WHAT SHALL WE DO? 331 



(Iron or converted their great estates into tenant 

 farms peopled by feudal slaves. 



It has also been shown that whilst the people arc 

 being driven from the farms, and vast areas of terri- 

 tory are barred to population, our towns and cities 

 are crowded with hungry, naked, houseless multi- 

 tudes, without employment, without hope, and sink- 

 ing deeper and deeper into the abyss qf despair and 

 crime. 



It has also been shown that the constant struggle 

 of the idle for work, causes an irrepressible conflict 

 and competition between the employed and the idle, 

 which tends directly to add to the ranks of the latter, 

 the reduction of wages, and the increase of the general 

 distress. 



And it has been shown that as the idleness has in- 

 creased, and the demand for work has grown more 

 importunate, that monopolies have developed in every 

 direction, and the tyranny of capital has become more 

 despotic. That whilst labor has become more and 

 more disunited, and weaker and weaker, capital has 

 steadily gained in consolidation and power. 



How have the industrial classes, the workingmen, 

 those who should be the real rulers of the country, 

 met the development of this great power, and the 

 evils which have grown out of it ? What have they 

 done to avert the threatened catastrophe that is al- 

 ready upon us ? or, better still, to so direct and guide 

 the growth of this power as to derive from it the 

 greatest possible benefits ? 



In the matter of guidance nothing has been at- 

 tempted, and every step that has been taken to 



