The Press. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1897. ARE THE IDLE NUMEROUS?

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9834, 17 September 1897, Page 4

The Press. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1897. ARE THE IDLE NUMEROUS?

It is a popular notion that there is a vast aviiiy of persons in every nation whoso wealth enables them to waste i their lives in idleness. A few facts will correct this notion, and we take them as collected from the British j census by Mr. Mallock. A nation does not consist of men and women; half the population are minors. In the United Kingdom there are only eight persons out of every eighteen who are between the age of twenty and sixty-five. Fully half tbe nation are under twenty, and fully one-third are children. Out of a population of i 38,000,000 the census returns 55 per cent., or 21,000,000 as unoccupied. This leads the shallow Socialist to orate on one half of the nation being turned into slaves to enable the other half to live in idleness and luxury. But these 21,000,000 include all the children, and many who are not i exactly children, but who are still re- ! ceiving education and training. These number altogether about 12,000,000. There are, therefore, 9,000,000 to be accounted for. Bnfc in this number there are more than 7,000,000 of females. Women, though engaged in the most important kind of work, in the household, are returned in the census as "unoccupied," that is, as not directly earning their living,

whereas the great hosfc of women, presumed to be idle, are for the most part ineveterate toilers. Even the rich woman, who 13 iti a small minority, has usually some home task, aud plays a part in life useful to the nation.

Of the unoccupied male 3, who are said to number 1,700,000, the great I bulb are either under twenty or over j sixty-five. Indeed, between tho ages of twenty and sixty-five only 250,000 are returned as unoccupied. Of these, a fifth, or 50,000, are either insane, deaf, blind, or otherwise incapacitated from earning a livelihood. There are also a fifth of the remainder, or 40,000, who have retired from business after reaching their fifty-fifth year. These are men who have well earned repose, and whose enterprise has enriched the nation. There is no class that should be more exempt from envy; they are the veterans of progress and, as it were, the honoured pensioners of industry. Besides these, there are a great number of pensioners who have dearly won a maintenance by services to the State or to other employers. The total number of men between the ages of twenty and sixtyfive in England who are " living on their own means," that is, on fortunes which they did not personally make, is but 92,000. Even the bulk of these probably do some kind of managing and directing, aud many of them give groat abilities to social aud national affairs free of charge. But, in auy case, the whole army of the unoccupied men does not exceed one in four hundred of the population. Of men and women together Mr. says there are not above 150,000 who could, under any kind of pressure, be added to tho working army. If all these could be made to work efficiently they would, by sharing the tasks of the nation, lessen the working time of those now engaged by aboufc one minute par hour. The prevalent notion as to tho number of idle persons in a community is largely based on the absurd theory that there is no work but manual toil. The man who successfully manages his estate or his business is counted as one whom society could spare. Yefc he is making the most; valuable kind of contribution to the industry and wealth of society. He is the spring of fcho clock, and the pendulum wants to dispense with his services.