beings who slaved in the uninspected factories and mines
during the earlier period of the factory system, and still slave in the
sweater's den, it may still be to the interest of employers to pay
starvation wages for relatively inefficient work, rather than pay high
wages for a shorter day's work to more efficient workers. It is to the
capitalist a mere sum in arithmetic; and we cannot predict that the
result will always turn in favour of humanity and justice.

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 d