Science in Public Affairs 



to the will of individual labourers to evoke their 

 best efficiency. 



The extreme form of this injurious economy 

 is known as " the sweating system " ; here indi- 

 vidual efficiency and progress is kept down to the 

 lowest level. But the conditions of employment 

 of most wage-labour are such as to offer no suffi- 

 cient incentive to progressive efficiency of indi- 

 vidual workmanship. Where the conditions of 

 the labour market are such that wages are low, 

 employment insecure, and the chance of personal 

 advancement and success trivial, the productive 

 energy of the people remains unrealised. Nor 

 is this waste confined to wage-labour. The small 

 manufacturer in staple industries, the small trader, 

 and large sections of professional men and intellec- 

 tual producers, are subjected to similar enervating 

 disabilities. 



Security of sufficient employment at fair re- 

 muneration, and of opportunity to rise by merit, 

 are essentials of sound industry. For lack of 

 this security industrial order is demoralised and 

 industrial progress impeded. The waste of dis- 

 order represented in conflicts of capital and labour, 

 unemployment, and the squandering of excessive 

 energy in competitive commerce, great though it 

 is, is insignificant as compared with the retardation 

 of the pace of industrial progress by withholding 

 the hope of an adequate reward of skill and in- 

 vention from the vast majority of those engaged 

 in industry. 



But the stimulus of individual gain is an 

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