The house of Industry : a new estate of the realm

64 THE HOUSE OF INDUSTRY

indeed be one of the greatest problems to be faced by the House of Industry.

It cannot be faced indefinitely or indeed tempoarily by the individual manufacturer or shipper, because no individual or corporation or group can be expected to incur a loss which is properly the liability of the community—a loss, moreover, which the organised community can easily offset by economic gains elsewhere, notably by the maintenance of our standard of life at home.

As the facts of modern industry unfold themselves in historical sequence, it becomes evident that the Capitalist economy breaks down at more than one vital point. It has definitely failed, inter alia: —

(x) In that it has not provided credit for consumption as well as for production. It has, in fact, for its own purposes, restricted credit to the producer and to those who exploit labour—the possessing and salaried and professional classes.

(2) In consequence of this policy of restricted credit, it has kept life at a low standard for the vast majority of the population.

(3) It has done this by means of the wagesystem. It has argued that by reducing human labour to a competitive commodity value, the profits arising would enable it to prosper on the more narrow but apparently richer credit of the possessing classes.

(4) By this restriction of credit, it has completely misconceived the fundamental truth that