PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 45 



if he were left as he was when he returned from the war, 

 either too injured to follow his former kind of occupation, 

 or unskilled because he enlisted at a very early age. If 

 the estimate of increased earning power is correct, 20,000 

 men together would be able to earn at least an additional 

 two million pounds per annum, or, at any rate, their 

 increased power to produce wealth would be worth that 

 amount per year to the Commonwealth. Capitalised at 

 5 per cent., this income represents a capital sum of forty 

 millions. The scheme was estimated to cost not more than 

 three million pounds, so that it is evident, in view of the 

 figures, that it was indeed a very good undertaking from a 

 business point of view. The economic results arising out 

 of the training of these men, however great, is as nothing 

 when compared with the social aspect. A Minister of the 

 Crown in one of the more largely populated States of the 

 Commonwealth mentioned the other day that an investiga- 

 tion of the records of prisoners in the gaols of that State 

 had disclosed the fact that only 10 per cent, of the prisoners 

 belonged to professional or trade callings. All the rest 

 were unskilled. A little reflection about this interesting 

 statement will show that, after all, it is not a matter to 

 cause much surprise. The worker in a profession or trade 

 has positive advantages over the ignorant and unskilled, in 

 that he has been educated and trained to work for some 

 definite objective in life, so that the future always has 

 possibilities for him. Moreover, competence to take an 

 active part in some constructive work, either in production 

 or manufacture, or in some branch of the many phases of 

 business life, increases his self respect, with the result that 

 his code of ethics is the better. A man without a profession 

 or trade or some definite calling has none of these things 

 to help him, and indeed needs to be strongly inclined to a 

 good moral standard to help him through his aimless and 

 unseeing life. There is, of course, a percentage of people 



