It is a deeply significant fact that a nation of 44,500,000 people, producing by its manifold activities a total income of £40 per head per annum, should be able to afford to retain of its total output of cotton fabrics but 10s. per head per annum.
Let us turn to our woollen and worsted industries. Here we have in an average year an output worth some £65,000,000 of which £23,000,000 is exported, leaving £42,000,000 for home consumption. In addition there is a considerable importation (£12,000,000) of woollen and worsted goods, chiefly woollen goods, of a character which we do not ourselves produce, from France. Thus we have a total home consumption worth £54,000,000 per annum. This amounts to about 25s. per head per annum, a sum which, in view of our climatic conditions, is, if anything, less satisfactory than that for cotton consumption. Again let us picture our working-class household of five persons and inquire what might be its most modest imaginable expenditure upon articles made of wool:—
CALL (AT WHOLESALE PRICES) BY A HOUSEHOLD
OF 5 PERSONS, FOR WOOLLEN AND WORSTED GOODS.
MATERIALS ONLY
| For the Person: | ||
| (1) The Man | £3 7 10 | |
| (2) The Woman | 2 9 9 | |
| (3) Three Children | 3 0 0 | |
| For the Household | 3 0 0 | |
| £11 17 7 | ||
In working out this estimate in detail, I have again postulated a low standard of comfort. Thus the man is assumed to have but one new woollen suit and one new pair of trousers per annum, and an overcoat once in two years. It is also assumed that the children are partly provided for by adaptation of their parents' discarded garments. Even so, the estimate works out at 47s. per head. At this rate there would be a call for about £105,000,000 of woollen and worsted goods by the 44,500,000 people of the United Kingdom. As a matter of fact, the call is for only £54,000,000 worth, or about 25s. per head on the average. But who is the Average Man? He is a creature of the statistician. The real truth is, of course, that quite a small number of people consume a very great part of our total present annual call for £54,000,000 worth of woollen and worsted goods. The masses of the people spend a sum which is a small fraction of the average expenditure of 25s. per head.
Again, let us consider the boot and shoe industry. Here I have no reliable estimate as to the value of production, but we know that employment in the trade is sometimes exceedingly bad, and that in Leicester, Northampton and elsewhere the greatest distress exists from time to time because the boot manufacturers have overtaken demand. What does this mean? There are some 7,000,000 houses in England and Wales not assessed to the Inhabited House Duty because they are under £20 in annual value. It is safe to say that each of the inhabitants of each of these 7,000,000 houses would gladly purchase three pairs of boots and shoes if they had the means to do so, and would then not be overburdened with footwear. That means that a need exists at this moment for 7,000,000 × 5.2 (the average number of persons per house in this country) × 3 = 109,000,000 pairs. That great demand, obviously, could be renewed, did means allow, within 12 months.[35]
Yet, in November 1904, the Mayor of Leicester (Mr S. Hilton, of Messrs S. Hilton & Sons, boot factors) dealing with the question of want of employment in the boot industry said:
"I think the present great need of Leicester is a new industry. We cannot expect, at any rate for some considerable time, that much more employment will be derived from the boot and shoe trade, at least, not sufficient for a growing population. The rapidity with which boots and shoes are turned out, owing to the improved machinery and modern methods, will supply all the demands for some time to come, and the man who may be the means of introducing some additional industry in this town, which will not only prove remunerative to the employer, but provide work for the many men and youths who are in need of it, will be a benefactor to the town."
With improving methods and machinery, there must, sooner or later, arrive, in every industry, a time when output overtakes visible demand, and when that time arrives, as it is alleged to have done in Leicester, great suffering is caused to many hard-working people. Their trade slips from them, and the matter of re-adjustment, the establishment of new industries, the transition to other employments, entails severe distress. But who can truly say that the boot trade has yet reached, in this country, the maximum of possible output? Certain it is that there are many who need new footwear and cannot afford it, even while Leicester men look vainly for employment. The real truth would appear to be that Leicester is suffering from the under-consumption of those who, if they had the means, would buy boots. I have shown that 100,000,000 pairs at least could be readily absorbed in Great Britain. Yet men are unemployed at Leicester and the Mayor calls for a new industry!
The fact is, of course, that while 7,000,000 or more poor householders lack the means to buy boots, some tens of thousands of unduly rich households are squandering those means and in effect commanding men to leave the boot trade to take up industries which shall serve their pleasures.