326 BRITAIN FOR THE BRITON 



profrressive prosperity, and, by so doing, employ, support, and feed 

 their populations without excessive pauperism and widespread 

 unemployment, we can do the same if we choose. 



In juxtaposition to this happier condition of things in the 

 land of our rivals men point to the state of affairs in this 

 country and contend that excessive pauperism, widespread 

 destitution, extreme and ever-growing unemployment, general 

 discontent, and intense political unrest may be taken as 

 indicating the social and economic conditions of the people — 

 as the readings of the national barometer — and as such con- 

 ditions must necessarily have grown out of and undergone 

 development under Free-trade, for the simple reason that the 

 countrij has no other economical s)/stem for the last sixty-two 

 years, it can hardly be maintained by Free-traders that such 

 conditions point to the prosperity of British trade. 



They further maintain that because the Governments have 

 aljstaineel from interference, for well known political reasons, 

 this evil has overtaken them, and claim that the time has come 

 for the direct intervention of the State, and the institution 

 of a fiscal and economical system, which, in many respects, 

 must be the antithesis of the Free-trade system which has 

 proved, after long trial, a veritable failure. 



A Difference of Opinion 



The second part of the particular passage we are considering 

 has been partly answered in the preceding paragraphs, but with 

 due deference to the writer of " The Free-trade Movement," the 

 point the British people are gravely considering to-da}^ is not 

 whether our trade " has been injured by the progress of other 

 nations, and if so, whether Protection can help to maintain our 

 supremacy" but, " to what extent can the enormous injury done 

 to British trade hy the present economical system he repaired by 

 the abolition of Free-trade ? " Paraphrased in this manner, the 

 question assumes more intelligible shape and comes better 

 within the grasp of the " man-in-the-street." 



The point at issue is, however, of such high economic 

 importance and capable of so much "scientific" interpretation 

 that it had better be removed altogether from the sphere of 

 economic science and set up as a simple business proposition 

 of a nature which business men are called upon to deal with 

 every day of their lives. 



How Economic " Science " can be Manipulated 



This is just one of those cases which economic " science " 

 can so manipulate as to make it bear a multitude of aspects. 



