t will reflective readers say of a Governing Class, such as
ours, addressing its Workers with an indictment of 'Over-production'!
Over-production: runs it not so? "Ye miscellaneous, ignoble
manufacturing individuals, ye have produced too much! We accuse you of
making above two-hundred thousand shirts for the bare backs of
mankind. Your trousers too, which you have made, of fustian, of
cassimere, of Scotch-plaid, of jane, nankeen and woollen broadcloth,
are they not manifold? Of hats for the human head, of shoes for the
human foot, of stools to sit on, spoons to eat with--Nay, what say we
hats or shoes? You produce gold-watches, jewelries, silver-forks, and
epergnes, commodes, chiffoniers, stuffed sofas--Heavens, the
Commercial Bazaar and multitudinous Howel-and-Jameses cannot contain
you. You have produced, produced;--he that seeks your indictment, let
him look around. Millions of shirts, and empty pairs of breeches, hang
there in judgment against you. We accuse you of over-producing: you
are criminally guilty of producing shirts, breeches, hats, shoes and
commodities, in a frightful over-abundance. And now there is a glut,
and your operatives cannot be fed!"

Never surely, against an earnest Working Mammonism was there brought,
by Game-preserving aristocratic Dilettantism, a stranger accusation,
since this world began. My lords and gentlemen,--why, it was _you_
that were appointed, by the fact and by the theory of your position
on the Earth, to 'make and administer Laws,'--that is to say, in a
world such as ours, to guard against 'gluts;' against honest
operatives, who had done their work, remaining unfed! I say, _you_
were appointed to preside over the Distribution and Apportionment of
the Wages of Work done; and to see well that there went no labourer
without his hire, were it of money-coins, were it of hemp
gallows-ropes: that function was yours, and from immemorial time has
been; yours, and as yet no other's. These poor shirt-spinners have
forgotten much, which by the virtual unwritten law of their position
they should have remembered: but by any written recognised law of
their position, what have they forgotten? They were set to make
shirts. The Community with all its voices commanded them, saying,
"Make shirts;"--and there the shirts are! Too many shirts? Well, that
is a novelty, in this intemperate Earth, with its nine-hundred
millions of bare backs! But the Community commanded you, saying, "See
that the shirts