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PROBLEM
INDUSTRIAL
SOLVED.
BY
W. B. ROBERTSON.
“ England is full of wealth, of multifarious produce, supply for human want in
every kind—yet England is dying of inanition. With unabated bounty the land
of England blooms and grows; waving with yellow harvests; thick-studded with
workshops, industrial implements, with fifteen millions of workers, understood to
be the strongest, the cunningest, and the willingest our earth ever had ; these men
are here, the work they have done, the fruit they have realised is here, abundant,
exuberant on every hand of us; and behold some baleful fiat as of Enchantment
has gone forth, saying, ‘ Touch it not, ye master-workers, ye master-idlers ; none of
you can touch it, no man of you shall be the better for it; this is enchanted fruit.’ ”—
Thomas Carlyle {Past and Present}.
----- LENDING
sb
LONDON:
THE
MODERN
PRESS,
13,
PATERNOSTER
ROW,
E.C.
�CON TEN 7 S.
Overproduction
------
Overpopulation
.......
Remedy
.........
�OVERPRODUCTION. —I.
Y over-production is meant that there are more commodities
produced than can be sold. The problem, therefore, in
connexion with over-production is, why can this surplus of
commodities not be sold?
.Many writers, among them John Stuart Mill, deny the possibility of
a general over-supply. They maintain that, while there may be over
production as regards one or more kinds of commodities, there cannot
be over-production in all kinds, so long as there is a human want un
satisfied. It is impossible, for instance, to have an over-supply of food
so long as millions of our fellow-men are in need of the barest necessities
of life. If there be any strength in an argument like this at all, it would
follow, or rather it is implied in such argument, that the mere need, the
mere human desire, for any given commodity is sufficient to set the
machinery in motion to produce it. Here is a man with an empty
stomach and in need of a meal, this of itself, is, on such grounds, sufficient
to procure such meal; or here is another man with a bare back, and in
need of a coat, this is enough to procure him the coat.
Now it must be plain to every one, that those that have nothing but
empty stomachs and bare backs cannot influence in the slightest degree
the quantity of food that may be produced, or the quantity of coats that
may be made. Is any farmer going to plough and sow a field for men
that come to him with nothing except empty stomachs; or is any tailor
going to make coats for men that have nothing to show but bare backs ?
Here, however, from one of the Cobden Club publications, are facts
that show clearly enough that the quantity of food produced has nothing
to do with the number of people that are m need of food, that in fact
the more food there is, the greater will be the number of people in want.
In this pamphlet * we have the paradoxical statement that the present
depression, which set m in 1884, “ was the natural and necessary result
of the improved and fairly good harvest with which this country was
favoured in that year.” This statement the author (Augustus Mongredien) proves by figures taken from the Boardof Trade returns. Thus,
in 1884, our imports and exports together were twenty-five million odd
pounds sterling less than the average of the four previous years. This
* Trade Depression : Recent and Present.
�4
diminution is accounted for by the fact that in the same year “ our
foreign supplies of cereals fell short of the previous years to the extent
of 15^ millions of pounds sterling ; and to that extent, therefore, we may
infer that the home harvests of 1884 had exceeded in yield the harvests
of the previous few years.”
The effect of this extra harvest was, according to our authority, to
lessen directly our importations of cereals ; we had the cereals at home,
and consequently did not require to buy them from foreign countries.
Indirectly our exports were also lessened. Our whole foreign trade,
exports and imports together, by this good harvest, Mr. Mongredien
computes, was reduced by 43 millions of pounds sterling ; for he
considers the effects of this good harvest as extending into 1885. After,
making allowances he concludes, that this 43 millions worth of goods,
represents from 2,500 to 3,000 cargoes; by so many cargoes, therefore,
would our shipowners’ trade be lessened ; they would have that number
of cargoes the less to carry, This sudden diminution in their business
threw idle ships upon their hands; it then affected the shipbuilders, for
the shipowners having more ships than they could find employment for,
were of course not likely to order more. “ As a natural consequence,”
Mr. Mongredien proceeds, “ the diminished construction of ships (in
which the consumption of iron enters so largely) occasioned a propor
tionate falling off in the demand for that metal, so that (other causes
assisting) the wave of depression extended to the iron trade, and then
spread to the closely connected coal-producing industries and others,
which they influence more or less directly.
Moreover, it would
necessarily follow from there being between 2,500 and 3,000 fewer
cargoes to load and unload at our chief ports, London, Liverpool, Glas
gow, &c., that there would be less demand for persons living by that
kind of labour, so that a number of dock labourers of all sorts would be
thrown out of work. . . . On examination we find that the industries
which really did most suffer from the recent and present depression are
precisely those which we have enumerated above.”
Such then is the account of trade depression given by the Cobden
Club. There can be no questioning its accuracy so far as it goes; it
leaves us helpless, however—in fact, it paralyses us. The farmer always
endeavours to make his labour as productive as possible—the better his
crops the more he rejoices, and the more does the nation rejoice with
him. How tempered must this joy be though, if its cause is also to be
the means of throwing thousands of hard working men out of work, and
depriving them of the necessaries of life ! The bounties of Nature
would thus seem to benefit no one, for the more bountiful she is, the less
wrork is there for people to do, and in consequence the less able are they
to get at these bounties.
Besides the foregoing facts, we have others showing that .people may
and do suffer want in the midst of plenty. The stocks of wheat held in
Liverpool at the end of 1885 were 3,578,938 centals, while at the end of
1884 there were only 1,869,146 centals. Now, the winter 1885-6 was
marked by great distress throughout the country; and yet we were more
abundantly supplied in food-stuffs than we had ever been, for the figures
taken at other ports besides Liverpool showed the same increase. The
argument, therefore, that a general overproduction is impossible while
there is human want can no longer be maintained.
It now remains for us to explain why overproduction comes about, and
�5
why it is, as already remarked, that the more abundant commodities are,
the greater will be the number of people in want. For this purpose it
will be necessary for us to say a word upon the system of renumerating
labour.
The remuneration of every kind of labour is fixed in the same way,
viz., by competition. This competition may be amongst the employers,
or amongst the employed. When there is a great deal of work to be
done, when everybody is in employment, and there is still a demand for
more men, these additional men must be drawn from other masters ; and
to be so drawn inducements in the shape of higher wages must be held
out to them. Under circumstances like these wages tend to rise.
In a state of society, for example, such as that presented by a newly
settled country where human labour is little aided by machinery, the
labouring classes are,, it is well known, highly paid. The reason of this
is because labourers are few compared with the amount of work that is
offered. For these few labourers employers compete amongst themselves
—each one holding out better inducements than the other. Take
America some years ago ; wages were high then because there were
more labourers wanted than could be got. Not only were wages high,
but masters were very civil to their servants, as is evidenced by the fact
that servants were euphemistically called “ helps,” allowed to sit at the
same table with their employers, and treated in every way as equals.
This courtesy, on the part of employers, is rapidly disappearing with the
cause that gave rise to it; for labourers are no longer scarce in America,
and if a servant dislikes to be called a servant, he can go about his busi
ness—there are plenty others willing to take his place. It was the
scarcity of labour that gave rise to the appearance of a system of equality
in America, which many attributed to the Republican form of Govern
ment. The form of Government had nothing whatever to do with it. So
much then for the fixing of wages when labour is scarce.
When labour is plentiful, when there are a great many seeking
work, the labourers compete with one another for such employment as
there is to be had. This of course brings wages down. It is useless for
a man to offer his services for five shillings a day, when there are plenty
others willing to do the same thing for two shillings and sixpence. Thus
one man underbids another, and the one whose necessities are the
greatest is the one that will accept the lowest terms. It is this competi
tion amongst the working-classes that has brought wages down to star
vation point in the simpler kinds of work. Starving men and women
compete with starving men and women, and are glad to get the oppor
tunity of working long hours every day for a few coppers ; because this is
better than nothing at all.
The foregoing then is the method upon which wages are fixed, and it
operates in every department of human activity. The reason that a
navvy is worse paid than a mechanic is simply because there are more
men able to do navvy’s work than mechanic’s work, and the competition
is consequently keener amongst the navvies than amongst the mechanics.
We might go through all the different kinds of labour, and we wnuld
find that wages in each kind are high or low according to the relation
between the number of men seeking employment, and the quantity of
employment to be got. The law of wages, then, may be stated in these
words: Wages vary according to the relation between the quantity of
labour offered and the quantity of labour required.
�6
If people had borne this in mind, we would not have had so many ex
pressions.of surprise at the fact that our working population has made so
little, if, indeed, any progress. We often hear our great wealth spoken
of, the wonderful strides we have made, and yet only a few seem, and we
are told this with astonishment, to have participated in our increased
power. All this is quite in accordance with what Political Economy has
predicted, as is shown by the following passage from Ricardo;—“ If the
shoes and clothing of the labourer could, by improvements in machinery,
be produced by one fourth of the labour now necessary to their production,
they would probably fall 75 per cent.; but so far is it from being true,
that the labourer would thereby be enabled permanently to consume four
coats, or lour pairs of shoes, instead of one, that his wages would in no long
time be adjusted by the effects of competition, and the stimulus to popuation, to the new value of the necessaries on which they were expended. If
these improvements extended to all the objects of the labourers’ consump
tion, we should find him, probably at the end of a very few years,
in possession of only a small, if any, adddition to his enjoyments.”
This was written at the beginning of the present century.
It
afnounts to saying, “ It makes no difference how much you improve
your methods of production, the position of the labourer will
not be one whit the better; he will not enjoy any more of
the necessaries and conveniences of life, his command over these
necessaries and conveniences will always be just enough to enable him
to subsist and to raise up more labourers.” This is perfectly true. It
was at the beginning of the century, as we have just remarked, that
Ricardo wrote the passage. Since then, we have introduced improve
ments into every kind of work, -and the result is as predicted. The
labourers are poor and ignorant; they still toil unceasingly; and they
think themselves lucky if they can get the opportunity of undergoing
this toil.
We shall now endeavour to give more pointedly, the reason of this
anomalous position, the reason why in the midst of plenty people starve,
why, in fact, the more plentiful things are the less able are we to get at
them. As Carlyle says:—“ We have more riches than any nation ever
had before ; we have less good of them than any nation ever had before.
Our successful industry is hitherto unsuccessful; a strange success if we
stop here ! In the midst of plethoric plenty, the people perish ; with gold
walls and full barns, no man feels himself safe or satisfied. Workers,
master-workers, un workers, all men come to a pause ; stand fixed, and
cannot farther. Have’we actually got enchanted then ; accursed by
some God1”
Now let us offer a simple illustration of some of the economic effects
of such a system of remunerating labour. Suppose that the only thing
we did in this country was to make cotton—a single industry is supposed
because it simplifies matters ; suppose, moreover, that we could make
enough cotton to supply our own requirements for that article, and had
enough to send to other countries for our food and whatever else we
needed. At the beginning of the centruy we will further suppose that
everybody is employed, that there is nobody out of work, and the wages
are good enough to keep them comfortably and respectably. By and by
improved methods of production and transit are introduced, and to such
an extent that one man can do as much as five formerly did. As these
improvements are applied four men out of every five would be thrown
�out of work ; wages, moreover, would be reduced, for rather than be
thrown out of work the men would offer their services at a lower rate, and
competition amongst the workers would become keener. Here, then, with
an increasing power of production, we would have a reduced number of
consumers—these too getting a smaller share of the produce of their
labour. What under such circumstances can be more natural than a
glut, than over-production ?
With such a fair start then at the beginning of the century, we should
be as bad to-day as we now actually are. The men that had been thrown
out of work with every successive improvement, and their families, would
have to live somehow ; many of them would become thieves and vagrants,
many of them paupers. All this too would come about independently of
the extraordinary tendency of population to increase. When we take
this into account we can only wonder, not that evils are so rampant in
society, but that society has continued so long upon such a basis.
The hard lot of man then would appear not to be due to the niggard
liness of nature as we have been taught; to have no connection with the
curse that doomed him to eat his bread “ by the sweat of his brow.” It
is due to a mere convention, the shadowy nature of which will appear
clearly enough later on.
The real significance of over-production is to reduce our present indus
trial system to an absurdity. It is ridiculous for people to have to starve
because they have grown too much food, to go unclad because they have
made too many clothes, and unhoused because they have built too many
houses. There would be work for all the unemployed to-morrow if the
half of London were destroyed; there is nothing like calamities for
trade.
By bringing about over-production, then, the working population has
proved our present industrial system to be false; and how very unequal
that system is we see every day. Here in a few words is one of its most ■
glaring inequalities. The governing class has said to the working class,
you go to work under this system—your share of the result of your labour
will be fixed in this wise, our share of the result of your labour will be
fixed in this other wise. So the working population said all right, took up
their hammers and went to work. They weret old to work hard and ever
harder, and overseers were put to see that they did work hard. But
what is this that has come upon us now ? The governing class exclaim,
“ Stop ! you have produced too much ; you must lay down your hammers
until we require you again ; we have quite enough here of everything to
suit us—indeed more than enough. So you can go and shake your heels
outside there while we enjoy ourselves and consume the things that you
have made.”
OVER-POPULATION.—II.
The view that attributes our social disorders to the fact that we are
overpopulated, is perhaps more widely accepted than any other. The
reason for this is because it is an easily understood view. What can be
more clear than that, if there be a greater number of people in a commu
nity than can get employment, and if the livelihood of these people depend upon
their getting employment, the privation of those that cannot get employment
�8
is due to the fact that there is no room for them in such community ? At
one time it was universally believed that the sun moved round the earth ;
for what could be more clear than that, if Rome continued to remain in the
same spot and the sun every day passed over it, the sun must so move ?
Rome, however, did not continue to remain in the same spot; hence
what was so very clear was all wrong. Similarly the livelihood of man
does not depend upon his getting employment, it depends upon his get
ting the means of livelihood ; hence what is so very clear as to our being
over-populated, may also be all wrong. This is a point, however, that
remains for us to consider.
The reader has of course heard of Malthus and his celebrated essay on
“ Population.” In that essay it was shown that in every community the
number of members is limited by the means of subsistence at their
command; increase the subsistence and an increased population will
result; diminish the subsistence, and there follows a diminished popula
tion. “ This is incontrovertibly true,” he says. “ Through the animal
and vegetable kingdoms, Nature has scattered the seeds of life abroad
with the most profuse and liberal hand; but has been comparatively
sparing in the room and the nourishment necessary to rear them. The
germs of existence contained in this earth, if they could freely develop
themselves, would fill millions of worlds in a few thousand years.
Necessity, that imperious, all pervading law of nature, restrains them
within the prescribed bounds. The race of plants, and the race of
animals shrink under this great restrictive law; and man cannot by any
efforts of reason escape from it.” Such was the truth that Malthus
laboured to enforce—a truth that one would have thought so self-evident
as not to need enforcing. His essay, however, is really nothing more
than a demonstration of the extraordinary strength of the principle of
self- con servation.
Malthusians consider themselves followers of Malthus on the ground
that they accept and seek to promulgate his views on population. Let
us consider for a moment their position.
This country, they say, is over-populated. Why I Because there
are more people in it wanting work than can get work ; many are con
sequently compelled to idleness, these not having any other way of
procuring the necessaries of life except by labour, are consequently
either thrown upon the generosity of their friends or become recipients
of public relief, or criminals. In this simple way does the Malthusian
explain all our social calamities, and, as the only remedy, he suggests
that people must be more prudent, must regulate the number of children
they bring into the world—in a word, the population of a country must
correspond to the work to be done in that country, the more work the
greater the population may be, the less work the less the population.
The reader will now see that there is a difference between the view of
Malthus and the view of the Malthusian.; the former set up subsistence as
the limit to population, the latter sets up employment or work to be
done—the more work there is to be done as already remarked, the more
room is there for an increased population.
Let us now follow the Malthusian position to its logical issue. Why
do we call one method of'production or transit an improvement upon
another ? Simply because it involves less labour, simply because it
abridges labour, and that is the reason that we adopt the improved
method. Now, with every abridgment in the labour of making and
�9
transferring things there becomes relatively, less and less labour to do,
and consequently, the ideal population of the Malthusian becomes less
and less. In this way, if the Malthusian position had free play, the most
ingenious race, the race that is most apt to discover quicker and quicker
methods of doing things, would thereby be always narrowing the limits
of its populatiou. It would consequently be the first to disappear from
the face of the earth, the fittest to survive would be the most stupid, the
unkindest countries would be the most densely populated; in a word,
nature and man would be at daggers drawn.
We do not say that such is not the case to-day—in fact it is the case.
Nature and man are at war, and all through one little fallacy in our
economic system. Meanwhile as to our statement that it is the case that
nature and man are at daggers drawn, that the stupidest, or least
adaptive, are fittest to survive, we have practical proof of this in recent
legislative action in America and Australia. Chinese labour was forbid
den the markets of these countries, because the Chinaman can underbid
the Anglo-Saxon. Laws are made to protect the weak against the
strong; the strong man m the case just noticed, is the Chinaman, the
weak, the Anglo-Saxon, who requires special protection. The fittest
will always survive—that statement points to a law that we cannot alter.
What we can alter, however, and what we must alter if we would
continue our race—if, indeed, we wish to make any further progress at
all—are the conditions that make the Chinaman and those that approach
him in character the superior.
Suppose again, that the Malthusian doctrines were practically adopted
and most rigidly carried out. Suppose that to-day our population was
so regulated, that there was not an idle man in the kingdom, not a
pauper, not even a criminal. Every one is fed, and clad, and legitimately
employed. There remains, however, in this happy state of affairs just
one thing that we have got to-day, and that is our present industrial
system.
Let us now take a step forward from this ideal point to a time when
improved methods of production and transit have been introduced. Com
modities can be manufactured with less labour, goods can be conveyed
to their destinations with less labour—in a word, we shall suppose, as
is really what happens, that in nearly every department of human effort,
improvements have been introduced. They are called improvements,
because they lessen labour. What then would be the economic effect
of a year’s progress upon the ideal state of affairs that we have just
been imagining ? The first effect would be that to make the same
quantity of manufactures, less workmen would be required ; masters
would consequently have to discharge some of their men. Now, what
becomes of these men? Well, they do not want to be discharged, so
they offer their services at a lower wage, competition amongst the work
men for such employment as there is to be had becomes keener, wages
consequently become lower, for masters are obliged to follow the market
rate of wages. No matter, however, whether wages be high or low, the
masters cannot employ as many men as they did before the introduction
of the supposed improvements. What, then, becomes of the surplus ?
Why, enforced idleness, and with it loss of independence : then as wc
go on improving, we recruit the ranks of the enforced idlers—they are
enforced idlers at first—and out of them springs the necessity for those
vigorous institutions police courts, prisons, and workhouses.
�IO
The Malthusian would thus have to resort periodically to some drastic
measures to restore the balance between employment and population.
One word more in connexion with improvements. We have seen
their effect to be the lessening the nurhber of those employed and the
lowering of wages. Now here comes the economic effect par excellence.
Fewer men in employment at reduced wages means a diminution in the
power of the community to consume. Improved methods of production,
&c., are ever increasing our power over nature, our power to produce ;
they are at the same time, by rendering competition amongst labourers
keener and keener, diminishing our power to consume. This is going
on all over the world, is operating upon the industrial classes in every
civilised community, is the noose with which we are stranglingourselves,
is in the words of Carlyle, “ the accursed invisible night-mare that is
crushing out the life of us and ours.”
Can anyone wonder that the markets of the world are glutted ? The
supply pipes are ever widening, the waste pipes ever contracting: of
course, there is a running over ; of course, as Carlyle says, our wealth
“i s an enchanted wealth.”
THE REMEDY.—III.
The 'main evils that result from our present economic svrstem have
appeared from our observations on over-production and over-population.
Over-production and over-population are themselves under existing
arrangements sources of great suffering. Both, curiously enough, too,
exist together. This in itself shews that there must be some contradic
tory forces in operation in the industrial world ; for is it not ridiculous
that we should have too large a population while we are complaining of
having too great an abundance of useful things? How are we to tell
when a population is great or small ? By a reference to the limit of
population. Now the limit to population is professed to be the means
of subsistence. But our population is so far from pressing upon this
limit that we are complaining of a too abundant supply of the means of
subsistence. Here then is an absurdity; and we are landed in this
absurdity because the limit to population is not as supposed, the means
of subsistence, but the employment offered in a community. By referring
to this limit, the employment offered in a community, we find that our
population is too great; for there are many more than can get employ
ment, and by so many is our population excessive. Now, it remains for
us to ask ourselves whether we are to maintain this limiting principle,
or whether it would not be better for us to adopt another.
We have already shewn that it is impossible to have population regu
lated by the employment to be had in a community because such em
ployment is always varying, is by the introduction of improved methods
of production always becoming less and less. Now, here is a fertile source
of evil; for with every contraction of the field of employment some are
thrust out of that field, these keep on recruiting the everlasting army of
paupers and criminals, and form the dregs of society. They are forced
into these positions, and no subsequent action on the part of society is
of any avail in recalling them. There is the field of labour, it is full;
�11
place another man in it, it is more than full; the consequence is that
either that man or some one else must go out.
Besides paupers and criminals, and what are called the dregs of
society, such a limiting principle to population leads in its working out
to deterioration in workmanship, and indeed in human character. As
already shown, improvements by lessening the demand for labour lead
to a keener competition amongst labourers, and thereby lead to a con
traction of the labourers’ pockets ; to meet this diminished consuming
power commodities have to be made as cheaply as possible ; there is no
effective demand for good materials, consequently jerrymaundering is in
the ascendant. As to the deterioration in human character that is con
tinually going on, we have already shown what class is best fitted to
survive. It is the class that can live on least, whose manner of living
approaches more and more closely to the beasts. Thus is our civilisa
tion being undermined, and thus are all our attempts at social progress
frustrated. It is apparent, then, that some other limit to population
must be substituted for the one that prevails to-day, and it is. such
other limit that we now proceed to unfold.
This other limit is the means of subsistence—the very limit that is
supposed to be in operation, but which we have shown to be not the
case. Now, in the first place, with such a limit as the means of subsist
ence over-population would be impossible; for no community could ever
consist of more members than it could support. This, of course, is evi
dent, and requires no further elucidation.
In speaking of the limiting principle that is in operation now, viz.,
employment, we objected to it that it was always varying. Might not
the means of subsistence vary too ? If, moreover, at any time, writh the
means of subsistence as the limit to population there should become less
subsistence than will suffice to maintain the whole population, who is to
have such subsistence and who is to go without ? Of course the means
of subsistence might vary; the difficulties that might arise from such a
possibility will, however, disappear after we have shown how this limit
is to be practically adopted, and this brings us to enquire into the nature
of property.
What is property ? Why does society have such a thing as property
at all ? Why should it put itself about to ensure any man in the pos
session of whatever goods he may have got hold of? The only reason
that can be given for this, and a very gocd one it is, is to encourage
industry. For instance, I make chairs ; suppose that as soon as I have
done so a stronger man than myself comes along and takes them from me;
I should most certainly come to the conclusion to make no more chairs,
because I would derive no benefit from pursuing such a course, and
would at once betake myself to procuring whatever I wanted by stealing
also. Of course, there would very soon be nothing to steal, and society
would at once collapse. To prevent this collapse, however, and to
preserve its own life, society steps forward and says that these chairs are
mine, that they are mine because I made them ; the reason that such a
course of conduct on the part of society preserves its life is because I am
.thereby encouraged to go on making more chairs, and every other
maker of everything else is encouraged in the same way. Thus are the
members of the community kept supplied with such commodities as are
required.
The institution of private property, then, is maintained by society
�T2
for the sake of encouraging industry, and for the sake of nothing
else, except what is implied in the encouragement of industry
— viz., the continuance of society.
Such, then, is the reason why
we have such a thing as property.
How far does society
practically adhere to this, the. recognised theory of property ?
It has departed from it as far as it can. To see that this is so, the
merest glance round is sufficient; for those that have made everything
have got nothing. As soon as an article has been made it is by some
magical operation—an operation so subtle that it is scarce perceptible
—snatched from the maker, and becomes the property of some one else.
Speaking in this connection John Stuart Mill says that he would prefer
Communism itself to such an unholy state of affairs. “ If,” he says,
“ the institution of private property necessarily carried with it as a con
sequence that the produce of labour should be apportioned as we now
see it, almost in an inverse ratio to the labour—the largest portions to
those who have never worked at all, the next largest to those whose work
is almost nominal, and so, in a descending scale, the remuneration dwind
ling as the work grows harder aud more disagreeable, until the most
fatiguing and exhausting bodily labour cannot count with certainty on
being able to earn even the necessaries of life: if this, or communism
were the alternative, ail the difficulties, great or small, of communism
would be but as dust in the balance.” Surely it cannot be impossible for
society to carry out so simple a theory—a theory that it recognises and
accepts as true—as to see that people have the produce of their own
labour, that industry is rewarded and encouraged.
The grossest inconsistency on the part of society as regards property
is the maintenance of property in. land. How can that encourage in
dustry ? It is only the produce of the land, the result of labour, that can
be called property. By insuring to this individual or to that individual
this or that tract of land, what industry does society encourage ? It en
courages the industry of the idle—a terrible industry, a scourge: it
reduces thousands of its members to the position of flunkeys, ministers
to idleness.
As we have already said, the view that property is maintained in a
community for the purpose of encouraging industry and for no other pur
pose, is not new neither is it denied. All that it implies is that men are
to be rewarded according to their industry—this, no one can for a mo
ment deny, is far from being practically carried out; in fact, we
practically carry out the very opposite doctrine.
Here then are two principles, viz.: that population is limited by
subsistence and that property is instituted to encourage industry ; that
are universally accepted and argued upon, as if they were carried into
practice ; we have shown that the one not carried into practice, how
ever, seeks to deny them. Why should they not be adopted by society ?
It is the adoption of these two principles, and of these two principles
alone that is recommended here. Indeed by seeing that the theory of
property alone is applied, the limiting principle to population will be
implicitly applied too.
Such, and such alone, is the work that lies before reformers now.
'AXVV
•
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�OBJECT.
The Establishment of a Free Condition of Society based on the prin
ciple of Political Equality, with Equal Social Rights for all and the
complete Emancipation of Labour.
PROGRAMME.
1. All Officers or Administrators to be elected by Equal Direct Adult
Suffrage, and to be paid by the Community.
2. Legislation by the People, in such wise that no project of Law
shall become legally binding till accepted by the Majority of the People.
3. The Abolition of a Standing Army, and the Establishment of a
National Citizen Force ; the People to decide on Peace or War.
4. All Education, higher no less than elementary, to be Free, Com
pulsory, Secular, and Industrial for all alike.
5. The Administration of Justice to be Free and Gratuitous for all
Members of Society.
6. The Land with all the Mines, Railways and other Means of Tran
sit, to be declared and treated as Collective or Common Property.
7. Ireland and all other parts of the Empire to have Legislative
Independence.
8. The Production of Wealth to be regulated by Society in the com
mon interest of all its Members.
9. The Means of Production, Distribution and Exchange to be
declared and treated as Collective or Common Property.
As measures called for to palliate the evils of our existing society the
Social-Democratic Federation urges for immediate adoption :—
The Compulsory Construction of healthy artizan’s and agricultural
labourers’ dwellings in proportion to the population, such dwellings to
be let at rents to cover the cost of construction and maintenance alone.
Free Compulsory Education for all classes, together with the provision
of at least one wholesome meal a day in each school.
Eight Hours or less to be the normal working day in all trades.
Cumulative Taxation upon all incomes above a fixed minimum not
exceeding /300 a year.
State Appropriation of Railways, with or without compensation.
The establishment of National Banks, which shall absorb all private
institutions that derive a profit from operations in money or credit.
Rapid Extinction of the National Debt.
Nationalisation of the Land, and organisation of agricultural and
industrial armies under State control on Co-operative principles.
As means for the peaceable attainment of these objects the SocialDemocratic Federation advocates :
Adult Suffrage. Annual Parliaments. Proportional Represen
tation.
Payment of Members ; and Official Expenses of Election
out of the Rates.
Abolition of the House of Lords and all
Hereditary Authorities. Disestablishment and Disendowment
of all State Churches.
Secretary, Social-Democratic Federation, Bridge House, Blackfriars, E.G.
�4t J
■
All who are interested in Socialism
should read
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The industrial problem solved
Creator
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Robertson, W.B.
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 12, [4] p. ; 23 cm.
Notes: Stamp on title page: South Place Chapel Finsbury, Lending Library. Publisher's list and Information on the Social-Democratic Federation on unnumbered pages at the end.
Publisher
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The Modern Press
Date
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1887
Identifier
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G4973
Subject
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Industry
Socialism
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The industrial problem solved), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Economics
Industrial Democracy
Industrialization
Population Increase
Production
Socialism