ble to follow up modern civilization without any of its
apparatus, in the shape of books and musical instruments, and the
comfort of seclusion in a spare room; and none of these advantages can
be bought out of an income of eighteen shillings a week. That is plainly
the central difficulty--a difficulty which, unless it can be put right,
condemns our commercial economy as wholly inadequate to the needs of
labouring people. Supposing, however, that this defect could be suddenly
remedied; supposing, that is, that by some miracle wages could be so
adjusted as to put the labourer in command of the apparatus of
civilization; still, he could not use the apparatus without a personal
adjustment. He is impoverished, not in money only, but also in
development of his natural faculties, since the old village civilization
has ceased to help him.

XVII

THE WOMEN'S NEED

If, while the common was still open, very few even of the men of the
village troubled about regular employment, we may well believe that
there were still fewer regular wage-earners amongst the women. I do not
mean that wage-earning was a thing they never did. There was not a woman
in the valley, perhaps, but had experience of it at hay-making and
harvesting, while all would have been disappointed to miss the
hop-picking. But these occasional employments had more resemblance to
holidays and outings than they had to constant work for a living.

As the new thrift gradually established itself, the younger women at
least had to alter their ways. For observe what had happened. A number
of men, once half-independent, but now wanting work constantly, had been
forced into a market where extra labour was hardly required; and it
needs no argument to prove that, under such conditions, they were not
only unable to command high wages, but were often unemployed. Of
necessity, therefore, the women were obliged to make up the week's
income by their own earnings. The situation, in fact, was similar to
that which had been produced in earlier times and in other parishes by
the old Poor Law, when parish pay enabled men to work for less than a
living wage; only now the deficiency was made up, not at the expense of
employers and ratepayers, but at the expense of women and girls.

But, though becoming wage-earners, the women missed the first advantage
that wage-earners should enjoy--namely, leisure time. After all, the new
thrift had but partially freed them from their old occupa