144  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED

Labour  Colonies  will  draw  subsidies  from  public  or  private
sources,  one  grave  economic  danger  must  be  plainly  confronted ­
  and  met.
No  produce  of  a  Labour  Colony  should  be  placed  on
the  open  market  in  such  a  way  as  to  compete  with  the
produce  of  outside  English  labour.  Such  produce  being
subsidised  will  in  the  open  market  be  able  to  undersell
and  to  displace  goods  produced  under  ordinary  commercial
conditions.  The  result  of  such  underselling  will  be  to
drive  certain  weaker  outside  businesses  below  the  margin
of  subsistence  and  to  deprive  the  workers  formerly  engaged
in  them  of  their  employment.  Thus  the  “employment”
given  at  the  public  expense  or  by  charity  in  a  labour
colony  would  cause  an  amount  of  unseen  unemployment
as  large  as  that  which  it  cured.  This  condition  though
commonly  admitted  in  theory,  is  often  ignored  in  practice.
Since  it  is  not  possible  for  labour  colonies  to  be  fully
self-supporting  in  the  sense  that  they  produce  all  they
consume,  it  is  necessary  for  them  to  purchase  in  the
open  market  what  they  are  unable  to  produce.  To  meet
this  expense  they  are  often  disposed  to  confine  a  large
proportion  of  their  capital  and  labour  to  producing  those
goods  which  they  can  make  with  the  greatest  advantage
and  to  sell  them  in  neighbouring  markets.  The  result
is  they  inevitably  help  to  congest  outside  markets,  lower
prices,  and  drive  the  weakest  outside  producers  from  the
field.  Prison  labour,  workhouse  labour,  farm  colony
labour,  must  have  this  result.  If  Salvation  Army  matches
and  furniture,  if  Starnthwaite  vegetables  and  fruit  are
placed  upon  the  open  markets  of  the  neighbourhood,
they  cannot  fail  to  exercise  a  force  which  makes  for  the
“unemployment”  of  the  least  efficient  outside  competitors.