HOW OUR PUBLIC MEN MISS THE WAY 111 



" ' Eventually,' exclaimed the hon. Member for South West Ham, 

 ' the workers will have to tackle the question of machinery — not to 

 destroy it, but to capture it, and have it worked and controlled for 

 the benefit of the whole community.' " * 



Mr. Shackleton, M.P., Secretary of the Darwen Weavers' 

 Association, has the following: — 



" Dealing with unemployment, he (Mr. Shackleton) appealed to 

 all who tliink well of their country to join in 'findinu' some plan 

 by whicli the man and woman willing and able to work may be per- 

 mitted to provide that which is required to maintain them in 

 reasonable comfort.' " 



Shorter Hours 



A loud cheer endorsed Mr. Shackleton's next observation — 



" I cannot help feeling that the first step to real and efiPective 

 alteration must be in the direction of reducing the hours of labour 

 of those who are in employment. A sincere effort should be made 

 to stop all systematic overtime. A few hours overtime a week in a 

 great industry means thousands going without work entirely." * 



No Glimmering of the Truth in any Direction 



From none of these references to what might justly be 

 regarded as the most momentous question of the day do we catch 

 even a glimmering of the truth. Neither from politicians, 

 political economists, statesmen, nor from the loaders of the 

 great Labour Party of the country ; nor from journalists or other 

 shapers and leaders of public opinion, is there the faintest 

 indication that the source of our troubles has been discovered. 

 We go on dealing with effects without concerning ourselves at 

 all with the cause, and we simply — fail ! So surely as the 

 tides return, so do these labour troubles return to confound us 

 year by year, and yet the fons et origo of unemployment remains 

 unsought and uncared for. 



Is there no power in this world that will arouse the people 

 of this country to a sense of the utter incongruity of the entire 

 question; to the eternal unfitness which characterises every 

 feature of the grotesque figure we have contrived to create 

 out of our perplexities in dealing with Poverty and the 

 Unemployed Question ? 



Shall we never learn to understand that if we do not 

 cultivate our garden patch it remains sterile and unproductive, 



* Daily Chronicle, September 11, 1908. 



