At the same time, even if it is uncertain whether a shorter working day could be secured without a fall of wages, it is still open to advocates of a shorter working day to urge that it is worth while to purchase leisure at such a price.  If a shorter working day could cure or abate the evil of “the unemployed,” and help to raise the industrial condition of the low-skilled workers, the community might well afford to pay the cost.

Chapter VII.

Over-Supply of Low-Skilled Labour.

Sec. 1.  Restatement of the “Low-skilled Labour” Question.—­Our inquiry into Factory Legislation and Trade Unionism as cures for sweating have served to emphasize the economic nature of the disease, the over-supply of low-skilled labour.  Factory legislation, while it may abate many of the symptoms of the disease, cannot directly touch the centre of the malady, low wages, though by securing publicity it may be of indirect assistance in preventing the payment of wages which public opinion would condemn as insufficient for a decent livelihood.  Trade Unionism as an effective agent in securing the industrial welfare of workers, is seen to rest upon the basis of restriction of labour supply, and its total effectiveness is limited by the fact that each exercise of this restriction in the interest of a class of workers weakens the position of the unemployed who are seeking work.  The industrial degradation of the “sweated” workers arises from the fact that they are working surrounded by a pool of unemployed or superfluous supply of labour.  So long as there remains this standing pool of excessive labour, it is difficult to see how the wages of low unskilled workers can be materially raised.  The most intelligent social reformers are naturally directing their attention to the question, how to drain these lowlands of labour of the superfluous supply, or in other words to keep down the population of the low-skilled working class.  Among the many population drainage schemes, the following deserve close attention—­

Sec. 2.  Checks on growth of population.—­We need not discuss in its wider aspect the question whether our population tends to increase faster than the means of subsistence.  Disciples of Malthus, who urge the growing pressure of population on the food supply, are sometimes told that so far as this argument applies to England, the growth of wealth is faster than the growth of population, and that as modern facilities for exchange enable any quantity of this wealth to be transferred into food and other necessaries, their alarm is groundless.  Now these rival contentions have no concern for us.  We are interested not in the pressure of the whole population upon an actual or possible food supply, but with the pressure of a certain portion of that population upon a relatively fixed supply of work.  It is approximately true to say that at any given time there exists a certain quality of unskilled or low-skilled work