242 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



the greatest amount of competition for a livelihood 

 exists. I have seen brought forward as a proof of 

 the dire struggle for existence that takes place in 

 London, the affirmation that when advertisement is 

 made for an office-boy or for a shop-boy, hundreds of 

 lads, in every single case, compete as applicants for 

 the post. This is a natural result when we consider 

 how many lads are on the alert in London for such 

 posts, and how few of such posts are advertised when 

 they fall vacant. But the lads who have been dis- 

 appointed in securing the advertised situations have 

 no difficulty in finding similar situations that have not 

 been advertised. I think that it would be difficult 

 to find, even in London, a healthy boy, thirteen years 

 of age, willing to work, out of employment, or finding 

 employment difficult to procure. 



When we turn to the professional class, which 

 embraces medical men, lawyers, clergymen, engineers, 

 and other special but smaller groups, we find the 

 several professions normally overstocked. That over- 

 stocking should be the normal characteristic of this 

 particular part of the labour market is obviously an 

 inevitable effect of its power of attraction. Posts of 

 employment in any department of professional work 

 are regarded in the light of prizes in the social system. 

 They confer upon their occupiers a certain position 

 conferring respectability. Their occupiers, in short, 

 rank as gentlemen. Each profession embraces men 

 sprung from very different ranks of society, and derives 

 a certain standing and dignity from the presence in it 



