I worked at Sullivan’s place in Widnes, better known as the British Alkali Chemical Works.  I was working in a shed, and I had to cross the yard.  It was ten o’clock at night, and there was no light about.  While crossing the yard I felt something take hold of my leg and screw it off.  I became unconscious; I didn’t know what became of me for a day or two.  On the following Sunday night I came to my senses, and found myself in the hospital.  I asked the nurse what was to do with my legs, and she told me both legs were off.

There was a stationary crank in the yard, let into the ground; the hole was 18 inches long, 15 inches deep, and 15 inches wide.  The crank revolved in the hole three revolutions a minute.  There was no fence or covering over the hole.  Since my accident they have stopped it altogether, and have covered the hole up with a piece of sheet iron. . . .  They gave me 25 pounds.  They didn’t reckon that as compensation; they said it was only for charity’s sake.  Out of that I paid 9 pounds for a machine by which to wheel myself about.

I was labouring at the time I got my legs off.  I got twenty-four shillings a week, rather better pay than the other men, because I used to take shifts.  When there was heavy work to be done I used to be picked out to do it.  Mr. Manton, the manager, visited me at the hospital several times.  When I was getting better, I asked him if he would be able to find me a job.  He told me not to trouble myself, as the firm was not cold-hearted.  I would be right enough in any case . . .  Mr. Manton stopped coming to see me; and the last time, he said he thought of asking the directors to give me a fifty-pound note, so I could go home to my friends in Ireland.

Poor M’Garry!  He received rather better pay than the other men because he was ambitious and took shifts, and when heavy work was to be done he was the man picked out to do it.  And then the thing happened, and he went into the workhouse.  The alternative to the workhouse is to go home to Ireland and burden his friends for the rest of his life.  Comment is superfluous.

It must be understood that efficiency is not determined by the workers themselves, but is determined by the demand for labour.  If three men seek one position, the most efficient man will get it.  The other two, no matter how capable they may be, will none the less be inefficients.  If Germany, Japan, and the United States should capture the entire world market for iron, coal, and textiles, at once the English workers would be thrown idle by hundreds of thousands.  Some would emigrate, but the rest would rush their labour into the remaining industries.  A general shaking up of the workers from top to bottom would result; and when equilibrium had been restored, the number of the inefficients at the bottom of the Abyss would have been increased by hundreds of thousands.  On the other hand, conditions remaining constant and all the workers doubling their efficiency, there would still be as many inefficients, though each inefficient were twice as capable as he had been and more capable than many of the efficients had previously been.