Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/606

 54 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL In dealing with ' Problems of Poverty,' he has necessarily confined himself as a rule to proximate causes and effects, passing very lightly over the ultimate forces which control the phenomena in question. For example, irregularity of work is ably treated in its effect on the labourer, but its existence is assumed rather than accounted for, and no allusion has been made to such influences as changes in the world markets, fluctuations of credit and rapid changes in the rate of discount, or to possible remedies or palliatives based on a recognition of the inter-dependence of questions of labour and of finance. Probably Mr. Hobson has purposely refrained from entering on so wide a field of debatable questions as are opened up when once we touch on currency reform. The book opens with a discussion of the true measure of poverty, a term the meaning of which is as he states ambiguous. Some light is thrown on it by the analysis of the total national income into the items rent, interest, profits and wages, but working class incomes are graduated, and' as you go lower down in the standard of living, each drop in money represents a far more than proportionate increase in the pres- sure of poverty,' while with the poor the evil of low wages is aggravated by high prices. ' In general the poorer the family, the higher prices it must pay for the necessaries of life,--especially for house-room.' Mr. Hobson quotes Mr. Charles Booth's investigations into East-London poverty as showing that there is a stratum of 100,000 people who from an industrial point of view are worse than worthless, and sets down fifteen per cent. as a fair deduction from nominal wages for irregu- larity of employment. (Here we may note the danger of confusing the unemployed the '.very poor.') The question of the ' . ' with diminution or increase of poverty depends on the meaning assigned to the term. ' The upper grades of skilled labour have made con- siderable advances, and the lower grades of regular unskilled labour have to a lesser degree shared in this advance,' but Mr. Hobson inclines to view poverty as measured by the ratio of felt wants to power to satisfy them and in this sense 'there is more poverty than ever. The effects on labour of the industrial revolution and the intro- duction of machinery are dealt with necessarily in rather a sketchy manner in the next chapter. Mr. Hobson thinks that the develop- ment of machinery drives ' a larger and larger proportion of labour to find employment in those industries which from their nature furnish a less steady enploynent.' This conclusion is arrived at by dividing industries into two sets, ' staples' (including agriculture, textile fabrics, minerals, transport service, machinery, and tools), and all others, the object of which is to supply new wants. Undoubtedly a growing pro- portion of the population find work outside the trades enumerated above, but it does not follow that their work is necessarily less steady. One of the most irregular enployments of all (i.e. dock labour) is in fact one of the 'staI)les' (transport). The whole argument seems to be