MR.  C.  BOOTH’S  LABOUR  COLONIES  FOR  CLASS  B  135
night  on  work,  indoors  or  out,  for  themselves  or  on
Government  account;  in  the  building  of  their  own  dwellings, ­
  or  the  cultivation  of  the  land,  in  the  making  of
clothes,  or  in  the  making  of  furniture.  That  in  exchange
for  the  work  done  the  Government  should  supply  materials
and  whatever  else  was  needed.  On  this  footing  it  is
probable  that  the  State  would  find  the  work  done  very
dear  and  by  so  much  would  lose.  How  much  the  loss
would  be  could  only  be  told  by  trying  the  system  experimentally. ­
  There  would  be  no  competition  with  the  outride ­
  world.  It  would  be  merely  that  the  State,  having
these  people  on  its  hands,  obtained  whatever  value  it
sould  out  of  their  work.  They  would  become  servants
of  the  State.  Accounts  would  have  to  be  kept,  however,
and  for  this  purpose  the  work  done  would  have  to  be
priced  at  the  market  rate.  It  would  even  be  well  that
wages  should  be  charged  and  credited,  each  person  at  the
fair  proportionate  rate,  so  that  the  working  of  one  community ­
  might  be  compared  with  another,  and  the  earnings
of  one  man  or  one  family  with  others  in  the  same  community. ­
  The  deficiency  could  then  be  allotted  in  the
accounts  proportionately  to  each,  or  if  the  State  made
no  claim  for  interest  or  management,  there  might  be  a
surplus  to  allot,  opening  out  a  road  back  to  the  outside
world.  It  would,  moreover,  be  necessary  to  set  a  limit
to  the  current  deficiency  submitted  to  by  the  State,  and
when  the  account  of  any  family  reached  this  point,  to
move  them  on  to  the  poor-house  where  they  would  live
as  a  family  no  longer.”  *

*  “Life  and  Labour  of  the  People,”  vol.  I,  p.  167.