lowed without a card from his previous
employer which, among other things, sets forth that he is not
associated with any labor union. This Statute of Richard II also
provides that artificers and people of Mystery, that is to say,
handicraftsmen, shall be compelled to do agricultural labor in harvest
time. (The high prices of to-day, some one has said, are really caused
not so much by the trusts or even by the tariff, as by voluntary
idleness; if a man will not work, neither shall he eat, but the lesson
has been forgotten! In the more prosperous parts of the country, in
Massachusetts, for instance, it is sometimes impossible to give away
a standing crop of grain for the labor of cutting it, nor can
able-bodied labor be secured even at two dollars per day. The
Constitution of Oklahoma, which goes to the length of providing that
there shall be no property except in the fruits of labor, might
logically have embodied the principle of this Statute of Richard II;
and we know that in Kansas they invite vacation students to harvest
their crop. So in France, practically every one turns out for the
vendange, and in Kent for the hops; a merriment is made of it, but
at least the crop is garnered.) The Statute of Richard goes on to
complain of the outrageous and excessive hire of labor, and attempts
once more to limit the prices, but already at more than double those
named in the earlier statute: ploughmen seven pence, herdsmen six
pence, and even women six pence a day, and persons who have served in
husbandry until the age of twelve must forever continue to do so.
They may not learn a trade or be bound as apprentices. Servants and
laborers may not carry arms nor play at foot-ball or tennis; they
are encouraged, however, to have bows and arrows and use the same on
Sundays and holidays. Impotent beggars are to be supported by the town
where they were born.

(1387) The barons protested that they would never suffer the kingdom
to be governed by the Roman law, and the judges prohibited it from
being any longer cited in the common-law tribunals;[1] and in 1389 we
find another statute complaining of the courts of the constable and
marshal having cognizance of matters which can be determined by the
common law, and forbidding the same; and the statute of the previous
year concerning laborers is confirmed, except that wages are to be
fixed by a justice of the peace, "Forasmuch as a Man cannot put the
Price of Corn and other Victuals in certa