PRESIDENTS ADDRESS—SECTION F. 127 
But, says the the theorist : True, his services were shut out by 
over-competition in that particular place or in that particular 
occupation ; but if he only knew at that moment that by 
transferring his services to other employments, or to the same 
occupation in another place, the balance of service for service 
would be adjusted, and the life of himself and his dependants 
would be saved. Ah, if he only knew! But the possession of 
knowledge is in itself practically a form of wealth, and that he 
did not possess any more than he did the necessary capital to 
acquire the necessary skill in the new occupation calling for 
services, or in the necessary capital to transfer himself and his 
household to a great distance where his own special skill was 
then in demand. We may therefore summarise the difficulties 
lying at the root of all social problems as follows :— 
(1.) All breadwinners and their families, to maintain 
existence, must possess primary satisfactions, whether 
they can effect exchange of services or not. 
(2.) Many breadwinners, whether due to lack of knowledge 
or inability to change their occupations or locality, 
cannot obtain employment, and therefore cannot 
effect exchange. 
(3) Such of the latter as by former misfortunes have been 
deprived of every form of wealth in exchange, must 
beg or steal from public or private resources, or die 
of starvation. 
Thus it is shown that one of the great economic harmonies in 
competition, while it effects much good in distributing wealth and 
breaking down monopolies and privileges, and in enlarging the 
domain of community in the enjoyment’ of the gratuitous 
products of nature and invention, also, as one of the mills of 
God, directs its force terribly on the mere monopolists of bone 
and muscle ; competition grinding them smaller and smaller as 
its force is augmented by increasing numbers. 
FuRTHER DIFFICULTIES CONNECTED WITH THE DIVISION OF 
LAaBouR—ALLOCATION. 
One of the most formidable difficulties connected with the 
division of labour is al/ocation ; for it is evident that if, in the 
technical training of the young, due regard be not paid to the 
chances of finding employment in the service to which the future 
breadwinner aspires, disaster or a disappointed life may be the 
result. This, being a relative matter, applies to a small 
community as well as to a large one. Few take into consideration 
that there is a natural law in operation which as surely 
determines the numbers required for each great class of employ- 
ment as do the natural laws which locally determine the times 
and relative heights of the tide. No social advancement by 
