XXVI REOCCUPATION OF THE LAND 487 



further, in the saving of labour by all those improvements 

 in gas and water supply, in disposing of refuse, in warming 

 and ventilation, which can be easih^ provided for a large 

 community living in a compact and well arranged set of 

 buildings. 



The Waste of Gompetition. 



Taking all these various economies into consideration, 

 it is probably far below the mark to say that our present 

 system of production on a huge scale for the benefit of 

 capitalists and landlords only, on the average doubles the 

 cost of everything to the consumer ; that is to say, the 

 cost of distribution is equal to, and often much greater 

 than, the cost of production. And this is said to be an 

 economical system ! A system too perfect, and almost 

 too sacred to be touched by the sacrilegious hands of 

 the reformer! We are to go on for ever spending a 

 pound to get every pound's worth of goods from the 

 producer to the consumer; just as under our poor-law 

 system it costs a shilling to give a starving man a shilling's 

 worth of food and lodging. 



But there is yet another economy, which I have not 

 hitherto mentioned, and which may perhaps be said to 

 be the greater in real value and importance than all the 

 rest — and that is the economy to the actual producer, of 

 time, of labour, of health, and the large increase in his 

 means of recreation and happiness. Agricultural 

 labourers now often have to walk two or three miles to 

 their work ; mill-hands, including women and children, 

 walk long distances in all weathers to be at the mill-gates 

 by six in the morning ; workers by the million undergo a 

 process of slow but certain destruction in unsanitary 

 workshops, or in dangerous or unhealthy occupations, 

 many of which (as making the enamelled iron advertising 

 plates, for example, as well as poisonous matches) are quite 

 unnecessary for the needs of a properly organised 

 community; while in all cases it is only a question of 

 expense to save the workers from any injury to health. 

 In our self-supporting communities all these sources of 

 waste and misery would be avoided. All work would be 



