IO/}  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED
national  income,  which  they  will  use  in  raising  their
standard  of  consumption.  By  effective  trade  organisation
they  may  raise  wages,  by  co-operation  of  consumers  they
may  expend  their  wages  more  economically,  by  organised
use  of  the  franchise  they  may  secure  such  equality  of
educational  and  economic  opportunities  as  will  remove
or  abate  the  dangers  of  ignorance  and  destitution,  which
at  present  bar  the  progress  of  the  rear-guard  of  labour.
The  low  rate  of  interest  and  profits  in  many  trades  is  no
sufficient  barrier  to  the  wisely  regulated  pressure  of  tradeorganisations
  for  higher  wages.  Setting  aside  all  consideration ­
  of  the  greater  efficiency  of  higher  paid  labour,  we
cannot  fail  to  see  that  the  effective  demand  for  higher
wages  tends  like  a  tax  to  settle  on  unearned  elements  of
income.  A  rise  of  wages,  in  a  trade  where  profits  lie  at
a  minimum,  tends  to  lower  rents,  or,  in  default  of  rent,
by  raising  prices,  falls  upon  those  consumers  whose  money
incomes  will  not  be  affected  by  a  rise  of  prices.
§  5.  Increased  Consumption  gives  Validity  to
Increased  Saving.
Let  it  be  clearly  understood  that  this  policy  of  increased ­
  consumption  by  the  public  and  by  the  working
classes  of  the  country  contains  no  repudiation  either  of
the  principle  or  the  practice  of  saving.  On  the  contrary,
each  rise  of  general  consumption  signifies,  not  merely  an
increased  employment  of  labour,  but  of  capital  as  well.
A  rise  in  the  general  standard  of  consumption  is  a
demand  for  more  saving  and  it  alone  can  give  economic
validity  to  more  saving,  by  enabling  it  to  assist  in  the
satisfaction  of  increased  needs.  The  very  gist  of  our
analysis  lay  in  the  disclosure  that  every  increase  of  effective