The house of Industry : a new estate of the realm

SEQUEL 99

the world. One of Great Britain’s contributions to the world is representative institutions. Here is another coin from the same mint.

In our vision of the future, cannot we glimpse these great institutions exchanging in a large and liberal spirit their goods and services? At long last we discover the true way of peaceful penetration. But this happy end can only be reached if there develop a great citizenship always in advance, ever guiding and in the final analysis controlling its House of Industry.

Even though it has been my fate, during the past twenty years, to concern myself mainly with economic problems, the most fascinating study known to man, yet it has been my dream to see our politics purged of industrial intrigue and freed from economic stress. We see life as in a glass darkly, but sometimes there emerges a combination of events that wisely utilised brings us nearer to our heart’s desire. That is how matters stand to-day.

To those who tremble at the prospect of a House of Commons vis-a-vis a House of Industry armed with such enormous powers, I would say that the more materially powerful the House of Industry, the more spiritually powerful must be the House of Commons. For, after all, pure politics is an affair of the spirit and not that monstrous and hateful thing the realpohtik of the Bismarck school. And we must remember that since the House of Industry derives from the House of Commons, we may rest assured that