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they are obliged to bring their building operations to 

 a halt. Then multitudes of their employees are 

 necessarily for a time deprived of the means of 

 earning wages. The normal condition of the building 

 trade is thus one of fat seasons followed by lean 

 seasons ; and the workmen at the time when they are 

 most fully employed cannot fail to know that there is 

 coming a time when work for them will be slack, 

 precarious, and difficult to be obtained. The same 

 conditions prevail in all employments that are occupied 

 in making anticipatory provision for the wants of an 

 increasing population. 



The question arises : Should we expect, when a 

 time of slackness occurs in such employments, the 

 unemployed to suffer destitution and to become the 

 objects of public compassion and charity ? The wages 

 earned by them when employed are high, owing to the 

 brisk seasons requiring all hands, and also to the 

 strong trade organisations, which take due cognisance 

 of the urgency of the labour demand. What then 

 should be expected of men who earn twice the wage 

 of an ordinary labourer, and who know that a slack 

 time follows a season of good wages as surely as night 

 follows day ? The time when work is difficult to 

 be obtained by the bulk of the workmen is small 

 compared with the time during which they are 

 employed, yet no men have more impressed upon 

 them by circumstances the necessity of providing 

 against a rainy day, and no men are better able to 

 make the required provision. Many, of course, do so, 



