24 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



essential to the people's existence as water is to the 

 living plant? But experientia docet. 



We too readily believed what we were told by a false 

 school of teachers, and we have suffered, aye, suffered 

 so long and so terribly that we are at last forced to 

 realise that our position is so full of peril that unless we 

 take this matter into our own hands and settle it in our 

 own way, it will end in individual ruin and national 

 disintegration. 



We find ample evidence on every side that there is not 

 work enough for the people; that distress and poverty 

 abound, and that the standard of living among a large 

 section of the working classes is far too low; far below 

 what it need be ; a standard of living, with not a ray of 

 hope or comfort in it, and of so mean a nature as to be a 

 positive injustice. 



We find in every trade, profession and industry 

 that the supply of labour always largely exceeds the 

 demand, and this means general precariousness of em- 

 ployment, a low wage standard, and certainly a case 

 of NO WORK for many. 

 Women in We find that, owing to increased cost of living, the 

 Market Uncertainty of employment and the domestic necessity 

 of " making both ends meet," women have entered the 

 labour market as competitors in many branches of em- 

 ployment which till quite recently were exclusively re- 

 served for men. And we recognise that as the employ- 

 ment of women is a necessary part of the economic 

 system of the country, and that it is sure to increase 

 rather than decrease, it is essential that the field of 

 labour should be generally enlarged so as to prevent 



