COLONISING ENGLAND
By R. F. SCOTT
THERE has appeared, during recent weeks, a mass of literature and statistical 'matter acclaiming, with a just sense of satisfaction, the return to this country of con- ditions of economic prosperity and even " boom." But there is an important section of the people which the enheartening rays of prosperity have but flickered on and failed to penetrate. The prospects which face the bulk of our industrial youth today are not cheerful to contemplate. Their problems are not only those of unemployment, although there were in 1936 105,915 unemployed juveniles between 14 and 18, but spring equally from the blind-alley nature of such employment as is available for them, the prevalent practice of sacking boys when they attain adult age and have a right to adult pay, and a severe decline in the demand for skilled labour, with the result that none but a small minority are likely ever to attain promotion or a higher standard of living.
Until five years ago, when the gates of emigration to the Dominions were closed, many young people took advantage of the opportunities offered by the Empire Settlement Act of 1923, under which the British Government contributed half of the cost of assisted migration and settlement in the Dominions, to escape from the clutches of industry into a more congenial life offering a brighter outlook. But in 1932 this outlet was closed. The result of this is that throughout the country, but more particularly of course in the Special Areas, there are large numbers of boys between the ages of 14 and 18 who, given the necessary assistance, would willingly exchange their present depressing surroundings for agri- cultural or other employment which offered sound prospects and a pleasant and healthy life.
There is one form of employment that fulfils both those conditions, work on the land, and the task of settling boys in agricultural work has now been going on systematically long enough under the aegis of the Community Services Department of the Y.M.C.A. for confident judgement to be passed on it. Their "British Boys for British Farms" scheme was started in September, 1932. The scheme provides for training boys between the ages of 14 and 17, taken mainly from the Depressed Areas, and placing them in agricultural employment throughout the country. It offers an admirable opportunity for lads from industrial districts to take up a new life, a healthier life, and one possessing greater prospects.
"In no other group (than the under-r8-years group) is the demoralising influence of unemployment so rapid and so disastrous in its effects," says the first report of the Industrial Transference Board. This is true, and the first work which must be undertaken before successful transference can be contemplated is the reconditioning, physically and mentally, of those whom it is proposed to transfer. This the Y.M.C.A. is doing in its six training hostels. Here the boys receive not less than eight weeks of agricultural training, are housed and fed and provided with a suitable outfit of clothes. Of course in eight weeks, or even ten, which is the average period of training provided, a boy with no previous experience, as is generally the case, cannot attain any high standard of proficiency in the art of agriculture, but he does have the opportunity of building up his strength and morale and learning the first necessary rudiments of his future trade. During this period of training careful records are kept of the general health and progress of the boys, and the difference which even nine or ten weeks makes to their physique and capacity for work reveals better than anything the detri- mental effects of unemployment and poverty in industrial areas.
After a boy's period of training has been completed he is placed on a farm, which has previously been visited and found to be suitable, and receives a wage which must not be less than that specified under the Agricultural Wages Act, and which in practice proves to be on an average twenty-five per cent. higher than this legal minimum. Particular care is taken that in no case shall a boy placed under the Y.M.C.A. scheme usurp the position of an adult labourer or take precedence in employment over local juvenile labour. In point of fact in recent years there has been little fear of this occurring, for the demand for young farm workers has been in excess of the local supply. The total number of agricul- tural labourers declined by 32,600 last year, and by another 9,500 so far this year. In fact" we have never once been able to supply the demands made upon us, and have continuously had a waiting list of farmers," says one of the Y.M.C.A. reports. At the moment thirty-three farmers, who have been visited and approved, are waiting for boys.
The response to, and appreciation of, the scheme by farmers has been marked, and the lads of the industrial areas com- monly make excellent farm hands. North Yorkshire, Derby, Notts and Leicestershire and the South-Western counties are the areas in which most of the boys have so far been placed. For eighteen months after a boy has been settled with a farmer the Y.M.C.A. undertakes to visit him periodically and see that he is contented, well treated and progressing satisfac- torily in his work. If, for any reason, the boy is not happy he will be sent to another farm, and as a result of the care which is taken to find farms congenial to the particular character of the boy a good deal of replacement has to be undertaken. But only some 12 per cent. of these boys actually give up farming and return to their homes. The rest, as is clear from the tenor and substance of their letters home, are happy and contented in their new life. This after-care work is of great value and accounts in large parr for the readiness with which parents allow their sons to leaYe home at so early an age. In all 1,154 boys have been trained and successfully placed under the scheme up to date, with a yearly average of about 300.
What, it may be asked, is the cost of this work ? It is, in fact, surprisingly small. The average cost of transporting a boy from his home to the training hostel, of maintaining and training him for ten weeks, providing him with a suitable outfit of clothes and meeting other incidental expenditures —including medical treatment—placing him in employment and maintaining a system of after-care work, comes to about £20 a head. Since September, 1934, an arrangement has been operating between the Y.M.C.A. and the Ministry of Labour, by which the latter has contributed 5o per cent. of the above cost for the first hundred boys trained and placed, with a ro per cent. increase for each succeeding hundred boys up to five hundred, when the Ministry would be paying 90 per cent. A condition of such assistance was that 90 per cent. of the boys must be taken from the recognised Depressed Areas. It appears doubtful wisdom to restrict such opportunities to youths from the Depressed Areas, for there are undoubtedly a great number of boys in other industrial districts who might .with advantage take up a life of agriculture had they the means of doing so. It would be of real value if the Ministry of Agriculture would, in the interests of the farms, undertake the same financial assistance as regards boys from non-depressed areas as the Ministry of Labour is now performing for Depressed Area boys.
Sir Malcolm Stewart, in his 1936 Report on the Special Areas, says : "Unless there is a marked and unforeseen revival of trade in the Special Areas I remain convinced that the best prospects of employment for most of these young men will be in transference to more prosperous districts." The efforts of the Community Services Department of the Y.M.C.A. are directed not only towards the provision of secure employment for those who are at present out of work or in blind-alley occupations, but also to enabling suitable applicants to exchange the often mechanical life of an industrial worker for the healthy and independent life -of a farmer.
- England has to be colonised unless more and more agri- cultural land is to go out of occupation. Many schemes to repopulate rural areas have failed. Here is one that to all appearance is achieving notable success.
Previous page
