Julie Moore - final PhD submission.pdf - University of Hertfordshire ...

The value of the Union was expressed by Arthur Smith, of Smallford, near St. Albans
who urged the farmers to join the Union which would have more authority than
Farmers’ Clubs or Chambers of Agriculture because:
it establishes the great principle that labourers, farmers, and
landowners are all partners in one great industrial occupation,
and that each is entitled to his share of the profits, in
proportion to the capital, be it money, brains, or physical
labour, which he contributes to the general fund. This position
being once accepted, all the rest naturally follows; a real Union
would make the agricultural interest master of the situation,
able to dictate its own terms. 81
However, Ewen Green has argued that there was little enthusiasm amongst farmers
for such a combination of interests, and indeed the Hertfordshire Farmers’ Club
rejected the proposal to join the Union just one month after that plea from Arthur
Smith. 82 Paul Readman, whilst arguing that there was some interest in Winchilsea’s
proposals, although short-lived, has seen in the actions of those who supported the
movement one of ‘last gasps of traditional benevolent paternalism: a desperate
effort to preserve an imagined rural order and its values.’ 83
Alan Armstrong, in his study of farmworkers, supported the idea of labourers and
farmers sharing a strong sense of identity:
derived in part from the intimacy of the work situation, and
fortified by a strong suspicion that the true enemy of both was
81 A. Smith, ‘Agricultural Notes and Comments’, HIR, Vol.1, (February 1893), p.128.
82 Green, ‘No Longer the Farmers’ Friend’, p. 153, A. Smith, ‘Agricultural Notes and
Comments’, HIR, Vol.1, (March 1893), p.182.
83 P. Readman, ‘Conservatives and the Politics of Land: Lord Winchilsea’s National Agricultural
Union, 1893-1901’, English Historical Review, Vol.121, No. 490 (2006), pp.25-69, p.60.
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