Hopping (1908):Daily Express fund a huge mistake

Post date: Feb 28, 2012 9:44:25 PM

Extract from parish magazine of October 1908:

THE HOPPING.

A great crop* (I have heard of one case where a few acres yielded 26 cwt. to the acre), a long and expensive picking (averaging 17 or 18 picking days, and stretching in all over five weeks), and a dull market with exceptionally low prices generally unremunerative, worse than " unremunerative" to those who, like the majority of East and Mid Kent growers farm high—and conditions emphasise the general depression in the hop trade to which public attention has recently been called. The causes of the depression, which seemed to have assumed a permanent aspect, are manifold. I have heard people who do not profess to know much about the trade, even some people in this place, who might know more about it attribute the depression solely to the use of substitutes—substitutes for hops—by the brewers. The actual facts refute this opinion, and show that the amount of substitutes used constitutes a mere flea-bite. In 1906 the amount of hops and substitutes used were 64 million lbs. and 24 thousand lbs. respectively: in

other words, to every 100 Ibs. of pure hops only a little over 3 1/2 lbs. of substitutes (sometimes extract of hops) were used**. This proportion could not depress a trade to the verge of ruin, and may be left out of account. Over production at home does not account for it, for on an average we do not produce nearly the amount we consume***. The real causes are manifold: they seem to lie in the gradually altering conditions of the hop-growing and brewing trades, which re-act upon one another. In the first place brewers are not obliged to use so many hops as they formerly used. It is not a matter of the use of hop-substitutes, but of the shorter times for which beer is kept before consumption. The quicker the consumption the less need there is for hops, except for the aromatic flavour which they impart to the "beverage." A more important characteristic of the hops is their preservative action: and whereas in the present day the great bulk of beer is brewed for consumptive in six weeks or less instead of six months or more as formerly, less hops are required****. In the second place the system of cold storage of hops introduced a few years ago and now widely adopted, has upset the old conditions of selling and buying hops. Growers expending as they do a large amount on cultivation and picking, want a quick sale, and in the old days the month November saw the sale of almost the whole of a year's growth, the brewers being obliged to buy in order to make sure of their stock for the year. Cold storage, however, enables them to keep hops in good condition much longer than they could formerly, and to buy just when it suits them to do so. The economic effect of this is a cheapening of the market,through what is practically forced sale on the part of growers who cannot afford to hold. And those who can afford to hold are not left in much better position; for there is a third consideration tending to depress the market; the free importation of foreign and colonial hops according to demand, operates to prevent any security, and to keep down the price in years of average or short growth at home, when the growers might otherwise naturally expect to recoup themselves for losses sustained in the years when the crop fails, or when it is too late to be profitable. One cannot live for many years in a brewing parish in a hop-growing district without having thought much over the ever-increasing depression of the hop growing industry ; and I believe that I have correctly stated the three chief factors of depression—a decrease in the amount of hops needed in proportion to that of beer brewed, cold storage, and free importation. The large crop this year, adding to the expense of picking, though bringing good fortunes to the pickers, is unfortunate to the growers. Growers want to realise at the earliest possible moment: it is said that brewers generally are already well stocked, and need not think of purchasing for some months. The good fortune for the pickers lies, not so much by the increased earnings by individual families, as of old when in a good year the picking extended to six or seven weeks, as in the employment of a larger number of strangers. This year there was 960 bins of strangers, and, reckoning 4 1/2 souls (including babies) a bin, with 137 binmen and 2 driers, the total number of immigrants into the parish comes out at 4,457—a much larger number than last year. The return of the number of bins of home-dwellers is not quite complete: it works out at about 130, giving a grand total of about 5,000 binmen and pickers (again including babies !)

Mission Work in the parish, spiritual, medical and social, was carried on during the picking on much the same lines as usual, though the difficulties of organisation proved to be rather greater. For the lantern work we were fortunate _ the services of a young Oxford graduate, Mr. P. F. Holland, who has had some experience in London slums and is shortly to join a mission station in India, was keen and interesting. We have to thank Mrs. Hole for the use of her pony and Mr. R. French for lending a cart. We were fortunate, too, in having our old helpers at the Vicarage Stall, and (with a new "Cookie" in the person or Miss Waite) at the hospital. Doctor, Nurses and Sanitary Inspector, all agree that this year there was far less serious illness than usual; but there were more cases of slight ailments and needing of surgical treatment. The total number of recorded out-patients treated at the hospital was 1199, the largest we have ever had. We have again to thank Sir George Donaldson for the use of his cottage. The Stall work, organized by the Vicar and supported by the fund, at the Station and the Home and Cannon Court Farms, was carried on by a man and lad engaged for this purpose, and by Miss Gator and Miss Livett, who with a young Mr. George Bradley, managed the Home Farm Stall. When our man failed us for two or three days Mrs. Livett came to the rescue and managed the Cannon Stall, with the occasional help of Mr, Holland. We have to thank Mr. Leney for the loan of two "floats" for stalls, and Miss Lambert for defraying the expense of a certain amount of horse hire; and several other ladies for helping at the Club Room and Station Stall. We have also to thank our subscribers for their generous contributions at a time when things were not very prosperous........

Something must be said about the Daily Express Fund for the relief of distressed hoppers. My own impression of the fund was that it was a huge mistake. It certainly caused a great deal of discontent and did very little good, failing almost entirely to serve its original purpose. It was ostensibly promoted to relieve very real suffering of a temporary character on the arrival of the pickers, caused by the inability of the pickers to get into the gardens to earn a "sub," owing to the persitent rains. Of course, when the fine weather appeared and the picking began this distress, severe for the time was immediately removed, and left the pickers in their usual condition, except perhaps that their boots had suffered somewhat. The fund came too late, and, though the promoters did not like to acknowledge the fact, it practically resolved itself into a fund for the relief of distress that always exists among to the people of the class who come down from London to pick hops. The administration of the fund was a hopeless muddle: surely the hop-gardens are not the place to deal with the big problem of poverty that normally exists among the inhabitants of the slums of London. I was allowed to see behind the scenes. Within two days I was called upon twice by the organizers, and on the fourth day I (with others) interviewed practically the whole staff at Tonbridige. A strong appeal was made to them to acknowledge frankly and publicly the true position, and to devote the money collected (about £1,200) to the establishment of two or three cottage hospitals for the permament benefit of the pickers. The reason of the appeal could not be controverted, but it failed ; and the money was doled out, either in specie or in clothing, to the missions of various religious denominations working in the hop districts. I received £20, which was distributed by means of 10s. orders on local tradesmen given to families that appeared to be in most need of such help. The selection of recipients may not have been very successful, but we did what we could in the face of difficulties. The Roman Catholics in this district (working in a group of parishes) would not take money, and asked for 600 pairs of boots. Perhaps they were wiser in this generation ; at any rate they got credit among the pickers for having the greater share of the fund for distribution. Father Cuthbert afterwards acknowledged that he had not foreseen the fact that his plan robbed the local tradesmen of custom that usually goes to them, and might have been retained for them. Of course the fund brought to light the dire poverty in which the pickers for the most part normally live, but as it was insufficient to relieve, even temporarily, one-tenth or even one-hundreth part of it, it naturally caused discontent. Its promotion was directly opposed to the principles which our mission was long recognised as essential to successful work among the pickers : we do all we can for them in the way of providing hospitals, clubs, refreshments, but we never give them anything (beyond writing paper), without payment, except of course in connection with the hospital. If the kind of thing that has happened this year is to be repeated it will attract a greater amount of poverty to the district during hop-picking, it will fill the fields with a mass of seething discontent, it will deter the better sort of pickers from coming down, and it will ruin the mission work which has been built up in the course of years, and has undoubtedly done much to foster a feeling of goodwill, and to promote good behaviour among the pickers. A little plain speaking seems necessary in this case. The origin of the agitation was political. The Paper had been promoting the cause of the hop-growers, and they intended to show that the interest of the pickers were also at stake. I have reason to believe that they were collecting material for the purpose, and the rain came opportunely to serve as a pretext for opening up the matter, and for making an appeal. The administration of the fund and everything connected with it was highly coloured in the accounts that appeared day by day. I will close with one illustration. I was called upon, at 7 o'clock on Monday evening, by two representatives who informed me that 140 bales of old clothes were lying at the Royal Star , at Maidstone: what could they do with them? could they dump me down a number of bales in the Rooms! A long discussion of possibilities of distribution , by Parson, Grower, or by representative of the Paper followed. The next morning, under sensational headlines of joy among the stricken pickers, the paper contained an account of how the goods had been sent to Maidstone, and were already being despatched by motor-car, and distributed in the districts of distress ! This account, which I summarise from memory, must have been in the compositors' hands within a few hours, at most, of the time of the above-mentioned interview.

* The crop this year will probably equal that of the great years of 1899, 1902,1905, in each of which well over 600,000 cwt. were grown in this country.

**These figures were deducted from Parliamentary returns, and were brought out in the recent Royal Commission.

***The average production (10 years) in this country is said to be 440 thousand cwt.; the average consumption 600. (A decreasing average, itself a sign of depression, from 50,000 in 1897 to 46,000 in 1906, with an increasing yield per acre, ought to make for prosperity rather than depression

**** The use of hops was introduced into England in the 16th century. Pliny, however, writing in the [ 1st ]century, states in his National History that they were then used by the Teutonic tribes as a preservative in beer.