96 WAGES AND EMPIRE 



and a rapid development which would be of advantage 

 to all of their inhabitants. 



The United Kingdom would be put in a position 

 much more advantageous than the present. Her work- 

 people would no longer be subject to the competition 

 of foreign nations whose wages are low, but only to 

 that of the Dominions whose wages are high. Conse- 

 quently wages in the United Kingdom would advance 

 until they corresponded with the wages obtaining in 

 the Dominions. Those wages have as their basis the 

 prosperous state of agriculture, and the wages of the 

 United Kingdom being graded by them would be 

 supported by the only strong foundation for high 

 wages — that which is laid upon an abundance of land 

 and an advanced state of science. 



Failing the adoption of a scheme such as this, wages 

 in the United Kingdom cannot rise to what an 

 abundance of land makes possible ; they must continue 

 to be set by those of Europe, where the shortage of 

 land keeps wages down. What the chances are of 

 European wages rising has already been estimated, 

 and though the conclusion reached was that conditions 

 in Europe tend to improve, still the improvement is 

 unlikely to be so great as to make the condition of the 

 European work-people equal to that of the populations 

 overseas. If therefore the United Kingdom cannot 

 come to such an arrangement as has been set out above 

 with the Dominions, wages in the United Kingdom 

 will never be as good as they might be. And if the 

 circumstances which decide wages are such as are set out 

 in this work, neither can the other schemes presented to 

 the people of this country for the improvement of their 

 condition bring about the result at which they aim. 



^'' 



Printed by Spottiswoodk. BALLAirrYNn g. Co. Li"d. 

 Colchester, London ^ Eton, England. 



