F.— ECONOMICS. Ill 



follow the determination of ii desirable inininumi, as llio Australians 

 have lately ex|)erionc( d. In the fixing of ininiininns, as in the cutting 

 of coats, regard must be had to the amount of material or means avail- 

 able, (y) In view of the uncertainties attending our course once we 

 leave the obvious and simple system of natural liberty let us advance 

 with great caution. Our motto should l>e vcdelcnliiii- — testing each 

 foothold before committing ourselves to an iirevocable step; prepai-ed 

 to retract if the ground prove unsafe. An excellent example of the 

 appropriate method is afforded by the English Trade Boards. The 

 Committee to which they owe their institution (1908) recommended 

 that ' Parliament should proceed somewhat experimentally,' that legis- 

 lation should at first be ' tentative and experimental ' (Rejiort on Home 

 Work. 1908, No. xv., 40, 54). The first step having proved encouraging 

 a further step was tried. But that further step having proved unsafe 

 is to be retracted, as recommended by the Cave Conunittee [Cmd. 1645] . 



6. B. Under section B, dealing with the question as one of degree, 

 there might perhaps be included the comparative treatment of male 

 and female workers among the classes which shall have been excluded 

 from open competition. Thus, according to Charles Booth's plan of 

 segregating the feckless class who spoil the labour market, his class B, 

 what will be the distribution of work and pay (or should we say 

 rations?) as between the sexes? But such questions belong rather to 

 oiu' less purely economic sequel. In any case I shall not be expected 

 to pronounce on hypothetical cases as numerous as the Socialistic 

 schemes which are in the air. Under head B it must suffice to con- 

 sider a state of things in which, desperate competition having been 

 somehow ruled out, there remain competitors freed from the deranging 

 effect of extreme poverty and incompetence. The case is that of which 

 Charles Booth said that the ' hardy doctrines ' of the individualism 

 system ' would have a far better chance in a society purged of those 

 who cannot stand alone (' Life and Labour,' vol. i., p. 167, ed. 2). Or 

 we may recall Mr. Seebohm Eowntree's distinction between wages 

 below and above his minimum : ' the former should be based on the 

 human needs of the workers, the latter on the market value of the 

 services rendered ' ('Human Needs,' p. 120). It is the latter kind of 

 wages only that are now to be considered. I^et us simplify the problem 

 by at first (I) aibstracting the circumstances of family life, considering 

 the labour world as if it was com{)osed of bachelors and spinsters. 



7. I. Competition now being freed, the Smith-Pigou principle 

 (above (3)) resumes its authority. The best results will presumably be 

 obtained bv leaving employers free to compete for male or female 

 labour. Thus equal pay for equal work will be secured in our sense of 

 the term ; which does not imply that the earnings of the sexes should 

 be equal (2). Equality in our sense would be realised in the conceivable 

 state of things which a high authority (Professor Cassel) appears to 

 regard as actual when he argues that but for the inferiority of female 

 labour 'it is not clear why the employer should not further (than he 

 does) substitute female labour for the dearer male lal)Our ' (' Theoretische 

 Rozial-Economie,' p. 29.3). There is nuich force in Professor Cassel's 

 argument; and his conclusion would bo perfectly true if the implied 



1922 K 



