is obtained, representing 420,000,000 working-days, which deducted from the total of all skilled labour, amounting to 1,200,000,000 working-days, leaves a sum of 780,000,000, which if shared by 12,000,000 people would not be more than 65 days annually per individual; and if to these 10 more days are added for domestic labour, and 18 more for factory work, and 4 more for mining and general labour, it will be found that the whole amount of labour required of 12,000,000 persons, qualified for work, is really not more than 97 working-days per individual, or in round numbers 3 months each year.* This period of work, if slightly increased to 100 days, represents exactly one-third of the 300 working-days the hardworking artizan or labourer has now to accomplish in the space of each year, and which he so persistently endeavours to reduce to a smaller number. An objection might here be raised concerning the great increase of locomotion by rail and otherwise which the frequent transfer of all adult and able-bodied citizens to their respective centres of industry will annually necessitate. The following calculation will, however, suffice to allay these fears. Out of a population of 30,000,000 people there will be 20,000,000 adults employed in agriculture, manufactures, mining, navigation, handicrafts, etc. If 10 journeys are allowed annually to each person, 200,000,000 journeys will be required. This will still favourably contrast with the present mode of * Nearly a hundred years ago a similar computation was made; for Benjamin Franklin, in his letter to Benjamin Vaughan, dated at Passy, July 26th, 1784, says :-" "It has been computed by some political arithmetician, that, if every man and woman would work for four hours each day on something useful, that labour would produce sufficient to procure all the necessaries and comforts of life, want and misery would be banished out of the world, and the rest of the twenty-four hours might be leisure and pleasure." wasteful locomotion by rail; for it is stated that in the year 1874 the number of passengers who travelled on the railways of the United Kingdom amounted to not less than 480,000,000, and that a large part of the population took at least two journeys a day, or 700 in the year. CHAPTER XXXV.—DISTRIBUTIVE LABOUR. THIS kind of labour comprises all those occupations and employments which now carry out the distribution of produce by means of wholesale and retail traders, the former of which are also the regular agents for the importation and exportation of all articles of merchandise. Of all the various classes of labour, the distribution of produce is the easiest to be learned, and is also, with very few exceptions, the least dangerous. Distributive labour is therefore eminently suited for equal distribution, and in allotting it to the population, especial care will be taken that the easiest shares fall upon the aged workmen, who have already discharged their duty of national labour during the period of their athletic age. Allotments of an easy nature may be found amongst the supervision of the national storerooms and magazines, and also amongst all those occupations in which the retail dealers are now usually engaged. Some kind of labour required in the distribution of produce is, however, of a very heavy and dangerous nature, although not difficult to learn. Work of this kind, for instance, is the occupation of porters, packers, carmen, dock labourers, railway servants and of all those engaged in the service of the mercantile marine on seas and canals. But as all heavy and dangerous work has, by its very nature, the first claim on equal distribution, all these employments will be subjected to the universal law of distribution by casting the lot; for the inducement of gain being withdrawn by the abolition of money, and the earning of any wages, high or low, having thereby become an impossibility, nothing but a profound feeling of solemn duty will, in the future, incite men to do the work of the sailor, the bargeman, the porter, the carman, and dock labourer; and if this feeling of duty should not provide the required number in each branch of work, the principle of compulsory distribution of labour will have to be arrived at by the casting of the lot. It may, however, be presumed that it will, universally, happen that the lot will have to be cast because there will be too great a number presenting themselves to take part in this kind of labour. The intellectual labour that is now performed by the commercial agents, factors, merchants, and their clerks, will also admit of an easy distribution; because every member of the, new social community having enjoyed the best possible education, will be at once fitted for the work by which the distribution of produce is regulated. Moreover, the work of the office will be greatly simplified, as it will be relieved from the intricacy of complicated book-keeping and calculations of gains, profits, assets, and liabilities, debtor and creditor accounts, etc.; the mere entry of the quantity and quality of articles and goods received or distributed being all that will be required, without mentioning any price, profits, or losses. The distribution of produce is now performed by the following number of persons: Shipping on seas and rivers 200,000 94,000 75,000 68,000 68,000 56,000 58,000 36,000 35,000 21,000 31,000 Bargemen, lightermen |