Manufac- 

 tures 



60 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



against our manufactures, wanted English labour by 

 tens of thousands, they would get them with the same 

 ease with which Hamburg got her 3,000. 



Let us now find out what this means, for we are face 



Displaced ■ ■ /-^ ,-, 



Labour and to face With a Strangely anomalous position. On the 

 one hand, we have the Government and Free Traders 

 pointing to the expansion of national trade as indicating 

 national prosperity; and on the other, the Tariff Re- 

 formers pointing to congested labour markets, the 

 masses of unemployed, the precariousness of employ- 

 ment, lost industries, and the phenomenal pauperism of 

 the country (compared with every other civilised 

 country in the world), as indicating commercial atrophy 

 and national decline. 



This sums up, approximately enough, the exact posi- 

 tion of the two great contending political parties of 

 the State, and we will now settle the matter by the sure 

 test of practical common sense. 



In order that we may have and retain a perfectly free 

 mind on this subject and other matters affecting the 

 commonwealth, we have for some years past cut our- 

 selves adrift from every political party in the Kingdom. 

 We care not which party may be in power, nor are we 

 concerned with what they call themselves. Liberals, 

 Liberal-Unionists and Radicals are meaningless terms 

 to us. We want good government, and we judge only by 

 results, which is the one safe and practical way of de- 

 ciding a question. 



Here is presented a strange spectacle — the people of 

 the greatest trading and manufacturing country in the 

 world gladly accepting employment even for a few 



