DETAILED KNOWLEDGE FOR SPEAKERS ON SOCIAL POLITICS.
[To THE EDITOR or TER " SPECTATOR:1
Sra,—Yon were good enough to allow me last summer to call the attention of your readers to the series of Statistical Monographs which I have been issuing for the use of speakers and other political workers. Will you allow me to mention that a new series has been now begun (to be continued during the current year), and that considerable improvements have been effected in the manner in which the information is pre-
sented P In some of the earlier issues the mass of tabulated figures was so great that their net practical significance for controversial and popular purposes was at first sight not apparent to many readers. In the new issues their popular significance is set forth in the opening paragraphs ; and the detailed figures on which the general conclusions are based are
tabulated on the pages following, together with references to the official and other authorities, so as to render verification easy. Of the new series the numbers already available comprise :-
(1) A general synopsis of the income of the United Kingdom, in respect of its sources and the manner in which it is approxi- mately distributed, these general figures being followed by a minute analysis of the incomes derived from land (agricultural and urban), and the amounts going to private persons subject to Income Tax on the one hand, and to poor persons and charitable bodies on the other.
(2) A conspectus of social conditions, as illustrated by the number of houses built per year, the yearly percentage of un- employment, the purchasing power of a sovereign, and the amount of capital which has sought investment abroad, under Conservative and Radical Administrations respectively, since the year 1892.
(3) A synopsis of the farms of Great Britain, showing the numbers and aggregate areas of the farms of different sizes (from great farms down to those of a few acres) into which the country is divided ; the number of workers—farmers, farmers' relatives, and hired labourers—horses, and mechanical horse-power em- ployed in each class of farm relatively to the acreage farmed, Jrc:, 140.
(4) A comparison between England and Ireland, showing the extraordinary difference between the proportion borne in these two countries respectively by the number and aggregate income of persons subject to Income Tax to the number of the popula- tion generally-; the conclusion, as demonstrated by a series of analytical tables, being that the masses of the population are.
poorest in the country in which the wealth and the number of the richer classes are least.
" (5) An analysis of the total distributable values produced respectively by the chief manufacturing industries of the country, as considered in connexion with recent proposals with regard to a general minimum wage, the result being to show in detail how absolutely fantastic many of these proposals are. (6) The ratio of wages to profits and to total value of output in the coal trade. General results as deducible from official figures and corroborated by evidence relating to particular cases. (In the press.)
(7) Short and simple analysis of the latest Reports on Income Tax, and a detailed comparison of these with those for ten years ago, with special reference to the growth and income of companies, large, medium, and small. (To be issued shortly.)
Other monographs will deal with wages (grouped according to their amounts); the distribution and number of landed pro- perties; houses of various grades, including overcrowded tenements; the general ratio of home-produced profits to home wages ; profits from abroad, &c., &c.—in short, with most of the main questions which form the subject-matter of current social politics.
These monographs are supplied to subscribers from the offices of the Liberty and Property Defence League, 25 Victoria Street, Westminster, and can be obtained by application to Mr. F. Millar at that address. Persons who may desire to present a number of sets to local speakers, agents, or working men's institutions can be supplied on special terms. About two hundred and fifty clubs have been thus supplied already.
Previous page
