100 MINIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES

higher than in the period preceding the reestablishment of the wage
board. Thus in both the first and second wage-board periods the
real wages of the agricultural workers increased, while these wages
decreased in the intermediate period. The effect of the wage-board
system on the increase of real wages seems thereby to be clearly
established.
The report ®® states that the permits issued under the act had
enabled employers to retain that class of workers whose employment
might otherwise have been prejudiced by the minimum rates. The
minister states it as his opinion that there had been “ no appreciable
unemployment amongst regular farm hands” during the year under
consideration. The general fear that minimum wages deprive workers
 of their jobs and increase unemployment had not been realized.
The fact is doubly significant for Great Britain, with its great industrial
 unemployment.
British agricultural experience differs from that of other countries
in that minimum wages have tended to become maximum wages,
Nevertheless, the average real wages have been greatly benefited by
the legislation, and the workers are better off than they would be
without the law.
The prices of agricultural products in J uly, 1923, were 53 per cent
over those of pre-war time; in July, 1924 (before fixation of minimum
 wages), 52 per cent over pre-war time; and in J uly, 1925 (after
the fixation of the minimum wages), 51 per cent over pre-war time.
There does not seem to have been any influence by minimum wages
on agricultural prices, and thereby on the welfare of the general
population. Tt remains to be seen, when the act has been in force for
a longer period, whether greater efficiency will make up to a certain
extent for the higher wages, or whether increasing the cost of production
 will make harder the situation of the farmers and finally
decrease the area in Great Britain suitable for proper agricultural
sxploitation.
The problem has been somewhat clarified by an inquiry by Mr.
Orwin, director of the Agricultural Economic Research Institute of
the University of Oxford, the results of which were presented to the
Royal Society of Arts.»* The business administration of 24 farms in
the South Midlands was examined and it was found that 14 worked
with an original loss and 8 others would have had losses |f they had
kad to pay their laborers the usual wages of unskilled workers. For
25 farms In the eastern counties it was found that 5 were then worked
with a loss, and 10 more would cease to pay their way if they had to
pay the wages paid to unskilled workers, While individual enterprises
 working at a loss generally disappear automatically, the same
does not hold true, at least not immediately, as to traditional British
farming where the owner clings desperately to the calling of his forefathers.
 But in the long run insolvency and abandonment of the
farms would, of course, naturally follow. Mr. Orwin concludes that

2 Great Britain. Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Report on Jroccedlug under
he A) wages (regulation) act, 1924, for the year ending Sept. 30, 1925. Lonlon,
 1926, p, 31.
4 Jdem, pe 58, 59. }
5 Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, London, May 20, 1927, .