During the summer months a great deal of controversy took place in the
press, and I as a rule came in for a great deal of personal abuse and
was accused of making the gulf wider and wider between employer and
employed for no other motive than my own personal interest. Well, those
that made that charge and heaped that abuse upon me would not have said
so if they had had to work night and day as I had for 23s. per week and
to bear the responsibility of a dispute with a hundred men involved and
an organization so rapidly growing in strength and influence. But on
July 3rd and 4th I embraced the opportunity of again making known to the
public that I was anxious to do anything that any human being could do
without giving away absolutely the men's case, which I knew was just and
reasonable. There appeared in the _Daily Press_ the first week in July a
letter from Mr. J. H. Bugden suggesting that a conference should be held
between the two sides with an independent chairman with a view of
arriving at a settlement that would be honourable to both sides
concerned. On going over to St. Faith's on the Friday to pay the men I
addressed a meeting and said that I had seen in the press during the
week a good deal of correspondence concerning the dispute in the St.
Faith's and Trunch districts, and I was very pleased to see a letter
from the pen of my friend Mr. J. H. Bugden suggesting a conference
between the two sides concerned, with a view of bringing this unhappy
dispute to an end, and I wished to let it be known publicly that we were
quite as willing and always had been to enter into negotiations with the
employers or the Executive of their Federation with a view of bringing
this dispute to an end, but up to the present they had declined all such
offers that I had made and now we would go a step further. If such a
conference could be held, we would accept Mr. Bugden as chairman. On
July 6th I wrote from Castleacre to the Secretary of the Farmers'
Federation the following letter:--