166 ROOT MATTERS IN SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS, 



Thus it will be seen that notwithstanding the imposing 

 effect of the vast aggregate wealth of labour in England 

 representing over eight hundred million pounds sterling — the 

 purchase of one quarter of wheat, the staff of life — demands 

 of her workmen the expenditure of 92'^ hours time in labour, 

 ■whereas in Tasmania the same amount of satisfactions can 

 be gained by the expenditure of 41° hours of labour. That is, 

 the English workman would have to work — if work could be 

 placed at his disposal (in itself a greater difficulty) — 123 per 

 cent, more hours to attain the same purchasing power pos- 

 sessed by the Tasmanian workman, whose aggregate wealth 

 only represents 0"69 per cent, of the corresponding aggregate in 

 England. 



This clearly proves how misleading are the effects produced 

 by allowing the mind to dwell upon mere abstractions based 

 upon aggregates. 



The Effect of Strikes or a Eise in Wages in Food- 

 Producing AND EoOD-LaCKING COUNTRIES. 

 But the difference in the purchasing power of the English 

 breadwinner is not the only disadvantage. Her purchasing 

 power is also not merely limited by the extent of the market 

 for her manufactures, but upon her success in underselling 

 foreign rivals who are also by necessity compelled to exchange 

 manufactures for the prime necessaries of raw products of 

 food and clothing ; and hence her success depends either upon 

 her superiority in skill and local appliances, or in cheapness 

 or extending the hours of labour. It is a necessity that a 

 manufacturing country must produce cheaply, and necessity 

 will force her to attain this end by extending the hours of the 

 labourer without extra recompense, should other means fail 

 her as a competitor for the bread and raw products of food- 

 producing countries. Strikes and combinations among 

 workmen are only of value to them within very narrow limits. 

 For let us suppose that England's supremacy as a manufac- 

 turing country depends upon her present power to undersell 

 rival countries to the extent of 15 per cent., it would then 

 follow that any nominal success attained by the combined 

 strikes of her workmen, thereby improving their hours of 

 labour or rates of wages to the extent of, say, 16 to 20 per 

 cent., would be altogether disastrous ; for it would destroy 

 the competitive power of England as a manufacturer for other 

 countries than her own. But if England was thus shut 

 within herself there would probably be no employment 

 whatever, and no means of subsistence for perhaps 20 

 millions of her present population of 38 millions. This 

 would be a terrible result arising out of the success of 

 combined strikes among her manufacturins: workmen. 



