TARIFFS AND THE PRICE OF BREAD 85 

 progress has been contemporaneous with protectionism. 

 Wages had very materially increased in Germany within 

 the last twenty years, and are bomid to increase still 

 more." 



Summing up the position the Commission said: 



" We were selected by the Gainsborough working 

 men themselves, in order to find out whether the social 

 condition of German working men was as miserable as 

 it was portrayed in Gainsborough by certain politi- 

 cians. 



" Meanwhile we submit that our reports give a fair 

 and reasonable picture of the conditions under which 

 German workmen labour. These conditions differ in 

 many respects from ours; and this would be the case 

 also were we to compare our lot with that of the work- 

 men in any other country. Whatever the diversity of 

 conditions, however, it is quite clear that the German 

 industrial workman is immeasurably better paid now 

 than he was twenty-five years ago, and that he is simi- 

 larly better clothed, better fed and better lodged than 

 he was then. He has, moreover, ample facilities for 

 healthy recreation for himself and family. In regard to 

 the provision made for him by the State in the event of 

 sickness, in the event of his meeting with accidents dur- 

 ing the exercise of his vocation, as well as in the event 

 of his becoming unable to earn his living through physi- 

 cal debility or old age, he is in a decidedly better position 

 than the workmen in our country. He pays no more in a 

 protectionist country for his bread, his coffee, his sugar, 

 his clothing or his boots, than we do in England. It 



