merchandise from one place to another, are productive labourers, for they confer upon commodities the utility of being in the place where they are required. The labour of policemen and others who are engaged in protecting industry is productive, because they confer upon commodities the important utility of security. But even the labour of productive labourers is not unfrequently unproductive. Public works have been commenced and abandoned; the labour which was bestowed upon these is of course wasted. A railway was constructed from Chesterford to Newmarket; it was closed almost from the first; there is now no chance of its being reopened, for the company has commenced reselling the land to its original proprietors; and thus the labour of even the most useful workmen may be unproductive.
or indirectly.There is also labour which is eminently useful, but does not, however, directly contribute to the production of wealth. As an example of this, it may be mentioned that, not many years since, the uneducated labourer was considered as efficient as the educated labourer, and employers were heard to regret those days when there were no schools to corrupt the industrial virtues of the workmen. When such opinions were current the labour of the schoolmaster must have been considered entirely unproductive, because it would have been supposed that, even if he did not impede, he certainly did not promote, the efficiency of the labourers, regarded as mere machines for the production of wealth. But now facts are every day coming to light which must impress us with the conviction that the schoolmaster occupies a most important position in the material economy of the nation.[1]- ↑ [A comparison of the years 1875 and 1904 shows that the average number of children in attendance at primary schools in the United Kingdom increased from 2,565,400 to 6,308,440. During the same period, the total number of paupers, notwithstanding an increase in Ireland, declined by more than a hundred thousand in the whole United Kingdom. The number of persons convicted of crime declined from 15,000 to 13,000. The consumption of alcohol per head decreased from 2.33 gallons to 2.08 gallons. The national drink bill was £168,987,165 in 1904 and £164,167,941 in 1905, and the movement in the direction of greater temperance has been very marked for several years. During the period between 1875 and 1904 the money due to depositors in [[w:Savings Banks|]] increased from 67 to 200 millions, and the money in mutual benefit societies from 20 to 164 millions. See article entitled
