rates for the upkeep of roads which are torn to pieces by the heavy
motors of the great distributing firms delivering goods to those who
would otherwise be his customers, perhaps with petrol specially exempted
from taxation. The firm which by widespread advertisements can induce
people to buy an article with some familiar name attached, reaps a
gigantic fortune, while the man who makes the same article and cannot
spend money on advertisement gains a mere pittance. The advertisements
which disfigure the country are not taxed, as in other countries, and
the issue of advertising circulars has been subsidised by the Post
Office, which delivered them at a rate lower than that charged for
delivery of the letters, or even the postcards, of the poorest, though
the trouble involved is the same. The patent laws, again, have been
exploited to protect the large manufacturer, who fences some form of
production by taking out a string of patents often where there is no
meritorious invention at all. The rubbishy specifications are flourished
in the face of a poor competitor, and form a basis for threats which a
man who is not wealthy dare not resist, knowing the heavy cost of
fighting any patent action whether successful or not. "To him that hath
shall be given" ought not to be a maxim to guide legislators or any
department of Government.

To return from this digression. One great advantage of the councils
would be that those who represent the workmen upon them will probably be
men who are actually engaged in manual work in the trades concerned, or
have been so engaged, and who will look at each question practically.
The agitator who lives on grievances and disputes, the politician "on
the make," or the well-meaning and half-informed enthusiast from
outside, is not likely to find a place on councils whose object it is to
see how interests which investors, managers, and workmen have in common
can best be promoted, and how the share of each in the work and its