28 How lo Pay for the War 



case really been improved ? Does the public to-day, the 

 stay-at-home, suburban public, the dwellers in the large 

 cities, and larger and smaller towns which depend on out- 

 side trade (whether the inhabitants know it or not), do all 

 these know and realize this ? Are they aware that, 

 because they only make goods or build houses or sell wares, 

 they are not nearly so important to the stability of the 

 wealth of the Empire as those who are engaged in wealth- 

 producing industries as mining, fishing, or agriculture, 

 both here and abroad ; industries which alone really 

 increase the wealth of the world ? 



We are obliged to mention these details, which are no 

 details in our minds, though they bore others to death even 

 to glance at them. We do so, however, because we know 

 perfectly well that 90 per cent, of the townsmen of this 

 country take no useful and sustained interest in the outside, 

 and especially in the overseas world, and therefore will be 

 of but scant value to the Empire when in the near future 

 she wants to develop her trade abroad. As our educational 

 system is arranged, the majority of our people never will be 

 of any use when it comes to a question of developing the 

 resources of the Empire, but rather will they prove a 

 hindrance, as the new ideas are beyond their understand- 

 ing, and they object to the extra work involved in trying 

 to master the details sufficiently, if only to decry it (no 

 matter how excellent the plan may be) in the train, tram, 

 public-house, or elsewhere when they come together. 

 This is why it would be as well for the future of the 

 Empire if an examination was made compulsory for all 

 adults, in order to prove that they were efficient in what- 

 ever work they did to earn their bread and cheese, and 

 also that they were worth troubling about on the part of the 

 strenuous ones who produce the bulk of the trade, food, 

 and wealth generally from abroad. Without their help 

 the lotus eaters would soon cease to exist or else would 

 drift into the workhouse until those abominations are 

 abolished and tramp-prisons or labour-farms established 

 for the able-bodied slacker, and real home-like institutions 

 for the unfit and for the old folks. 



Somewhere in some part of the world the natives are 

 extraordinarily expert in knocking down birds, monkeys, 

 &c., by means of slings when they need a meal. This 

 skill, we believe, is obtained by their having been taught 

 to sling stones from childhood in a simple and practical 

 manner. A prepared meal is placed on the top of a post. 



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