It is argued against this that the miners would be able to dictate their own terms to the rest of the community, but this difficulty is more apparent than real, because each industry is really dependent on the others, and that fact would prevent the one industry from striving to exploit the others. Exploitation, moreover, would not enter in, because, once industry was organised on these lines, there would be more than sufficient for all. We must all realise that the nineteenth century, with its enormous development of machinery and scientific invention, has settled the question of production. We can produce all we desire. It remains for the twentieth century to find an equitable method of distribution. Incidentally, in the case of mines, another question would be settled. Coal-mining is an industry in which the wages of those engaged vary considerably. It is true that a minimum wage of a sort has been fixed for the whole country, but there is great discrepancy in the maximum amounts that miners can earn. Coal-mining is coal-mining wherever it is carried on, but the fact that there are thick seams in some parts of the country and thin seams in others, added to the fact that there are different methods of working, tends to bring about variations of remuneration. Now, in the guild system, when all share alike, methods would be improved, and the natural value of one mine would be matched against the lesser value of another mine, and the workers and the community between them would thus secure all the advantages which the possession of minerals gives to the land. There is the further fact that in this particular industry, as is well known, many more labour-saving devices would be employed and better arrangements for preventing accidents would be adopted if the industry were organised as a social service on co-operative lines. It is the profit- and dividend-making business which prevents these matters from being dealt with. It may be urged that labour-saving machinery introduced into the mines would necessitate people being discharged, but this would not be so. Instead of discharging workpeople the guild would reduce the hours of labour of all the workers in the industry--which is the true use to which machinery should be put. Machinery is only of service to the community when it is used to lessen labour or to give a better supply of the things needed by the nation.