A GLOOMY FORECAST.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:] SIR,—In your article on " Alderman ' Ben Tillett," you say that "the destiny of the mass of labour is always to be poor." That is a sad doctrine, and I should be sorry to think it a true one. The reasons you give are that "the earth yields much only in favoured spots ; each man has to feed and clothe five persons by his toil ; and he has, in addition, to pay for safety in society, for education, and for the support of all the weak, the idle, and the vicious." But surely we may assume the possibility of every able-bodied person being made to work, if he or she will not work voluntarily; or, let me say, all males who have completed their education. Suppose, further, that one man, in six is a distributor, or over-aged, or otherwise a non-producer, representing a family of five persons, could not each of the other five, actual producers, produce enough of some requisite for the six persons to be provided for by his labour ? I venture to believe that a man in any calling could do this, and a great deal more.
To attempt to prove my belief in detail would be a work of considerable elaboration ; but I believe that it would not be impossible to produce evidence convincing enough to persuade you that, under the supposed circumstances, every one might have enough of all things necessary for health and moderate comfort. At present an enormous number of people are living wastefully upon useful workers, as unnecessary dis- tributors, speculators, or idlers. Certainly as a producer of the fruits of the earth, one man can feed in abundance a great many more than six persons, after providing for fertilisers, horses, implements, and other necessaries.—I am, Sir, &c.,
EXAMINER.
[We do not believe it, except in favoured regions, or through an amount of overwork which deprives life of all charm. The small farmers of Massachusetts have tried it, hard, for a hundred years, and have failed at last.—En. Spectator.]
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