130 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



the trouble continue. To talk as the President of this Congress 

 is reported to have done, is to " beg the question " in the first 

 place, and then to reduce it to a dead level of absurdity. Most 

 people who study the question nowadays know perfectly well 

 that labour does not begin and end with those urban industries 

 in which Mr. Shackleton and the Labour Party are chiefly in- 

 terested, but that it ramifies through every section of workers, 

 and roots deep down in the — Land. The land is the source of 

 all the troubles which beset labour, as it will be found to be 

 the source of all remedial action, and the ultimate cure of the 

 disease. It is to the Land, then, they must direct their atten- 

 tion, and if they ignore this supreme fact which dominates the 

 entire position, they simply — beg the question. 



Shokter Houes and no Overtime no Eemedy 



Then to suppose that remedy lies in Shorter Hours or 

 stoppage of Overtime, is to attack the leviathan with a knitting- 

 needle. Congestion of labour exists because there are too 

 many labourers and too few industries. To shorten the hours 

 and to stop overtime is to reduce wages all round, and if you 

 reduce wages you do not lessen the evil but increase it. 



Not only do you add to the difficulty, but you destroy the 

 freedom of the individual, and once you do this you interfere 

 with a man's constitutional rights. One of the Socialist war- 

 cries of the day is " The Eight to Work." What answer have 

 Mr. Shackleton and the Labour Congress to give when they, 

 in solemn conclave, deliberately do that, or propose that, which, 

 by the regulations of the Trades Union, would deprive a man 

 of this " Eight " to work. These Trades Union Eules are, to 

 the labour world, as binding and as arbitrary as were the old 

 laws of the Medes and Persians, and that it is now proposed to 

 apply them to regulate the conditions of labour, is rather to protect 

 labour against congestion than to defend it from the tyrannous 

 cupidity of the employer. Two serious questions are involved 

 here. First, the grave admission that : Labour requires 'palliative 

 treatment owing to its congested condition. Second : Because of 

 the congested state of Labour freedom is destroyed, a mans earnings 

 being determined by the Laws of a Labour Society rather than by 

 his own skill and capacity. This arbitrary and unjust condition 

 exists to-day, and uuder the present state of the labour market 

 it seems a necessary condition, but that it is a state of affairs 

 that wiU sooner or later end in Disaster, there is no doubt. 



Mr. Shackleton's Plan a Nostrum 



What is wanted are more industries and fewer workers, 

 but the Labour Congress have no scheme which would ensure 



