106 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



and act together for once for the pnblic good, the many 

 difficulties which beset the workers of this country would 

 speedily disappear. The pressure of public opinion thus set 

 up would soon prove too strong even for that powerful party 

 spirit which exercises so baleful an influence over national 

 affairs. 



Hitherto the concentrated weight of party influence has 

 always kept in subjection that scattered, although infinitely 

 greater power — public opinion — but if tlie British people are 

 wise they will insist upon a complete reversal of this abnormal 

 and destructive state of affairs. 



We can prevent poverty and kill pauperism with the 

 greatest possible ease, but we must first of all discover the 

 source from which poverty and its attendant horrors spring, 

 before we may hope to cut off the evil. We have looked for, 

 and are still looking for, the source of these curses to our 

 country in the wrong direction, and we have failed to find it. 



How Public Men miss the Way 



Statesmen, writers on political economy, publicists. Mem- 

 bers of Parliament, and Ministers of Government, are all 

 seeking for the solution of the problem in unlikely spots, 

 trying to unlock the door with a key that will not fit ; and 

 they might just as well abandon the task. 



Mr. Balfour, in speaking against the second reading of the 

 Small Landholders (Scotland) Bill, April 30, 1907, is reported 

 to have said — 



" They (the Grovernment) increased the difficulty by bringing 

 people, in the ordinary phrase, ' back to the land,' because when 

 agriculture went through a period of depression it was inevitable 

 that the people would have to seek other occupations in other places. 

 It was a result of simple and well-known economic causes, which, 

 although of the greatest possible importance in the consideration of 

 this subject, were constantly left out of account." 



It is very clear from this that that eminent statesman does 

 not regard the deplorable state of labour and the whole question 

 affecting employment and poverty as anomalous, or due to 

 anything else than — 



" A result of simple and well-known economic causes." 



Mr. John Burns, who took part in one of the meetings of 

 the Imperial Conference at the Colonial Office on April 25, 

 1907, proposed — 



