Mr. John Morley on Wednesday delivered a strong address to
the Trades-Union Congress at Bristol in favour of restricting production. He contended that unlimited production involved the absurdity of an unlimited demand, and that cotton-mills in par- ticular had been ruinously multiplied, a statement strongly re- peated by a writer in our own columns, who had not read the evidence Mr. Morley has collected. Lancashire, in fact, has cal- culated that, given certain prices, consumption would be endless, whereas no man will wear two shirts at once, if he can get the second one for a halfpenny. If this is admitted, then the only permanent remedy is such a diminution of production as shall restore prices to the profit-producing point. Mr. Morley contends that this is possible without rousing dangerous foreign competi- tion, and that it is a far better method than the effort to keep on producing more cotton than is wanted, and extract profit out of the workmen's wages. We have always contended that the men had reason in their demand for half-time in preference to half-wages, and the defect of an otherwise most able address seems to us to be that Mr. Morley forgets too completely the interest of the consumer. He—who is everybody minus the operative—distinctly benefits by low prices, and moreover, when they are low can purchase things which otherwise he would totally neglect.
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