PROBLEMS  OF  DISTRIBUTION  243

western  countries  the  methods  of  industrial
peace  are  not  unlike  those  of  England.
The  generation  of  friction  by  the  processes
taking  place  in  the  labour  market,  as  compared ­
  with  the  relatively  amicable  bargaining
which  goes  on  continually  where  goods  are
bought  and  sold,  has  nothing  mysterious  in  its
origins.  It  is  easier  to  be  dispassionate  in
selling  our  services  indirectly,  in  the  form  of
what  we  have  made,  or  acquired  as  traders  to
dispose  of,  than  in  selling  them  directly  as  the
workman  does  who  is  bargaining  about  his
wages.  As  practical  economists  we  must
admit  all  facts  of  this  kind  into  our  reckoning,
and  allow  for  the  danger  of  leaving  some
things  to  be  settled  by  the  undisguised  and
unmitigated  action  of  demand  and  supply.
Just  as  there  are  cases,  calling  for  special
consideration,  in  which  serious  friction  is
generated  by  the  unrestrained  interplay  of
economic  forces,  so  there  are  other  cases,
equally  calling  for  special  consideration,  in
which  harm  results  because  the  economic
forces  which  would  normally  be  working  in
the  interests  of  a  class  are  so  smothered  as  not
to  be  properly  effective.  We  have  examples
in  many  miserably  paid  callings,  and  in  much
of  the  casual  labour  system.