gainst the white man."[788] "A demand
for a general reduction of wages is the end of the fine talk about big
profits, national prosperity, and the 'workshop of the world.' The
British workers are to emulate the thrift of the Japanese, the
Hindoos, and the Chinese, and learn to live on boiled rice and water.
Why? So that they can accept low wages and retain our precious foreign
trade. Yes, that is the latest idea. With brutal frankness the workers
of Britain have been told again and again that, 'If we are to keep our
foreign trade, the British workers must accept the conditions of their
foreign rivals,' and that is the result of our commercial glory! For
that we have sacrificed our agriculture and endangered the safety of
our Empire."[789]

The assertion of the Free Traders that Free Trade has made Great
Britain prosperous is treated with scorn. "The Free Traders say we,
the nation, are richer under this system than we should be under
Protection. By employing ourselves in those occupations in which we
can produce the cheapest article, we earn the most wealth in money
value.--In money value.--They do not consider the twelve million
underfed, the hundreds of thousands of unemployed. The nation, _we_,
are richer. That is the test. Well, my countrymen, I think it is a
damnable doctrine, and its results are damnable. The Free Traders
boast of our wealth. Are twelve million underfed, a million starving
children, a million paupers, an infantile death-rate of 150 per
1,000--are these signs of wealth? The question is not 'Is the nation
wealthy?' but 'Are the people wealthy?' Judged by this standard, how
poor a nation is this, my countrymen! The Free Traders tell us that we
earn more wealth under Free Trade than we should under Protection.
Again I ask: Who are _we_?"[790] A Socialist weekly lately said:
"Great Britain, I understand, has recovered its prosperity; our
exports are going strong, and our imports have nothing much to
complain about. Prosperity? Why, Great Britain is simply rolling
in--statistics."[791]

Socialists rightly demand that the effect of British fiscal policy
should be judged not by its effect upon the wealth of the few, but
upon the employment of the many, and they clearly recognise the
destructive effect which Free Trade has upon the national industries.
"Under Free Trade it is possible for a foreign trader to take trade
away from a British trader. If for any reason we lost an important
trade, or several