land-workers who had formerly been attracted into the towns should come back to the land (though this was not very likely). The worker, on the other hand, learned to value payments in kind and to see the advantage in times of need of having some husbandry of his own.

The big increase in land-workers' organisations at the commencement of 1919 brought land-workers in some places an increase in payments in kind, since there was as yet no sufficiently strong employers' organisation to oppose them.

With the gradual dissolution of government control, which now only affects a part of the corn, and which apparently will soon be entirely abolished, the employers' opinions are undergoing a change.

Their tendency is again in the direction of changing payment in kind into payment in cash, but in this they meet with resistance from the land-worker. The outcome has been the gradual success of the employers. In the Province of Saxony, for example, at the beginning of 1922 the allowance of fuel was replaced by an apparently very limited cash payment; in the Province of Brandenburg the employers are doing everything to change into money the special allowance of 2 lbs. of rye for an hour of female work.

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A unique position in wage-regulation is taken up by the Pomeranian Land Union which was formed in 1919, and which includes both employers and workers, though forming separate groups-the so-called economic peace" or "yellow workers' organisations. In their labour policy the leaders of the Pomeranian Land Union represent the standpoint of a sliding-scale cash-wage, combined with profit-sharing with the workers; the workers are at least to have substantial allowances and the carrying on of a little agriculture of their own by the labourers is to be encouraged or introduced where it does not exist.

The first attempts to carry out this policy were in 1920-21 in the Saatzig district in Pomerania, where it was arranged that the cash-wage, which here only constituted an insignificant part of the total wage, should increase with the rise in the prices of potatoes and rye. As, however, it appeared during the course of the first year under this tariff that the cash-wage of the Saatzig landworker was materially higher than in the surrounding districts, the employer members of the Land Union took up an energetic stand against this method of wage-regulation.

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In the Greifenhagen District of Pomerania the total wage of workers with allowances was reconstituted on the basis of about 40 centners of cereals and 240 centners of potatoes, which should correspond to the average yield of 7 plus 4 acres, or a total of 11. From this, all other allowances, such as cattle-keeping, houseroom, fuel and the like, together with the previously determined quantities of rye and potatoes were deducted, and the remaining small balance of rye and potatoes would then form the value of the cash payment, which would increase and decrease with the rise and fall of their prices. The amount of the actual cash wage was to be determined about twice yearly by a Committee consisting of employer and worker members of the Pomeranian Land Union. The adjustment arrived at there, however, does not correspond with the actual increase in rye and potato prices. (Compare Johannes Wolf in "Tag," Berlin, 3 Aug. 1921.)

Latter arrangements in the Rummelsburg district of Pomerania aimed at making the land-workers' wages rise and fall with the gross revenue of the estate. (Compare Johannes Wolf in the "Deutschen Zeitung," Berlin, 5 March 1922.)

The proposals of Herr von Rohr-Haus Demmin (see "Pommerscher Landbund," Stettin, 14 Jan. 1922) that workers should also share in the nett profit of the estate appear, however, to have been little adopted.

Similar experiments have also been tried in other parts of Germany. The Saatzig example was adopted in Hanover in some Tariff Conventions; and in Silesia a supplement to the Tariff Convention for 1922 was so framed that the cash-wage of the land-worker received a definite increase when the price of corn reached a determined amount.

It is not at present apparent whether the wages policy of the Pomeranian Land Union is, as its opponents maintain, only being carried out to estrange the members from the true workers trade unions, and with the final aim of restoring again the so-called patriarchal working conditions, under which the employer gave what wages seemed to him as sufficient, useful and necessary.

In any case, it seems that the result has been that the tactics of the Pomeranian Land Union have rendered the land-workers' trade unions impotent in all places where the employer members have strictly followed its suggestions. The trade unions to-day can no longer force Tariff Conventions upon the Pomeranian Land Union by strikes or cessation of work; all efforts at strikes in Pomeriana and in the similarly situated Mecklenburg-Strelitz and the West-Prussian frontier territory have recently failed.

The Pomeranian agriculturist who has probably recognised the mistakes made during the last decade in the wages policy of the employer, and these alone, finds himself in agreement with Prof. Dr. Aeroboe "Die ländliche Arbeiterfrage nach dem Kriege" and "Vergangenheit und Zukunft der Löhnungsmethoden der deutschen Landwirtschaft," 1920. The Pomeranian Land Union says

"The labour question is above all a question of education of the employer. If the attempt is successful to bring the employers to the point that they are prepared, as regards the fixation of wages, to go to the limit of their capacity, and voluntarily to give the worker what they can without compulsion, then the worker in turn will be prepared to support the interests of the employer and to help him to carry on his business and make a suitable profit." (Johannes Wolf in "Tag," Berlin, 3 Aug. 1921.)

It seems, however, as if the self-seeking instinct of every man (and the Pomeranian agriculturists form no exception) is leading to development along other paths.

According to Dr. Count R. Keyserling-Cammerau (Deutsche Arbeitgeberzeitung of 16th July 1922) the carrying out of all the proposed new methods of remuneration "will meet with the greatest difficulties," and therefore the Committee of the Imperial Employers' Union has discouraged the introduction of the Pomeranian Land Union method.

The future alone can show whether the landworker will at heart be permanently satisfied with these forms of payment and their extent, and that is what really matters. According to the opinion of the trade unions the landworker to-day has to endure much that dare not be asked of him in peace time. In pre-war days in Germany it was not possible for the landworker to improve his wages and working conditions to any great extent by strikes and cessation of work. But every available landworker, if he was not contented in one situation could easily obtain others, or finally went into the towns. The exodus of German workers from the land, and the lack of land-workers, especially in Prussia, was a wellknown fact, and gave constant anxiety to landowners and to the Ministries of Agriculture.

Supply and demand on the landworker market was formerly a regulator of condition of wages and work; though the big agriculturists were adepts at correcting it by the introduction of numerous foreign season workers

But on account of the housing shortage, both in the towns and in the country, it is otherwise to-day. Not even the natural growth on the country population can to-day migrate to the towns. The housing shortage in the country brings lack of places for married working families. The number of unemployed land-working families increases from year to year, though statistical proof is not at hand. In Midsummer, 1922, more than 3,000 male land-workers were reported as unemployed, of whom over 100 drew unemployment pay (see Reichsarbeitblatt, 1922, Stichtage).

A complete survey of wages and working conditions on the land cannot be given owing to the variety of conditions within Prussia; in any case

not for the present time, when there is taking place a general groping after new bases. The land-workers complain that it very frequently happens in localities where Tariff Conventions have been made that worse conditions of pay and work are forced on him than the Tariff Conventionprovides for. It is maintained that the shortage of work on the land renders it possible for many agriculturists to take up the standpoint that the Tariff Agreement does not concern them.

A very good survey of the most important varieties of wages payments is given by Dr. W. Asmis: Zur Entwicklung der Landarbeiterlöhne in Preussen, Berlin, 1919.

The forms of payment depicted here have been substantially maintained up to the present day. As far as Asmis' calculations of the net revenue for the worker are concerned, however, his cash amounts are not always free from objection. With estimates, and particularly with those he puts forward, which are apparently only based on data from the employer's side, nothing else is to be expected.

It is further worthy of note that the efforts of the land-worker tend towards freedom from the obligation which rests on certain classes of land-workers to send the wife to work whenever the employer requires it. In the eastern provinces of Prussia (Pomerania, West Prussia, East Prussia) the general desire of the worker is to obtain situations without any such obligation. The employers have had an opposite interest; if a family were available, which besides the man, the principal labour force, comprised one or two other labour forces (whose age and sex were immaterial) and the wife (or a substitute to go in her place) could take a hand, at times of pressure of work, the expenditure on wages became extraordinarily lessened. The payment of the wife and similar workers in relation to the wage fixed for the principal worker is quite insignificant.

APPENDIX XV.

Extracts from an article on

LAND REFORM IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA.

By JOSEPH MACEK,

in The Slavonic Review (published by the School of Slavonic Studies of the University of London). June, 1922.

Only a few days after the establishment of the new Czechoslovak State on October 28, 1918, the provisional Government, composed of representatives of all political parties, promulgated the first land reform measure, and all subsequent measures dealing with this subject were passed unanimously by the National Assembly, from the extreme right to the extreme left.

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The actual legislation dealing with land reform was inaugurated on April 16, 1919. It comprises in particular the Bill for the expropriation of large estates. The term expropriation" only imperfectly conveys the meaning of the Czech word employed, which is entirely new to the legal phraseology of the Czech language. It implies certain limitations in the rights of ownership applying to private property in land, for the advantage of the State. From the time that this law comes into force, the owners of large estates exceeding 150 hectares of arable land, or 250 hectares of any kind of land, including forests, cannot sell, divide, let or mortgage them without the sanction of the Government Land Office. Such land can be distrained upon only through the sequestration authorities. In accordance with this law the Land Office has the right to take over this property into its own management, this process to be carried out in principle in return for compensation. Where this is not

done, however, the owner has the right of managing his property for his own benefit, but he is bound to observe the principles of proper management in so doing; otherwise the State can compel him to conform to proper management by placing his property under official control.

When the property is taken over by the State, the previous owner has the right of retaining 250 hectares according to his choice, and in cases where such a course is justified by economic considerations this amount can be increased to 500 hectares.

Compensation for land taken over by the State was dealt with in a law passed on April 8, 1920. The guiding principle is that the compensation is to be fixed in accordance with the average prices obtained by the free sale of large estates exceeding 100 hectares between 1913 and 1915.

The law provided for the establishment of compensatory registers, to be kept by the provincial courts. In these registers are to be entered the amounts of compensation allotted to the former owners as their claims against the State. The State is bound to pay interest on these claims at the rate of 3 per cent. per annum and to amortise them at not less than per cent. per annum, as well as at any time after a quarter's notice to pay off in cash or in securities of an equal value, the rate of interest and the scheme for amortisation to be the same.

The land thus taken over is, in accordance with a special law, to be either sold outright or rented to applicants who comply with the requirements of the law.

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In distributing the land among individuals, its quality and situation are to be taken into account. The area per family ranges between 6 and 15 hectares, but the allotments known as estate remnants" will be considerably larger (about 100 hectares). The State also has the right of retaining land for its own purposes (this proviso is intended to apply especially to compact forest areas, which represent a very lucrative source of revenue).

A special law dealing with credit grants provides applicants for land with assistance, which includes an advance of 90 per cent. of the price of the land, and up to 50 per cent. of the price of the buildings or building expenses.

These credit grants are advanced by the State through the agency of the compensatory banks. These banks collect the interest and the amortisation payments from persons to whom land has been granted, and hand over the appropriate amounts to the former owners of the land. .

How extensive will be the activities connected with the land reform may be judged from the following figures. The area of land expropriated in accordance with the law of April 16, 1919, amounts to about five million hectares, or roughly 36 per cent. of the total area of the Czechoslovak State. Of this land, about three million hectares consist of forests, and over one million hectares of fields. The number of owners of this land does not exceed 2,000, several among whom are foreigners.

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So far, the results of the land reform have been comparatively insignificant. In 1919 a scheme was started for supplying small holders with land from the large estates which they had rented since 1901. This scheme, however, applied not only to the expropriated" land, but to certain other categories, in particular to ecclesiastical landed property. The result was that about 150,000 hectares of land changed ownership. In 1920 a process was carried out known as "compulsory rental," i.e., the Land Office made use of the powers conferred upon it by the law of January 30, 1920, and, in order to satisfy the most urgent requirements, directed the owners of "expropriated ” land to lease out a certain smaller portion of their fields and meadows to applicants whom the Land Office should recognise as suitable. This rental is only a provisional arrangement, to hold good for a maximum period of six years.

The actual distribution of the expropriated land has hitherto been carried out only in a few instances, and has then always been achieved by means of an agreement with the former owners. The compensation was paid in cash. The area of land thus taken over and distributed up to the end of 1921 amounted to about 24,000 hectares.

APPENDIX XVI.

TABLE I.

DUTIES ON CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE IMPORTED INTO VARIOUS FOREIGN COUNTRIES.