Page:The Economics of Unemployment.djvu/109

quence. Any effective internationalism which should operate throughout the industrial world to put a larger share of the product in the possession of the workers, and to reduce the existing inequality of incomes in the various classes, would not merely help the advanced countries to hold their own, but would strike directly at the origin of the cyclical fluctuations and depressions. For such an improvement in the general distribution of wealth would, as we have seen, signify a stronger and more continuous demand for consumable goods, with the result that the factors of production would be kept fully employed. In presenting the general argument in the foregoing chapters, I purposely refrained from raising the question how far it was capable of successful application within a single national area. The issue has frequently been raised in the case of certain low grade branches of the clothing trades and other definitely sweated industries. Two lines are frequently taken. The first is to insist upon the abolition of sweating conditions, with the object of levelling up the bad businesses to the level of the good ones, under the conviction that they can by such compulsion be made to pay their way on improved conditions of labour. This, the policy of the early Trade Boards, has been generally successful. Parasitic businesses have been converted into self-supporting ones, wage standards have been raised and improved methods of work have been maintained. But it is admitted that there are cases where sweating is necessary to make a business pay. The accepted social policy in such a case is that a civilised country cannot afford to keep within its borders businesses