
amalgamation of local unions.
A year later the union had again 10,000 members. In
1918 there had also been created the Uppland Union of Farm
Workers with about 4,000 members, and in 1919 for the first
time a national collective agreement in agriculture was signed
in' Sweden. But already in the same year the agricultural
workers in Mid-Sweden left the Union of Swedish Farm Workers
and created their own organisation. At the same time there
•existed a few other small unions of agricultural and forestry
"workers. However, in the winter of 1921-1922 amalgamation
of all these unions took place, with the exception of the Uppland
Union, which is still outside the Union of Swedish Farm Workers.
1
K. SOCIALSTYRELSEN : Sodala
No. 1.

Meddelaiideix, 1919, No. 7-8 ; 1921,

— 200 —
A lack of centralisation seems always to have been a weakness
of the land workers' unions in Sweden.
The present state of affairs is as follows.
The organisation plan laid down by the Confederation of
Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen, i Sverge) would assign t o
the Union of Swedish Agricultural Workers all crofters {torpare}
and workers who are engaged in agricultural work, namely,.
day-labourers, gardeners, and similar persons such as smallholders
and forestry workers not being employed in work which would
cause them to be assigned to the Union of Forestry Workers
and Timber Floaters ; and to the Union of Forestry Workers
and Timber Floaters all workers engaged in forestry work, such
as hewers, drivers, etc., as well as timber floaters.
(1) The Union of Swedish Agricultural Workers (Svenska
Lantarbetareförbundei) aims at uniting all workers engaged
in Swedish agriculture in one general organisation. Every
man or woman of 15 years of age, being either a farm servant,
crofter, or other small cultivator, groom or cattle tender, dairy
worker, day-labourer, farm-smith, farm joiner, gardener, forestry
worker, etc., has the right to join the union. The union has
160 branches, with a total membership of 6,205, namely 6,131
men and 74 women. The union states that it is exceptional
for smallholders who own their holding to join the union, but
they are entitled to do so. On the other hand, it is very common
for a crofter or tenant, provided he is forced to work, to become
a member of the organisation, together with his own employees.
At its last conference the union decided to join the General
Confederation of Swedish Trade Unions as soon as it was found
possible. The union is a member of the International Federation
of Land workers.
(2) The Uppland Union of Farm Workers (Upplands Lantarbeiareforbund), with which the Union of Swedish Agricultural
Workers earlier collaborated (see above). Decisions have
lately been taken to examine the possibilities of a renewed
collaboration.
(3) The Union of Forestry Workers and Timber Floaters
(Svenska Skogs- och Flotlningsarbetareförbundel) was founded
early in 1918. The preamble of its constitution states that
the union is an organisation which, in accordance with the
organisation plan of the Confederation of Trade Unions, shall

~ 201
cover the whole country and shall comprise all workers engaged
in forestry and timber floating and all subsidiary work, whether
they are landless workers, crofters, settlers, tenants, or owners
of farms. The union has 450 branches and nearly 20,000
members. The union itself states that it operates almost
entirely outside regular wage-paid labour in Swedish agriculture. Over 90 per cent, of the population group which the
union tries to organise is composed of small farmers and other
small cultivators, who spend a portion of their time in paid
forestry or timber-floating work. These largely make use
of their right to join the union ; an investigation made some
years ago showed that 60 per cent, of the members were either
farmers or sons of farmers.
The union adds that organisations of farmers collaborating
with workers' organisations do not exist in Sweden, but that
they themselves seem to have succeeded in establishing collaboration between landless andlandh olding persons as far as
concerns the taking care of common interests in forestry and
timber-floating work.
REPRESENTATION

1919 :
1921 :

1922-j
1923 \
1924 :
1926

AT THE

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

Workers' Delegate: Mr. H e r m a n LINDQUIST, president of
the Federation of Trade Unions in Sweden.
Workers' Delegate: Mr. E d v a r d JOHANSSON, secretary to
the Federation of Trade Unions in Sweden.
Adviser:
Mr. Albin HANSSON, secretary of the Swedish Agricultural
Workers' Union.
Workers' Delegate: Mr. Arvid THORBERG, president of t h e
Federation of Trade Unions in Sweden.
Workers' Delegate: Mr. E d v a r d JOHANSSON.
Workers' Delegate: Mr. Arvid THORBERG.

All nominations have been made in agreement with the
Confederation of Trade Unions in Sweden.
SWITZERLAND

The wage-earning agricultural worker plays only a small rôle
in Swiss agriculture. The reason is that smallholding predominates, and the majority of persons engaged in the industry
are holders of land and their families. Smallholdings are
defined as holdings less than 5 hectares, and anything over
15 hectares is considered a large holding 1 . In 1905 only
1
Thus, for example, in the annual reports on farm accounts issued
by the secretariat of the Swiss Farmers' Union (Secrétariat de l'Union
des paysans
suisses).

•— 202 —
10 per cent, of all holdings had an area of more than 15 hectares
of arable land, and only 3 per cent, one of over 30 hectares of
such land 1 .
In the years before the war the farming population steadily
declined, but the number of wage-earning agricultural workers
even more markedly. In 1888 agricultural workers had made
up 29 per cent, of all persons engaged in agriculture ; in 1910,
only 21 per cent. In 1920 the decline, both in total farming
population and in number of wage-earning workers, came to a
stop, but whether this marked a real change or was only the
effect of the war it is as yet too early to judge.
In 1920 the number of persons engaged in agriculture was :
Farmers, i.e. landowners, tenants, share-farmers . . . .
Working members of farmers' families
Technical a n d managing staff
F a r m servants, agricultural day-labourers
Total

206,544
155,235
1,329
96,575
459,683

Of the wage-earning agricultural workers 85,518 were men
and 11,050 women : it is possible that, in addition, some of
the 13,989 female domestic servants on farms are partly engaged
in agricultural work 2.
The number of wage-earning workers engaged on each farm
is very small and the aim of many is to become independent
farmers and not to remain employees all their lives. Most
agricultural wage-earning workers are unmarried ; the engagement of married workers as farm servants is very rare, "but
they play a rôle as day-labourers in certain districts" s .
Under the circumstances both the possibility of, and the
need for, an organisation of agricultural workers is small.
Both the Christian Federation of Swiss Trade Unions (Christlichnationaler Gewerkschaftsbund der Schweiz) and the Federation
of Swiss Trade Unions (Union syndicale suisse) state that no
organisation of agricultural workers exists in Switzerland, and
1

Statistique de la Suisse, 168e livraison. Résultats du recensement
fédéral des entreprises agricoles, industrielles et commerciales du 9 août
190S. Exploitation des produits bruts du sol. Berne, 1910.
2

EIDGENOESSISCHES

STATISTISCHES

BUREAU. :

Die

zahlenmässige

Bedeutung der schweizerischen Landwirtschaft. Flugblatt zur IX. Schweizerischen Ausstellung für Landwirtschaft, Forstwirtschaft und Gartenbau,
12-27 Sept. 1925.
3
E . TSCHUMI : "Die heutigen Arbeiterverhältnisse in der Landwirtschaft". Schweizerische Landwirtschaftliche Monatshefte, 1927, No. 3 .

— 203 —

the last-named union adds that no attempt has ever been made
in this direction. Only small groups of gardeners in 1926,
about 200 in all, are affiliated to the Federation of Commercial,
Transport and Food and Drink Workers (Fédération des ouvriers
du commerce, des transports et de Valimentation), which again
is affiliated to the Union of Swiss Trade Unions and to the
International Land Workers' Federation.
REPRESENTATION

1919 :
1921-1
1926 j

AT T H E INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

Workers' Delegate: Mr. Conrad ILG, secretary of t h e Swiss
Federation of Metal and Clock Workers.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. SCHURCH, secretary of the Swiss
Federation of Trade Unions.

UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA

Agriculture is the most important industry in the Union of
South Africa. The non-European population is predominantly
supported by it, and a very considerable section of the white
population is also engaged therein. Of the white population
over 168,000 persons (4,000 women) were occupied in agriculture
(including forestry and horticulture) in 1921 ; this was roughly
one-third of the whole white population (including wives of
farmers). Of these over 121,000 were farmers, while there were
between 12,000 and 13,000 wage-paid workers and about 3,000
salaried employees ; the remaining 30,000 persons were working
members of farmers' families 1.
The facts for the non-white population are still more striking.
Agriculture is by far the most important industry for the nonwhites, who are engaged both in farming on their own account
and as workers on farms owned by whites. In the census of
1921 over 2 % million natives were entered as engaged in agriculture ; the bulk were cultivators, but 368,000 were classed
as farm labourers ; all other occupations together absorbed
less than 1 million persons. There were also nearly a million
persons of Asiatic or mixed race engaged in agriculture.
Farms are usually large and there is much undeveloped
pasture. The majority of farms are owned, but nearly 20,000
farms are leased and there are some share-tenancies. Figures
as to areas of farms are not available.
Apart from the white farmers who are owners and tenants
1

O F F I C E OF CENSUS AND STATISTICS : Third Census of the

Population

of the Union of South Africa enumerated 3 May 1921. P a r t V I : "Occupations and Industries (European)", pp. 8-9 and 24-25. Pretoria, 1925.

— 204 —
of. land, and who, as they usually employ labour, form an easily
recognised group, it is not easy to classify persons engaged in
agriculture in South Africa. White employees are usually
managers or overseers ; they receive, besides a monthly cash
salary, rations and quarters, or else are accommodated in the
farmer's house. There are also white foremen, usually known
as "knechts".
These are, however, the only groups whose remuneration
is on a regular cash basis. Contracts of labour with other
agricultural workers, both native and white, are more complicated :
The industry is not yet generally on a cash basis, or even on a wage
basis. . . the grades of labourer, from share-tenant to pure wage-earner,
are too numerous 1for the rough and ready regulations which a wage
authority imposes .

The contracts of tenancy made with the white bywoners
("neighbours") are in practice partly contracts for a supply
of labour. Bywoners are cultivators who are allowed by the
farmer to occupy a holding attached to his farm on condition
that they cultivate the land they occupy. The continued
maintenance of the bywoner system is due to a general shortage
of agricultural labour, which makes it quite impossible for the
farmer to cultivate his whole estate directly. The bywoner
contract in this and in other ways resembles the métayage or
share-tenancy contract in Europe, except that its terms are
usually much less well defined, and that the bywoners do not,
as do share-tenants in Europe, combine among themselves
to secure better conditions :
In South Africa white labourers for wages or salaries are few in number ; so are tenants at a money rent ; instead there is a peculiar class,
which partakes of the character both of employee and tenant. "We refer
to the bywoner. The terms on which the bywoner occupies land vary
widely and are constantly changing. He is the natural product of the
increase of population in a self-contained, almost patriarchal, pastoral
community. He finds support for himself in the produce he is enabled
to raise with his patron's assistance on land assigned to him by his
patron ; while the latter secures a more or less effective use of land that
he could not effectively use himself, and a number of white assistants,
without whom he would be entirely dependent on native or coloured
labour. The relation under favourable conditions is one that, even
to-day, meets the needs of both parties ; and the system should be
reformed and developed rather than extinguished. But it is often an
indeterminate
relation ; the bywoner has security neither of tenure nor
of status 2.
1
Report of the Economic and Wage Commission (1925).
1926. 392 pp.
2
Ibid.

Cape Town,

— 205 —
The recent report of the Economic and Wage Commissioners
forecasts that the bywoners will eventually become either
wage-paid labourers or regular tenants of land on a cash basis ;
this sufficiently shows the double character of the present
contract.
With the increasing tendency towards intensive as opposed to extensive
farming and the decreasing size of farms, the position of the bywoner
is becoming more and more precarious. The bywoner system is being
adapted to new conditions in a variety of ways. In some instances men
are being taken into the employ of farmers on the basis of a share of
the crops with or without a money wage, their position thus approximating to that of a farm labourer. Several instances were cited to us
of bywoners who had been successful on these terms in saving sufficient
to acquire for themselves a plot of land upon which to start farming
on their own account.
The definition, by formal contracts, of the terms of work and conditions of tenancy, will tend to convert the bywoner into a worker for
wages or into a tenant farming independently and paying a fixed rent.
It will be to the advantage of all parties to hasten this transaction *.

There are roughly 1,600,000 natives on European lands.
These natives are :
(i) squatters,
(ii) labour tenants, or
(iii) full-time servants.
The squatters still form the majority of natives on European
lands. They have no fixed status, but are by custom allowed to
graze so many head of cattle or to cultivate so much ground on
the European's farm, in return for which either rent is paid or
more usually the head of the family contracts to serve on the
European farm for a small remuneration. It is stated that
squatting "involves important principles of agricultural labour
no less than the leasing of land" a.
The labour tenant may roughly be described as a labourpaying squatter whose position is regularised by a definite
contract with his landlord-employer. Under the Natives Land
Act, 1913, a definite contract may be drawn up under which a
native can have the use of land from a white landlord-employer
in consideration of binding himself to render 90 days' service
a year ; he is forbidden to pay " r e n t . . . or valuable consideration of any kind other than service" ; payment of a share of
1
a

Ibid.
Report of the Native Affairs Department for the Years 1922 to 1926.
Cape Town, 1927 ; 24 pp. This publication (pp. 4-7) gives an account of
the present state of landholding among natives in each of the four
Provinces of the Union.

— 206 —
the produce is also excluded. Thus his occupation of land is
dependent on the rendering of service. Should the Native
Lands Act (Amendment) Bill now before Parliament become law
in its present form, the labour tenant will be defined as a person
"necessary" to his employer, will have to render not less than
180 days' service a year, and will be brought under the scope
of the Master and Servants Acts, under which Acts he will be
liable to penal sanctions.
Where either squatters or labour tenants (called in the 1913
Act "farm labourers") are employed as farm workers, every
sort of arrangement as to allowances (lodging, food, wine,
tobacco, coffee, sugar, shoes, old clothing, garden ground, meal,
mealies (maize), milk, meat, occasional slaughter animals,
grazing, free dipping for sheep) are made and the combinations
are endless l . Wages wholly in kind are not exceptional, though
usually a small cash wage is given.
In recent years there has been a great change in farm labour
conditions, at any rate in the Transvaal, where the progressive
farmer prefers full-time paid labour. Such labour is governed
by the Master and Servants Acts, which exist in approximately
similar forms in each of the four Provinces. Their general
effect is to import penal consequences into what in common
law is a purely civil contract, so that the party, whether master
or servant, who commits a breach is exposed not. only to an
action for damages, but to a criminal prosecution (disobedience,
wilful breach of duty, absence without leave or legitimate
excuse, drunkenness on duty, etc., on the part of the servant
and failure to pay wages or to supply food, unreasonable prosecutions, etc., on the part of the master).
(1) Native and coloured (i.e. mixed blood) agricultural
workers are admitted to the Industrial and Commercial Workers'
Union. When the union was first founded in 1919 it concentrated on the organisation of town workers, but states that it
has recently begun to organise agricultural workers, and that
of its present membership of 60,000 one-third are employed in
agriculture. The union is not affiliated to any organisation in
South Africa, but recently became affiliated to the International
Federation of Trade Unions, Amsterdam, on condition that
1
Ibid. See Industrial and Labour Information, Vol. XIX, No. 1,
July 1926, where a short abstract of the information in the Economic
and Wage Commission Report is given.

— 207 —
it agrees to unite with any national federation of trade unions
of white labour that may be formed.
The policy of the union is to press for better conditions for
agricultural workers, especially in regard to the legal validity
of the agricultural labour contract and proper notice of its
termination, and also to advocate the inclusion of agricultural
workers under the Minimum Wage Act, 1925, an Act under which
that industry (and domestic service) are excepted from the
application of the principle of the minimum wage.
REPRESENTATION

1919:
1922 I
1923 :
1924 :
1925 :
1926 :

AT T H E

INTERNATIONAL

LABOUR

CONFERENCE

Workers' Delegate: Mr. Archibald CRAWFORD, secretary to t h e
South African Industrial Federation.
Workers' Delegate: Mr. Archibald CRAWFORD.
Government Delegates only.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. Archibald CRAWFORD.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. H . W. SAMPSON, ex-president of t h e
South African Typographical Union.
Workers' Delegate : Mr. John CURRAN, South Africa Mines Workers'
Union.

A protest has been made at each Session of the Conference
from 1919to 1925 inclusive against the credentials of the Workers'
Delegate, but the credentials have always been confirmed by the
Conference.

APPENDIX

LIST OF WORKERS' DELEGATES IN STATES NOT DEALT
WITH IN PART III OF THIS REPORT
A.

States never represented at the International
Labour
Office : Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Liberia.

B.

States represented at the International Labour Conference,
but which have never sent Workers' Delegates : Albania,
Bolivia. Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Paraguay, Persia, Salvador, Siam, Uruguay, Venezuela.
States sending Workers' Delegates to the International
Labour Conference, and Names of these Delegates

Brazil.
1919
1926
Chile.
1925
1926
Cuba.
19241926
Greece.
1919
1921
19241925
1926

Dr. Fausto FERRAZ.
Mr. Carlos DIAS, member of the Committee for the Reorganisation of Printing and Newspaper Workers.
Mr. Galileo URZUA.
Mr. Alejandro GALLEGOS.

Dr. Francisco Domenech VINAJERAS (from the National
Association of Teachers).
Mr. Timoleon LAMBRINOPOULOS, assistant secretary of
the Greek General Confederation of Labour.
Mr. D. CREMESIS.

Mr. Timoleon LAMBRINOPOULOS.

Mr. Jean KALOMIRIS, member of the Executive Committee
of the General Confederation of Labour.

Guatemala.
1919 : Mr. Manuel MORENO.
India.
1919- j Mr. Narayan Malhar JOSHI, secretary, Social Service
1922 j
League, Bombay.
1923 : Mr. K. C. Roy CHOWBURY.
1924 : Mr. Joseph BAPTISTA, M.L.C.,
1925
1926

vice-president of the
All-India Trade Union Congress ; president of the
Bombay Provincial Trade Union Congress.
Mr. Narayan Malhar JOSHI, joint general secretary of
the All-India Trade Union Congress.
Mr. M. DAUD, M.A., B.L., M.L.C., general secretary,
Indian Seamen's Union, Calcutta.

— 210 —
Luxemburg.
1921 :
1925 :
Norway.
1919 :
19211922
1925
1926

(
\
:
:

Mr. J e a n W I R T G E N .

Mr. Pierre K R I E R , secretary of t h e Trades Union Committee of Luxemburg.
Mr. Jens T E I G E N , secretary of t h e Norwegian Workers'
Trade Association.
Mr. Erik K L E V E (smallholder).
Mr. Jens T E I G E N .

Mr. Lars Chr. STEENDAL, secretary-general of t h e Association of Engineers in t h e Mercantile Marine.

Panama.
1919 :

Mr. Andres MOJICA.

1919 :

Mr. Victor PUJAZON,
Labourers.

Peru.
Central

International

Union of

Rumania.
1924- | Mr. J . FLUERAS, president of t h e General Trade Union
1925 j
Council.
Serb-Croat-Slovene
Kingdom.
1919 : Mr. Sveta FRANTZ, secretary t o t h e Labour Union of
Ljubljana.
1921 : Mr. Velim BOUKCHEG, General Federation of Labour.
1922 : Mr. Bogdan KREKITCH, secretary t o t h e Federation of
Railway Workers.
1923 :

Mr. Vladima P F E I F E R .

1924 :

Mr. Bogdan KREKITCH, secretary t o t h e General Federation of Labour.
1925- I Mr. Givko TOPALOVITCH, secretary t o the Central Office
1926 j
of the Workers' Trade Unions.

imp. tlu Journal U« Gsn*vt