ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL JUSTICE 437 



registration, and the repression of bribery. To the 

 second, restriction of children's and women's labour in 

 factories and mines, government inspection of these 

 industries ; attempts to diminish the dangers of unhealthy 

 employments, and to check the ever-increasing pollution 

 of rivers ; the new poor law, casual wards, and other 

 attempts to cope with pauperism ; while various fiscal 

 reforms, such as the abolition of the corn-laws and the 

 extension of free trade, though advocated in the supposed 

 interest of the wage-earners, were really carried by the 

 efforts of great capitalists and manufacturers as a means 

 of extending their foreign trade. Later on came the 

 Elementary Education Act of 1870, which was thought 

 by many to be the crowning of the edifice, and to complete 

 all that could be done by legislation to bring about the 

 well-being of the workers, and, through them, of the 

 whole community. 



Its Outcome. 



Now that we have had nearly a century of the two 

 classes of legislation here referred to, it may be well 

 briefly to take stock of its general outcome, and see how 

 far it has secured what all such legislation aims at 

 securing a fair share to all the workers of the mass of 

 wealth they annually produce ; a sufficiency of food, 

 clothing, house-room, and fuel; healthy surroundings; 

 and some amount of leisure and surplus means for the 

 lesser enjoyments of life. And it must be remembered 

 that never in the whole course of human history has 

 there been a century which has added so much to man's 

 command over the forces of nature, and which has so 

 enormously extended his power of creating and distri- 

 buting all forms of wealth. Steam, gas, photography, and 

 electricity, in all their endless applications, have given us 

 almost unlimited power to obtain all necessaries, comforts, 

 and luxuries that the world can supply us with. It has 

 been calculated that the labour-saving machinery of all 

 kinds now in use produces about a hundred times the 

 result that could be produced if our workers had only the 



