Contrast all this with the conditions of life enjoyed by the employer and the comfortable classes. First of all, there is no going to work at thirteen years of age; no half-timers are found amongst their children; no stoppage of income takes place because of sickness; even in times of bad trade the majority of employers and the majority of people who live on salaries are never obliged to go short of the necessities of life. We never expect Cabinet Ministers, whose wages amount to £5,000 a year, to draw less during the time they are off duty owing to sickness. It is illustrative of the attitude of mind we have towards each other that it was the Cabinet Minister in charge of the National Insurance Bill who, having laid down in Parliament the principle that workmen must not be allowed a decent income when unemployed or sick, was himself away from his duties for many weeks at a time because of illness, during which time he drew his wages at the rate of £5,000 a year as usual. No one appeared to think it necessary even to ask for a doctor’s certificate to prove that he was really ill. No one thought of accusing him of malingering. No one imagined for a moment that a Cabinet Minister would stop away from work a minute longer than was necessary. For the workman, it is another story. An altogether different standard is set. He must be driven back to work at the earliest possible moment; and the whip of starvation must be used to send him back, irrespective of his condition of health. These unequal conditions of service and unfair relationships are the result of the outstanding fact that labour is looked upon by society as something to be bought and sold, and is treated like any other piece of machinery which is needed for a certain job. When a worker becomes old and inefficient he is sacked; when profit can no longer be secured from his labour he is sacked. If a machine will do his work cheaper he is told to find some other job or starve. Money-making is all that counts in the Capitalist system, and unless it contributes to this end the labour of the workers is not required. They have no ownership, no control, either of their own lives or of their industry. They are just items in the machinery of production, and it is this fact which separates them off from every other class and makes them what, in fact, they are--the dependent wage-slaves of the possessing classes.