134 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



in the maintenance of the status quo ante, sing preans of praise 

 about the expansion of British trade and the might and glory 

 of England's dominant industries, and the "man in the street" 

 believes tliat everything is well with us. 



The Mutable Basis of Trade 



The mutable basis, however, on which all trade rests, 

 renders an ever-changing condition necessary, and it is a 

 matter of fact that the tidal wave of commerce ebbs and flows 

 with almost the same regularity as the tides of ocean. 



A wave of prosperity in the early part of this year bore 

 us a step or two towards fancied security ; but we are now 

 going out to the Great Unknown, as it were, on the ebb tide, 

 for in the Daily Express of June 14, 1909 we read : — 



" During the same period {i.e. the first five months of this year, 

 1909) there was a fall of £16, Oil, 84-5 in the foreif^n trade of the 

 United Kingdom— £2,217,964 in Imports and £13,823,881 in 

 British Exports." 



In the autumn of 1908 we were standing on the brink of 

 a grave danger, because of the condition of our diminishing 

 trades and manufactures, and no man could foretell the future. 



The Trade Union Congress, which met at Ipswich in the early 

 part of September, 1909, predicts — " A time of terrible suffering 

 for thousands of men, women and children," during the coming 

 winter, and urge the Government to take " immediate steps to 

 promote large and comprehensive schemes of work of public 

 utility." 



Again the Land, as the greatest factor in the situation, is 

 left out of consideration, and until Mr. Shackleton and his 

 confrlrcs realise that this trouble exists because the people have 

 been allowed to fall into the error of believing that agriculture, 

 being the greatest of all industries in this country, or any other, 

 could for a moment be sacrificed to any superior or more 

 important consideration which the economic world is capable of 

 producing, so long will this Unemployed evil continue. 



Man's Chief Consideration 



There is not, nor can there be, any greater consideration 

 in tliis world than that by which a man lives, and moves, and 

 has his being. The soil is the source of all sentient and 

 insentient life on this planet, and it is the source of man 

 himself. It furnishes him with every thing he requires for 

 his comfort and support — fuel, means of creating heat and 

 light, houses, carriages, clothing, money, every conceivable 



