The  nation-wide  acceptance  of  the  British  union  can,
therefore,  be  seen  as  a  practical  acknowledgment  of  the
lessened  opportunity  of  the  individual.  Only  one  form  of
opposition  to  these  group,  or  class  stairways  will,  in  the
long  run,  succeed  in  directing  into  other  channels  the  huge
pressure  of  men's  wish  to  believe  in  themselves  and  their
individual  worth — their  increasing  individual  worth.  That
is  the  form  which  arranges  to  furnish  so  large  a  measure  of
opportunity  to  each  individual,  as  an  individual,  as  to
make  him  unwilUng  to  accept  the  mass  measures  of  the
union  at  the  price  asked.
In  the  same  way,  also,  the  causes  of  wide-spiead  restriction
of  output  go  down  deep,  not  simply  into  unionism,  but  to
the  more  fundamental  conditions  which  call  forth  the  de-
sire for  unionism  and  its  works.  Let  a  man  live  for  years
under  the  daily  pressure  of  that  narrow  margin  between
job  and  no  job,  let  him  observe,  day  after  day,  that  when
some  men  work  it  appears  to  mean  that  for  exactly  that
reason  other  men  cannot  work,  then  the  most  important
factor  in  his  whole  hf e  is  sure  to  be  the  conviction  that  there
simply  isn't  enough  work  to  go  'round.  To  us  it  may
seem  very  selfish  that  such  a  man  is  unwilling,  under  the
circumstances,  to  give  himself  the  satisfaction  of  a  good
day's  work.  Personally  I  am  sure  that  the  average iworker
would  rather  have  that  satisfaction  every  night  than  to
carry  home  his  dinner  pail  with  the  knowledge  that  he  has
spent  his  day  in  shirking.    The  ambitious  but  unhappy


''FULL  UP!"  293

worker  at  the  gate  of  the  Woolwich  arsenal  is  only  one
among  scores  of  others  whom  I  can  recall  in  both  countries.
