xii THE DEPRESSION OF TRADE 203 



evident that all the wealth of the country is produced by 

 labour, or by the use of labour and capital combined, and 

 everybody who gets wealth must get a portion of this 

 total amount. There is no other source from which he 

 can get it. Whether he obtains it in the form of rent or 

 from the taxes it comes exactly to the same thing, it can 

 only come out of the produce of labour. In the same 

 manner, whether he gets it in payment of wages or 

 remuneration for professional services, those who pay it 

 can only have got it, directly or indirectly, by labour. 

 Consequently the fact is indisputable, that the produce of 

 our labour measures the whole available wealth produced 

 by us in the country, and that wealth has to be distributed 

 by various methods among the whole community. Conse- 

 quently, if it is clearly proved, as I think it is to prove 

 it in detail would require a much more complete examina- 

 tion of the statistics of the country, but I am sure it can 

 be proved that the large body of the very rich have 

 been steadily growing richer, then it follows as a logical 

 result that the remaining body, or at least a portion of 

 the remaining body, must have been growing poorer in 

 proportion. 



A Proof of Increasing Poverty. 



Of course this has been denied over and over again, but 

 I have endeavoured to get some confirmation of it by 

 examining the information given in the census returns. 



The full census report, as you are probably aware, gives 

 a great amount of detail as to the occupations of the 

 people at different times, and I have looked up the facts 

 as to the increase of the persons employed in particular 

 trades and manufactures for the purpose of seeing what 

 light it would throw upon this question, and I found that 

 it supported in a remarkable manner the statement which 

 I have laid down for your consideration, that is, that the 

 great masses of the people have been growing poorer 

 while the few have been growing richer. And it illustrates 

 it in this manner : whenever we have a manufacture 

 which depends mainly on the consumption of the masses, 

 we find that there has been either a decrease of those 



