Disciples of Malthus, who urge the growing
pressure of population on the food supply, are sometimes told that so
far as this argument applies to England, the growth of wealth is faster
than the growth of population, and that as modern facilities for
exchange enable any quantity of this wealth to be transferred into food
and other necessaries, their alarm is groundless. Now these rival
contentions have no concern for us. We are interested not in the
pressure of the whole population upon an actual or possible food supply,
but with the pressure of a certain portion of that population upon a
relatively fixed supply of work. It is approximately true to say that at
any given time there exists a certain quality of unskilled or low-
skilled work to be done. If there are at hand just enough workers to do
it, the wages will be sufficiently high to allow a decent standard of
living. If, on the other hand, there are present more than enough
workers willing to do the work, a number of them must remain without
work and wages, while those who are employed get the lowest wages they
will consent to take. Thus it will seem of prime importance to keep down
the population of low-skilled workers to the point which leaves a merely
nominal margin of superfluous labour. The Malthusian question has in its
modern practical aspect narrowed down to this. The working classes by
abstinence from early or improvident marriages, or by the exercise of
moral restraints after marriage can, it is urged, check that tendency of
the working population to outgrow the increase of the work for which
they compete.
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