58 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



If the people of this country woukl l)ut follow the same 

 path, social and economic affairs would soon alter for the better. 



Necessity for Political Independence 



The names of political parties are rapidly becoming mean- 

 ingless terms to a vast number of people nowadays, and the 

 sooner they declare that Liberals, Liberal-Unionists or Eadicals, 

 Nationalists or Socialists are nothing to them so long as they 

 get a Government that will work in their true interests, the 

 better it will be for all classes. 



The country requires a Government that will remove once 

 and for all those evils from which it is suffering to-day, 

 and which good government in the past would have entirely 

 obviated ; and it is becoming clearer, day by day, that the 

 present system of party politics is extremely unlikely to bring 

 about these changes which are essential in the public interests. 



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 weeks, from our greatest 

 commercial and industrial European rival, because they cannot 

 find work in their own country. Couple this fact with others 

 of a like nature — widespread distress, the congested state of 

 labour in all professions, trades, and industries ; the existence 

 of phenomenal pauperism and the necessity of legalising it as 

 a State institution ; the stupendous sums spent on pauper relief 

 each year; the cruel drain on the virile energy of the nation 

 by the constant and ever-increasing stream of emigration — and 

 the very natural and common-sense conclusion is arrived at 

 that the social and economic condition of the people is as had 

 as it can be : that our fiscal administration is fatally wrong, 

 and that unless we alter and amend it, irrespective of the 

 feelings of this political party or that, we shall simply bring 

 about the disintegration of the Empire. 



Individual Interests attacked 



Political parties and political economy enthusiasts will, no 

 doubt, say that this method of reasoning is faulty and the 

 conclusions wrong. The individual reply to this, of every man 

 who writes himself " Independent," is obviously : " Mi/ social 

 and economic position has been rudely assailed; my interests 

 are at stake liere ; m?/ pocket has suffered ; and in spite of 

 what these gentlemen tell me I am going to settle this matter 

 at last m my own way. I will take my own course in spite 

 of the fact that our import and export trade is apparently in a 



