4 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



If we then regard poverty as a result of something 

 ^^Tak)uf else, and then regard that something else as a thing^to 

 be sought out and fought with, we shall, at all events, 

 have got on the right track at last. 



We may take it for granted that, as a rule,Vman'does 

 not become poor because he likes it ; on the contrary,[he 

 struggles against poverty with all the strenuousness^he 

 is capable of, and generally makes a good fight of it till 

 he is fairly beaten. His most persistent foe, in nearly all 

 cases, is want of work, and this lack of employment, he 

 finds to his cost, is pretty general, for the supply of 

 labour is always greater than the demand. 



But why is the supply of labour always greater'than 

 the demand? Why is it that in all professions, trades and 

 industries, when we advertise for one man we get appli- 

 cations from hundreds? Why is it that the,building con- 

 tractor, who puts up a notice outside his works at eight 

 o'clock in the morning that " hands " are wanted, re- 

 places it by another at noon the same day intimating 

 " no more hands wanted "? The reply will be found in 

 the indisputable fact that our present means of em- 

 ployment, our professions, trades, manufactures and 

 other industries, are totally incapable of affording full 

 employment to the entire working population of the country, 

 and that the labour market is always congested. 



The clerk, typist, dressmaker, milliner, shop-assistant, 

 " hands " in textile factories, navvies, dock labourers, 

 are all subject to the pressure which congestion of labour 

 involves; they have been sufferers from it for many 

 years as they are suffering from it to-day; and it is 

 absolutely certain that unless other, readier and more 



