70 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



which threaten to uproot and destroy all existing social and 

 economic conditions, as a res^ilt of the present fiscal or econo- 

 mical system. 



Then they absolutely deny that "the prosperity of the 

 country " and " our high standard of living " applies to them. 

 They admit enormous national wealth, but they say it is 

 individual rather than collective ; it is in the hands of the few 

 and not of the many, and, this being so, it becomes startlingly 

 obvious that the present system under which the business of 

 the country is carried on, while yielding golden results to a few 

 favoured individuals, keeps the great masses of the people in 

 a mean condition of semi-destitution, out of which grows all 

 that is undesirable in the national life and all that is dangerous 

 to national interests. 



Whatever else may be deduced from this reasoning, one 

 supreme fact stands out prominently, and that is. Economics is 

 not an Exact science, and, therefore, it has no well-defined, 

 immutable laws by which you can shape and guide the econo- 

 mical requirements of a people. In economics you may 

 theorise and deal in mighty abstract problems to your heart's 

 content, but once you split the science up into a number of 

 concrete examples, and attempt to apply them to the individual 

 needs of the people, you find they are totally unsuited to each 

 man's domestic requirements. 



Economics fail to explain the Situation 



This country is full of paupers, with almshouses, unions, 

 relieving officers, and a multitude of State and private institu- 

 tions to deal with the heavy and ever-growing burden of 

 poverty, and Germany is not — nor is any country in Europe in 

 such an unenviable condition. Why is this ? Economists, in 

 dealing with the matter, generally touch with a light hand all 

 those parts of the vast question which impinge on increasing 

 unemployment, growing destitution, and phenomenal pauperism, 

 because they find that economic science offers no solution of the 

 problem. How can it ? How can the cold dicta of science 

 satisfy a people when they deprive them of employment and, as 

 a result, of the first necessary of life — food. Bread will fill a 

 man's stomach and satisfy his hunger, but science will not ; and 

 it is here that political economy fails. The people ask for 

 employment ; for a reasonable measure of prosperity ; for 

 immunity from that terrible precariousness of life which treads 

 on the heels of so many millions of our fellow-countrymen, 

 constantly whispering into their ears the message of Poverty 

 which is following close in their wake. They ask that they 



