for our
food. The plain and terrible truth is that even if we have a perfect
fleet and keep entire control of the seas, we shall still be exposed
to the risk of almost certain starvation during a European war. As I
have repeatedly pointed out before, we have by sacrificing our
agriculture destroyed our insular position. As an island we may be,
or should be, free from serious danger of invasion. But of what avail
is our vaunted silver shield of the sea if we depend upon other
nations for our food? We are helpless in case of a great war. It is
not necessary to invade England in order to conquer her. Once our
food-supply is stopped, we are shut up like a beleaguered city, to
starve or to surrender. Stop the import of food into England for three
months and we shall be obliged to surrender at discretion. And our
agriculture is to be ruined and the safety and honour of the Empire
are to be endangered that a few landlords, coal-owners, and
moneylenders may wax fat upon the vitals of the nation."[780] "For
over half a century we have been committing industrial suicide. By
laying waste our own land and throwing ourselves upon the mercy of the
foreign food-producers, we have been deliberately sacrificing the
millions and the future to the millionaires and the moment."[781]

The celebrated cheapness argument of the Free Traders has little
attraction for Socialists. "'Ah,' says the Free Trader, 'but think of
the cheaper grocery and the cheaper boots!' Yes, let us think of them.
What good does it do me, my countrymen, one of the unemployed, to
think of the wealth of the Rothschilds, or the cheap boots and the
cheap bread and the cheap clothes of those who benefit by these
things? I am one of the nation. Are these things that are so good for
the nation good for me? How can these cheap wares do me any good, who
have no money at all? The fact is that Free Trade and cheap goods are
only good for certain individuals. They are good for those who benefit
by them."[782]

Cheapness means low wages. Cheapness may benefit that strange and
mythical figure the abstract "consumer" of the text-books, but need
not benefit the working man. Very likely it will harm him, because
"Cheap goods mean cheap labour, and cheap labour means low wages. You
have nothing but your labour to sell, and you are told that it will
pay you to sell that cheaply."[783] "All commodities are produced by
labour, therefore to drive commodities down to their cheapest rate