PROBLEMS OF DISTRIBUTION 235 
at which the man just left in employment has 
a worth equal to his wage. 
It is very difficult to imagine how organised 
labour could secure the employment of all em 
ployable people, when such a breach between 
marginal worth and wages had been created, 
without interfering to such an extent with the 
arrangements 1 in works that the employer as 
industrial organiser would in effect be displaced. 
In a limited degree, of course, the kind of 
interference with the demand for labour which 
we have in mind can be brought about by 
regulations relating, for example, to the 
quantity of labour to machinery (the wisdom 
or folly of which when their intention goes 
beyond stopping overwork, we shall not 
enter into here) ; but, in order to carry out 
on a large scale the sort of policy which we 
have been discussing, the interference with 
the demand for labour, instead of being limited 
and piecemeal, would have to be massive and 
thorough-going. 
Paradoxical as it may appear, given a 
social system like that which we have now in 
general operation, a brighter future for 
labour is bound up, not with action which 
would reduce the proportion of employing 
capacity active in producing, but, on the 
contrary, with action which will augment