Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - The Socialist Movement.pdf/36

 32 logical waste and meet the ordinary accidents of life like sickness and unemployment.

But we can turn to another group of facts, and get another body of evidence in our support. The wages of the woollen operatives in Yorkshire have advanced but slightly since 1871, in some of the leading centres like Bradford, Leeds, Batley and Dewsbury, they have actually receded since 1874. Mr. Wood has shown that for about half a century, up to 1900, wages in the following trades have not advanced: ironfounders in Warrington, Nottingham, London, Birmingham; engineers in Wolverhampton; Compositors in Huddersfield, Manchester, Reading; masons, painters, plasterers, slaters, coopers, in the South of Scotland; ship-painters in Hull, and so on. Then if we turn to the figures published by the Board of Trade year by year, they show that at the end of 1909, amongst the larger groups of labour, excluding agricultural labourers, seamen and railway servants, nearly £100,000 per week less were paid in wages than in 1900, whilst increases in 1910 only improved the 1909 figures by £14,000, so that the workers to-day are still well over £80,000 per week less well off in respect to wages than they were in 1900.

Every reliable investigation that has been conducted into our social conditions reveals