But that is not the only spirit which has been awakened in our country; there are others, not less powerful, and a greater number, who will never allow that door to be closed; they have got their feet in it, they are resolved that it shall be kept open.  Nay, more, they are prepared to descend into the abyss, and grapple with its evils—­as sometimes you see after an explosion at a coal mine a rescue party advancing undaunted into the smoke and steam.  Now there is the issue on which the future of this Parliament hangs—­“Forward or back?” Voices sound loud and conflicting in our ears; the issue, the sharpest and simplest, the most tremendous that can be put to a generation of men—­“Forward or backward?”—­is the issue which confronts us at the present time, and on it the future of the Government is staked.  There are faint-hearted friends behind; there are loud-voiced foes in front.  The brewer’s dray has been pulled across the road, and behind it are embattled a formidable confederation of vested interests.  A mountainous obstacle of indifference and apathy bars our advance.  What is your counsel?  Forward or Back?

Let it be remembered that aged poverty is not the only evil with which, so far as our means allow, we have to grapple.  What is the problem of the hour?  It can be comprised in one word—­Unemployment.  After two years of unexampled trade expansion, we have entered upon a period of decline.  We are not alone in this.  A reaction from overtrading is general all over the world.  Both Germany and the United States are suffering from a similar commercial contraction, and in both countries, in spite of their high and elaborate protective tariffs, a trade set-back has been accompanied by severe industrial dislocation and unemployment.  In the United States of America, particularly, I am informed that unemployment has recently been more general than in this country.  Indeed the financial collapse in the United States last autumn has been the most clearly marked of all the causes to which the present trade depression may be assigned.

It is not yet possible to say that the end of that period of depression is in sight; but there are some significant indications which I think justify the hope that it will be less severe and less prolonged than has been known in other trade cycles, or than some people were at first inclined to believe.  But the problem of unemployment is not confined to periods of trade depression, and will not be solved by trade revival; and it is to that problem in its larger and more permanent aspects that I desire to draw your attention for a short time to-night.

There is no evidence that the population of Great Britain has increased beyond the means of subsistence.  On the contrary, our wealth is increasing faster than our numbers.  Production is active; industry grows, and grows with astonishing vigour and rapidity.  Enterprise in this country requires no artificial stimulant; if it errs at all, it is from time to time upon the side of overtrading and overproduction.  There is no ground for believing that this country is not capable of supporting an increasing population in a condition of expanding prosperity.