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ECONOMICS OF THE HOUR

Alfred Harmsworth, who did what we must all acknowledge was a great public service. He saw that by very careful organisation, and by basing his action on the principle of very small profits over an enormous number of units and very quick returns obtained through skilful and efficient planning, he could sell a readable and efficient paper, and sell it at a profit for a halfpenny. He accordingly produced the Daily Mail, and gave men the opportunity to read the latest news every day for half what they had usually been paying before. Now granted that newspapers are, as it is reasonable to believe, of enormous benefit to mankind, and in fact a necessity for civilisation, surely here was a great public benefit. But Harmsworth while conferring an enormous benefit on a million men made a great fortune for himself. He had the boldness to see that by taking the very tiniest of profits for himself on each copy of his paper, and then multiplying that tiny profit first by a million, and then by three hundred and thirteen, he could make a commercial success of a halfpenny paper without even counting the advertisements.
   That was satisfactory to him ; but would not the million working men have been fools to say : ‘ We care nothing about that. It takes away all our satisfaction, all our interest, and robs us of all our enjoyment in the halfpenny paper to know that a man who is no better than we are, and who does not even work with his hands, is making £200,000 a year, or whatever is the exact amount, by the exploitation of his idea. Why should he have that huge profit ? Down with him and it! If you tell us that we shall be deprived of our paper, we say, “ Nonsense ! ” We can, of course, by co-operation produce just as good a paper as