compulsory segregation or even sterilisation of the unfit. The second or "positive" method, designed to enhance the quality of the race, takes the form of bonuses on children born of certain types of parents, taxes on "fit" persons who refuse to procreate, and such other means. So far, however, our biological knowledge is very limited, and even if the eugenists offer physical proof of their contentions, they are sure to encounter continued opposition on moral grounds. Eugenics does not seem to hold out any promise of relief and improvement for the immediate future.

The problem of population and food has come into prominence in recent years. New countries that hitherto exported a large amount of their food products to the older industrial countries are gradually increasing their own population and reducing the proportion of their food exports. The United States, for example, is consuming a growing share of the grain produced within its own boundaries. Again, the relief offered by a diminishing birth rate is partly offset by the declining death rate, for the extension of human life has to be accompanied by a corresponding advance in the quantity of food produced.

The prospects, however, are not as gloomy as the pessimists would have us believe. Even with the existing methods of production, the food supplies of the world for many generations to come would appear to be adequate to the needs. Misery and starvation are mainly the result of an inadequate industrial organisation and an unsatisfactory mode of distributing the income of the community. Improvements in the social structure would immediately remove many of the ills usually attributed to overpopulation. As for the methods and quantity of production, the Industrial Revolution did not exhaust man's inventiveness, and one may reasonably expect further

progress in our economic organisation, permitting of an increase in the world's population, yet accompanied by a general advance in the standard of life.*

The Mobility of Labour.

In dealing with the supply of labour, reference must also be made to the problems arising out of its relative "immobility," i.e. the difficulty of moving labour from one purpose or direction to another. The supply of capital, for example, does not present the same problem. Some forms of capital are

very fluid." Thus a slight movement in the rate of discount will cause money, the most mobile form of capital, to flow from one continent to another. Other kinds of capital are less mobile, and apart from their value as scrap can only be used for the purposes for which they were originally produced, e.g. power-looms, lithographic machines. There is a third and intermediate class of capital, which, though not perfectly mobile, is adaptable for alternative uses; thus the lathes employed during the war for turning shells were adapted with little alteration to making such articles as sewing-machine parts. Capital as a whole, however, is fairly mobile if compared with labour. Whereas capital (apart from "personal" capital) is a concrete thing, labour is vested in the individual, and its sale and transfer involve peculiar difficulties. The “human element" necessarily plays a dominant part in all matters affecting labour.

* An interesting forecast of the future population of Great Britain is made by Dr. A. L. Bowley in Part IV. of Is Unemployment Inevitable? (1924). Dr. Bowley submits that, provided the emigration continues at the same rate as in the decade before the 1911 Census, the proportion of the population between 15 and 65 will increase by about 1,500,000 in the decade 1921-31, but will then diminish by about 200,000 in the decade 1931-41. With special reference to unemployment, he suggests that the problem fifteen years hence will be an insufficiency rather than a surplus of labour.

There is no general remedy for the comparative immobility of labour. Several forms of immobility can be distinguished, and each requires a more or less different treatment. The principal obstacles to a perfect flow of labour, and the possible means of coping with them, may be briefly outlined.

(1) Geographical. The obstacle of distance is still appreciable, though it is not so formidable as in the past. There is a tendency for most people to live and work in the district in which they are reared, but with improvements in the means of communication and transport, the barriers are getting weaker. The railways, the postal service and the newspapers have done much to effect this. Movement between countries, however, is still rather sluggish, language and other difficulties here becoming pronounced. This form of geographical immobility is more manifest in an island community like Britain, for the flow of labour between this country and the rest of Europe is more difficult than that between the several states on the mainland. Frequently, however, geographical immobility is closely bound up with other considerations—personal and sentimental reasons, ignorance, cost of movement, etc. These are considered separately.

(2) Personal. The personal factor in the mobility of labour is too obvious to need lengthy comment. Family, sentimental and patriotic ties bind labour to a particular sphere, whereas their effect on a movement of capital would be practically nil. A man may refuse to change his job for a better one if it means moving to an environment away from the friends and surroundings to which he has become attached.

(3) Ignorance. This is an important factor which bars mobility from the beginning of a worker's industrial life. The parents of a boy just leaving school may be ignorant

of the best avenue for him to take, and may put him into a job which affords no development of the boy's faculties at this vital time of life, and offers but little prospect of advancement. (Too frequently, however, parents are driven by necessity to place their children in blind-alley occupations; the obstacle here is one of cost, which is discussed below.) Further, the worker may be ignorant of better conditions elsewhere. Instances are numerous in which people in an industry covered by a Trade Board work for lower wages than the legal minimum, not simply because they are refused work at the legal rates, but because they do not know that these rates are enforceable.

The obstacles to mobility due to ignorance on the part of parents can be largely overcome by State and municipal guidance. "After-care" and similar schemes indicate a growing social responsibility for the juveniles passing from the years of compulsory education. Ignorance on the part of the workers themselves is now met in some degree by employment exchanges and, in certain instances, trade unions. The exchanges have done valuable work in giving information, and also in breaking down the geographical barrier. Some trade unions (e.g. the draughtsmen's organisation) have a systematic arrangement for collecting and imparting to their members information of vacancies. While this activity cannot be considered a primary function of trade unionism (it would hardly be practicable in some unions), it does help to overcome the obstacle of ignorance.

(4) Cost of Movement. More than one type of this obstacle can be distinguished. Firstly, there is the obvious cost of moving one's self, family and belongings from one place to another. This item is often so high as to keep a man to one district though he knows he could materially improve

his position elsewhere, if he could only bear the initial expense. Secondly, there is the cost of training for a post in a higher grade or for one in a different sphere altogether. To the actual expense of training there must be added of course that of maintaining self and family throughout the period. To move from place to place, but keeping in the same trade, is a relatively simple matter. But movement from a lower grade to a higher grade, or from one occupation to another, is more difficult and expensive. Employment exchanges are helpful in dealing with the former kind of immobility, but the latter type needs a more fundamental remedy.

Then, further, there is the cost on the part of parents who wish to give their children a good start in life. As mentioned in (3), parents may be well aware of the best course for their children to take, but are driven by lack of means to put them into a job which will bring in a few shillings right away, though it offers no prospect of advancement. Apprenticeship and similar schemes involve a certain expense, which many parents, though not lacking in self-denial, are unable to afford. Progress has been made in recent years in free technical education, and it is anticipated that this useful adjunct of general education will be further extended. Though they might involve a large financial outlay at the beginning, such measures must ultimately prove economical, for every child whose potentialities are not fully developed, let alone if they are allowed to run to waste, means so much loss to the community. From a strictly economic, as well as from the social, moral, and political standpoints, it is desirable that the cost of proper training, if beyond the means of the parents, should be borne by the community.

(5) Custom and Tradition. These still play a large part in governing economic conditions. The movement of