CHAPTER II 



Shortage of Work in our Trades and Manufac- 

 tures — How TO Employ the Surplus Popula- 

 tion 



SOME of the publicists of the day, elated with the 

 expansion of our national trade and fondly be- 

 lieving that the present tide of commercial prosperity 

 will bear us along to a haven of rest and security against 

 all our social and economic troubles, point to this trade 

 expansion as a sure means of relieving the situation. 

 Even so high an authority as Mr Balfour, in his speech 

 on the introduction of the Scottish Land Bill on March 

 20, 1907, is reported to have said: 



Our Manu- " But everybody who either opposed the abolition of 

 Resources the Corn Laws, or favoured them, must have been, 

 unless he was an idiot, perfectly conscious of the fact 

 that that exposed agriculture to all the difficulties of 

 foreign competition, if foreign competition should arise, 

 and that it was deliberately intended by its authors to 

 stimulate that great growth of the manufacturing popu- 

 lation which I view without dismay or regret, because I 

 recognise it is the only possible mode in which the popu- 

 lation of this country can largely increase or its wealth 

 augment, to meet the great Imperial needs with which 

 we have to deal." 



If Mr Balfour has been correctly quoted — and this 



