CopyrigM'N^ CQEOUGHT OEPOSm THE WAGES QUESTIOIi A TREATISE OX WAGES AND THE WAGES GLASS FRAXCIS ArWALlCER, M.A., Pir.D. Professor of Political Kconomy and Ilisluvr^ Slie^ield SvieiHific Hchool of I'ule tolU-cje. Lale di'ef of t.h,- r. ^. Vurenu nf siaU.fn'-; SuneriiUendtnt oj Uie Miilh Census: Ant/i.-rr of l.ln' .-tntts'icdt Atlas of thii Cniltd t'taicx. NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COIMPANY 187G I^a 3 o\ W'^ CorVRIGHT, 1876, BY HENRY HOLT. John F. Trow & Son, printers. 203--'! 3 /-^ns/ \Q.th Street. NRW YORK. CONTENTS. PART I.-PRODLTCTIOJ^ AND POPULATION. PAGE CHAPTER I. Wages a Question in the Distribution of Wealth 3 CHAPTER 11. Nominal and Real Wages 12 CHAPTER HI. Nominal and Real Cost op Labor 40 CHAPTER IV. Thk Degradation op Labor 81 CHAPTER r. The Law op Diminishing Returns 89 CHAPTER VI Malthusianism in Wages — The Law op Population 101 CHAPTER VIL Necessary Wages 109 CHAPTER VIII The Wages op the Laborer are paid out op the Product op his Industry 128 CHAPTER IX. There is no Wage-fund irrespective op the Number and Industrial Quality of Laborers 138 iv CONTENTS. PAllT II.— DISTRIBUTION. Cn AFTER X. The Pkoblem of Distribution — Competition — The Diffu- sion Theoky — The Economical Haumonies lo5 CHAPTER XI. The Mobility of Labor 174 CHAPTER XII. The Wages Class 20(> CHAPTER XIII The Capitalist Class — Uetup.ns of Cvpital — R:3nt and In- terest 224 CHAPTER XIV. The Employing Class— The Entrepreneur Function — '1'iie Profits of Business 24;j CHAPTER XV. Co-operation: (JcTTiNa kid of the Employing Class SG2 CHAPTER XVJ. The True Waoes Question 280 CHAPTER XV IL What may place the Wages Class at a Disadvantage.... :!0:' CHAPTER XVIIL What ^L\Y help the Wages Class in its CoMi'KrrTiox fok THE Product of Industky :J4.") CHAPTER XIX. May any Advantage be AnQUiUED r.v the Wages Class through Stu^kks or T!iade5-Unions ? ;;8"') Concluding Remarks 10!) PART I. PRODUCTION AND POPULATION, THE "WAGES QUESTION. CHAPTER I. WAGES A QUESTION IN THE DISTEIBUTION OF WEALTH. All the questions of Political Economy may, both con- veniently and appropriately, be grouped under four titles, namely, the Production, the Distribution, the Exchange, and the Consumption of Wealth. All wealth has, of course, to be produced, in the first place ; and, moreover, it is pro- duced to be consumed, and for this end alone. Production and Consumption, therefore, are concerned with the entire smn of wealth. All wealth, however, is not exchanged' ; nor is all ^ Not only is not, but could not be. I say this to meet the sugges- tion that wealth, though actually not exchanged, is yet always sub- ject to exchange in the sense that, if that particular form of wealth were to rise, or some possible substitute for it in use were to fall markedly in price, exchange would then take place, so that such wealth should still be regarded as within the domain of exchange. But the state of facts assumed is not real. No matter how much rice might advance, or other food decline in price, no human power could take all the crop out of India and bring back a food-substitute to the people, even were it Liebig's extract. The whole transportation system of India, reinforced by the revenues of the British Government, broke d&WTa under the effort, in 1873-4, to distribute to the people of certain districts of India an amount of rice equivalent to but a small portion of their usual crop. The railroads and water-courses of the United States could not take all the crops from the farms where they were raised. 4 TEE WAGES QUESTION. wealtli clistril)uted. Exchange and Distribution, therefore, have not to deal with the entire sum of wealth. Nor is that part of wealth which is excluded from Exchange identical with that which is excluded from Distribution. Vast amounts of wealth are exchanged which are not distributed ; vast amounts are distributed which are not exchanged. The term Production of "Wealth does not need, for our present purposes, to be defined. Consumption, in the economical sense, is the use of wealth. The actual destruction of wealth thereby may be total or partial, rapid or slow, according to the nature of the material and the object to which it is directed. The Consumption begins Avhen the use begins. " That almost all that is produced is destroyed, is true ; but we can not admit that it is produced for the purpose of being destroyed. It is produced for the pmpose of being made use of. Its destruction is an incident to its use ; not only not intended, but, as far as possible, avoided.'" Wealth is exchanged, in the meaning of the political economist, when the jiroducer and the consumer of it are different persons ; and this, whether different persons have united in the production of it or not. On the other hand, wealth must be distributed when dif- ferent persons (having separate legal interests) unite in j)roduction ; and this, whether the product is to be ex- changed or not. In illustration of the latter case, let us suppose that a dozen persons unite in a fishing venture, on equal or unequal shares. Upon their return the product is distributed — that is, divided into shares — among them. It may be that each of the producers will desire all the fish thus falling to his share for his own immediate consumption, or to be salted down for winter use : then none of the product will be exchanged, though all of it has been subject to distribution. J N. W. Senior, Pol. Econ., p. 54. DISTRIBUTION m. EXCHANGE. 5 Or, again, some of the fishermen may desire to sell the whole, others portions only, of their fish, in order to pur- chase articles more adapted to their necessities : then we should have a product distributed wholly and exchanged in part. In illustration of the former case, let us take a small far- mer, in the American sense of that term,' a peasant pro- prietor in the phrase of Europe, cultivating his land by his own labor and that of his minor children, and perhaps of his wife as well. The product here is not distributed, because it is all his,^ the children and, for that matter, the wife, having no separate interests legally, and the avails of their labor going entire to the father and husband. The product, therefore, not being divisible into shares rep- resenting the claims of different producers, Distriljution is not concerned at all with it ; yet a part of it, or the whole, may be exchanged. If the farm were situated in one of our J^orth-eastern States, and the product were chiefly pork, corn, potatoes, and garden vegetables, the greater part would presumably go to the support of the family, and but little would be exchanged for other articles. If, on the ^ " When we speak of an American farmer, we generally mean one who is the absolute owner of the land and every thing on it." — T. Sedgwick, Pol. Econ., p. 54. "^ It may be said that the father and hnsband'is bound, both morally and legally, to support his wife and children out of the product ; and that the subsistence thus derived by them constitutes, in efEect, their wages. To this it will be sufficient to answer, first, that the amount and character of that subsistence are not determined by con- tract between the parties, as in the case of what may properly be called wages, but, within the limits of the mere support of life, are wholly at the will and discretion of the head of the family, having no relation to what other persons, rendering the same character and amount of service, may be receiving next door ; and, second, which settles the question, that the head of the family is equally bound to supply subsistence whether the wife and children labor or not. In the case of children too young to labor, or of an invalid wife, the obliga- tion of the head of the family, in respect to subsistence, is precisely the same. 6 THE WAGES QUESTION. other hand, it were situated in one of the Southern sea- board States, and the product were cotton, the whole of it, though not distributed, would be exchanged, being sold to purchase breadstuft's, clothing, AVest-India goods, etc. Both the Exchange and the Distribution of Wealth may- be, according to subject and circumstance, either simj)le and obvious, or effected through most complicated and roundabout processes. Thus, Exchange may take place in the form of dh-ect barter between two neighbors, each ffivino; some of what he has for some of what he wants ; or it may involve the services of railroad, steamship, and ocean telegraph, with the mediation of importers, jobbers, wholesalers, and retailers. In like manner. Distribution may take the form of a sim- ple division of a product into two or three equal shares ; or it may involve the partition of the annual avails of a factory among live hundred persons having claims upon the pro- duct, in shares varying from that of the nine-year-old " half-timer," working under the Factory acts, to that of the employer or the owner of the mill. The distinction which I have sought here to illustrate between the Exchange and the Distribution of Wealth is not of importance in the general theory of political econ- omy only, but it is of immediate application to the pro- blem of Wages. I shall seek to sliow^ that the fact that a large portion of the wealth produced is not distributed, while yet it is exchanged, may have a powerful influence on the condition of those classes who produce distributed wealth. In my opinion, one can no more explain all the phenomena of distribution without reference to the fact of a vast undistributed product, than one could explain the movement of the Gulf Stream without reference to the colder waters through which and over which it flows. ' P. 330. WAGES A QUESTION OF DISTRIBUTION. 7 These brief remarks upon the scope of the four depart- ments of Political Economy will be sufficiently connected with the special topic of this work by the remark that the question of Wages is a question in the Distribution of Wealth. Kow it is clear that in treating of the Production of Wealth we need to distinguish industrial /''imci^^wis/ and this the systematic writers have done with great success, and we have the laws of production developed early in the history of economical investigation with great complete- ness, little being left to be added by later writers. But is it not equally clear that in treating of the Distri- bution of Wealth, we need to distinguish industrial classes, recognizing industrial functions only as they serve to characterize such classes ? This the systematic winters in economics have ^generally failed to do ; and I venture to think there is in this the explanation of the little progress made towards the settlement of the important questions in this department of the science. Thus the political economist, having shown, by careful analysis and apt illustration, the parts taken in production by labor and by capital, carries the same classification for- ward into Distribution, and speaks of the shares of the pro- duct received by labor and by capital respectively. ISTow it does not follow at all, as a matter of course, that because labor and capital perform parts which can be clearly dis- tinguished in production, they will receive separate shares in the distribution of the product. That will depend on whether these functions are or are not united in the same persons. In the distribution of wealth, shares go to per- sons, who may be grouped in larger or smaller classes, hav- ing less or more in common. So far as the function per- formed in production may serve to characterize the industrial class, so far the function may be recognized in treating the questions of Distribution, but only so far. Beyond this it becomes as idle to refer in distribution to functions performed in production as it would be to seek 8 THE WAGES QUESTION. to identify the members of the body engaged in a certain kind of hibor, and undertake to show the parts of the pro- duce which go severally to the hand, the eye, and the foot. It is true that we find men laboring, generally at reduced wages, who have lost one or both hands, one or l)oth eyes, one or both feet ; and the economist may, by judicious in- quiry, satisfy himself how much these unfortunate persons lose in wages by their several infirmities. But this would not be held to justify the extension of such an analysis or dissection to the vastly greater number of sound laborers, and the erection of a system of distribution based on the respective contributions of the several parts of the undivi- ded body to the work of production. Kow, as matter of fact, although labor is a function in production which is always separable in idea from the work of capital, the instances where capital is furnished by one person and labor performed wholly by a different person are, if we look over the world, fewer ^ by far than those in which capital is furnished more or less by those who per- form the labor, and in which labor is performed more or less by those who furnish the capital. In other words, it is not the rule, but the exception, that one or the other in- dustrial function shall characterize the industrial person or class, just as, notwithstanding all the effects of malicious and accidental injury, the number of those who preserve all their organs and members exceeds the number of the maimed, the halt, and the blind. Yet the great body of systematic writers in political economy have carried the classification which resulted from their analysis of the processes of production over, without change, into the discussion of the questions of distribution ; and having found labor and capital the two agents in production, have proceeded to speak of the remune- ration of labor and the remuneration of capital, as if labor 1 Chapter XII. CLASSIFICATION OF LABORERS. 9 and capital did in fact receive shares always distinct in the distribution of wealth. ISTow it is easy to show that the term Labor, according to this use of it, includes the jDart in industry of five classes of persons clearly separable in economical idea, and gene- rally to be distinguished clearly in life, namely : 1st, the class who work for themselves, by themselves, either on their own land (the " peasant proprietor" of Europe, and the American " farmer") or in mechanical ti'ades. This class may consmne their own products entire, ^ or exchange them in a greater or less degree, but in either case there is no distribution, 2d, the tenant occupier of land, like the cottar of Ireland or the ryot of India, who receives the whole produce, subject only to the deduction of rent for the natural powers of the soil. 3d, the class of persons working for hire {e. g., domestic servants, soldiers, clergy- men) who are paid out of the revenue of their employers, and are not employed with any reference to the profits of production. 4th, the class of persons working for hire, whether in agriculture, in trade, or in mechanical pursuits, who are paid out of the product of their industry, and are employed with reference to the profits of production. ^ Througliout the present discussion I shall waive all qiiestion of the amount derived by the government from taxation. Whether taxes be, as Professor Senior claims (Pol. Econ., p. 182-5), " a form of expenditure," and hence only cognizable in the department of Con- sumption, it is not needful to decide here. Suffice it to say that even though government were to be regarded as, in a certain sense, a partner in the production of wealth, and a sharer in its distribution, yet, inasmuch as government always enters by force and carries away its part, determining for itself alike how much it will take and - to what use it will apply what it takes, political economy can know nothing of it. As the laws are silent amid arms, economical science bows before the tax-gatherer. Whether government shall take much or little for its own purposes out of the wealth that has been pro- duced is the business, not of the economist, but of the statesman. The methods and subjects of taxation do come within the field of politi- cal economy, but it is only because they affect the production of future wealth, its distribution, its exchange. 10 THE WAGES QUESTION. 5th, the employers themselves, in so far as they personally conduct and control business oiDerations, their remuneration being styled the " wages of supervision and management." Now to the remuneration of each of these five classes the economists generally, as I have said, apply the temi "Wages, although only the third and fourth classes do in fact receive a remuneration for their services distinct from that which they receive for the use of their capital ; being therefore the only classes which receive "wages" in the ordinary meaning of that word ; and although, in the second j^lace, classes 4 and 5 thus grouped have interests as strongly opposed as human interests can well become. The exjDlanation of such a classification would fairly seem to be that which has been indicated, namely, that economists have assumed as of course that the industrial functions which they distinguish in the production of wealth will necessarily characterize the industrial classes interested in the distribution of wealth. Otherwise it would scarcely be possible that a classification should be seriously proposed, for the solution of the problems of distribution, which groups together employer and em- ployed ; the peasant proprietor, the tenant occupier, and tlje hired agricultural hand ; the navvy and the railroad king ; the day-laborer and the domestic servant with a Stewart, an Astor, and a Rothschild. It is tnie that labor, in a certain sense of that word, is common to these and all other classes in j^roduction ; and this fact of itself ought to be enough to show that it is not labor which should be taken to distinguish classes in dis- tribution. It is not what these classes have in common, but those things by which they diifer from each other, which should be made the means of characterizing them as claimants to the product of industry. It might fairly be expected that after insisting thus peremptorily that the question of Wages is a question in the DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 11 Distribution of Wealth, and that, in distribution, not in- dustrial functions, but industrial classes, should be consider- ed, one would in a treatise on Wages at once proceed to state the problem of distribution, and to define the wages class as a party thereto. But, on the contrary, I shall be obliged to take up and explain with much particularity certain principles of Production and Population which can not safely be assumed for om" present purposes, and also to deal at some length with a current theory respect- ing the remuneration of labor, which squarely blocks the way to a philosophy of Wages. CHAPTEE 11. NOMINAL AND REAL WAGES. A DISTINCTION which needs to be apprehended with great clearness and held strongly in the mind, throughout all discussion of Wages, is that between I^ominal and Real Wages. Eeal Wages are the remuneration of the hired laborer as reduced to the necessaries, comforts, or luxuries of life. These are what the laborer works for ; these are truly his wages. The money he receives under his contract with his employer is only a means to that end ; sometimes, as it proves, a most delusive means. If, as is the case with the great majority of his class, he spends every week or every month his entire earnings, he can see for himself, no matter how little given to reflection, that his wages are not his money, but what his money brings. If, again, he is frugal and forehanded enough to save a portion of his wages, and hoard it up or put it out at interest, it is still true, though not perhaps so evident, that tliis. portion of his wages also means, in some near or distant future, " food, clothing, lodging, and firing" to himself or to his family. The habitual miser, the person who loves money for its own sake, is one of the most exceptional of human beings, the victim, doubtless, of a distinct form of disease as truly as the subject of alcoholism. But this reduction of Nominal to Real Wages is not an easy matter. " No one," says Mr. G. R. Porter in his Pro- gress of the Nation, " unless he shall have made the at- NOMINAL AND REAL WAGES. 13 tempt to obtain information of this kind, can be aware of the difficnlties op23osed to his sneeess." Ileal may differ from ^Nominal Wages by reason of : 1st. Variations in the purchase-power of money. 2d. Varieties in the form of payment. 3d. Opportunities for extra earnings. 4th. The greater or less regularity of employment. 5th. The longer or shorter duration of the laboring power. I shall consider these causes ^ in the order in which they are here given. I. The purchase-power of money may vary by reason of changes in the supply of, or in the demand for, money. First, of changes in the supply of money. {a) Changes of Coinage. — If a given amount of gold or silver be rendered into a greater number of coins than formeily, it is evident that each coin will purchase fewer commodities. ISTow when it is stated that the English " pound " of to-day contains less than one third the standard silver it contained in 1300 A.D. — 12 oz. of English silver coin metal being now rendered into ^^ shillings, whereas a shilling^ is nomi- nally the twentieth part of a " pound " — and that the French livre of 1Y89 contained less than one sixty-sixth part of the silver implied in its name, the importance of ^ To the considerations enumerated must be added, as Mr. Ward has shown, still another, in the case of laborers working hy the piece. " When piece-work is done, you have to consider not only the price per piece paid, but also the conditions, as of machinery, etc. Thus the Hyde spinners in 1824 struck because they were getting less per piece than others, though all the time they were, by reason of improved machinery, actually earning more per day." — Workmen and Wages, p. 23. ^ The shilling in America suffered a still harder fate — twenty " York shillings" having the value of but $3.50, and 20 New-England shil- lings the value of $3.33. In Pennsylvania the " dollar " was, at differ- ent dates, worth 4s. Qd. ; 5s. ; 5s M. : 6s. ; 6s. M. ; 7s. ; 7s. 6d.—C6l. well's Ways and Means of Payment, p. 99. 14 THE WAGES QUESTION. this discrimination in historical comparisons of wages be- comes manifest. Even in comparison of contemporary wages, care has often to be taken lest coins of the same name but of differing value be confounded. Tims, in tlie United States, the York shilling (eiglit to a dollar) and the New-England shilling (six to a dollar) were until recently liable to be taken for each other in calculation of prices. In the same way the English penny differs from tlie penny in use in the island of Jersey, of which it takes thirteen to make a shil- ling. {b) Changes in the amount of the precious metals in circulation. — The history of the production of gold and silver is a history of often intermitted and always highly spasmodic activity. Tims in the year 800 there is sup- posed to have been on hand gold and silver to the value, as expressed in American gold coin, of $1,790,000,000. Between that date and 1-492, the date of the discovery of America, with its vast reserves of mined and resources of unmined treasure, the estimated product was $345,000,000. Between l'J:92 and 1803 the product is given as $5,820,- 700,000 ; between 1803 and 1848, as $2,484,000,000 ; be- tween 1848 and 1868, as $3,571,000,000, The effect upon prices wrought by such wliolesale changes in the volume of the precious metals has long been discussed, and with great fulness, by economical writers, as influencing the wages of labor, producing a wide divergence between real and nominal wages in comparison of different periods ; but we owe to Prof. Cairnes^ the demonstration that tliis cause is also influential in creating disturbances in contem- porary wages, the effect upon prices being produced veiy irregularly as between countries, and as between different classes of commodities in the same country. ((') Fluctuations in the jpaper suhstitutes for coin. — A paper cm-rency pui-porting to be convertible into coin, but in ' Essays on tlie Gold Question, I808-GO. PURCHASE POWER OF MONEY. 15 fact issued, in reliance on the doctrine of chances, in con- siderable excess of the amount of gold and silver held for its redemption, will undergo far more sudden and violent changes than would be possible Avith a gold and silver cur- rency, or a paper currency based, dollar for dollar, upon the precious metals. The reason is that, as the excess of circulation over the specie basis consists of credit, and not of value, it is governed, both in expansion and in con- traction, by the condition of credit, and not by the laws of value, as a value currency would be. It costs twice as much labor to raise. two thousand ounces of gold from the mine as to raise one thousand ounces. It costs no more to engrave, print, and sign a thousand two-dollar than a thou- sand one-dollar bills. Since, then, a paper circulation may be increased without labor, all such currencies have shown a 'Strong tendency to increase under every speculative im- pulse in trade, the currency allowing prices to advance, and the advance of prices, in turn, quickening the speculative impulse, and thus creating new demands for additional cur- rency. When, however, prices have been carried to their height, and the market begins to feel the effects of highly- stimulated foreign importations, while for the same reason the specie basis of an already dangerously inflated circula- tion begins to be drawn upon to pay for the goods thus brought in, the contraction of the currency will be even more sudden and extreme than was the expansion. ISTot a gold dollar can be taken away unless something is given for it ; a bank-bill has cost nothing : it will cost nothing to replace it. It may therefore be destroyed without loss to the bank. But while a wide divergence between Nominal and Heal "Wages may be created by the alternate expan- sions and contractions of a currency issued on the doctrine of chances in excess of its specie basis, the disturbances hereby introduced into wages are slight compared with those caused by th-e issue of inconvertible government pa- per. Thus we find Washington writing, during the Revo- 16 THE WAGES QUESTION. lution, that it took a wagon-load of money to buy a wagon- load of provisions. The money of which he thus wrote was the famous " Continental currency." The deprecia- tion of this currency had been rapid. March 1st, 1778, $1 in coin would purchase $1.75 in paper; Sept. 1st, 1778, Si; March 1st, 1779, $10; Sept. 1st, 1779, $18 ; March 18th, 1780, $40 ; Dec. 1st, 1780, $100 ; May 1st, 1781, $200-500. The printing-press had nearly fulfilled the prediction of John Adams, in making " money as plenty, and of course as cheap, as oak-leaves." ^ Mr. Jefferson says'^ that the paper continued to circulate in the Southern States till it had fallen to $1000 for $1. We are familiar with the prices at which the necessaries of life were purchased in currency thus depreciated : " Bohea tea, forty-five dollars ; salt — wliich used to be sold for a shilling a bushel — forty dollars a bushel, and, in some of the States, two hundred dollars at times ; linens, forty dollars a yard ; ironmongery of all sorts, one hmidred and twenty for one."^ I have before me the public records of the second pre- cinct of the to^waiship of Brookfield, Massachusetts, for this period. On the 23d May, 1776, a " gospel minister " was called, the terms of settlement being as follows : " Yoted and granted the sum of £70 the two first years each as sa- lary, and the third year to rise to £80 per annum during his ministry." The succeeding votes show the effects of the currency inflation : Bee. 3d, 1778, " Yoted and granted the sum of £220 to the Rev. Mr. Appleton, to be assessed on the polls and estates within this precinct, in addition to the former grant of £80 for the present year." Oct. 21sf, 1779, " Voted and granted the sum of £720 to the Rev. Mr. Appleton, in addition to his stated salary of £80." April Zd, 1780, " Voted that the £220 granted Dec. 3d, 1778, shall go for the preceding year. Voted that the £720 granted Oct. 21st, 1779, be so far reconsidered as that the 1 Works, ix. 463. "" Works, ix. 249. ^ Works of J. Adams, vii. 199. PUBCHASE-POWEB OF MONEY. 17 same shall be for the preceding instead of the ensuing year. Then voted and granted the sum of £2420 in addition to his stated salary, to be assessed on the polls and estates within this precinct, for the support of the E,ev. Mr. Ap- pleton from October, 1779, to October, 1780." Second. The purchase-power of money may vary by reason of changes in the demand for money. The sup- ply of money is the amount which is offered for all other commodities ; the demand for money is the amount of all other commodities offered for it. Eggs in the Highlands were cheap in Dr. Johnson's day, " not because eggs were plenty, but because pence were few." Whether it be the plentif ulness < f eggs or the fewness of pence which deter- mines the price, the historian of wages is bound to ascer- tain. It is manifest that the annual production of commodities will increase with the efficiency of labor and capital, and that this increase is from age to age very great ; also, that the longer this annual production is sustained the greater will be the accumulation of commodities, the results of past production. Two practical remarks remain to be made, in the nature of warning, to those who undertake the difficult task of instituting such comparisons of wages as are referred to above. The first relates to tlie effect of local prices. The com- modities into which the laborer desires to render his money wages, bear prices differing greatly in localities not far ro- raoved from each other. Tlie mere passage from city to coun- try often produces a marked distinction in the prices of th3 first necessaries of life ; while, where more considerable distances intervene, the differences in local prices are of tea sufficient to effect a substantial equality between nominal wages widely divergent, or to greatly exaggerate apparent differences. Thus a mechanic living in some portions of J 18 THE WAGES QUESTION. Yemiont, away from a railroad, can buy food for liis fam- ily at prices which would somid like a dream to a town mechanic. Indeed some of the most expensive luxuries of the city, to which professional men scarce asj^ire, sweet cream, fresh fruits, and new-laid eggs, are within easy reach of his means. The more substantial articles of diet, meats, grains, and vegetables, cost one half, or one third perhaps, what they do in a city market. Would he build a house 'i The main material costs little ; the land less. Does he lease a cottage ? His rent is not one fourtli what his city cousin pays for perhaps squalid and unwholesome (juarters. But, it may be asked, is not the country mechanic at a disadvantage in respect to all the commodities, whether manufactured articles or the products of agriculture, which are brought from abroad ; and does not this disadvantage go far to counterbalance the advantages enumerated ? It can not be questioned that a loss is suffered on this ac- count ; but it is much less than the gaiu by reason of two causes : first, the greater share of his expenditures are for articles produced near by ; second, those which are brought from al)road are, almost without exception, markedly in- fci'ior in bulk to those which are supplied by the domestic market, and hence their price is less enhanced by transporta- tion, lie saves upon his meats and grains and vegetables, his fuel, and the timber for his house, the freight of those articles to a market ; he pays the freight from market upon groceries and spices; upon clothes and shoes; upon nails and putty and glass. My second warning relates to the liability of error in comparison of wages due to the great diversity which ex- ists in the articles consumed by the wages class in dif- ferent places and at difEerent times. Even in the lowest condition of life the laborer's expenditure is upon several articles which are necessary to his sul)sistence, while in countries where nature is more liberal or art has greatly diversified human industry, the laborer indulges in a con- PURCHASE-POWER OF MONEY. 19 siderable variety of expenditures. ISTow, not only is it true that some of these articles may rise in price while others remain stationary, or even decline — or if all rise, yet each rises in a degree peculiar to itself, and so an average becomes difficult to reach, particularly in the absence of ample and authentic statistics of retail trade, scarcely any- where attainable — but those articles which make up the sub- sistence of workingmen are consumed by them in very vari- ous proportions, rendering it necessary, in estimating the comparative wages of two periods, to have regard not only to the advance or decline in price of each such article, but also to the amount thereof entering into consumption, inasmuch as a large advance upon some commodity which the la- borer uses but rarely and in very limited amounts may affect his well-being far less than a moderate rise in another commodity of prime necessity. This it is which makes it so difficult to compare wages at different periods in the United States. The habits of the people vary and have varied so greatly in respect to dress and diet, not to speak of other things, as to make it almost impossible to secure a statement which will be accepted by all candid parties to a controversy as to the quantities of each princi]3al article of consumption, which shall represent the expenditure of the average workman's fam- ily ; and unless a statement of quantities can be accepted as approximately correct, it can afford only a vague idea to secure even a precise statement of the prices of the sev- eral articles. II. ISTominal and Real Wages may differ, secondly, by reason of varieties in the form of payment. Wages are, to a very large extent, though reckoned in money, not paid in money.^ In agriculture, the world ^ Even when wages are paid in money, there are two methods by which their real value to the laborer may be reduced in addition to all the causes mentioned under the preceding head. ■ These are, first, the practice of " long-pays," by which the workman is held a long time out of liis wages, and obliged to purchase goods meanwhile on credit. 20 TEE WAGES QUESTION. over, full payment in money is higlily exceptional where it is not wliolly unknown. In England the money wages in general far exceed the estimated value of all the other forms of payment, and rarely constitute less than one half the nominal wages. In Scotland, except in the neiglihor- hood of large towns, payment in kind is very general, while " in some parts of the highlands little money passes at all between employer and employed," ^ In Germany" the report of the recent commission of the Agricultural Congress proves the custom of payments in kind to prevail in every province from East Prussia to Alsace. In France' this custom prevails to a greater or less extent in nearly all depai-lments. h\ the United States board to the unmar- ried la".)orer is perhaps the rule ; while in the South, at least, the ixayment in kind generally includes the subsist- ence of the hiborer and his family, and, to a considerable extent, other necessaries of life. on ruinous terms. Tliis is sometimes necessary in new countries ; but in old countries it is often resorted to needlessly, and forms one of the standing grievances of the laboring class. The second is the practice of " truck," by which the workman, though perhaps for form's sake paid in money, is compelled, under fear of discharge, to purchase goods at the employer's store. The effects of the latter practice on the welfare of the laboring classes will be discussed fully at a later stage (pp. 324-43). ^ Fourth Report, Commission on the Employment of Women and Children in Agriculture, p. 110. " Part payment in food still prevails extensively in Wales." — Frederick Purdy, tStatistical Journal, xxiv. i529. "^ Die Lage der liindlichen Arbeiter. " The marrijd farm-servants," says INIr. Petre in his Report of 1870 on the Condition of the Industrial Classes of Prussia (p. .50), " are called ' Deputaten,' or persons receiving an allowance in kind, to distinguish them from other farm-servants who all take their meals together at the farm. The ' Deputaten ' receive in addition to their wages a cer- tain allowance of corn, potatoes, etc. TJiis primitive practice is, however, gradually gicing iray to the system of paying full wages in. moneyP ^ " In the departments Bouches du Rhone, Gard, and Gironde it ia not customary to pay in kind. In some, this description of payment does not amount to more than 10 francs (a year). In some, it sur- passes in value the amount of money payment." — Lord Brabazon's Report on t]u> Condition of the Industrial Classes of France, 1873, p. 42. PAYMENT OF WAGES IN KIND. 21 In tlie various branches of mechanical labor monej pay- ment is more usual, though Mr. Seymour Tremenlieere, in his visits to the United States prior to 1850, found the practice of paying wages partly in commodities quite gen- eral ;^ and in England money payments have only been secured by vigorous legislation and great vigilance in ad- ministration. Mr. Herries reports^ that in the sulphur- mining districts of Italy " stores exist, under the direction of the administration, where the persons employed are j)ra- vided with oil, wine, and bread, and other necessaries, under the ' tally ' or ' truck ' system." Payment of the wages of mechanical labor otherwise than in the coin of the realm is forbidden in Germany by the In- dustrial Code of 1869. In France the artisan classes have always resented payment in commodities with a peculiar jealousy. The multitudinous forms of payment other than in money may be rudely grouped for our present some- what casual purpose as (1) rent, where cottages or tene- ments are provided for the laborer and his family by the employer, whether in agricultural or in mechanical indus- try ; (2) board, mainly confined to unmarried laborers ; (3) allowances, such as definite quantities of various kinds of food, drink, or fuel ; (4) what we may call, in distinction from ISTo. 5, perquisites, such as the hauling of the labor- er's coal or peat by the employer's teams, the keep of a cow, the opportunity to take flour at millers prices f 1 Report on the Payment of Wages Bill (1854), pp. 103-5. " Report on the Condition of the Industrial Classes of Italy, 1871, p. 231. ^ In Devonshire and elsewhere a " grist-coi'n" perquisite is recog- nized, by which the laborer is allowed to have grain at a fixed price per bushel, whatever the market rate. The amount so allowed to be taken ranges from two or three pecks to a bushel every fortnight. — Heath's English Peasantry, pp. 95, 96, 140, 141. " In some counties, as Dorset, the farmer pays part of his men's wages in corn at 1 shilling per bushel below the market price. " — Mr. Purdy, Stat. Journal, xxiv. 339. l^ 23 THE WAGES QUESTION. (5) privileges, like the gleaning of fields or the keeping a pig- Tims Mr. T. Scott, of Roxburghshire, allows his work- men a free house and garden ; food (say 4 weeks) in har- vest ; carriage of coal ; permission to keep a pig, and the keep of a cow ; 100 stones of oatmeal, 21 bnshels of bar- ley, 6 busliels of peas, 1600 yards of potatoes, tons of coal at pit prices, £5 in money, in addition to extra earn- ings at harvest.! Another farmer gives his two plough- men £27 and £2G severally per annum, free cottages and gardens, %^ bolls of meal, 3 bolls of potatoes, and " drives" their coal. Another in the highland part of Lanarkshire gives £18 annually, the keep of a cow, liberty to keep a pig, C5 stones of oatmeal, and 16 cwl. of pota- toes. He x>laces the total value of money wages, allowances, etc., at from £35 to £10.^ From the above it will readily be seen how difficult and how nearly impossible it is to re- duce such various conditions to the uniform expression necessary for comparison. The " board " furnished may vary from the generous living characteristic of Cumber- land and Westmoreland' in England, and of the United States generally, to the barest and coarsest subsistence allowed in less favored regions. The cottages thus given rent free may be " model cottages" or they may be of the character* described in so many English official reports, • early and recent, with reference to which the Earl of Shaftesbury said, " Dirt and disrepair such as ordinary ' Fourth Report (1870) Commission on the Employment of Women and Children in Agriculture, p. 58. '' Ibid., p. 110. = See Mr. Tremenheere's Report for 1869. " The Hon. Edward Stanhope, Assistant Commissioner, says of the cottages in Shropshire : " The point especially deserving of attention in this county is the infamous character of the cottages. In the majority of the parishes I visited they may be described as tumble-down and ruinous, not water-tieht, very deficient in bedroom accommodations and in decent sanitary arrangements." — Report on the Employment of Women and Children in Agriculture, 1808-9, p. xsxiv. PERQUISITES AND ALLOWANCES. 23 folks can form no notion of, darkness that may be felt, odors that may be handled, faintness that can hardly be resisted, hold despotic rule in these dens of despair." i In respect to the other allowances, perquisites, and privileges, as we have classed them, which go so largely to make up the wages of the laborer in agriculture in all countrieo, there is perhaps not quite so great range as in the board or cottage rent furnished ; yet differences in the quality of the articles allowed, or in their adaptation to the wants of the laborer, or in the generosity with which traditional or stipulated privileges are interpreted, may still go far to contract or expand the apparent wages. Thus Mr. Heath in his work, " The English Peasantry," charges that the hauling of turf for the laborer's fuel is often a delusion and a snare, the turf when cut and piled up on the moors fre- quently being spoiled by the rain before the farmer finds it convenient to lend the horse and cart f also that the oft-cited " grist-corn" perquisite is of little or of no value to the laborer, the corn for this purpose being frequently taken from the " rakings" of the field.^ It is upon the cider allowance, however, that Mr. Heath expends the main force of his indignation, and he quotes with effect the tes- timony of Mr. Austin, one of the Assistant Poor-Law Com- missioners of 1843, as to the very inferior quality of the article supplied by the farmers of the western counties " under the ironical name of cider.*"* The " cow" and the " pig" as elements of wages de- serve a brief mention. It will be noted that we have placed them under diiferent heads in our classification. The entire " keep" of the cow is furnished by the employ- er over whose land she grazes ; the food of the pig, on the other hand, is supposed to be furnished by the laborer him- self, though a natural doubt on that point leads many em- ^ Address as President Br. Soc. Sc. Association, 1366. Transac- tions, p. 9. * P. 94. = P. 95, cf. 140, 141. * Pp. 55, 56, 86, 87. 24 THE WAGES QUESTION. ])lovers to ivfuso tins In^-lily vmIiuhI ])rivilog'e.' '' For- iiKM-ly," i>;iid Mr. Iiiglis, -writinij: of the peai^ants' rout in Iiv- laiul in 18o4. '' tlie \^\^ was sutHeient for this ; but the market lias so fallen that somothinn' is wanted besides the ]>ii2: to make np the rent.'"' In Eng-hnul Mr. Heath assii»-ns the pi*i; a somewhat different function. Tt is at once " to the farm laborer a. kind of savino-s-bank, in which he puts the few scraps he can sjive out of his scanty fare,""' antl also '* a kind of surety with the }>etty villat>v tradesman. Poor 1 lodge ccndd get no credit if he had not some such secu- rity as a j)ig affords."'* The keep of a cow is of course a much larger concession from the em[>loyer, and is proportionally rare. Sir Bald- wyn Leighton declares it to be not less than " the solution of the whole cpiestion of the agricultural laborer.'" The net M'eekly profit Sir Baldwyn estimates at 5 or (> shil- lings, tlie entu-e labor being performed by the wife and younger cliildren. It will, of coiu'se, be urged that such a concession would amount simply to a proportionate reduc- tion of money M'ages. This is a question which we shall ])erhaps be in a better ]>osition to discuss hereafter. The concession of " cow-land " is only mentioned here as one of the mauy ways in which, even in wealthy communities, laborers in agriculture are still paid, rendering it a work of extreme ditticulty to reduce the wages prevailing in dilfer- cnt sections to any thing like equal terms. III. Nominal and Real Wages may further differ by reason of opportunities for extra earnings in some occupa- tions and in some localities. It has been said that the true measure of wages is to be '"In Dumfriesshire ovoix the kee])inir of ii jiiij is often ]>roliil)ited oil the ground that it affords inducements to littU> acts of jtecuhition." Fourth Keport (1870) on the Eaiph\vnient of Women and Children in Affriculture, p. 85. '•' A Journey thn^ujj^hout Irehind (4th ed.), \>. oTl. = English Peasantry, p. 11:5. * Ibid., p. 115. ' Soc. Sc. Transactions, 1870, i)p. oO.j-8. THE FAMILY THE UNIT OF INCOME. 35 found not in the money received, but in the amount of the necessaries, comforts, and kixuriers of hfe which that money will pm'chase. But it often liappens that the amount of money received oy the hiljorer as wages does not express tlic sum of his own earnings, while, again, the resources of the family — which, rather thaji the individual, ought to be the unit of income as it is of expenditure — may be, in many cases, largely augmented by the earnings of other members. Such opportunities vary greatly as among localities and as among occupations, and hence Vv-e may find a substantial equality of family income where a great difference in Avages apparently exists ; or, in other cases, the apj)arent difference may be much enhanced through the operation of the same cause. An example of the first means of adding to real wages is found in the Allotment system, which already prevails to a considerable extent in England and has been highly ap- proved by economists of reputation ; ^ thou^vfhere are not Avanting those who argue that this is merely another means of reducing money wages. By the Allotment system the laborer is enabled to rent a piece of ground large enough to employ him for but a j^ortion of his time, v/ith a view to its Ijeing carefully worked by spade culture as a garden. An example of the second means of adding to real wages is given by Prof. Senior v/hen he says, " The earnings of the wife and children' of many a Manchester weaver or ' H. Fawcett, Pol. Econ. , pp. 354, 355. W. T. Thornton on Over Population, chap. viii. The Commissioners of 1843 reported strongly in favor of the Allot- ment sj'stem ; they declared that it did not tend to reduce wages, but that all the proceeds of the laud thus cultivated constituted " a clear addition to visages." On the other side, Mr. Mill, in his Principles of Pol. Econ., wrote, " "I'lie scheme, as it seems to me, must be either nugatory or mis- chievous."— I. 441,442. ° The industrial disadvantages of the employment of married wo- men in factories will be spoken of hereafter. To tlieir full extent, whatever that may be, the superiority claimed by Prof. Senior for the 26 TEE WAGES QUESTION. spinner exceed or equal those of himself. Those of the wife and children of an agricultural laborer, or of a carpen- ter or a coal-heaver, are generally unimportant — while the husband in each case receives 15 shillings a week, the weekly income of the one family may be 30 shillings, and that of the other only IT or 18 shillings.'" The income of the family, it is evddent, therefore, should be taken as the unit in estimating wages. IV. No consideration is more needful to be observed in the reduction of Nominal to Real Wages than that of the greater or less regularity of employment ; yet none is more neglected, not only in comparison of the remunera- tion of labor in different occupations and localities, but also in a still more important use of the statistics of wages, namely, the comparison of diiferent periods to ascertain whether strikes and trades unions have been really successful in advancing the condition of the working classes. It is not unusual to see the fact of an in- crease of wages in certain occupations following a threat- ened or accomplished strike, put forward as proof positive of the efficiency of this instrumentality, without the ques- tion being raised whether the certainty and continuity of work may not have been affected injuriously in conse- quence. Yet it is clear that a nominal increase of wages may be offset by irregidarity of employment so as not only spinner or weaver must be discounted. Again, so far as the employ- ment of the female head of the family in outside l^bor, or of very young children in any sort of labor, tends to reduce health and strength or to shorten life, this must be set off against the advantage of increased present earnings, in accordance with the principles to be noted in the paragraphs which immediately follow. ' Lectures on Wages, pp. 8-9. It is not only true that the opportunities for extra earnings vary greatly as between different occupations, as shown by Prof. Senior's illustration, but such opportunities vary greatly within the same occu- pation in different localities. Thus Mr. Purdy's tables of Irish agricultural wages show that the " harvest wages" for men range from 3 shillings Qd. a week above ordinary wages, all the way up to 11 shillings. — Statistical Journal, xxv. 448-50. BEGULAEITY OF EMPLOYMENT. 27 to render the advance nugatory, bnt, throngli the iniluence on the laborer's habits of industry, temperance, and frugal- ity, to make the change highly pernicious. The neglect to make account of the regularity of employment is probably due not to want of candor in argument, but to the lack of a popular recognition of the vital unportance of this con- sideration. Yet it ought to be evident to the earliest writer on comparative wages that the true time-miit is not less than the entire year. The hourly, daily, or weekly rate of payment is but one factor of wages ; the number of hours, days, and weeks throughout the year for which that rate of wages can be obtained is the other. Varying regularity of employment is due to (1) the na- ture of the individual occupation, (2) the force of the sea- sons, (3) social causes, (4) industrial causes of a general character. In agriculture, for example, we find the first two causes operating to produce great variations in the monthly rate of wages. It is not alone the difference of seasons which makes agricultural wages so irregular ;' it is in part the ^ This irregularity may be greater or less according to climate or the character of the crops. Some crops require far more days of labor in the year than others. Some countries are locked in frost half the year ; in others the ground opens early and freezes late. " In the countries on the Danube, these operations are spread over seven months ; in the countries on the north of the Volga they must be con- cluded in four months. " — Hearn's Plutology, pp. 74, 75. An English farmer is i^loughing while a New-England farmer is hauling wood on the ice and snow. Mr. Purdy's valuable tables (Statistical Jour- nal, xxiv. 352, 353) show that February is the worst month for employ- ment in agriculture in England ; August, the best. Mr. Purdy gives a table which he deems fairly representative, ex- hibiting the divisions of agricultural wages between the seasons as follows : Paid for Labor : First quarter ....... 18.9 Second " 22.1 Third " 38.6 Fourth « 20.4 100.0 28 THE WAGES QUESTION. nature of the operations involved. After the seed has been planted, time ninst be given it to grow, and this would be so even if there were no winter. So in the fish- eries it is not stress of weather alone which obliges the laborer to lie idle portions of the year, but in part the re- productive necessities of the fish. In other instances it is the force of the seasons alone which makes employment irregular, as for example in the brickmaking,' quariying, carjjentering, house-painting, and sundry other out-door trades. The loss of time from sickness, as shown by the statis- tics of friendly societies and by other evidence, varies greatly in different localities and occupations : an element that can not properly be excluded from the discussion of comparative wages, as such sickness involves not only loss of labor, but also, generally, a positive expense for at- tendance and medicine. The following table from Mr. Alex. Glen Finlaison's re- port (1853) on sickness and mortality in friendly societies, shows the experience of certain large groups of occupa- tions in this respect : • Light Labor. Heavy Labor. Age. Without cx- With expo- M'^ithout ex- With expo- posiue to the sure to the posure to the sure to the weather. weatlier. \\eathor. weather. Days lost. Days loft. Days lost. Days lost. 20 6.48 6.00 6.71 7.16 25 6.00 5.78 6 82 7.45 30 6.01 5.85 7.06 7. ('9 35 6.20 5.84 7.45 S.04 40 7.13 7.29 8.03 9.40 45 8.03 7.4< 9.87 10.78 50 10.48 10.02 12.15 12.58 55 13.65 10.66 16.08 14.33 60 17.18 11.23 20.36 21.78 65 26.23 18.15 26.99 31.55 ' In brickmakin^, in England, it is estimated that men can be em- ployed but 45 weeks in tlie year, in consequence of rain and frost. In the Northern States of America the failure of employment is for u much longer period. LOSS OF miE BY HOLIDAYS. 29 What we call social causes in restriction of employ- ment include the habits of a communitj respecting festiv- ities and religious observances.' Yauban estimated the loss of labor in France from fete days and Sundays at 90 days in the year. In some Catholic countries the holidays more or less scrupulously observed exceed, including Sun- day, one hundred. Among the Hindoos they are said to consume nearly half the year. It is doubtless true that poverty sometimes joins with superstition^ in imposing excessive fasts, and the want of work may account for the readiness with which a population surrenders itself to celebrating the virtues of a saint ; yet there can be no doubt that a force not industrial operates in some countries in reduction of the number of days of labor. A very common multiplier taken in England and the United States in reckoning annual earnings is 300 ; yet there can be little doubt that this is an exaggeration. But there are also industrial causes of a general nature ' Mr. Lecky remarks of holidays in Catholic countries : " The num- ber that are compulsory has been grossly exaggerated." — History of Rationalism, ii. 333. Diplomatic and consular reports to the British Government give perhaps the most recent and exact information on the subject of holi- days in the Greek Church. Consul Calvert reports from Montastir that, reckoning Sundays, there are more than one hundred days in the year when the Christians voluntarily cease work (1870, p. 244). Consul Stuart states the number of days besides Sundays which the Eastern Church attempts to with- draw from labor at 48. Formerly, he says, the number was greater ; but the opposition of the working classes to the loss of so much time has caused a reduction in this respect, which will doubtless proceed further (1871, p. 780). Mr. Gould gives the number of working days in Greece as 365 (1870, p. 500). Consul Sandwith gives the number of fete days in Crete as 30 (1873, p. 383). Consul Egertoii states that in Russia " besides Sundays there are about 24 holidays in the year, when no work is allowed. Some are saints' days ; others, state holi- days" (1873, p. HI). ^ Gibbon, chap, xlvii. , of the Jacobites, whose five annual Lents the historian is disposed to regard as an instance of " making a virtue of necessity." 80 THE WAGES QUESTION. whicli of late years are operating more and more to inter- rupt tlie continuity of producticm and render employment precarious. These causes, though general in their origin, do yet affect localities and occupations very diversely, in- troducing thus a new element of great difficulty into the problem of wages. Thus there is no reason from the nature of the operations involved, why cotton-spinning should not proceed equably through all the months of the year, but in fact the demands of modern trade require that periods of heavy production shall alternate with periods of dulness and depression.' In the same Avay the aggregation of vast numbers of workmen into factories for the manufacture of boots and shoes has introduced an irregularity into that branch of manufacture which did not exist when it was confined to the small shop where the master worked with an apprentice and perhaps a journeyman, and made goods for a well-defined and permanent body of customers. Among the industrial causes which introduce this dis- turbance into the employment of labor must of course be included strikes and lock-outs. Dr. John Watts has fur- nished some very instnictive computations as to the first cost of strikes. Thus, assuming five per cent addition to existing wages to be the matter in dispute between the employer and the laborer, he shows that if the sfpilie succeeds its results will be, roughly speaking, as follows '."^ ' Mr. Dudley Baxtei', speaking of the operatives in this branch of industry, wrote : " We all know their periodical distresses. It maj' be said that these were accidents. They are not mere accidents, but inci- dents — natural incidents of our manufacturing economy. They are sure to recur under different forms, either from gluts, or strikes, or war, and they must be allowed for in computations of earnings." — National Income, p. 45. "In 1829 the weavers of Lancashire and Cheshire were earning, at best, from 4.9. 4^(7. to 6s. per week when at work. The most favored had to wait a week or two between one piece of work and the next ; and about a fourth of the whole number were out of employ altogether." — Martineau, History of England, iii. 167. '^ Statistical Journal, sxiv. 501. I have sought to show elsewhere (w 891, n.) that all the time occupied by a strike is not necessarily lost. LOSS OF TIME BY STRIKES. [Jl Tears of work at the extra rate. The loss of 1 lunar month's wages will require to make it up, If " 2 " " " ■' " 31 " " 6 " " " " " Of " 12i " " " " " 20 " The strike of the London builders in 1859 was for 10 per cent of time or its equivalent, 10 per cent of wages ; and as it lasted 26 weeks, would, if successful, have re- quired lOf years of continuous work at the extra rate to make up the loss of wages sacrificed. The amount in dis- pute between the weavers of Colne and their employers did not average more than 3^ per cent, and had the strike been success!" ul^ would have required more than 28 years continuous employment at the advance to make up the .amount of wages lost, by which time the lost wages would, at 5 per cent (interest), have quadrupled." This Colne strike lasted 50 weeks ; the great Preston strike, 38 weeks ; the Padiham strike, 29 weeks. Computations like these do not of themselves show that strikes can not advantage the working classes, but they do show the necessity of taking such elements into account in reducing nominal to real wages. The joint effect of all the causes enumerated as affect- ing the regularity of employment is very considerable. Prof. Leone Levi, in his treatise on A¥ages,' estimates the lost time of all the persons returned as pursuing gainful occupations in England to be 4 weeks in the year, and deems this loss covered by the exclusion of all persons over 60 years of age, leaving those below employed full time. To this Mr. Dudley Baxter, in his admirable work on " I^ational Licome,'" rejoins that if this were so, there would be no able-bodied paupers in England. Mr. Baxter goes forward to show the inadequacy of Prof. Levi's estimate in terms which I shall do well to quote : " I will take a good average instance (and a very large 'P. 5. ^ Pp. 41,43. 32 THE WAGES QUESTION. one) of the wiy in wliieli wages are earned in the building trades. Thcsj trades fortii a whole, and include carpen- ters, bricklayers, masons, plasterers, painters, and plumbers, and number in England and Wales about 387,000 men above twenty years of age. It is only the best men, work- ing with the best masters, that are always sure of full time. These trades work on the hour system, introduced at the instance of the men themselves, but a system of great precariousness of employment. The large masters giv3 regular wages to their good workmen, but the smaller mas- ters, especially at the east end of London, engage a large proportion of their hands only for the job, and then at once pay them off. All masters when work grows slack innnediately discharge the inferior hands and the unsteady men — of whom there are but too many among clever work- men — and do not take them on again until work revives. In bad times there are always a large number out of em- ployment. In prosperity much time is lost by keeping Saint Monday and by occasional strikes. Let us turn to another great branch of industry, the agricultural labor- ers, whose numbers are : men, 650,000 ; boys, 190,000 ; w^o- men, 126,000; and girls, 36,000. Continuous employment has largely increased since the new Poor Law of 1834, and good farmers now employ their men regularly. But in many places such is not the custom. Near Broadstairs, in Kent, I was told that, on an average, laborers were only employed 40 weeks in the year. Mr. Purdy's figures of the influence of the seasons on agricultural employment show that the wages paid in the second quarter of the year, on a large estate in Notts, were 20 per cent more than in the first quarter. In the harvest quarter they M'ere more than double. He also mentions the significant fact that the pauperism of the five most agrarian divisions of Eng- land is greater in February than in August by 425,000 against 370,000, or 55,000 persons. These 55,000 repre- sent a great prevalence of the custom of turning off labor- ers at the slack season. So that even so far as the men DURATION OF LABORING POWER. 33 are concerned, there must evidently be a large deduction for time ont of work. But when we come to boys and wo- men, the case is still stronger. I found in Kent and other places that boys' and women's employment is very irregu- lar, and that they are not at work more than half their time ; in fact, they are only employed as supernumeraries to the men, and only taken on at busy times." Y. Still further, Nominal and Keal Wages may be made to differ through the longer or shorter duration of the power to labor. We have seen that it is not what the laborer obtains for a single day of the week or a single month of the year which fixes his real remuneration, but that regularity of employment from month to month and quarter to quarter is a most important element in the wages problem. But neither is it what the workman receives in a single year or in a term of years which alone can determine the question of high or low wages. We need, besides, to know the to- tal duration of his laboring power, that we may be able to compare the term of his productive with that of his unpro- ductive life. It is evident, supposing two persons begin to labor productively at fifteen years of age, and continue actively at work, with the same rate of nominal wages, until death, that the one receives a higher real remuneration who lives the longer, since the cost of his maintenance during the first 15 years of helpless life must, in any philosophical view of the subject, be charged upon his wages' during ' The cost, at contract prices, of raising an orphan child to the age of 11, is compnted by Mr. Chadwicli (Statistical Journal, xxv. 505) at £130, or the value of a team of four first-class farm-horses. ^ The same eminent authority estimates the average loss of working ability, by premature deaths from ijreventibU causes, to be at least 10 years (Stat. Journal, xxviii. 26). " In the production of dead machinery," says Dr. Edward Jarvis, " the cost of all that are broken in the making is charged to the cost of all which are completed So, in estimating the cost of raising children to manhood, it is necessary to include the number of years 34 77/ /•; W. I (; KS Q 67iVs'77C»JV. his; jxM-iod of labor. It is \vuo tlial tlio i^xihmiso M'as, in f;4i't, l>onu> Itv his paivnts, w liilc lie will liiiusoli" bear the cost ot" till" iiiaiiitiM\aiUH\ in ('InKlhooii, ol" hisown olVspriiio; ; but no ouc will, 1 bolio\i\ tuicstion that, in the iH'oiioniical S0I18C, tiu' sui>port of oach ^vnoi-ation of hiboivrs should bo charurd aiiainsl its own wai^vs,' just as tnilv as tliat a far- mer, in solvini;- the (inestion whethei- a eow dvinii" at a eertain ai>:o hail paiil for herself, wotdd set ao-aiiist the ])r()- ceeds of the sales of her milk or butter the expense oi reariuii" Ium*. If this principle of estimatinij; the wa^i-es of a lifetime be acci>pted as just, its i^'reat jU'actii'al importance will not be denied. And lirst in comparison o\' nations. In a paper on the Political Keononiy of Health, Dr. Kdward Jarvis has ^•jven some most instrm-tivo tables which can not be biMter introdnci'd than in the languaixo i>f the Hritish l*oor-l.aw (\>mmissii>uers of ISli* :' " The streniith t>f a peoj>le does iu>t iU>pend on the absolute num- ber oi' its population, but on the ri>IatiM> numluM* of those who are o( the ai^v and strength to lab(»r." The followiuii; table' shows the number o( years sj)ent muliM" -20 for eviM-y \00 persons attainini;- that ai;-e : Country. Years spont umlor SO. Per coHt of loss. Xiirwnv 3143 3183 31i»3 3o:)i 3:!or 2oi4 7.1 SwtHtt'H 5). I lM)»"lai)il !>.({ I'lUtl'll St lit OS 13, SI Franco lu.a.-) 1 ri'huui 25.70 that have Ihmmi living hy tlu^so that foil hy tho way with the yoars of thoso that jmst* suooossfuUy throui;h tho porioil of dovolopmont." — Hojiort MassaolmsottM Hoard of lloaltli, 1874, p. ;M0. '•"liO .satairo d'un ouvrior doit oomproiidio .... I'ainorti.^so- niont du capital omidoy,' par sos ]iaronts. avoo loipiol il pout alimoiitor .in]>lacor un jour dans la ^■ol•iotl'." — Jos. liarnior, 'rraitod'Kronouiio Politiquo. ]>. 4ti3. 'P. 184. = h'oport Mass. State Board of Health, 1874. pp. o41, 343. nil HAT ION OF LABORING POWER. 35 A^jiin, tlu; Life 'I'lihlcs of tlio several States sliow the average iiiimher of years lived after the age of 20 to ])e as fo]h)WS : ("OIJNTUY. YicAus. C'OUNTIIY. Ykaiw. Norway 39.61 38.10 537.40 a5.81 En""land ;5i').r),'> Sweden France ?>IM^ United StiiUjs (Miil(!H) Hanover Ireland 28.88 " Thus t]ie prochietive efficiency fell sliort of its fulness' 20.78 per cent in Norway ; 23.7 per cent in Sweden ; 25.08 per cent in the (Tnited States ; 28.-38 per cent in Germany ; 28.9 per cent in England ; 84.3 per cent in France, and 42.24 per cent in Ireland." Again Dr. Jarvis says, " .Having the nunil)er that are lost in the maturing period and the number of years they have lived, and also the number that die in the effective stage and the duration, of their labors, it is easy to draw a comparison between them and show the cost, in years, of creating and maturing human power, and the return it makes in lal)or in compensation. By this double measure- ment of life in its incompleteness and in its fulness it is found that for every 1000 years expended in the develop- ing period upon all that are born, both those who die and those who survive the period from birth to 20, the Gonse- qnent lahorhi// and ■produotive years are : In ^Norway, 1881 years; in Sweden, 1741) years; in England, 1088 years; in the United States, 10(54 years; in France, 1398 years; and in Irc^land, 1148 years." But it is not oidy 1)etween the populations of distinct countries tliat such, differencies in the duration of the et'Dnoniic, force aj)|)ear. Imj)ortant differences in this re- spect are shown l)y mortuary statistics to exist between occupations. Thus the excessive mortality of the " dusty l/ ' 50 years, i.e. from 30 to 70 years of age. 36 THE WAGES QUESTION. trades'' lias long heeu the subject of scientific and officii! inquiry. The highlv injurious effects upon the lungs of the dust of cotton and liax mingled with " China clay" and other poisonous ingredients, producing a haze in tho atmosphere of some factories, and rising in a palpable cloud in others, have been thorongldy investigated and exposed by Drs. Ilirt' and Buchanan.'' In the " dry-grinding" of the metals, the deadly influences are even more positive.' The folhnving description of the steel-dust in a needle-fac- tory will sufiice for our present purpose of illustration. " I smelt the dust from one such manufactory before I was within 70 or 80 yards of it, and though in an open field ; and I could see the dust floating away like a cloud. It not only covers the roof and windows on which it settles with a brown rusty coat, till in time the glass becomes ob- scured almost as if it were painted, but so corrodes them as to make the slates and even the glass crumble away. The dust collects in the flues which carry it from the stove in large bla/k stalactite-like lumps. Two such were given me, weighing over two pounds each."* Mining may be given as an instance of an occupation where nominal wages must be heavily discounted by rea- son of its destructive effects on human life. When it is remembered thi.t in addition to the great liability to fatal accident,* the amount of carbonic acid gas, which in nature ' Kranklieiten der Arbeitor. - Returns to the order of the House of Commons, 13tli May, 1873. ' See tlie evidence collected l\v Mr. Jellinger Syinons under tlie Eng- lish Commission of 1841 ; also. Dr. Greenhow's report in 1809, in the Third Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council. * Report of Mr. J. E. ^^'hite, Asst. Commr. Employment of Women and Children, 18(55. * Sir Thomas Bazley's report for 1870 states the number of deaths from accidents in collieries and ironstone mines at 991. In the same year o73 persons were killed in works under the Factory acts ; 1378 were so injured that amputation was required, while the lesser inju- ries footed up 16,828. " E:i France, ces accidents sont beaucoup plus rares.et Sexploitation MORTALITY AMONG OCCUPATIONS. 37 is 300-350 in 1,000,000, and does not ordinarily exceed 3000 in tlie stifling atmosphere of factories and workshops, often goes up to 20,000 in the air of mines,' the exces- sive mortality within this occupation will not be a matter of wonder. Dr. Scott Allison found the average age of the living male heads of families of the collier population at Tranent, so far as the same could be ascertained, to be 34 years, while the average age of the living male heads of • / the agricultural families was nearly 52 years. Dr. Allison expressed the belief that these proportions would serve as fair indications of the relative conditions of the different populations.'^ " So considerable," says Dr. I^eison, in a recent paper,' " is the influence of occupation that the mortality in one avocation exceeds that of another by as much as 239 per cent." Thus taking the period of life 25 to 66, Dr. ISTeison finds the mean mortality in the clerical profession to be 1.12 per cent ; in the legal, 1,5Y ; in the medical, 1.81. In domestic service the mortality among gardeners was but .93 ; among grooms, 1.26 ; among servants, 1.6Y ; among coachmen, 1.81. The effect of out-door exposure in all kinds of weather is here shown alike in the case of the physician and the coachman. Of several branches of manufacture, the paper manufacture showed a mean mortality of 1 .45 ; the tin ^ manufacture, of 1.61; the iron manufacture, of 1.75; the glass manufacture, of 1.83 ; the copper manufacture, of 2.16 ; the lead manufacture, of 2.21 ; the earthenware man- ufacture* of 2.57. Among the different kinds of mining des mines n'a jamais ete mise au nombre des industries qui creent une position insupportable aux ouvriers." — Theodore Fix, Les Classes Oavrieres, p. 146. 'Dr. Angus Smith, Soc. Sc. Transactions, 1865, p. 241. ^ Report of the Poor-Law Commissioners of 1842, p. 200. ^ Journal of the Institute of Actuaries, July, 1872, p. 98. * The mortality among the " china-scourers" is something fright- ful. " In all the process the operatives are exposed to the inhaling of 38 TUB WAGES QUESTION. iiidustiy the raiig-e is even greater. Thus the mean mor- tality of iron-miners is 1.80 ; of eoal-miners, 1.82 ; of tin- miners, 1.99 ; of lead-miners, 2.50 ' ; of coj^per-miners, 3.17.= But it is not alone by death that the laboring power is prematurely destroyed. The agricultural laborer of Eng- land, for example, wlio is long lived, often becomes crip- ])led early by rheumatism due to exposure and privation. " Then he has to work for 4 shillings or 5 shillings per week, supplemented scantily from the rates, and at last to come, for the rest of his life, on the rates altogether. Such is, I will not call it the life, but the existence or vegetation, of the Devon peasant. He hardly can keep soul and body together.'" In the same country, Mr. Dudley Baxter states, there are 40,000 men out of less than 400,000 in the building trades who between 55 and (35 are considered as past hard w(>rk. In othei' trades, he says, a man is disa])led at 55 or 50, \ coal-backer is considered past work at 40." I can not better close this protracted chapter than with the followino; words taken from the address of Sir Stafford Northcote, as President of the British Social Science Asso- ciation : " A man who earns a pound a week is not neces- sarily twice as well olf as a man who earns 10 shillings. the fine dust with wliioh the air of the different workshops is charg-ed, and which dust the finer it is the longer it floats in the atniosphen; and the more dangei-ous it becomes." — Ibid., p. 109. ' " The diseases engendered by lead-mining may be stated as asthma and chronic bronchitis." — Ibid., p. 103. ■•' The heat in copper-mines was found by Dr. Greenliow to be very much greater than in tin-mines. In one mine which he visited the temperature was I'^T. " Steam was coming out of the shaft in volumes at the time of inspection." ^ Letter of Canon (iirdlestone to Mr. Heath, " Peasantry of Eng- land," p. 100. * National Income, pp. 41, 43. NOMINAL AND REAL WAGES. 39 You must take into account tlie amount of work which they respectively have to do for their money, the number of hours they are employed, the amount of strain upon the body and on the brain, the chance of accident, the general effect upon the health and upon the duration of life.'" ^Transactions, 1869, p. 18. CHAPTER III. NOMINAL AND REAL COST OF LABOR. Another distinction which needs to be strongly marked is that between "Wages and the Cost of Labor. In treating wages as high orlow^ weoccnpy the Laborer's ])oint of view ; in treating the cost of labor as high or low Ave occnpy the point of view of the employer. Wages are high or low according to the abundance or scantiness of the necessaries, comforts, and hixnries of life which the laborer can command, without particular reference to the value of the service which he renders to the employer therefor. The cost of labor, on the other hand, is high or low accord- ing as the employer gets an ample or a scanty return for Avhat he pays the laborer, whether the same be expressed in money or in commodities for consumption, and this without the least respect to the well-being of the laborer. Now this distinction is not of importance merely because such a distinction can be drawn, and the same object look- ed at from different points of view. Not only are the ])oints of view here diametrically opposed, but the objects contemplated are not necessarily the same, so that high wages do not imply a high cost of labor, or low wages a knv cost of labor. A sufficient demonstration of this, for the ]>resent moment, is found in the well-known fact that em- ployers usually take on their lowest-paid laborers last, and NOMINAL AND REAL COST OF LABOR. 41 discharge them first.^ The explanation is found in the varying EFFICIENCY OF LABOR. The extent to which this consideration is popularly neg- lected may be seen by recurring to any discussion of the question of " protection," whether in the legislature or in the public press. A day's labor is almost universally taken as the unit of measure in determining the cost of similar products in different countries. In fact, " a day's labor" conveys scarcely a more definite idea than the boy's com- parison, " big as a piece of chalk," or "• long as a string." The mere announcement that a day's labor can be had in one country for 10 cents, in another for 50, while in a third it commands $1.50, conveys to the mind of one familiar with the statistics of industry not even an impression as to the comparative cost of labor in the several countries. Yet it has been held by a large party in the United States to be conclusive of the question of " protection," that labor- ers in other countries are more scantily remunerated than in our own. The avowed object of protective tariffs here has been to keep wages from sinking to the level of Europe and Asia. The allusions to " pauj)er labor" which crowd the speeches of Clay, Stewart, and Kelley have sig- nificance only as it is assumed that a day's labor in one place is the economical equivalent of a day's labor any- where, and that one man's labor is effective in the same degree as that of any other man. It is, however, very far from the truth that a day's labor is always and everywhere the same thing. We can scarcely take the estimate adopted by Lord Mahon,^ that 'Masters " prefer tliose laborers wlio earn tlie most wages." — Mr. Cliadwick, Statistical Journal, xxv. 510. Sir Josepli Whitwortli, tlie great manufacturer of cannon, told Mr. Cliadwick tliat " lie could not afford to work his machines with a horse that cost less than £30." — Ibid. ^ History of England, vii., pp. 229,330. 43 THE WAGES QUESTION. an English wood-sawyer will perform as miicli work in the same time as thirty-two East-Indians, as giving the general ratio' between labor in the two conntries ; yet, on the other hand, the comparison is not absolutely an extreme one. The difference between an English woodsawyer, before a pile of hickory cordwood, and an effeminate East- Indian, accustomed to think it a day's job to saw off a few lengths of bamboo, is not so great as that which would exist between a Maine mast-man and a Bengalee at the foot of a ttO-inch pine. The one would lay the monster low in half a day, the other might peck at it a week and scarcely get through the bark. In the contests of industry the civilized, organized, disciplined, and highly-equipped nations may safely entertain nmch the same contempt for barbarous antagonists as in the contests of war. " The wolf cares not how many the sheep be," said one concpieror ; " The thicker the grass," said another, " the easier it is mown." So vast are the differences in this matter of the efficiency of laljor that it is difficult to write respecting them without producing the impression of a disposition to exaggerate, if the reader has not specially studied the con- ditions of production and is unacquainted with the statis- tics of industry. Yet in sober earnest Ave may borrow the language of Edmund Burke respecting the political adapt- ations of men, and say that, in industry as in government, men of different nationalities may be regarded as so many different kinds of animals. The testimony to the varying efficiency of labor comes ' Prof. Senior, in his Lectures on Wages, stated tlie average annual wages of labor in Hindostan at from one pound to two pounds troy of silver against nine pounds to fifteen pounds troy in England Mr. Finnie, who was engaged by the Madras Government as superin- tendent of the cotton experiment from 1845-9, says, " the interest of the money invested in the purchase of a laborer in America, added to the actual cost of his maintenance, would pay for nine able-bodied men in India." — "NMieeler's Cotton Cultivation, p. 100. NATIONALITY IN LABOR. 43 from so many sources that our only difficulty is tliat of selection. The comparison of the English with the Irish laborer, whether as a cottar tenant at home or working for hire in the northern counties of England, used to be a favorite one with economists before the famine and the emigration. Of late this disparagement of Irish labor has become infrecpient. In the last century Arthur Young, the eminent traveller, who spent two years near Cork as the manager of a large estate, declared an Essex laborer at 2 shillings 6 pence a day to be cheaper than a Tipperary laborer at 5 pence. The improvement in the condition of the Irish peasant and in the methods of industry in Ireland was very marked in the seventy years which next follow- ed ; but in 1845 Dr. Kane, in his work on the Industrial Resources of that country, placed the number of native laberers retpiisite for a given production at tM^o or more where one English laborer w^ould suffice (pp. 397-9). In the iron manufacture he gives the ratio as three to one. In the same manner the Russian serf w^as, up to tlie time of the Emancipation, often adduced as illustrating the low efficiency of brutalized and underfed labor. Thus Prof. Jones says : "In spite of the dearness of provisions in England and their cheapness in Russia, the mowing a quan- tity of hay which would cost an English farmer half a copeck, will cost a Russian farmer three or four copecks." But it is not only in comparison with the oppressed laborers of Ireland and with the serfs of Russia that the superiority of English labor has been asserted on high authority. Mr. Edwin Rose, long employed as an operative engineer in France and Germany, testified before the Fac- tory Commission, forty years and more ago, that it required fully twice as many hands to perform most kinds of fac- tory work in France and Switzerland as in England ; and the statistics of per capita product and of the ratio between hands and machines amply bore out. Mr. Rose's statement. The estimate of Mr. Briavoinne, founded on the total pro- duction of Belgimn, gave 116 pieces of cloth printed for 44 TUE WAGES QUESTION. each workman per anuuia. The pivduetlon of certain establislunents, liowever, was estinuited as hii>'h as 3(U pieces. At the Siune time the workmen of the givat establishment of Aiilsworth tfe Co.» in EnghuKl, were turu- ing ont UHH) pieces per head. In cotton-spinning\ again, we tinil from th« best international statistics avaiUible that the number of spindles attended by a single operative to-day in England ranges fn>m t\Vi> to four times the correspond- ing number ou the Continent.' The statistics of the iron industry of France show that on the average ^'2 men are employed to do the same work in smelting pig iron, as is done by 25 men at the (^larence Factories un the Tees. And so it comes about that, while wages are higher in England than in any other country of Emvpe, English mauufactmvs have to be excluded by heavy duties from eenipetition with the so-called cheaper labor* of the Con- tinent. ' " In the weaviuor-mUIs a Russian nvri>ly has the eare of inore than two U)om!i. whUe in En^rhind a weaver will frequent l_v UKik after six." (.Report of H. B, M. Consiul Egerton on the Faetory System of Russia, 1873. p. 111.) Mr. Batbie states that the Eng-Ush farmers on the shores of the Hellespont prefer to give 10 ix)uuds sterling a year for Cireek laborers to giving 3 jwunds for Turk ish laK>rers. (Nouveau Cours de lEi-ououue, i. 7>.) Even with the best , Continental labor there is a decided inferiority to English rates of pn-Klui-tion. In Switzerland the number of hands employed {>er 1000 spindles does not average less than 8 to 8^, ag^xinst 7 in Eng- land. (Report of Mr. Gould ou the Factory System of Switzerland. 1873. p. Vid.) In England, moreover, it should be noted, the machinery is almost uniformly run at a speed not known ou the Continent. ^ Whereas female lalK>r in the cotton manufacture is {>aid at from 13*i. to I ">.;<. a week in Great Britain: at from 7^. 3un>etition. The demand for protection is loudest iti France, Austria, and Russia, where the average wages r«ich their minimum. . . . The average price of labi>r \>er day for puddlers is 7.*. 0(1. to 7.«. 10(?. in Staffordshire ; lx<, -id. in France ; and from 4-!i, liL to 5*. in NATIONALITY IN LABOR. 45 But by far the most important body of evidence on tlie varying efficiency of labor is contained in the treatise of Mr. Tliomas Bj-assey, M.P., entitled " Work and Wages," published in 1872. Mr. Brassey's father was perhaps the greatest " captain of industry" the world has ever seen, having been engaged, between 1834 and 18T0, in the con- struction of railways in England, France, Saxony, Austria, Hungary, Moldavia, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Canada, Aus- tralia, the Argentine Republic, Syria, Persia, and India. " There were periods in his career," says Sir Arthur Helps,' " during M^hich he and his partners were giving employ- ment to 80,000, upon works requiring seventeen millions (sterling) of capital for their completion." The aggregate length of the railways thus coiistructed appears to have ex- ceeded six thousand five hundred miles. The chief value of Mr. Brassey, Jr.'s work is derived from his possession of the full and authentic labor-accounts of his father's transactions. " Frenchmen, Belgians, Germans, Italians, Russians, Spaniards, and Danes came under the close in- spection of Mr. Brassey and his agents ; and we are told how the men of these various nationalities acquitted them- selves in their respective employments."^ Some of the results of this vast experiment of labor are given by Mr. Brassey, Jr., in his chapter on i\\e Cost of Labor. On the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada the French- Canadian laborers received 3.s. Qd. a day, while the Englishmen received from 5.?. to 6-?. a day ; " but it was found that the English did the greatest amount of work for the money."' ■ Contrasting the wages paid on an English railway, 35. to 3-?. Qd. a clay, with those paid on an Irish road. Is. 6d. Be]g:iuni. Yet the average price of me reliant bar-iron was £6 10s. in England, £7 in Belgium, £8 in France. — Mr. D. A. Wells' reports, as Special Commissioner TJ. S. Revenue. * Brassey's Life and Labors, p. 160. ^ Ibid., Preface, xvi. ^ Work and Wages, p. 87. 46 THE WAGES QUESTION. to Is. Sd., Mr. Brassey remarks, " Yet witli tliis immense difference in the rate of wages, sub-contracts on the Irish railway were let at the same prices which had been pre- viously paid in South Staffordshire.'"' " In India, although the cost of daily labor ranges from 4|- to 6d. a day, mile for mile the cost of railway work is about the same as in England." " In Italy, masonry and other work requiring skilled labor is rather dearer than in England.'" " Great pains were taken to ascertain the relative indus- trial capacity of the Englishman^ and the Erenchman on the Paris and Rouen line ; and on comparison of half a dozen ' pays,' it was found that the capacity of the English- man was to that of the Frenchman as five to three.'" " Mining is perhaps the most exhausting and laborious of all occupations. It has been found that in this description of work the English miner surpasses the foreigner all over the world. On the Continent, long after earth-wovk and all the other operations involved in the construction of railways had been committed to the native wi^rkmen, Eng- lish miners were still employed in the tunnels." " In the quarry at Bonnieres, in which Frenchmen, Irishmen, and Englishmen were employed side by side, the Frenchman received three, the Irishman four, and the Englishman six francs a day. At those different rates, the Englishman was found to be the most advanta- geous workman of the three."^ Such differences in industrial efficiency as have been in- dicated may exist not only between nations, but between geographical sections of the same people. The very mi- » Work and Wa^es, p. 69. ^ Ibid., p. 90. ^ Four thousand Englishmen were sent over to work on this road. —Ibid., p. 79. Two thousand English and Scotch were sent to Australia to work on the Queensland line. Mbid., p. 115. ^ Ibid., p. 82. NOMINAL AND REAL COST OF LABOR. 47 niite and careful researches of M. Diipiii in the early part of tliis century seemed to establish a decided superiority in productive power of the artisans of northern over those of southern France. In England the superiority of the agricultural population of the northern comities is unmis- takably very great. " Any one," says Mr. Mundella, M.P., " wlio has witnessed agricultural operations in the west of England, will agree that the ill-paid and ill-fed laborer of those parts is dearer at 9^. or 1 i)s. per week than the JSTottinghamshire man at I65.'" " It w^ould be a great mistake," says Mr. Walter Bagehot, in the Economist,'' " to put down as equal the day's hire of a Dorsetshire laborer and that of a Lincolnshire laborer. It would be like having a general price for steam-engines not specify irvj the horse- power. The Lincolnshire man is far the more efficient man of the two." From a single page of the Report for 18'o9 of the Commission on the Employment of Children, Women and Young Persons in Agriculture, I extract the following- testimony respecting the inefficiency of the laborers of Berkshire : " I would rather pay a JSTorthumbrian hind 16 shillings a week than a Berks carter 12 shillings," testifies one farm bailiff. "' Our men here," says an- other, " are very inferior to Scotch laborers f two men there do as much as three here." Another bailiff testifies that " he was obliged to employ as many men in Berkshire, at certain kinds of work, as he had been accustomed to employ of w^omen in Perthshire."* 1 Social Sc. Trans., 1868, p. 524. ^ January 24tli, 1874. ' " I protest," so writes a farmer, " that one of tlie Scotchmen whom I formerly employed would do as much work as two or even three Suffolk laborers. It ' makes one's flesh creep ' to see some of the lat- ter at work." — Clifford, Agricultural Lock-out of 1874, p. 25, note. * Second Report, p. 105. " I have myself in Northumberland heard a Northumbrian farmer declare that one of the strong big-boned wo- men who worked in his fields was worth mucli more than any average southern laborer." — Clifford, Agric, Lock-out of 1374, p. 25. 48 THE WAGES QUESTION. Ill view of sueli wide differences in the productive power of individuals, coinmunities, and peoples, no attempt at a pliilosopliy of wages can omit to inquire into the causes of the varying efficiency of lahor. Tliese causes I shall enumerate under six heads ; but the possible effect of no one cause will be fully apprehended unless it be held constantly in mind that ^Ae value of the laborer s services to the employer is the net r'esidt of two elements^ one pos'ttlve, one negative, nainely, work and waste ; that in some degree waste, using the term in its broadest sense to express the breakage and the undue wear and tear of implements and machinery, the destruction or impairment of materials.' the cost of supervision and oversight to keep men from idling or blundering, and, linally, the hinderance of many by the fault or failure of one,'^ is inseparable from work ; and that, with the highly Unished products of our modern industry, with its complicated and often delicate macliine- ry, and its costly materials, themselves perhaps the result of many antecedent processes, it is frequently a question of ' On tills point of waste I select two illnstrations. The first is taken from an address of Cieorge J. Ilolyoake, the historian of Co-opera- tion : " It lias been calculated that the working colliers at Whitwood and Methley could, by simply taking the trouble to get the coal in large lum]is, and by reducing the proportions of slack, add to the colliery profits £1500 a year. If they would further take a little extra care below ground in keeping the best coal separate from the inferior, they could add another £1500 to the profits." (Soc. Sc. Transactions, 1865, p. 482.) All this without diminishing their own earnings. The second is the result of an experiment, noticed in the Statutical Journal (xxviii., pp. 32, 33), for the economy of coal in an engine-fur- nace, through giving the stokers a share in the money value of what- ever saving might be effected. The result was to reduce the consump- tion of fuel, without loss of power, from 30 to 17. - H. B. M. Consul Egerton, in his admirable report of 1873 (Textile Factories), notes the great irregularity of attendance at work in Rus- sia. " It is therefore essential to have a large staff of supernumeraries who have learnt their work, so as to be ready to supply the vacant place? "—P. 112. CAUSES OF VARYING EFFICIENCY. 49 more or less Avaste wlietlier work shall be worth having' or not. The varions causes w^hich go to create differences in in- dustrial efficiency may be grouped under six heads, as fol- lows : I. Peculiarities of stock and breeding. II. The meagreness or liberality of diet. III. Habits, voluntary or involuntary, respecting clean- liness of the person, and purity of air and water. lY. The general intelligence of the laborer. V. Technical education and industrial environment. YI. Cheerfulness and hopefulness in labor, growing out of self-respect and social ambition, and the laborer's interest in the results of his work. The first reason which we are called to recognize for the great differences in industrial efficiency which exist among men is found in peculiarities of stock and breeding. Of the causes which have produced such widely diverse types of manhood as the Esquimaux, the Hottentot, and the Bengalee at the one extreme, and the Frenchman, the Englishman, and the American of to-day at the other,^ it is not necessary to speak here at all. The effects of local climate and national food, continued through generations, upon the physical structure, have become so familiar to the public through the writings of geographers and ethnologists that they may fairly be assumed for our present purpose. The scope and power of these causes are far more likely to ' " It may appear incredible," remarks Mr. Carleton Tuffnell, the Poor-Law Commissioner, " that a great demand for labor may exist simultaneously with a multitude of people seeking employment and unable to find it. The real demand is not simply for labor, but trained labor, efficient labor, intelligent labor." ' M. Batbie states the results of certain experiments with the dyna- mometer by which it appears that while the figure 50 represents the sheer lifting-weight of a native of Van Diemen's Land, 71 represents that of an Anglo- Australian cultivator. — Nouveau cours de I'Economie politique, i. 70. 50 THE WAGES QUESTION. he magnified than disparaged by the scientific spirit of this age. But we have also to recognize large differences as existing between far advanced and highly civilized peo- ples as to average height, strength, manual dexterity, accuracy of vision, health, and longevity. Thns, for example, the mean height of the Belgian male was given by MM. Quetelet and Villerme, about 1836, as 5 feet Gj^q- inches ; that of the Frenchman, as 5 feet 4 inches ; that of the Englishman, 5 feet 0^ inches. Such differences in statm-e exist as well between sections of the same country ; thus the Breton peasants are notably defi- cient even as measured by the low French standard ; while the proportion of '' tall men" {i.e., 6 feet) examiued for the British army was out of every 10,000 English, 104: ; out of every 10,000 Scotchmen, 191: ; ont of every 10,000 Irish- men, 91.' At the sauie time, the largest proportion of rejections for nnsonndness M-as among the Irish, the least among the Scotch. MM. Quetelet and Villerme give the following detenninations of mean weight for the same three coim- tries : ' This statement is taken from Mr. Thornton " On Labor," p. 16, n. Of the (very) " tall men" (6 feet 3 inches) enlisted in the U. S. army, 1831-5, there were of each 100,000— of English birth, 103 ; of Scotch, 178 ; of Iri.-^h, t:^ 1 (Statistical Memoirs of the Sanitary Commission, p. 159) ; while of the " short men" (under 5 feet 1 inch) there were in 100,031 — of English, 690 ; of Scotch, 610 ; and of Irish, only 450, the proportion- al number of Germans in this class rising to 770, and of Frenchmen to 950. (Tbid., p. 177.) The mean height of the native soldiers was much reduced by the enlistment of large numbers of very young persons ; but if we take the soldiers from 35 years upwards, we find the natives of the United States surpassing in stature those of every other nation- ality. Thus the mean lieight of soldiers from New-England was, in inches, 68.300; New- York, New-Jersey, and Pennsylvania, 68.096; Ohio and Indiana, 68.980; Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois, 68.781 >" Kentucky and Tennessee, 69.274, etc. ; while the mean height of soldiers born in Canada was 67.300 ; England, 66.990 ; Scotland, 67.647 ; Ireland, 67.090 ; France, Belgium, and Switzerland, 66.714 ; Germany, 66.718; Scandinavia, 67.299. (Ibid., pp. 104, 105.) DIFFERENCES IN NATIONAL PRTSIQVE. 51 Lbs. avoirdupois. Belgian, male (Brussels and environs) L40.49 Frenchman (Paris and environs) 136.89 Englishman (Cambridge) 150.98 There is reason to suspect that these are all pitched a little high. Among the sections of the American Union the difference in mean weight, as determined by measm^e- ments during the war, 1861-5, was very decided. Thus of men weighed in health, those from New-England averaged 140.05 lbs.; those from I^ew-York, N^ew-Jersey, and Penn- sylvania, 141.39 ; those from Ohio and Indiana, 145.99 ; those from Kentucky and Tennessee, 150.58.* Such and other physical differences on which it is not needful to dwell are due in part to the influences of local climate and national diet, but in part, also, to causes social and industrial. Of social causes ample, in their aggregate effect, to pro- duce much of the difference between the Englishman and the Frenchman of to-day, may be instanced the war system, by which, in France, the principle of natural selection has been violently reversed, and the men of superior size, strength, and courage have, generation after generation, been shut up in barracks or torn to pieces on the battle-field, while the feebler males have been left at home to propagate the stock. It is beyond question that not a little of the difference in industrial efficiency which makes a French navvy dear at 3 francs, while an English navvy is cheap at 5^. Gd., is due to the wholesale operation of this cause among the French people during the eighty years since 1793, during which time the standard of the army has been reduced from 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 1|- inch. During the same ^ Statistical Memoirs U. S. Sanitary Commission, p. 403. As was remarked respecting mean height, the average of the native soldiers of the U. S. army was brought down by the great number of boys en- listed. 53 THE WAGES QVESTIOX. period the Freiuli horse "was steadily gaining in size and weight. Among the industrial causes tending to create such diiferences in laboring power we may instance the em- ])loyment of children of tender age at hard labor and imder circumstances of exposure ; and the emph)yment of wo- men, iirst, in work Avholly unsuited to their sex, as former- ly in England in mines, where tliey were even harnessed with cattle to loads of ore, and as now on the pit-banks and coke-hearths, and, secondly, at their ordinary work with too short an intor\al after eliildbearing,' Looked at with no eye of charity, but with a strictly economical regard, such acts as these constitute a horrible waste of industrial force, both in the present and in their effects on the laboring power of the next generation. . At the meeting of the Social Science Association in 1 870, Mr. George Smith presented a lump of clay weighing 43 lbs. . which in a wet state he had taken, a few days before, off the head of a child years of age, who had daily to walk 12^ miles in a brickyard, half that distance with such a burden. " The clay," said ]Mr. Smith, '* was taken from the child, and the calculations made by me, in the presence of both master and men.''* Two or three instances taken at random from tlie report^ of Mr. J. E. AMiite, Assist- ' Speaking alike of the weaviilg-sheds of the cotton districts and of the wooHen districts, Dr. Bridges and Mr. Holmes, in their report to the Local Government Board, iu 1873, say : " The work is done in the groat majority of cases by women ; a considerable portion of these are married, and the practice of working until the last stage of pregnancy, and of returning to work within a month, sometimes within a fortnight, or even a week, of childbirth, is as common iu the West Biding (of York) as in Lancashire." (Report, p. 33. cf. pp. 38,39, So.) An old fac- tory surgeon says : " I regard the mother's return to the mill as almost a sentence of death to the child." It is also a fruitful source of per- manent injury to the mother herself. ' Transactiors, p. 537. ' Fourth Report (1865) of the Children's Employment Commission of 1862. EXCESSIVE LABOR IN CHILDHOOD. 53 ant Commissioner, 1865, will perhaps help the American reader to appreciate the scope and force of the cause we are adducing. A boj, now II, who went at 9 years old to hardening and tempering crinoline steel, worked there from 7 A.M. till 9|- p.m. four nights a week " for many and many a month," " many a time till 12 at night," and once or twice worked from 7 in the morning all through the next night and day, and on till 12 the following night. ,J Another, at 9 years old, sometimes made three 12-hour shifts running, and, when 10, has made two days and two nights running. Another, now 13, at a former place worked from 6 p.m. till noon next day for a week toge- ther, and sometimes for three shifts together, e.g., from Monday morning till Tuesday night. JSTor is it only in mines or factories, in a stifling atmo- sphere and amid poisonous exhalations, that children are, even yet, in happy England, exposed to the influences which stunt, distort, and weaken them, and lower the average vitality of the population, and with this its indus- trial efficiency. The driving of children six, eight, and ten years' afield to work for 12 and 14 hours, whether under a hot sun or against chilling, cutting winds, must tend to disorganize the cartilages of the joints, to produce curva- ture of the spine, to dwarf the growth, and to prepare the way for an early breaking down from rheumatism and scrofula. I repeat I have not adduced these facts and incidents for charity's sake, or in any sentimental vein, but wholly for their economical significance, and I propose to use them in strict subordination to recognized economical principles. II. A further reason for the greater industrial efficiency of one laborer than of another, and of one class or nation of laborers than of another, is a most vulgar one, namely, better ' See the reports of the Commission of 1862 on the Employment of Children, and of the Commission of 1867 on the Employment of Wo- men and Children. 54 THE WAGES QUESTION. feeding. The human stomach is to the animal frame M'liat the furnaee is to the steam-engine. It is there the force is generated which is to drive th.^ ni.vcliine. The power with whicli an engine will work will, np to a certain point, in- crease with evei'v addition made to the fuel in the furnace ; and. within the limits of thorough digestion and assimi- lation, it is etpially true that the power which the lahorer will carrv into his work will depend on the character and auiount of his food. What the employer will get out of his workman will depond, therefore, very nnich on what he tirst gets into him. Not only are bone and nmscle to he built up aiul kept n]> by food, but every stroke of the arm involves an exp^Muliture of nervous energy, which is to be supplied only through the alimentary canal. AVhat a man can do in '1\ hours will depend very nnich on what lie can have to eat in those '1\ hours ; or perhaps it would be more correct to say, what he has had to eat the 24 hours ]>revious. If his diet be liberal, his wtu'k may be mighty. If he be underfed, he n\nst underwork. 80 far away as the Hundred Years' AYar, Knglishmen were accustomed to assign a more generous diet as the reason why their " beef- fed knaves" so easily vanquished their traditional enemies, and even into this century the island Avriters were accus- tomed to speak as if still for the Siune reason, in work at least if not in war, " Upou 0110 imir of English lo^.s did march three Frenchmen."' Of course in this, as in every other department of ' " Each Frenchman consumes on an average 16 oz. of wlieaten bread a day ; each Englishman, 33 oz. ; the former, I3 oz. of meat ; the latter, 6 oz." — Alison, Eumpe, 1815-51, ch. xvii., sec. 126. •' Des experiences out demoutrS que I'ouvrier frau(;ais, lorsqu'il est auasi bien nourri qn'uu ouvrier anghiis rend a pen pres autant de tra- vail." — Batbie. Xouveau ('ours de TEconomie politique, i. 71. 1 should be disponed to believe that a somewhat greater difference wauld remain, notwithstanding equivalent subsistence, than M. Bat- bie's patriotism will allow him to confess. The causes adduced un- d.^r the previous head must count for much. RELATIONS OF FOOD TO WORK. 55 expenditure, there is an economical maximnm, where the greatest proportional return is received. Beyond this, though an increase of food may yield an increase of force, it does not yield a proportional increase, just as in a furnace with a given height of chimney, the combustion of a given number of pounds of coal to the square foot of grate-sur- face yields the economical maximum of power. More fuel burned will evaporate more water, but not proportionally more. With the laborer the economical maximum of expenditure on food is reached far short of the point at which " gorging and guzzling" begin ; it shuts off every thing that partakes of luxury or ministers to delicacy ; yet till that maximum be reached every addition to food brings a proportional, or more than proportional, addition of working strength. To stop far short of that limit and starve the laboring man is as bad economy as to rob the engine of its fuel. Thus with a furnace of a given height, having for its economical maximum 12 lbs. of coal to the square foot of grate-surface, the consumption of 6 lbs. might yield far less than one half the power, while 3 lbs. might scarcely serve to keep the furnace warm under the constant loss by radiation and the cooling influence of the water in the boilers. In much the same way a laborer may be kept on so low an allowance of food that it will all go to keeping the man alive, and nothing be left to generate working power.' From this low point, where the bad economy of starving the laborer is manifest even to the most selfish or stupid overseer, up to a point where it requires a great deal of good sense and more magnanimity of character on the part of the employer to make him feel sure of a return for added expenditure, there is a steady ' Mr. R. R. Torrens, M.P., stated, at the meeting of the Social Sci- ence Association in 1867, that when he was employed in sending out emigrants from Ireland in 1840, he found that " a large portion of the Irish people were living on a kind of potato called ' lumpers,' which were so inferior in quality that even pigs could not fatten on them." — Transactions, p. 670. 56 THE WAGES QUESTION. progression in working power as the diet becomes more ample and nutritions. Now this principle, if I have correctly stated it, as to tlie economical relation between food and laboring force, becomes of validity not only to explain in part the great differences in industrial efficiency which we have seen to exist among bodies of laborers, but also to show how, in cases where the subsistence of the laborer is below the economi- cal maximum, a rise of wages may take place without a loss to profits. That a large portion of the wage-laboring class are kept below the economical limit of subsistence there can be no doubt. " To-day, in the west of England," says Prof. Fawcett, " it is impossible for an agricultural laborer to eat meat more than once a week.'" Of the Devon peas- ant Canon Girdlestone writes : " The laborer breakfasts on teakettle broth — hot water poured on bread and flavored with onions ; — dines on bread and hard cheese at 26?. a pound, with cider very washy and sour ; and sups on pota- toes or cabbage greased with a tiny bit of fat bacon. He seldom more than sees or smells butcher'snieat.'" Little wonder is it that the Devon laborer is a different sort of animal from the Lincoln or Lothian laborer. No Devon farmer would doubt that it was bad economy to keep his cattle on a low, unnutritious diet. No reputable Devon ' Pol. Econ.,p. 471. Lord Brabazon, in his report (p. 54) on the condition of the industrial classes of France, 1873, cites the opinion of Dr. Cenveilhier that the French population are, as a rule, insuffi- iiently nourished. " Many a French factory hand never has any thing better for his breakfast than a large slice of common sour bread, rubbed over with an onion so as to give it a flavor." (Lord Brabazon, J). 53.) Mr. Locock vv^rites from the Netherlands (Report of 1870, p. 19): "Meat is rarely tasted by the working classes in Holland. It 'forms no part of the bill of fare either for the man or his family." From Belgium Mr. Pakenham reports : " Very many have for their entire subsistence but potatoes with a little grease, brown or black bread, often bad, and for their drink a tincture of chickory." (Re- ports of 1871, p. 30.) ^ Heath's English Peasantry, p. 100. UNDERFED LABOR. 57 farmer would reason that, as he was but just able now to make a livmg profit, he would be rumed, for good and for all, were he to give his horses enough to keep them in good condition for work. And if one were found so nig- gardly and so foolish as to act and talk thus, his neighbors at least would tell him that the very reason why he made such bare profits now was that he starved his stock, and that with better feeding they would better earn their keep.' Yet the farmers of the west of England, almost as a body, when they had to meet the demands of their laborers for increase of wages in 1873 and in 1874, under the instigation of the Agricultural Union, declared that they would be ruined if they paid higher wages ; and there are not wanting economists of reputation to corroborate them,' and assert that it is " physically impossible '" that wages should be advanced without impairing profits. If there is any physical impossibility in the case, it is that the wretched peasants could be better fed without adding to the value of their labor to their employers. The revelations of the Poor-Law Commission of 1833 respecting the comparative subsistence of the soldier, the agricultural laborer, and the pauper were very striking. The soldier, who had active duties and needed to be kept in at least tolerable physical condition, received a ration of 168 oz., the able-bodied pauper received 151 oz., while the independent laborer, sole survi^dng representative of the yeomanry of Crecy and Agincourt, received 122 oz. per week. ]^ow it goes without saying that when the day laborer, toiling from morning till night in the fields, re- ceives a smaller amount of nourishment than the sense of public decency will allow to be given to paupers, that ' Sir Joseph Wliitwortli is reported to have said that he could not afford to work a horse in his establishment which ate less than 18 lbs. of oats a day. ^ " It is physically impossible that any permanent rise in wages should take place without corresponding diminution of profits." — H. Fawcett, Pol. Econ.,p. 264. 58 THE WAOES QUESTION. laborer is underfed, in the sense that he must and will un- derwork. To avoid multiplying titles, I will in this connection mention clothing as in most climates a condition of effi- ciency in production. A portion, in some countries a large portion, of the food taken into the stomach goes to support the necessary warmth of the body. Clothing goes to the same object. Within certain limits, it is a matter of indifference whether you keep up the temperature of the body by putting food into a man or clothing on to him. As Mr Peshine Smith has said, " A sheet-iron jacket put around the boiler prevents the waste of heat in the one case, just as a woollen jacket about the body of the laborer does in the other.'" Here, again, there is an econo- mical maximum beyond which expenditure will not be justified by the return ; but here, again, it can not be doubted that large classes of laborers suffer a great loss of industrial efficiency from the want of adequate clothing. Prof. Fawcett quotes' the poor-law inspectors as stating that one fifth in number of the population are insufficient- ly clothed. Insufficiency of clothing means, of course, fee- bleness of working and excessive sickness and mortality. But I may be here called to meet an objection to my statements under this head, based on the assumed sufficien- cy of the sense of self-interest in employers. How, it may be asked, do you account for the failure of employers to ])ay wages which will allow their laborers a more liberal sustenance, if indeed it is for their owm" advantage to do so? In the first place, I challenge the assumption which un- derlies the orthodox doctrine of wages, namely, the suf- ficiency of the sense of self-interest. Mankind, always • Pol. Econ. , p. 107. * Economical Position of the Br. Laborer, p. 231, note. UNDERFED LABOB. 59 less than wise, and too often foolisli to tlie point of stupidi- ty, on tlie one side, and of fanaticism, on the otlier, wheth- er in government, in domestic life, in the care of their bodies, or in the care of their souls, do not suddenly be- come wise in industrial concerns. The argument for keep- ing a laborer well that he may work well applies with equal force to the maintenance of a slave. Yet we know, by a mass of revolting testimony, that in all countries avarice, the consuming lust of immediate gain, a passion which stands in the way of a true and enlarged view of self-interest and works unceasing despite to self-interest, has always' despoiled the slave of a part of the food and clothing necessary to his highest efficiency as a laborer. The same argument would apply with ecpial force to the care of livestock. Yet it is the hardest thing in the world to bring a body of farmers np to the conviction, and hold them there steadily, that it pays to feed cattle well and treat them well. England, what with unending fairs and pre- miums,^ with royal and noble patronage and ensamj^le, and with a very limited proprietorship which it might be sup- posed could be more easily kept informed as to the real economy of agriculture — England, I say, has managed to create a public sentiment which keeps her farmers reasona- bly np to the standard in this matter of the care of stock ; ^ Where slaves were kept and worked only for purposes of gain. Where slavery was a political and social institution, as in the Middle States of the American Union, something of grace and kindliness might come to climb up about it. ^ I have never chanced to hear of any premiums offered in Devon or Dorset for the fattest and sleekest, or the most manly and athletic " team" of agricultural laborers, though there have been, all honor for it ! instances of prizes given for " model cottages." " Comment ! Vos cultivateurs consacrent des sommes considerables pour couvrir leurs champs d'engrais, vos industriels ne negligent aucun soin, ne reculent devant aucuue depense pour assurer et faciliter le jeu de leurs ma- chines ; et vous, vous negligez de cultiver votre champ le plus fertile, de graisser et? de soigner votre machine la plus precieuse, votre ma- chine mere, de laquelle toutes les autres dependent, puisqu'elles en sont sorties." — Blanqui (aine) Cours d'feconomie Industrielle, ii. 352. 60 THE WAGES QUESTION. yet even in England the exceptions are not few ; while, the world over, the rule is niggardliness of expenditure working deep and lasting prejudice to production. I might thus abundantly shelter myself behind the anal- ogous cases which have been cited, where true self-interest is most conspicuously sacriticed to greed.' But another reason appears in the.case of the wage-laborer. It is that the employer has none of that security which the owner of stock or the master of slaves possesses, that what goes in food shall come back to him in work. A mail buying an underfed slave or an underfed ox knows that when he has brought his property into good condition, the advan- tage will be his ; but the free laborer when he Avaxes fat may, like Jeshurun, kick, and take himself off. There is no law yet which gives an employer compensation for " unexhausted improvements" in the person of his laborer. The employer therefore takes his risk, in respect to all subsistence which goes to build up bone and sinew in his workmen, that the added laboring power may be sold to a neighbor or carried away bodily to Australia. III. Another reason for differences in industrial efficien- cy is found in differing habits, whether of choice or neces- sity in their origin, respecting cleanliness of the person and purity of air and water. The iirst great prison reformer shocked the civilized world with the revelations which he ' Doubtless race-characteristics have very much to do with the ability to subordinate greed to real interests, and to take a large view of economy. We should expect to find the Teutonic peoples surpass- ing all others in this respect ; the Slavonic peoples far to the rear. Mr. Consul Holmes, in his Report to the British Government on the Condition of the Industrial Classes of Bosnia in 1871, remarks that the Eastern Christians, like the Turks, " look far more to cheapness than excellence in what they j)urchase, and good workmanship and consci- entious labor is neither appreciated nor desired " (p. 763). Mr. Consul Palgrave makes a similar remark respecting the Anatolians (p. 732). " The very appreciation of good work," writes Sir P. Francis from Tur- key, " is, I believe, lost." — Report on the Condition of the Industrial Classes, 1873, p. 373. UNSANITARY AB0I>E8. -Gl made of the abodes of the convict classes. Yet, a disthi- guished sanitarian, often quoted in these pages, has said : " More filth, worse physical suffering and moral disorder than Ploward describes as affecting the prisoners, are to be found among the cellar population of the working people of Liverpool, Manchester, or Leeds, and in large portions of the metropolis.'" " Out of a population of 85,000 householders," says Prof. Gairdner, speaking of Glasgow, / " 30,000 or 35,000 belong to a class who are most dan- gerous in a sanitary point of view."^ " Hovels, cellars, mere dark dens," says Inglis, in describing the city homes of Ireland in 1834, " damp, filthy, stagnant, unwholesome places, into which we should not in England put any do- mestic animal."^ But even in England and to-day Canon Girdlestone says of the homes of the peasants of Devon : " The cottages as a rule, are not fit to house pigs in."* / Of 309 cottages at Ramsbottom, near Bury, " one of the best districts in Lancashire," remarks Col. Sykes,"^ 13Y had but one bedroom each, the aggregate occupants being Y77 ; 172 had two bedrooms each, the aggregate occupants being 1223. Some of the families occupying a single bedroom consisted of from 8 to 13 individuals. At Bristol, out of 6000 families reported on, 556 occupied part of a room only ; 2244 one room only ; the average number of persons to a family being 3.46. " One third of the population of Scotland in 1861," says Mr. Caird, " lived in houses of one room only ; another third in houses of two rooms only."'' The subject is not a pleasant one to pursue, but as none holds more important relations to the philosophy of wages than the one now under consideration, I must ask my readers to endure the following descriptions of human habitations taken from the Poor-Law Report of 1842. ' Edwin Chadwick. Poor-Law Report, 1843, p. 312. ^ Soc. Sc. Transactions, 1866, p. 737. '^ Journey Tliroughout Ireland, p. 379. * Heatli's Eiiglisli Peasantry, p. 100. = Statistical Journal, xiii. 47. " Stat. Journal, xxxii. 75. 63 THE WAGES QUESTION. " Shepherd's Buildings consist of two rows of houses with a street seven yards wide between them ; each row consists of what are styled back and front houses ; that is, two houses placed back to back. There are no yards or out-conveniences ; the privies are in the centre of each row, about a yard wide ; over them there is part of a sleep- ing-room ; there is no ventilation in the bedrooms. Each house contains two rooms, namely, a house-place and sleep- ino--room above ; each room is about three yards wide and four long. In one of these houses there are nine persons belonging to one family, and the mother on the eve of her confinement. The cellars are let off as separate dwellings ; these are dark, damp, and very low, not more than six feet between the ceiling and floor. The street between the two rows is seven yards wide, in the centre of which is the common gutter, or, more properly, sink, into which all sorts of refuse are thrown." — Report, pp. 17, 18. This is a description of the cottages of a manufacturing village. The same report gives an account of the homes of the peasantry of Durham, " built of rubble or unhewn stone, loosely cemented." " The chimneys have lost half their original height, and lean on the roof with fearful gravitation. The rafters are evidently rotten and displaced, and the thatch, yawning to admit the wind and wet in some parts, and in all parts utterly unfit for its original purpose of giving protection from the weather, looks more like the top of a dunghill than a cottage. Such is I he ex- terior ; and when the hind comes to take possession, lie finds it no better than a shed. The wet, if it happens to rain, is making a puddle on the earth floor They have no byre for their cows, nor sties for their pigs ; no pumps or wells ; nothing to promote cleanliness or comfort. The average size of these sheds is about 24 by 16. They are dark and unwholesome ; the windows do not open, and many of them are not larger than 20 inches by 16 ; and into this place are crowded 8, 10, or even 12 persons." — Eeport, pp. 22, 23. UNSANITARY ABODES. 63 The climax of possible horror would seem to be reached in the description of the wjnds of Eclinbm^gh ; but I will not offend the reader's sensibilities by quoting from it. It will perhaps be quite as effective to compare the experi- ence of sickness in these dens of abomination with that of other localities. The following table shows the average nmnber of days' sickness suffered in a year by a family in the wynds in comparison (1) with the expei'ience of the Benefit Societies in Scotland, and (2) with the experience of places under sanitary measures. Age. Benefit Societies. Under Sanitary- Measures. The Wynds. Man, 40 6.9 4.2 0.3 3.75 2.10 0.17 15 1 Woman, 30 11 ' Child, 15 3.5 ! 11.3 5.02 39.6 So much for the places ^diere men live during the half of the day devoted to sleep and refreshment. In the places where they labor there is not such a dreary monotony of squalor and misery. ISTeither indifference nor malignity even, on the part of employers could succeed in placing the great majority of workingmen so wretchedly. The first occupation of man still employs by far vhe greater part of the race, and for them sunlight and air are provided by the indefeasible bounty of nature. If the Durham and Devon hind does not " sleep all night in Elysium," he at least " sweats all day in the eye of Phoebus." ISTor is it only the agriculturist who pursues his occupation in the open air. In no small proportion of the mechanical trades either the conditions of the work do not allow the laborer to be shut in between walls, or the expense of enclosure out- weighs its advantages, a,nd the trade, though it might be even better prosecuted under cover, is, in fact, carried on out-doors. After all deductions, however, there remain a melancholy multitude who are called to breathe the foul 64 rUE WAGES QUESTION. air of mines ; to labor in the stilling atmosphere of mills and factories, ^ hazy" or •• cloiuly" with particles irritating to the Inngs or poisonous to the blood, and to pant through the houre of work in " sweating dens" like those which the indignant eloquence of Kingslev' has made so painfully familiar to his English and American readei's, though all verbal description must fall short of the shock- ing i-eality." I have not dwelt thus at length upon descriptions of human habitations imtit for cattle or for swine, for the purpose of harrowing the feelings of my readers, or even with a view to excite compassion for the condition of the working classes. My single object has been to atfoixl illus- tration of the intluence of the cause we are now consider- ing, upon the ethciency of labor. A great part, if not the great majority, of the lalx)i"ei"s of the world ai-e toniay housed thus miserably ; micounted millions woi-se. Even of those whose lot is more fortmiate but a very small pro- portion, in any of the older coimtries, have in their kxlging the light and air which the least exacting hygiene declai'es to be essential to the harmonious development ann unintelligent labor is not regarded as worth having at any price however low. {il) He can use delicate and intricate machinery. ' Pol. Econ., p. 117. ^ Ninth Census of the United States, 1870. Industry and Wealth. i\ 080 INTELLIGENCE IN LABOR. 67 The cost of repairing and replacing this with ignorant labor very soon eats up the profits of production, and not unfrequently the effect is to practically prohibit the use of all but the coarsest tools. " Experienced mechanicians assert that, notwithstanding the progress of machinery in agriculture, there is probably as much sound practical labor-saving invention and machinery unused as there is used ; and that it is unused solely in consequence of the ignorance and incompetency of the workpeople.'" We have some striking testimony on this point from Asia and Eastern Europe. Wheeler, in his "Cotton Cultivation," states that the women of India were accustomed to earn with the native " churka" from three farthings to a little over a penny a day, while with the Manchester cotton-gin they could have earned with ease three pence and possibly four and a half pence.^ And H. B. M, Consul Stuart re- ports concerning the laborers of Epirus ; " In dealing with weights and resistance they use direct physical force / the aids of the pulley or windlass are but seldom called in, while handbarrows and wheelbarrows are seen only on rare occasions. It is a singular fact that during the fifty years of British occupation in the Ionian Islands, not a single mechanical improvement crossed from Corfu to Epirus, if I may except the screw and the buckle, which foimd their way here some few years ago, and are now in limited use.'" Y. Still another reason for the large differences which exist in respect to industrial efficiency is found in technical education and industrial environment. Perhaps no one of the causes already mentioned contributes more to this re- sult. Even more, I am disposed to believe, than stock and breeding, even more than national diet, do the inherited instincts of a people in respect to labor, and their habits and methods of work, consciously or unconsciously acquired. ' Hearn's Plutology, p. 59. ^ P. 173. ' Report on the Condition of the Industrial Classes, 1871 , p. 775, 68 THE WAGES qUESTI02{. the espp'd'M\(\\\\Q doniiiiatiii^ ideas of the national indnstiy, determine the degree of etHcieney wliich will be reached in the production of any country. Ilandiness, aptness, and fertility of resource become congenital ; in some conunu- nities the child is brought into the world half an artisan. Then, too, he becomes a better workman simply by reason of being accustomed, through the years of his own inability to labor, to see tools used with address, and through watching the alert movement, the prompt co-operation,' the precise manipulation, of bodies of workmen. The l)etter part of industrial as of every other kind of educa- tion is unconsciously obtained. And when the boy is himself apprenticed to a trade, or sets himself at work, he finds all about him a thorough and minute organization of labor which conduces to the highest production ; he has examples on every side to imitate ; if he encounters special obstacles, he has only to stop, or hardly even to stop, to see some older hand deal with the same ; if he needs help, it is already at his elbow ; and, above all, he comes under im- pulses and incitements to exertion and to the exercise of thoughtfulness and ingenuity, Avhich are as powerful and imremitting as the impulses and incitements which a re- cruit experiences in a crack regiment from the moment lie dons the uniform. Very striking testimony is borne in many official reports to the differences in the industrial spirit of the different nations. Mr. Edwin Rose testified before the Factory Commission to the great superiority of the English laborer over his Continental rival in his habits of close and continu- ous application ; and at a subsequent inquiry Mr. Thomp- son, of Clitheroe, spoke from a vast personal observation * In a debate in tlie House of Lords in ISTo, Earl Fortescue stated that Sir Joseph Wliitworth, the eminent manufacturer of arms, had ex- pressed the opinion that " a workman who had acquired the habit of moving promptly at the word of command was worth on the average 1lS. 6(7. a week more than a man of equal manual dexterity who had not acquired the habit." — The Times. INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT. 69 of the " enduring, nntiring, savage industry" of the Eng- lish workman. " The labor of Alsace," he says, " the best and cheapest in France, is dearer than the labor of Lancashire." That was forty years ago. To-day the esprit and the technique of industry on the Continent are perhaps advanced somewhat beyond where England was in 1835 ; but the English are looking back with not a little wonder at their own want of force and drive industrially, in the time of which Mi/ Thompson speaks. Thus we find Dr. Bridges and Mr. Holmes, in their report to the Local Government Board of 1873, writing of the Scotch flax district as follows : " We were struck by the easy and almost leisurely way in which labor was carried on in the spinning-rooms as compared with the unremitting application of the Lanca- shire operatives. All the spinners had seats pro^dded for them, of which a large nmnber availed themselves. The nmnber of spindles assigned to each was small, varying from 50 to 80 ;^ and the niunber of ends breaking was in no case such as to necessitate constant movement. Some of the women were knitting, and all appeared much at their ease. Li fact, the work very much resembled the picture frecpiently drawn to us, whether truly or otherwise, of Lmicashire weaving and spinning as it was 20 cr 30 years agoP"" ]N^ow it is needless to say that some of this heightened ' The proportion of looms to weavers in England as contrasted with the proportion which obtains in Ireland and Scotland is significant in the same regard. Looms in Cotton Mfr. Weavers. England, . . 165,033 . . . 57,555 Scotland, . . 23,621 . . . 13,114 Ireland, . , 3,373 . . . 1,864 191,025 71,533 Nearly three looms to 1 weaver in England ; not quite 3 looms in Scotland and Ireland. (Report, j). 16.) ^ Report, p. 37. v/ 70 THE WAGES QUESTION. activity is of bad and not of good. Undoubtedly it involves in some degree overwoi'k and the undue wear and tear of the muscular and the nervous system. But by no means all, or probably the greater part, comes to this. It is because manual dexterity and visual accuracy have been developed to a high point in one generation and bred into the next generation ; because habits of subordination and co-operation have become instinctive ; because organization and discipline have been brought nearly to perfection, that mechanical labor in England is so much more effective than on the Conti- nent. Xor is keen, persistent activity necessarily injurious. Dawdling and loafing over one's work are not beneficial to health. Man was made for lal)or, for energetic, enthusi- astic labor, and within certain limits, not narrow ones, in- dustry brings rewards sanitary as well as economical. I have spoken of the faculty of organization' as account- ing for much of the difference in the efficiency of labor between England and France, for exam]ile. I beg to insist on this with reference to the point of the Avear and tear of the laboring force. Those who are familiar with the movements of armies know that a body of troops may be marched thirty miles in a day if kept in a steady, ecpiable motion, wnth measured periods of rest, and not be brought into camp, at night, so tired as another body of troops that have come only half the distance, but have been fretted and worried, now delaved and now crowded forward, everv ' The famous Committee of tlie House of Commons on tlie Exporta- tion of Tools and Madiiueiy dwelt on the " want of arrangement in foreign manufactories," as an important reason for the superior cheap- ness of production in England. In the evidence given before them is found (p. 363) the following liighly -suggestive remark : " A cotton manufacturer who left Manches- ter seven years ago would be driven out of the market by the men who are now living in it, provided his knowledge had not kept pace with those who have been during that time constantly profiting by the progressive impi'ovenients that have taken place in that period. This progressive knowledge and experience is our great power and advan- tage." ORGANIZATION IN INDUSTRY. 71 portion of the column balked by turns, and kept waiting for long pariods in that most wearing expectation of instant movement, ^ow, this is not an extreme contrast as regards military movements ; nor need any thing be taken from its extent when we come to apply it to the operations of in- dustry. In an establishment where each person has his place and perfectly knows his duty, where work never chokes its channels and never runs low, where nothing ever comes out wrong end foremost, where there is no fretting or chafing, where there are no blunders and no catastrophes, where there is no clamor and no fuss, a pace may bs main- tained which would kill outright the operatives of a noisy, ill-disciplined, badly-organized shop. For, as was said in opening this subject of the effisiency of labor, there is in all industry a positive and a negative element. Waste is insepariible from work ; but the proportions in which the two shall appear may be made to vary greatly. It is only when we see a perfectly -trained operative performing his task that we realize how much of what the undisciplined and ignorant call their work is merely waste ; how little of their expenditure of muscular and nervous force really goes to the object ; how much of it is aside from, or in opposition to, that object. And the remark applies not alone to the exertions of the individual but, in a still higher degree, to the operations of bodies of men. " It is not," says Mr. Laing, " the expertness, dispatch, and skill of the operative himself that are concerned in the prodigious amount of his production in a given time, but the laborer who wheels coals to his fire, the girl who makes ready his breakfast, the whole population, in short, from the pot-boy who brings his beer, to the banker who keeps his employer's cash, are in fact working to his hand with the same quickness and punctuality that he works with himself.'" We have some interesting instances in proof that such ' Notes of a Traveller, p. 390. 73 TUB WAOES QUESTION. industrial superiority as has been described is not due alone to difterent'e? of stojk and breeding- or of general intelli- genc'o, but tliat strangers placed within the same industrial environment, and afforded opportunities of like technical education, tend steadily, and it may be rapidly, to advance towards tiie eihciency of the native laborer. Thus Mr. Brassey, after dwelling on the advantages of carrying out English navvies, at vast expense, even to Canada or to (Queensland, adds signiticantly : '' The superiority of the English workniou was most conspicuous when they iii-st connnenced work in a country in which no railways had been previously constructed."' The Commissioners (1867) on the Employment of Women and Children in Agriculture, in their second report," 1869, give the I'csults of a very considerable experiment in drain- ing in Northumberland, extended over a series of years, in which large numbei"S both of English and Irish were em- ployed, from which it appears that •" whereas the English beginner earns an average of four shillings a week more than the Irish beginner, better food and about ten years' ]u'actice reduce the dilference to 1."?. -tc/." And Mr. Chadwii'k states* "that agricultural laborers who have joined gangs of navvies and have been drilled, Avitli them, into their energetic piece-work habits, on returning to farm labor will do their tasks of work in half the time of the common day-laborers. Examples," he adds, " of the high- est order of agricultural })iece-work, with increased wages closely approaching manufacturing wages, are presented in tlie niarket-gaixien culture near the metropolis." YI. The last I'eason which I shall assign f(^r the superior etficiencv of individual laborers, classes of laborers, or na- tions of laborers, is cheerfulness and hopefulness in labor, growing out of self-respect and social ambition and the laborer's personal interest in the result of his work. ' Work and Wiiiros, p. 117. - P. 104. ^ Statistical Journal, xxviii., p. 307. INEFFICIENCY OF SLAVE LABOR. 73 I have spoken of causes which affect the laborer's bone and sinew, liis physical integrity and his muscular activity. I have spoken also of causes which affect his intellectual qualification for his work, the intelligence which shall di- rect his bodily powers to the end of production. The causes now in view are moral, affecting the will. After all, it is in the moral elements of industry that we find the most potent cause of differences in efficiency. If it constitutes one a sentimentalist to recognize the power of sentiment in human action, whether in politics or in econo- mics, the writer gladly accepts the appellation. Cheerful- ness and hopefulness in the laborer are the spring of exer- tions in comparison with which the brute strength of the slave or the eye-server is but weakness. The inferiority of the labor of the slave' to that of the freeman, even of the lowest industrial grade, is proverbial. Slave labor is always and everywhere ineffective and waste- ful because it has not its reward.^ ISTo matter how com- plete the authority of the master over the person and, the life, he cannot command all the faculties of his slave. The slave may be made to work, but he can not be made to think ; he may be made to work, but he can not be kept from waste ; to work, indeed, but not with energy. En- ergy is not to be commanded, it must be called forth by hope, ambition, and aspiration. The whij) only stimulates the fiesh on which it is laid. It does not reach the parts of the man where lie the springs of action. JSTo brutality of ride can evoke even the whole physical power of a hu- man being. The man himself, even if he would, can not ' Prof. Cairnes, in liis able work on " Tlie Slave Power," sums up the economical defects of slave labor under three heads : " It is given re- luctantly ; it is unskilful ; it is wanting in versatility." (P. 44.) "^ " The experience of all ages and nations, I believe, demonstrates that the work done by slaves, though it appears to cost only their maintenance, is, in the end, the dearest of any. A person who can acquire no property can have no other interest but to eat as much and lo labor as little as possible." — Adam Smith, Wealth ol Nations, i. SOD, ygi. 74 THE WAGES QIESTIOX. ivmloi' liis oAvu best servii'O unless some j^assion of the liiiihor iiatuiv, lovo, iinititiulo, orlio]>o,be luvakoned. Tlio norwnis foivo. Avluch is to tlio musi.'ul:iv A\-hat the steam is to the parts of the eno-iue, is oiilv in a small deu'ree uiuler the control of the eonseions will. It is a little tire onlv that fear kindles, and it is a little f(.>ree onlv that is gene- rated thereby to move the frame. I speak of fear alone, that is, mere fear of evil. When love of life and home and friends are present and i^ive meaning to fear, the utmost energies may be evoked ; but not by fear alone, which is, the rather, paralyzing in its effect. Were it not for this impotence of the lash, the nations would either not have risen from the once almost univei"sal condition of servitude, or would have risen far more slowly. The slave has always been able to make it for his master's interest to sell him freedom, lie could always aifiu-d to pay uu>re than could be uiade out of him. This is a well- recognized principle, and hence the former slave States of tlie American ITnion, building their political and social in- stitutions on slavery as the corner-stone, had to forbid en- tirely or to put under serious disabilities the exercise of mamnnission. Even with the little the brutalized black could apinvhend of the privileges of freedom, even with his feeble hopes and aspinitions, c»>ndenmed, as he kneAv, by his Cidor to peipetual exclusion, he could ah\ays buy himself if permitted. This unprotitableness of slave or bond labor' has prepared the way for those great changes, geueudly. it is true, effected innnediately under the pressure (f political necessities,^ which have tnmsformed whole pop- ulations of slaves or serfs into nations <.>f freemen. ' Mr. Turnbull. in his work on Austria. pj\ys : " A liirire R^homiau pn^priotor. wlio with hi:* brv>thors: wuntod on thoir estates IS.OlH) sulv jects.has frtniuently obsorvtni to nie that he fonnd it usually more Hd\-anlaireous to aeeopt even a very small |>art of the lejnxl ct.>mmuta- tiou-money, and to hire labor fnnu others, than to take it in kind from those who were Ix^und to yield it." * Instance the action of the nobles of llansrarv, at the outbreak of HOPEFULNESS IN LABOR. ,75 But great as is the superiority, arising from this cause alone, of free over serf or slave labor, the diiference is yet not so great as exists between grades of free labor, as cheer- fulness and hopefulness in labor, due to self-respect and social ambition, are found, in greater or in less degree, animating classes and communities of laborers. It is in the proprietor of land under erj[ual laws that we find the moral qualities which are the incentive of industry most highly developed. Arthur Young's saying has be- come proverbial : " Give a man the secure possession of a bleak rock, and he will turn it into a garden ;'" as also his other saying, " The magic of property turns sand into ^ gold.'" The energy which fear and pain can not command, joy and hope call forth in its utmost possibilities. The man not only will, he can. The waste of muscular force is perhaps not half as great in toil which is taken up freely and gladly. Nervous exhaustion comes late and comes slowly when the laborer sees his reward manifestly grow- ing before his eyes. It is the fulness and the directness of this relation of labor to its reward which, without bell or whip, drives the peasant proprietor afield, and, " From the rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb," the revolution of 1848, in transmuting the urbarial tenure of lands into unrestricted tenure by freehold. " By this great and voluntary con- cession," says Alison, " the property of 500,000 families, consisting of little estates from 30 to GO acres each, and comprehending nearly half a kingdom, was at once converted from a feudal tenure, burdened witli numerous duties, into absolute property." — History of Europe, xxii. 613. ' " An activity has been here that has swept away all difficulties before it, and has clothed the very rocks with verdure. It would be a disgrace to common-sense to ask the cause : the enjoyment of proper- ty must have done it. Give a man the secure possession of a bleak r rock, and he will turn it into a garden ; give hiin a nine years lease of a garden, and he will convert it into a desert." — Travels in France, Pinkerton, iv. 122. ^ How the magic of property turns sand into mold, a truer source of wealth than placers or auriferous quartz, has been shown in the mari- time districts of Belgium. 70 77/ A' ]r.lOV:s Ql'KSTJOX. cinpU>vs his cvorv omM'u'v, iliivrtoil by all liis iiitolligouoe, towanls the lUMxinunu of ]>roihu'ti(Ui \\'\\\\ the mlnimnm of K)ss and \\;istc\ Thus it is tliat Mr. lni;lis dcsi'rihos tho jH>as;intrv o( Zurich : ** AVhiMi I used to t»pen m_v easement, hetween four and live in the niorninii;-, to Kjok ()ut upon the lake and the dis- tant Alps, 1 saw tiie laht>ivr in the tields ; and when I iv- tnrneil from an oveninu- walk, lono- after simset, as late perhaps as half past eiii'ht. there \\as the laborer, nu>winij; his grass or tvinn' up his vines." " Mo men in the world," savs Prof, llearn, " exhibit a greater ilegree of habitual euergv than the Seottish subjeets t>f Queen N'ietoria ; vet when her ii'reat-grandfather was lioir to the thri>ne. the Seottish pei>ple were eonspieuous for their ineorrigible indi>lenee. The la/y Seoteli were iu the last eentiu-v as notorious as the la/.v Irish' o( a later dav. In K>th eountries a like etVeet was produeed bv a like eaiise."' When we turn frvMU the ]n"oprietor of land to the hired laborer, we note at onee a loss of energy. In the eonstitu- tii>n of things it ean not be otherwise. When the relation of labor to its reward beeomes indireet and eoutingont, and the workman finds that the ditferenee, to himself, of vorv faithful or but little faithfid serviee is only to be ex- }>orioneed in a renu>te and roundabout way, aeeording as the master s future ability to employ him may be in a dt^ give atfeeted thereby, his own present wages being fixed by oontraet, and seemv upon eomplianee with the formal iXHpiiivments of serviee ; or aeeoixling as his own re}>uta- tion fi>r ettteieney or inettieieney may lead to his being longer retained or earlier diseharged, in the event i>f a fu- ture i"etluetion of foive — I Siiv, w hen tlie i-elation of labor ' Arthur Younsr »» 1T77 dosorilnni tho Irish as " hizy to nn oxivss at wt>rk. hut spiritedly active at phiy" vPiukerton. iii. 8?2. i Wlien the Irishman has a fair ohanco under tninal hiws, he imports all this ae- tivity into his work. ■ Plutoloiry. p. 41. FAITHFULNESS IN WAGE LABOR. 77 to it'4 reward Ijeeoirios tliiis indirect and contin_2;ent, tlie workman not only will not, he cannot, Ijeing man, laljor as lie would ]ab(n- for himself. ]L\'iin without the least M'ilful intention to shirk exertion or responsil)ility, thei'o will be, tliere must be, a falling off in enei'gy and in carefulness : a falling off wlfich will make a vast difference in production long before it is sufficiently a subject of consciousness on tlie part of the lal)orer himself to become " eye-service," or of observation on the part of the employer to lead to com- plaint. But the loss of energy and carefulness due to the making distant or doubtful the reward of extra exertion on the part of the workman, will be much greater with some than with others under precisely similar conditions, and will vary greatly, also, as conditions vary. Whether it be superiority in faith, in conscience, or in imagination, ^ that makes the difference, there are those who can work in another's cause almost as zealously and prudently as if it were in their own. Such men more clearly apprehend, however they come to do it, the indirect and remote rewards of zeal and fidelity, or, apprehending these no more strongly than others, they are yet better able to direct tlieir energies to an end, and control and keep under the appetites and im- j)ulses which make against a settled purpose. Some men, some races of men, are easily recognized as more genuine, honest, and heroic than others, and these differences in manly quality come out nowhere more conspicuously than in the dagrces of interest and zeal exhibited in hired labor. I have not chosen to introduce into the body of the fore- going discussion the effects of drunkenness and dishonesty * I will guard mysolf against a critic's sneer at the introduction of this word into a treatise on wages by citing Mr. Mill's remark, " It is very shallow, even in pure economics, to take no account of the influ- ence of imagination."— Pol. Econ., i. 393, 893. 78 THE WAGES QUESTION. in reducing the efficiency of lalior. Throngliont all tliat lias l)eeu said the laborer has been assumed to be temper- ate and well-intentioned. Of the frightful waste of pro- ductive power, through both the diminution of work and the increase of waste, which results from the vice of drunkenness, so lamentably characterizing certain races, it can not be necessary to speak. More than all the festivals of the Greek or the Roman church, the worship of " Saint Monday'" reduces the current wages of la])or, while lea\'ing its ineffaceable marks on heart and brain and hand. The want of connnon honesty between man and man, though happily less frerpient than the indulgence of vicious app3- tites, works even deeper injury to industry where it pre- vails in any considerable degree. " A breach of trust among the stoneworkers of Septmoncel," says Lord Bra- bazon, in his report of 1872 on the condition of the indusr trial classes of France, " would 1)3 sufficient to cause the banishment of this rich industry from the mountains of the Jura to the workshops of Paris and Amsterdam ;"' and the same judicious reporter states that the abstraction of the silk given to the Lyons workmen to manufacture " has always weighed heavily on the trade of that city." " To meet this," says M. Beaulieu, in his Populations Ouvri^res, " the manufacturer has but one resource, the diminution of the rate of wages. Either the factory or workshop must be closed or %vages must be lowered. There is no middle course, and in either case the workman is the sufferer." It need not be said that the illicit gains thus obtained — sold as the plunder is surreptitiously, under penalty of the galleys — have afforded a very inadequate " " Almost invariably an nnemployed c^y in Belgium." (Report of Mr. Consul Grattan on the condition of the industrial classes, 1872, p. 19.) Much the same story comes from Norway and Sweden, Eng- land and Scotland, whose inhabitants we reckon among the noblest peoples of the world. '' P. 07. WAGES THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF INDUSTRY. 79 compensation to the workmen for the loss which their dis- lionest^^ intiicted npou the trade. I can not better close this extended discnssion of the causes which contribute to the efficiency of labor than by intro- ducing two extracts, the first from Dr. Kane's work on the Industrial Resources of Ireland, in which he accounts very justly for the difference between the Irish and the English laborer of that period ; the second from Adam Smith's Wealth of ^Nations. Both are profoundly significant, and I ask the reader's careful consideration of them with refe- rence to the principles previously discussed, and also with reference to the doctrine of the wages fund, to be treated hereafter. " A wretched man," says Dr. Kane, " wdio can earn by his exertion but four or five shillings a week, on which to support his family and pay the rent of a sort of habitation, must be so ill-fed and depressed in mind that to work as a man should work is beyond his power. Hence there are often seen about employments in this country a number of hands double wdiat would be required to do the same work in the same time with British laborers, • • • When I say that the men thus employed at low wages do so much less real work, I do not mean that they intentionally idle, or that they reflect that^s they receive so little they should give little value ; on the contrary, they do their best honestly to earn their wages ; but, supplied only with the lowest de- scriptions of food, and perhaps in insufficient quantity, they have not the physical ability for labor, and being with- out any direct prospect of advancement, they are not ex- cited by that laudable ambition to any display of superior energy. If the same men are placed in circumstances where a field for increased exertion is opened to them, and they are made to understand, what at first they are rather ' incredulous about, that they will ]-eceive the fall value of any increased labor they perform, they become new beings, the work they execute rises to the highest standard, and \\\ey earn as much money as the laborers of any othei' so TUB WACrh:s QUESTIOX. c'lMintrv. Wicjes arc no longer Iou\ hutla\)i' is not on that accou it ant/ (fcaiyr than it has h'.'/i /> 7"(>y'<'."' '* The libiMMl reward of l:ibi)r," ropagatii)n, so it eiUH>uragos the industry, of the eoniiiion people. The ((\r/<'s of lahar arv the etwoxraje- iwnt of indi(sfr(/, \y\\'K'h, like everv other hinuau cpialitv. improves in proportion to the eneouragenient it reeeives. A plentiful subsistence increases the bodily strength of the laborer, and the comfortable hope of bettering his condition and enditig his days perhaps in ease and plenty animates him to exert that strength to the ntmost. AVhere wages are high, accordingly, \ve shall always find the workmen more active, diligent, and expeditious than where they are low : in England, for example, than in Scotland ; in the neighborhood of groat towns than in remote country plaeos." ^ Pp. 397, SOS. - Wealth of Xaiious. i. S6. CIIAPTEK ly. THE DEGRADxVTION OF LABOR. I USE the term, degradation of labor, here in the sense of the reduction of the laborer from a higher to a lower industrial grade. The constant imminence of this change, the smallness of the causes, often accidental in origin and temporary in du- ration, which may produce it, and the almost irreparable consequences of such a catastrophe, are not sufficiently at- tended to in discussions of wages. To the contrary, it is the self-protecting power of labor which is dwelt upon. It is shown how, if by any insidious cause, or from any sud- den disaster in trade or production, be the same local or general, industry is impaired and employment diminished, hibor immediately sets itself, by natural laws, to right itself, l)y withholding increase of population, or by migrating to more fortunate localities. The same, if labor be crowded down by the power of capital, or by unjust laws : through economical harmonies which have excited the admiring gratitude of many writers, the vindication of the laboring class is effected automati- cally and peacefully, without revolution and without ma- chinery. The excessive profits Avhich the employing class are thus enabled for a time to make, increase the capital of the community, and thus give enhanced employment to laborers, so that, in the end, it is quite as well as if the money had gone in wages instead of profits. Thus Prof. Perry says : " If capital gets a relatively too large reward. S2 • THE WAGES QUESTION. nothing can infernijH the temlvncy that labor shall get, iu c'onstHineiieo of that, a larger reward the next time. ... If capital takes an undue advantage of labor at any point, as niifortunately it sometimes does, somebody at some other point has, in eonsecpienee of that, a stronger desire to em- ploy laborers, and so the Avrong tenets to I'ight itself. This is tlie great eonservativo force in the relations oi capital to labor.''' Now, of the degrees of celerity and certainty witli wliich population docs, in fact, adapt itself to changes in the seats or iu the forms of industry, or assert itself against the en- croaclunents of the employing class or the outrages of leg- islation, I shall have occasion to s]u\dv with some fulness hereafter (Ohajiter XL). ]>ut I desire at the present time, iu close connection with our discussion of the causes which contribute to the ethciency of labor, to point out the conse- qnences of any failure or mulue delay on the part of popu- lation in thus resenting the loss of employment or the re- duction of wages. The trouble is, these changes which are to set labor right always )'equire time, and often a very long time. There is dano-er, great dano-er, that meanwhile men will simply drop di>wn iu the industrial and social scale, acce})t their lot, and adapt themselves to the newly -imposed con- ditions of life and labor.'^ If this most melancholy result * The Financier, Angust 1, 1874. " " Tliere is considerable evidence that the circnrustances of rhenofri- cnltural laborers in England have more ilnn once in our history sus- tained great permanent tleterioration from causes which operated by diminishinir tlie demand for labor, and which, if populati(m had exer- cised its power of self-adjustment in obedience to the previous standard of comfort, conUl only have had a temporary effect ; but, unhappily, the poverty in "which the chiss was plunged during a long series of years brought that previous standard into disuse, and the next generation, , growing up without having possessed those pristine comforts, multi- plied in turn without any attempt to retrieve them." — J. S. Mill, Pol. P>on. , i. 41. •Mr. Mill here explains the whole permanent effect upon the gr ninds THE DEGRADATION OF LABOR. 83 take? place, then, it should be observed, the restorative changes which have heen spoken of need not he effected at all. All things settle to the new level ; industrial society goes on as before, except that there is a lower class of citizens and a lower class of laborers. There is thereafter no virtue at all, no tendency even, in strictly industrial forces or relations to make good that great loss. In a word, much of the reasoning of the schools and the books on this subject assumes that the laboring class will resent an industrial injury, and will either actively seek to right themselves, or will at least abide in their place without sur- render until the economical harmonies have time to bring about their retribution. But the human fact (so often to be distinguished from the economical assumption) is, there is a fatal facility in sul^mitting to industrial injuries which too often does not allow time for the operation of these beneficent principles of relief and restoration. The in- dustrial opportunity comes around again, it may be, but it does not find the same man it left : he is no longer capable of rendering the same service ; the wages he now receives are perhaps quite as much as he earns. Let us take successively the cases of a reduction of wages and of a failure of employment. Let it be supposed that a combination of employers seeking their own immediate interests, that is, to get labor as cheaply as possible, per- haps under some pressure brought on them by the state of the market, succeeds in effecting a reduction of the wages of common labor, in a given community, from ^1 to Y5 cents per day. If the $1 previously received lias allowed comforts and luxuries and left a margin for saving, and especially if intelligence and social ambition prevail in the community, of Malthus, overlooking' the equally important consideration tliat, without respect to the numbers of tlie laboring class, the efficiency of labor must have been seriously impaired by inadequate food and clothinpr, unhealthy dwellings, and, more than all, by the loss of hope- fulness, cheerfulness, and self-respect. 84 THE WAGES QUESTIONS. tliis reduction "will probaMv bo resented in the sense tlr^t }H>pnl:itien Avill be rechieed bv niigration or by absti- nence from propai^atiou until the former wages are, if possible, restored. But if the previous wages have been barely enough to furnish the necessaries of life, with no nuu'gin for saving, and especially if the body of hiborers are ignorant and miand)itious, the probabilities are quite the other way. The falling olf in the quantity or quality of food and clotliing, and in the convenience and healthf ul- ness of the shelter enjoyed, wuU at once affect the efficiency of the laborer. AVith less food, wliich is the fuel of the lunnan machine, less force will be generated ; witli less clothing, more force M'ill be wasted by cold ; with scantier and me.iner quarters, a fouler air and dim'nislied access to the light will prevent the food from being duly digested in the stom.ich. and the blood from being duly oxydized in the lungs ; wHl lower the tone of the system, and expose the subject increasingly to the ravages of disease. Xow, in all these ways the laborer becomes less efficient sinq"»ly through the reduction of his wages. The current economy asserts that whatever is taken olf from Avages is added to proiits, and that hence a reduction of wages will increase capital and hence quicken employment, and hence, in turn, heighten wages. ]^>ut Ave have seen it to be i[uite possible that what is taken from wages no man shall gain. It is lost to the laboivr and to rlie world. Xow, so far as strictly cH'onomic ft)rces are concerned, where enters the restorative principle t The enqiloyer is not getting excessive profits, to be expended subsequently in wages. The laborer is not underpaid : he earns what he gets now no better than he formerly did his larger wages. This imago of the degraded laborer is not a fanciful one. There are .in England great bodies of population, com- munities counting scores of thousands, which have come, in just this way, to be pauperized and brutalized ; the inhabi- tants M-eakened and discaseil by undei-feeding and foul air until, in the second generation, blindness, lameness, and THE FATE OF 8PITALF1ELDS. 85 scrofula become abnormally prevalent ; hopeless and lost to all self-respect so that they can scarcely be said to de- sire a better condition, for they know no better ; and still bringing children into the world to fill their miserable places in garrets and cellars, and, in time, in the wards of the "workhouse. Such a region is Spitalfields, where a large popular" tion, once reasonably prosperous and self-respectful, was ruined by a great change in the conditions of the silk manufacture. The severity of the industrial blows dealt them in quick succession was so great that the restorative principles never began to operate at all. Spitalfields suc- cumbed to its fate. Instead of it being true that the misery of the weavers was a reason to them to emigrate, it consti- tuted the very reason why they could not emigrate, or would not. Instead of it being true that their misery was a reason to them not to propagate, the more miserable they became, the more reckless, also, and the heavier grew their burdens. As a consecpience, in a single human generation" the inhabitants of Spitalfields took on a type suited to their condition. Short-lived at best, weakness, decrejjitude, and deformity made their labor, while tliey lasted, ineffective and wasteful. So long ago as 1842 the Poor-Law Com- missioners reported that it was almost a thing unknown that a candidate from this district for appointment in the police was found to possess the requisite physical qualifi- cations for the force. 1 "You could not," says another witness, "raise a grenadier company among them all." Yet it is recorded that the Spitalfields volunteers during the French wars were "good-looking bodies of men." But if this loss may be suffered in respect to the physical powers of the laborer through a reduction of wages, quite as certainly and quite as quickly may his usefulness be im- paired through the moral effects of such a calamity. And just as the greatest possibilities of industrial efficiency lie ' Report, p. 202. l^ 86 THE WAGES QUESTION. in the creation of hopefulness, self-respect, and social am- bition among the laboi'ing class, so the chief possibilities of loss lie in the discouragement or the destruction of these qualities. We have seen through what a scale the laborer maj ris3 in his progress to productive power ; by looking back we may see through what spaces it is always possible he may fall under the force of purely industrial disasters. " The wages of labor," says Adam Smith, " are the en- couragement of industry, which, like every other human quality, improves in proportion to the encouragement it receives." If this be true, every reduction of wages nnist, in some degree, diminish the efficiency of labor. But it is when the reduction begins to affect the power of the workman to maintain himself according to the standard of decency which he has set for himself that the decline in industrial quality goes on most rapidly. The fact that he is driven to squalid conditions does not merely lower his physical tone : almost inevitably it impairs his sense of self-respect and social ambition, that sense which it is so difficult to awaken, so fatally easy to desti'oy. Especially as the pinching of want forces his family into quarters where cleanliness and a decent privacy become impossible does the degradation of labor i)roceed with fearful rapidity.' Ambition soon falls the laborer utterly ; self-respect disap- pears amid the beastly surroundings of his life ; the spring of effort is broken ; it may be he becomes dissipated and irregular, and his employer can not afford his beggarly pit- ' " Modesty must be an iinknown virtue ; decency, an unimag'inable thing, where in one puiall dianiber, with the beds lying as tliickly as tliey can be packed, father, mother, young men, hids, grown and grow- ing-up girls are herded promiscuously ; where every operation of the toi- let and of nature — dressings, undressings, births, deaths — is performed within the sight and hearing of all ; where children of both sexes to as higli an age as 1'3 or 14, or even more, occupy the same bed ; where the wliole atmosphere is sensual, and human nature is degraded into something below the level of tlie swine. It is a hideous picture ; and the picture ix dniioii from life." — AppenJis: to the First Report of the Poor-Law Coni.nis.douers, p. o4. INDUSTRIAL IN JURIES REMAIN. 87 tance now so well as formerly the wages of liis hopeful labor. All such effects tend to remain and perpetuate them- selves. When people are down, economical forces solely are more likely to keep them down, or push them lower down, than to raise them np. It is only on the assumption that labor will resent industrial injuries, either by seeking a better market or by abstaining from reproduction, that it can be assei-ted that economical laws have a tendency to protect the laboring class and secure their interests. Just so far as laborers abide in their lot, and bring forth after their kind, while suffering industrial hardship, no matter how in the first place incurred, the whole effect and ten- dency of purely economical forces is to perpetuate, and not to remove, that hardship, either in the next year or in the next generation. Moral and intellectual causes only can repair any portion of the loss ani waste occasioned. If such are the unfortmiate liabilities of a violent reduc- tion of Avages, it will of course appear, without any extended illustration, that the effe'cts of a protracted failure of employ- ment must be even more injurious to the efficiency of labor where the margin of life is at the best narrow and no accu- mulation of savings has been effected. All the hardships of the conditions described are here aggravated to an- intol- erable degree, and it is more than is to be expected of hu- man nature if despondency and despair do not drive the unhappy laborer to the dram-shop ^ to drown his sorrows and his fears in indulgences which will leave him worse in character and weaker in nerve and sinew. However in- dustry may revive, the shattered industrial manhood can never be fully restored. But perhaps even more than in the miserable resort to the dram-shop, the fatal effects of a cessation of employ-- ^ " C'est surtout pendant les epoques de chomages que rouvriei-, ne sachant comment employer ses heures, hante le cabaret." — Rapport (M. Ducarre) Salaires et rapports entre ouvriers et patrons, p. 239. 88 Tin: WAGES QUESTION. mcnt upon tlu^ iiuhistrial (puility are seen in the readiness with Avhirh, mIiou oiu'o he has had exporiouco of public support, the hiborer takes refuge in eharitv. Ivarely is ehur- aeter found robust enougli to throw otf this taint. Let a nuui oiu'o be brought to that painful and most huuiiliating ne- I'ossity, it is scareely an exaggeration to sei's of pei-sons no\v resort to rates and subscription funds, many of whom three years ago would have shrunk instinctively from such ]niblic avowal of indigence." This is the despair of indus- try. The pauper lies below the slave in the industrial scale. No lower depth opens downward from this. My <>bject, I repeat, in treating here this topic of '* the degnidation of labor" is to point out the constantly innni- nent danger that bodies of laborei's will not soon enough or amply enough resent industrial injuries which nuiy be wreught by the concerted action of employei's, or by slow and gradual changes in production, or by catastrophes in business, such as commercial panics ; and upon this, and in innnediate connection with the discussion of the causes \\hich contribute to the efficiency of labor, to show the self- }»erpetuating nature of such industrial injuries under the operation of the very econouiical principles which, with alert and mobile labor iiitelligently seeking its interests, would secure relief aud restoration. CHAPTER Y, THE LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURNS. We have now reached a point where we must consider the principles which govern the relations of population to subsistence. Why should not population multiply indefinitely and still find, at each stage of incre<::ise, food ample for all ? I^ay, with the power there is in mutual help, and with the wonderful mechanical advantages wdiich result from the subdivision of industry and the multiplication of occupa- tions, why should not the share of each be continually aug- menting as the number of laljorers ca[)a]jle of rendering such mutual services and uniting in industrial entei'prises, increases ? The answer to these questions is found in the Law of Diminishing Returns in Agriculture. Up to a certain point, the increase of laborers increases the product not only absolutely but relatively ; that is, not only is more pro- duced in the aggregate, but the product is larger for each laborer. Two men working over a square mile of arable land will not only merely produce twice as much as one man : they will produce more than twice, perhaps three times as much. This is because the two can take hold together of work to which the strength of either alone would be in- adequate, or which requires that one person shall be in one place, and another at the same time in another place, in order that the two may act simultaneously, as, for example, one driving oxen and the other liolding the plough. 90 THE WAGES QUESTION. Moreover, where the two are not working together, in the usual aecej^tation of that term, thej may yet lielp each other greatly by agreeing to divide their tasks. Each, confining himself to a certain part, will become, for that reason, more apt and dexterons, will learn to avoid mistakes and save Avaste, and will acquire a facility iu production which would be impossible were he to undertake a wider and more varied line of duties. For a similar reason, three men will not merely produce three times as nnich as one : they will probably produce four times, perhaps five times, as much. A minuter sub- division of industry will become possible, and a more effective assistance in those parts of the work which require the actual co-operation of the different members. IVfuch in the same way is it with the applicatiou of capital to land. Let four men be working upon a square mile of arable land, having the use of a capital to the value of $25, conq)risiiig rude spades, axes, and hoes. Tiow, double that capital, allowing an iuq)rovenient in the quality of the tools oi' an increase in the (piantity as may be desired. There will be, if that additional capital have been judiciously used, an increase of product over the product of the same men when enq3loying the snuiller capital, which increase we will call A. If we place in the hands of thess men an- other $25 of cajntal, in forms appropriate to their wants, making $75 capital in all, we shall have another incre- ment oi product ; but it will not be A only, but A p^iix something. And if, again, we give them an additional capital of $75, making $150 in all, including now a horse, a plough, and a cart, the addition made thereby to their ]u-oduct will not be oX merely : it may be 5A ; it may be lOA ; it may be 20 A. This process of increasing the labor and capital to be applied to a square mile of arable land might, as we need not take space to show, be continued to a very consider- able extent ; and all the while it would remain true that the product was increased more than proportionally, so mCREAaiNG RETURNS. 91 that a contiimally larger share could be assigned to each individual laborer, and to each dollar of capital. The two principal causes for such increase of product, if we con- hne our attention to the increase in the nuniljer of laborers — as, for simplicitj^'s sake, we shall hereafter do — are those already indicated, namely : 1st, the ability of men actu- ally working together to do things to wdiich any one of them would be singly incompetent, or would do slowly, painfully, and imperfectly; and 2d, the advantages which men acquire by dividing their tasks, so that each may coniine himself to a single line of duties, and acquire a higher de- gree of efficiency therein. But now appears a new opportunity for at Once employ- ing more laborers on our square-mile tract, and increasing the remuneration of each. Let us suppose there are 12 laborers, and that the increase of . capital has been such as to give them a sufficiency of the ordinary tools used in agriculture at the time. Let us also suppose that out of their previous production they have been able to save a considerable store of provisions and other necessaries of life, all included under the generic name capital. They have also bred livestock till they have a pretty full supply of working animals. Up to this time they have been cidtivating only certain portions of the tract to which we have assigned them. They could not cultivate the wdiole successfully with so few hands, and they have accordingly made selection of those parts which were best suited to their immediate pur- poses.' A skilled agriculturist walking over the tract, kick- ing a clod now and then on the cultivated parts with his toe, and breaking a hole with his heel, here and there, through the natural turf, would say that they had thus far made use only of the light, warm, sandy soils which yield . ' ". The principle wliich guides tlie American farmer is to take the most paying crop whicli can be grown with X\\e least cost of labor." — James Caird's Prairie Farming, p. 21. 92 THE WAGES QUESTION quick returns on tlie application of little labor, but that there were other portions of the tract, as yet wet and cold, with a strong-, deep soil, which would some thne, with la- bor and capital, be much better worth cultivating'. More- over, a ]H)rtion of the tract is co\ered with wood, and a hundred acres, or so, lie in swamp, useless, and even pesti- ferous, to our young community. Kow, having reached the comparative freedom of life we have described, feeling strong in their united labor and their accumulated capital,' tliey resolve to undertake the thorough drainage of the swamp ; and with this view invite four new laborers from outside to join fortunes with them. The draining of the swamp invoh'es a year's labor, and reipiires the connnmiity to give up a year's crop, a thing which they would have been unable to do at an earlier })eriod in their history, but which their accumidations now render possible. The ground thus drained and opened, rich with the vegetable deposits of centuries, proves to be by far the most productive portion of their land. So far as they still work upon the old lands they achieve as large a product as before ; so far as they work upon the new land the pro- duct is greater ; and consequently (as Ave are assuming a community of land, of labor, and of wealth) the share of each is greater in spite of, or indeed by reason of, the in- crease in their nmubers. A few yeai"s pass. The store of provisions and other necessaries, of implements and of livestock, which was ilrawn down very low by the great effort of draining the swamp, has now, from the increased productiveness of the joint estate, grown to dimensions larger than ever before. The connnunity is now, therefore, in a position to under- take any improvement which, though invt)lving large pre- ' " In a new country and among poor settlers . . . poor land is a rela- tive term. Land is called poor which is not suitable to a poor man, which, on mere clearing and buruiug, will not yield good first crops Thus that which is poor land for a poor iiuin may prove rich land to a rich man." — Prof. Johnston's Notes on North America, ii. IIG, 117. INCREASING BETURNS. .93 sent expenditures, promises to be remunerative in the final result. The incentive tlms arising from the possession of capital joining, as it chances, with the arrival of four new ^ laborers who desire to cast in their f ortmies with the young comnmnity, leads to the resolution to thoroughly under- drain the rich, deep soils which have been lying so long cold and wet, on the further side of a sharp, rocky ridge, while the thinner but dryer and warmer parts have been cultivated for the sake of their cpiick returns. Another harvest is foregone and the year given up to the improve- ment, which again brings the stock of provisions and cloth- ing very low, and reduces the tools and livestock of the community to the smallest dimensions consistent with working efficiency ; but the thing is done, and done once for all : soils richer and stronger have been opened to til- lage, and the community, now consisting of 20 laborers, is able to withdraw, in the main, from the lighter, sandy soils, and concentrate their energies principally on the site of the former s\vamp, and on the parts last brought under cultiva- tion ; and now the product per man is notably increased, while the capabilities of the soil are so liberal that the land responds to every increase of capital with constantly- increasing returns. It will not be necessary to recite the cutting down of the timber, the clearing up of the ground, and the opening of what is, after all, the best land of the whole tract. Suffice it to say that the poorer lands are now given up entirely, and the community, increased by accessions from abroad to 24 laborers, working on none but those soils which are really in the broad view^ the most productive, obtains a larger ^(?/'- capita crop than ever before. So far certainly we have not reached a condition of " diminishing returns." On the contrary, returns have increased with and through the increase of population. But w^e will now suppose that 24 laborers are as many as can be employed to the best advantage on the good lands of the tract which we have been considering, and that if 94 Till-: ]VAGI':s Qin-J^TION. 25 laborovf! Avoro to be onpii>;o(l tlu' product would 1)0 mure than witli 24 — for that is a matter ot" eourse — but not ^^ as imu'h more, so that, Avith eonmnmity of labor and of wealtli, each of the 'I'l must faiu ]>e content with a little less than each of tlu> 24 had received ; and, in tlie sauie Avav, were still another laborer to appear, the 2(i would pro- (hici> more thanthi>2.'i had done, tt) be sure, but not ^^^ more, so that each of the 2(i wouUl receive less even than each of the 25 had doue. 'Phis would be acondition of '' diuiiuish- iui;' ri'turus;"' and this (•(•uditiou is Habk' to be reached in the course of tlio settleuieut of any reii,aon.' AVe will suppose our couuuuuitv to beeouu' awai-e of this couditiou, aud theivou to rest>l\e that no further acces- sions from abroad shall be received ; but in the verv act of so rest)lvinii;, oue of tlie nuudier discovers the ])riiu'iple of the rotation i>f crops. Heretofore thev had been aeens- tomed to leave every year a portion of their choicest lands uusowu, haviui;- learned tliat this was essential to keeping the soil iu its highest pro(hicti\e ]X>wer. Thus they not only lost the atlvautage of cultivating these choicest por- tions of their domain, but, as they fouiul it necessary to plough the tallow iu order to keep down the Aveeds, they had to lay o\\{ a part of their laboriug-poAver each year Avith- out any result iu the crop of the year. But the discovery of the priiu'i}>le of rotation changed all this. The dis- ' Prof, rairnos's answor to tlioso who d(>ny tlio diminisliin>^ pioiUu-- tivenossof laiul is iibsohitt'ly I'Diu-hisivt*. " If any ono dt'iiic's tho fact, it is open to him to n-fiitc it by nuiliiuf'" tlio experiment. Let him show that he run obtain from a limitiHl area of poil any reqnired quantity of produce by simply inoreasinji: tho outlay — that is to say, that by (luadruplini^ or (UM'ui)ling- the outlay, he can obtain a quadruple or decujile return. If it be asked why those who nniintain the atUrina- tive of the doctrine ilo not establish their views by actual experiment, the answer is that the experiment is perfonned for the»i by every jmte- tied! fit r me r : and that the fact of the diminishing productiveness of the soil is proved by their conduct in prcftMrinjr to resort to inferior soils rather than force uuprotitably soils of better quality." — Logical Method, etc. , i>. 35. INGBEASINO RETURNS. 9!i eovery, in a word, was that tlia soil, like a man or a horse, may rest from one kind of work while doing- another ; that to the soil the raising of two dilferent crops is the doing of two different kinds of work : that crop A draws i\\m\ the soil properties a ; crop B, properties h ; crop C, properties c; and that consequently the soil may be recuperating as to properties a and 5, while bearing crop C quite, or nearly, as well as if it were doing nothing. Now, this discovery ©f the principle occurred, we will suppose, just in time to prevent the disappointment of 12 worthy laborers who had come a great distance, hoping to join themselves with our community, but were on the point of being turned away on the ground that with 30 laborers, under the existing system of fallows, the commu- nity M''ould be obliged to return to some of the less produc- tive lands which had been abandoned. With rotation, ht>weverj this objection no longer exists. The 12 new- comers are received, and inasnnich as the laborei's in the fields are now relatively more concentrated, not having to go out to work, or to haul the produce over fallow spaces, and inasnmcli, too, as the increase in numbers allows a mncli higher degree of co-operation and a minuter subdivi- sion of industry (always a prolific source of mechanical ad- vantage), while yet all are working on the better lands, tlie product is found to be not one half larger only, but even more, so that each of the 30 receiv^es more than each of the 24 had done. It will not bo necessary to take our reader's time to relate how the simple suggestion that muck might be taken from the bed of the old swamp and spread on other portions, led to the employment of four additional laborers from abroad ; or how the invention' of a new ])lough which turned up ' the eartli from 18 inches depth instead of 8, as by the' [)loughs previously in use, allowed the number of laborers ' Bo it remembered that in our coiniiimiity there are neither rents nor royalties. 96 rilE WAGES QUESTION. to rise, one by one, to 48, not only with no diminution of the average product, hut with its positive increase. Xow, the above illustrations have not exhausted the num- ber ov exaggerated the scope and effect of advantages in the resort from inferior to better soils, in the accomplishment of permanent improvements, in the invention of tools and implements, in the discovery of new resources, and in the utilization of waste, which may enable the number of laborers in any given country to increase from year to year without the part of each being diminished.' But without trying further my reader's patience, I will assume that, in the case taken, all known means of increas- ing the product proportionally, or more than proportionally, to the increase of the number of laborers, have been tried and exhausted, and that with 4S laborers to the S(}uare- mile tract the condition of " dimiuishing returns" hat^ been reached, so that any increase of laborers beyond that ]ioint will result in a diminished per-capifa ])roduct. In such a condition the remark of Mr. J. S. Mill applies: " It is in vain to say that all mouths which the increase of man- kind calls into existence bring with them hands. The new mouths require as much food as the old ones, and the hands do not produce as nuich.'"^ Let it be borne in mind, how- ever, that the aggregate product may still, and may even ' " The soil of England produces eight times as much food as it ]U'oiluced 500 years ago." — Rogers, Pol. Econ., p. 181. Of the agriculture of till' former ]H>riod, Prof. Rogers says : " In those days half the an\- ble land lay in fallow. The amount produced was, to t.ilie wheat as an example, about eight bushels the aci'e in ordinary years, i.e., little more than a third of an average crop at the present time. There were no artificial grasses. Clover was not known, nor any of the familiar roots. As a consequence, there was little or no winter feed, except such coarse hay as could be nu\de and spared. Cattle were small and stunted by the privations and hard fare of winter. The average weight of a good ox was under four cwt. Sheep, too, were small, poor, and came very slowly to maturity. The average weight of a tleece was not more than two pounds. With ill-fed cattle there was little or no strong manure." — Pol, Econ., pp. 157, 158. « Pol. Econ. i. 230. DIMINISHINO RETURNS. 97 indefinitely, be increased by additional labor. England, densely populated and liiglily cultivated as that country is, lias not begun to approach the state where additional labor will produce no appreciable increase of crops. " There are," says Prof. Senior, " about 3Y,000,000 acres in England and "Wales. Of these it has been calculated that not 85,000 — less, in fact, than one four-hundredth part — are in a state of high cultivation, as hop-grounds, nursery- grounds, and fruit and kitchen gardens, and that 5,000,- 000 are waste.'" Prof. Senior proceeds with this striking exposition of the capabilities of production : " If the utmost use were made of lime and marl and other mineral manures ; if, by a perfect system of drainage and irrigation, water were nowhere allowed to be excessive or deficient ; if all our wastes were protected by enclosures and planting ; if all the land in tillage, instead of being scratched by the plough, were deeply and repeatedly trenched by manual labor ; if minute care were employed in the selecting and planting of every seed and root, and watchfulness sufficient to prevent the appearance of a weed ; if all livestock, instead of being pastured, had their food cut and brought to them ; in short, if the whole country were subjected to the labor which a rich citizen lavishes on his patch of suburban garden ; if it were pos- sible that all this should be effected, the agricultural pro- duce of the country might be raised to ten times, or indeed to much more than ten times, its present amount. . . . But although the land in England is capable of producing ten times, or more than ten times, as much as it now pro- duces, it is probable that its present produce will never be quadrupled, and almost certain that it will never be de- cupled." It will not have failed to be observed that the law of > Pol. Econ., p. 83. 98 THE WAGES QUESTION. diminishing returns does not apply directly to mechanical industry. Yet, inasmuch as the materials of that industry are all ot" an agricultural origin, or at least are all taken from the soil, the cost of manufactured pn)ducts will in- evitably be enhanced in conseipience. All, however, will not rise ecpially from this cause. Those in which the cost of the material is relatively small may for a long time decline in jirice in spite of " diminishing returns;" those in which the cost of the material is relatively largo may increase steadily in spite of mechanical inventions and improve- ments. In 1832 Mr. llabbage stated' that pig-lead to the value of £1 became worth Avhen manufactured into £ Shei'ls or pipes of inodpvate dimensions 1.3.") Whitf lead 2.60 Ordinaiv iirintinir characters 4.90 The small" SI type 28.30 Cop])er of the value of £1 became worth when manu- factured inti) £ Copper slicetiiig 1.26 Household utensils 4.77 Metallic clotli, 10,000 meshes to the square inch. . . . 53.23 Bar-iron of the value of £1 became worth Avheu manu- factured into £ Siii iron for nails 1.10 Natural steel 1 .42 Horseshoes 2.5) Gun-barrels, ordinary 9. 10 Wood-saws 14.28 Scissors, best 446.94 Penknife-blades 657. 14 Sword-handles, polished steel 972.82 Now, it is evident that the ])art of the cost of the nearly £1000 of sword-handles, instanced by Mr. Babbage, which is affected bv the law of dinnnishin^us the few shillings' worth of coal necessary to produce the power and the melting and the tempering jieat for the successive processes of manufactm-e. Witli the progress of chemical and mechanical discovery, therefore, tlie cost of the sword- liandle and the penknife-blade will approach 'that of tlie horseshoe and the nail-iron. The efficiency of human labor, again, in the production of wheat may have in- creased sixfold since the days of the Odyssey ; the efficiency of labor in converting that wheat into bread, as M. Chevalier computes it, has been multiplied one hundred and forty-four times. The efficiency of labor in producing wool may have increased four-fold in this long period, but many living men have seen the efficiency of labor in ren- dering wool into cloth multiplied fifty- fold. So far, then, as human wants can be met by the ela- boration of the crude materials furnished by the earth, satisfactions (to use the term wdiicli Bastiat's writings have brought so much into vogue) may be multiplied almost in- definitely, not in spite of, but partly in consequence of, the increase of population. Tlie mechanic of to-day, if his wages yield something over the demands of physical main- tenance, may purchase with the balance luxuries, in one of a thousand forms, which two hundred years ago would have tasked the means of the wealthiest banker. The wife of a common laborer may wear fabrics which would once have excited the admiration of a court. But, after all, the great bulk of the consumption of the working classes must be in coarse forms of agricultural produce simply pre- pared. It matters little to the laborer that for a few pence additional he may have his cotton wrought into exquisite designs which a century ago would have recpiired months for their elaboration, if the pence he has are not enough to buy a sufficient weight of cotton to keep him and his children warm. His main concern is with the cost of grains and meats, of cotton and wool, of iron and wood ; and to these, in their simplest forms, the law of diminish- 100 Tilt: WAGES QUESTION. ing returns applies with a stringency that never relaxes. " If the fact wore otherwise . . . the science of })olitical economy, as it at present exists, Avould be as completely revolutioiiizod as if human nature itself were altered.'" ' J. E. Caimt'S, Loyicul Method, otc, p. 3G. CHAPTER YI. MALTHUSIANISM IN WAGES — THE LAW OF POPULATION. To the situation reached at tlie close of the hxst chapter let us now apply the law of population known by the name of the English writer who, if he did not discover the principles underlying it, at least called and compelled gen- eral attention to them. The reader will have noted that in tracing the gradual increase in numbers of the agricultural connnunity whose experiences formed the subject of the last chapter, the ad- ditional laborers for whom room and work were found were in all cases called in from abroad, and that these laborers were taken as without families, or at least that women and children were in no way introduced into the narrative. This was because we were then only concerned with the industrial capabilities of the square-mile tract under consideration. But now let us change the supposition. The addi- tion of laborers shall be through the growth to maturity of the children of the first residents. All the conditions will remain substantially the same, through the whole course of settlement and improvement, until we reach the stage of "diminishing returns." Here the differ- ence between tlie two modes of accession begins, and here Malthusianism applies for the iii'st time. In the last chapter onr snpposition was that when the point was reached where the number of laborers was as great 103 TIIK WAGES QUESTION. as ('(tiild b(' (Mii|tl(>yiMl iipoii tlio laiul to advantage — that is, M-itlu>ut a ixHluctioii ol" the />('r-<'((j)ita crop — the existing!; Ixulv of lal)oivrs uould refuse to receive i'urtlier accessions, and thus stop at lhi> limit of the hii;'hest in«livi(hial product. l>ut how mmU it he if the accessions are hy the arrival at maturity of the childivn of the lahorcrs themselves^ Will that mode of increase he checked so easily, surely, amh one nnght say, automatically, when tlie ri'al interests of tlu' lahorer demand that no more shall he adnutted to the land now tilled to its hi^'hest inr-caplta capahility '. Mr. Malthns answers. No ; and his n'reat re|>u- tation rests on his searchiui;- investi<;-ation of the })rinciples of populati<»n, and his coni-hisive statement that j)o[)ulation lias tenck'd, at least under past human conditions, to disre- <;ai'd the moral inhibition contained in the iVct of diminisli- iui;- returns, and to increase thereafter faster than subsist- ence, and even to })ersist in that increase, while food he- came more scant, meagj-e, and nnnourishing, until at hist the one suiHcient clun-k was applied by disease and famine. l*o])uhition, said Mr. JMalthus, increases in a geometrical ratio, while suhsistence increases in an arithmetical ratio only. What, now, is the characteristic of geometrical as contrasted with arithmetical increase? It is that the increase itself inereases. Thus, in a series of seven tern)s, we might have : Arithmetical, l\ 4, (!, S, 10, VI, U. (;eonu>trical. l\ 4, S, l»i, ;}2, 04, 128, Here, in tlie former series, the actual difference between the sixth antl seventh terms is the same as that between the first and second, namely, 2. Tn the latter series, the dilference between the lirst and second ti'rms is also 2, while between the sixth and seventh it is (>4. This tre- mendous leap from term to term is due to the fact that the increase hetween the lirst and secmul terms hecomes itself the cause of increase hetween the second and third terms ; and this increase, in turn, becomes the cause of corre- THE LAW OF POPULATION. 103 sponding increase between the third and fourth, and so on to the end. Wliereas in the aritlunetical series we may say that tlie entire increase conies out of the original first term, and all the successive increments remain themselves barren. Mankind, like every other species of animals, said Mr. Mai thus, tend to increase in a geometrical ratio. Speaking broadly, every human pair, no matter in what term of the series appearing, has the same capability of reproduction as the original pair, and has the same likelihood of an equally numerous offspring, after the same number of gen- erations, as Adam and Eve are credited with. It is in this fact of a reproductive capability in the descendant equal to that of the ancestor that Mr. Malthus found the possibili- ties of perpetual poverty, misery, and A'ice among the human race. At this point, however, it needs to be observed that the mere fact of children being born to every human pair on earth does not of itself meet the conditions of Mr. Mal- tlius's reasoning. Mr. Greg, in his Social Enigmas, has written as if Malthusianism presented the issue whether people should have children or not. But it is plain — almost too plain, indeed, to be formally stated — that every human pair might have one child, and yet the race become extinct in a few generations ; might have two children, yet no in- crease of population result, the children only supplying the parents' places in the social and industrial order ; nay, as a large proportion of those who are born do, and seemingly must, in the present state of sanitary and medical science, die before reaching maturity, and as many Avho survive do, from one cause or another, remain single, every married pair might have three children, and yet there be no in- crease. Surely these facts dispose of Mr. Greg's sentimen- tal grievance. The doctrine of Malthus, then, assumes an average mimber of children to a family sufficient, after allowance for infant mortality, celil)acy, and exceptional sterility, to yield a net increase in each generation. As matter of fact, 104 THE WAGES QUESTION. Mr. Maltlius' assumes in excess of four children to a family as the average under conditions where neither " vice, misery, nor moral restraint" appear to check the natural progress of population. The validity of the theory does not, however, depend on the specific ratio taken. Given only a number of children sufficient to yield a net increase, however slight, in each generation, witli an undiminished reproduc- tive capability in each married pair, we have the condi- tions of a geometrical progression. And the capabilities of a geometrical progression when persisted in are simply tremendous. "■ TI13 elephant," says Mr. Darwin, " is reckoned tlie slowest breeder of all known animals, and I iiave taken some pains to estimate its probable minimum rate of natural increas3. It will be safest to assume that it begins breeding when thirty years old, and goes on breeding till ninety years old, bringing forth six young in tlie interval, and surviving till one hundred years old ; if this be so, after a period of from seven hundred and forty to seven hundred and fifty years there would be alive nearly nineteen million elephants descended from the first pair. . . . Even slow-breeding man has doubled in twenty- five years, and at this rate in a few thousand years there would literally not 1)3 standing-room for his progeny."'^ But how would it be meanwhile Avith subsistence ? In saying that this tend ^ to increase in an arithmetical ratio oidy, Mr. Malthus did not deny an inherent capability in vegetable life to reproduce itself far more rapidly than it is given to most species of animals to do. " Wheat, we know," says Prof. Senior, " is an annual, and its average power of reproduction perhaps about six for one ; on that supposi- tion, the produce of a single acre might cover the globe in fourteen years.^ Here, surely, is geometrical and geogra- phical pr|3gression with a vengeance ! Why, then, assert for vegetable life a power of arithmetical progression only ? ' The Principle oi Population, i. 474r-6. '" The Origin of Species, chap. iii. ^ Pol. Econ. , p. 30. THE LA W OF SUBSISTENCE, 105 The justification of this will be found in the last words of the extract just given : the globe would he covered,^ and that in fourteen years, by the increase of a single acre of this comparatively unprolific cereal. There are weeds, and even useful plants, whose rate of increase would allow them to overspread the earth in half that time. Mr. Malthus's theory assumes the earth generally occupied and cultivated, in its fertile parts at least. From this point on, all increase of vegetable food must be mad 3 against an increasing resist- ance, and hence can only be obtained through the expen- diture of constantly-increasing force. After the condi- tion of " diminishing returns" described in the preceding chapter has been reached, every addition to the crop is obtained at the cost of more than a proportional amount of labor. Thus the share of each laborer becomes smaller and still smaller, as, through the persistence^ of the sexual instincts, population continues to increase. " The di ininisl> ing productiveness of the land, as compared with the un- diminished power of human fecundity, forms the basis of the Malthusian theory.'" From my own analysis of the doctrine of Mr. Malthus, I * " Throughout the animal and vegetable kingdoms nature has scat- tered the seeds of life abroad with the most profuse and liberal hand, but has been comparatively sparing in the room and the nourishment necessary to rear them." — Maltluis, The Principle of Population, i. 3. " L'accroisement des moyens d'existence et I'accroisement du capital ont necessairement des limites dans un espace de temps donne. Au contraire, l'accroisement de la population est pour ainsi dire illimite. .... Si done, entre ces deux productions extremement inegales, la prevoyance humaine ne s'interpose, une calanaite est imminente." — M. Chevalier, 7eme Discours, d'Overture du cours de I'annee, 1846-7. ■^ " The same power that doubles the population of Kentucky, Illinois, and New South Wales every five-and-twenty years, exists everywhere, and is equally energetic in England, France, and Holland." —J. R. McOulloch, Pol. Econ. 226. ' Prof. Rickards, Poi)ulation and Capital, p. 127. 100 Tift: WAGES QUESTION. should sjiy ho reached in suceossiou three results : iirst, thy jHxcf/' of population to iucroase faster than subsistence ; secondly, the f necessary elfect Mhatever to check propagatit>n ; thirdly, the (hhr- iiihiatio/i, the strong and urgent disposition, of population so to increase, due to the power and persistence of the sexual instincts, under the force of which hnnian reproduc- tion will go forward in spite of the plain warnings of pru- dence, in spite oi increasing discomfort, sqnalor, and hunger. " Moral restraint" nught, Mr. Malthus admitted, intervene to stay the fatal })rogress ; but this required too much virtue to bo reasonably e.\]>ected of large nuisses of people. Hence the limit to population must be looked for mainly in " vice" (^a preventive check to population) ov in " misery" ^^a positive check). Prostitution might enter in disparagement of marriage ; tVoticide and abortion might enter to diminish the avemge number of children to a marriage ; such were the methods of vice inlhniting popu- laticni by diminishing births. On the other hand, misery — that is, privation and excessive exertion — bv aii'i>-ravatini; in- funt mortality and shortening the duration of mature life, has been found, and is likely through an indetinite future to be found, the chief agency in keeping down the num- bei*s of mankind. Of this last result it may be said that it was a not very extravagant generalization of the experiences of nu^st of the countries of Europe to which Mr. Malthus, writing be- fore the French Revolution had fully wrought its mighty work, could look to ascertain the comparative strength of the principle of increase and the restniints of prudence, lie nught — indeed he did — look away to a co\uitrv beyond the ocean, Avhere a popular tenure of the soil, popular edu- cation, and a {topular control of govenunent nught be ex- pected to bring «,»ut the virtues of self-respect and self-re- straint ; but here it chanced tluit the political and the indus- ANALYSIS OF MALTHUSIANI8M. 107 trial interests of the people coincided in encouraging the most rapid development of population. Such being the three successive but distinct results which make up Mr. Malthus's body of doctrine, it should be noted that thej are not all of the same validity. The first result comes directly out of facts in the physical con- ditions of the earth and of man, which cannot be impugned. The second, for all that is known of human physiology, would seem to be equally indisputable. Prof. Senior has, indeed, in terms, while admitting the power, denied the tendency ; but I must think that his denial should be taken as extending not to the tendency, but to what I have called the determination, of population to increase unduly. It seems incredible that Prof. Senior should have intended to question that population tends to increase faster than subsistence, so long, at least, as subsistence remains ade- quate to physical well-being, for it must be remembered that the condition of diminishmg returns may begin when t\\e per-capita product is still ample to afford a liberal sup- port to all. Now, a country may proceed a long time with diminishing returns, diminishing, it may be, very slowly, before squalor and hunger become the necessary concom- itants of an increase of population. So that, considering a people on the verge of that condition, it is certainly safe . to say that subsistence can not thereafter increase as fast as before, because the constitution of the soil forbids ; while yet population may, for a longer or a shorter time, continue to increase as fast as before, since the reproductive capa- bility' is undiminished and the sexual instinct remains as active and strong as ever. Hence, I believe Prof. Senior must have meant to deny this tendency only in the degree ' Indeed, the reproductive capability might even he increased during the first stages of diminishing returns. This would doubtless be so if the previous returns to labor had been so liberal as to encourage luxu- riousness and some degree of effeminacy. In this case the first effects of diminished returns might be to induce a greater physical and ner- vous viffor. 108 THE WAGES QUESTION. of force and persistency wliicli Mr. Malthus attributed to it. It is then against Mr. Maltlius's last result, namely, the de- termination, the strong and nrgent disposition, of popula- tion to increase in spite of reason and prudence, and in spite of pri\ation and squalor, that all valid criticism must he directed. Many of Mr. Malthus's opponents have con- sidered that they have demolished Malthusianism Avhen they have shown to their own satisfaction that the im- pulse to propagation is somewhat less strong, or that the motives and physiological tendencies which work against increase of population are somewhat stronger, than he re- presented them to be. Malthusianism, however, stands complete and inexpugnable on the demonstration of the power and the tendency of population to increase faster than subsistence. The gloomy forebodings of the amiable clergyman who promulgated the doctrine are not at all of its essence. Malthusianism would survive a demonstra- tion, on the largest scale, of the power of prudence and social ambition to hold the impulses to propagation lirmly in check. CIIAPTEE YIT. N E C E S S A K Y WAGES. The phrase " necemary wages" makes a consideraljle figure in economical literature. By it is intended a mini- num below which, it is assumed, wages can. not fall without reducing the supply of labor and thus inducing an cj^posite tendency, namely, to a rise in wages.' It is not meant that the employer is bound, by either equitable or economical considerations, to j)ay the laborer, in the immediate instance, enough to support life in him- self and family. The employer will, in general, pay only such wages as the anticipated value of the product will allow him to get back from the purchaser, with his own proper profits thereon. If, in a peculiar condition of in- dustry, he consents for a time to give up his own profits, or even to produce at a sacrifice, it is with reference to his own interest in keeping his laboring force, or his custo- mers, together, in the expectation that a turn in affairs will * " The cost of purchasing labor, like that of every thing else, must be paid by the purchasers. The race of laborers would become alto- gether extinct unless they were supplied with quantities of food and other articles sufficient for their support and that of their families. This is the lowest limit to which the rate of wages can be permanent- ly reduced, and for this reason it has been called tlie natural or neces- sary rate of wages." — J. II. McCulloch, Pol. Econ., p. 385. tlO THE WAGES QUESTIOX. eurtWe liitn to make himself good for the temjx^nirv h^s*. If he pavs moiv th:m is eousisteut with this object, or if he piiYs auY thing fivm any other view than his own iu- teivst, Avhat he thus p\vs is iu»t wagv^s, hut ahus disguised as wages. Suih instances of tem|H>i':irv siicritice aiv, however, ex- ceptional In the vast majority ».»f cases the wagt^s which emphnei-s pay their workmen are gmenuHl by the price at which they may fairly exjHvt to sell the pr^xluct ; and this, whether the workmen and their families can live thertnm or not. If now, in any country, at any time, laboivrs, f ivm any cause, beconie in excess of the demand, iiei*essin*v wages in that instance will not include a snthci- eney of fixxi and clothing for all these lal>oivrs, but only for tlu^se who are wanttnl. ^or by necessiu-v wagvs is it iiieant that workmen will not aivept wj\ges which are Ih?Iow the stjuidard of subsist- ence. It is when men aiv receiving Avages which give them a margin for the comforts of life, and j>erhaps some- thing for luxury, that thev say, sometimes in very wcmton- ness, " If we can not have such and such wages, we will not work," and jHMvhance ivf use otfei"s which are as liWml as their employers can make. But when wages approach the dread line where they tvase to furnish a sufficiency of the ci>arsest t\xxl, lalx>ring men do not talk so. In coun- tries where there is no jxx>r law, and where the claim to sup|K>rt is not admitteil by the state, it is a thing imknown that a workman ivfnses wages Ixvanse thev will not keep himself and family alive, lie takes them for what they are worth, applies them as far as they will go, and works on, jx^rhaps with failing strength, eager to see\iiv the per- haj^s failing employment. If it is in the eity,aiid the siglit of luxury maddens the cnnvd of Ialx»rerj giddy with fast- in«r. the dreadful cry of " Bread or hloixl " may Ix? raised, and the last etfort of strength be given to pillage and de- struction. But the single laborer, acting ont his own inx- NECES8A11T WAGES. Ill pulses, takes tlie wages that are offered him never so surely as when those wages are chjse down upon the famine hue. U tlie least sum on which a jnan with a wife and five children can subsist, be seven shillings a week, and yet in hard times he is offered but six shillings for his labor, this does not mean that one victim is to be selected from the se- ven and set apart to starve, while tlie rest are fed. It means that all will try to live on the scantier supply. The famine line is not a line which it is easy to trace. Laboring men and women can live for single days on what they could not live upon during an entire M^eek ; they can live for a single week on what they could not live upon every week of the month ; they can even live for months on what they could not live upon an. entire year. They can live along for years on a half of what would be necessary to keep them in r(^lniKt liealth and with strength to labor efficiently. With the aged and the young the capacity of enduring privation is almost indefinitely less. Yet even when each succumbs in his turn, the nursing child and the young man in his strength, the chances are that it is to some distinct form of disease, for which privation has prepared the way. Thus in Ireland, when the annual number of deaths rose from Y7,754, the average of the three preceding years, to 122,889 in 1846, and 249,335 in 1847, it was from fever, and i^ not from literal starvation, that the great mass of victims died.' So in India, in the famine of 1873-4, the number of deaths from starvation reported from districts embrac- ing: millions of inhabitants was in some instances but three, five, or ten, while yet the j)opulation had been greatly re- duced by an extraordinary mortality from the recognized forms of ordinary disease. Dr. Hunter, in his Fajnine * Tlie numb-jr of deatha actually attributed, on inquest, to starva- tion, and BO reported in the famous Irisli census of 1851, was 2041 in 1840, 6058 in 1847, and 9395 during the two years following. (Report, K' Part v., vol. i.,p. 253.) ll-> THE WAGES qUESriON. Aspei'ts of liulia, has strikingly drawn the hnuentable pii'tiHV of a people entering the famine state. " At the outset of a famine the people fall back npon roots and various sorts of inferior green food. The ehildivu and the weaker nuMuI)ers of the family die, and those who survive eke luit a \erv insutHeient ([uantity of riee hv roots and wild plants. The Avages which wouhl ni)t sutfiee to feed an average family of four are sutHeient for the two or three nuMuhers who survive. Ihe rural population enters a j'ainlne as afrhjate goes into battle, cleared of all lifeless gear and inetfieient Die/nhers."' AVe have seen that hv " neeessarv Avages" is not meant that masters Avill not olfer, or workmen receive, in the iuuuedi- ate instance, wages which are greatly and itu-reasingly inade- ([uate to the suj>port of life. l>ut more than this, it is not even meant that any wages at all are necesstirv miconditionally. The employing class may, from causes affecting the indus- try of a community or a country, itself slowly disappear. Many regions once most fair and llourishing have, as we know, been stricken with a paralysis of industry, leaving 110 snudl part of their inhabitants occupationless. In such a case not only can no particular scale of wages be ssiid to be necessjiry, but no wages at all will be necessjirv ; the population thus rendered surplus must remove if it can to new seats, or remaining, as is most likely, nmst pass rapidly away by the excess of deaths over births, induced by hardship and privation. Hence, if we will say that wages nnist be high enough to maintain the laboring class in condition to labor, and to keep their muubers good, we shoidd bear in mind the condition on which this alone is true, namely, that the employing class is itself kept good. The whole significance of the term necessary wages is that, in order to the supply iif labor being maintained, wages must be paid which will not only enable the labor- iuix class to subsist according to the standard of comfoi-t and decency, or discomfort and indecency it nuiy be, which NECESSARY WAGES. 113 they set up for themselves as tliat below which, they will not go, but will also dispose them to propagate' suffi- ciently to make up the inevitable, incessant loss of labor from death or disability. If the standard of living re- ferred to above varies among several communities or coun- tries, then the term " necessary wages" must be interpreted in each community or comitry according to the habitual standard there maintained. It is, then, because something besidas vice and misery do, in a degree, limit the increase of population, that the question of necessary wages becomes more than the ques- tion of the amount of the barest, baldest subsistence which will keep men alive and in condition for labor. And as, ii. fact, the standard of living varies with each community or country, the laboring population in no two making pre- cisely the same requirements as the condition precedent to their keeping their numbers good, the term necessary wages must be understood in each country and separate community according to the habitual standard there main- tained. JSTecessary wages, as thus defined, may be very low. It is commonly said that the lowest point which can be reached is that at which enough food (taking that as the type of expenditure), of the coarsest and meanest kind, can ' It will be seen that the wages of the laborer thus made necessary must include not only his own subsistence but that of those persons, not themselves productive laborers, whose maintenance is a means to the supply of labor in the immediate future. Thus the wages of the bread-winners must provide food and care for woman in the weakness of childbearing, and for children in the years of infancy. Whether they shall also jirovide food and care for the aged in their decrepi- tude, and for the crippled and infirm, is determined by other conside- rations, to be noted further on. These, at least, are not essential to the supply of labor ; and in barbarous countries not a few, the horrid cus- tom of making away with those who are regarded as a hopeless burden shows that the support of such is not an element of necessary wages among those peoples. 114 THE WAGES QUESTION. be provided to s-;ustuiu life and the ability to labor. Eut ill truth necessary wages may be a hrase to " sustain life" needs to be qualified in such THE STANDARD OF LIVING. 115 cases, where life is, in fact, from want of food and ordinary comforts, sustained through but a fraction of its other- wise natural term. We have thus reduced the scope of the principle of necessary wages by showing, first, that no wages at all are necessary unless some one sees it for his own interest to employ labor, and, secondly, that when wages are paid, it is not necessary that they should be sufficient to sup2)ort more than two thirds or one half of tlie persons born into the world, or, in the case of those actually surviving to the age of labor, to " sustain life" through more than one half or three fourths of the natural term of labor. But there is nevertheless a truth in the doctrine of necessary wages. There is a point below which if, in any community, wages go, the supply of labor will not be kept up ; and hence if employers will have labor, they must pay for it up to this point. But it is not in every communit}^, it is not in most com- munities, perhaps it is not in any community, so long as employment is offered at all, that the minimum of wages is fixed by the barest physical conditions of keeping up the supply of labor. Powerful as is the sexual passion,' it has not unresisted sway. Somewhere above the point we have indicated — it may be far alcove, it may be but a little way above this — men will cease bringing children into the world. They may — in many countries they do — increase to such an extent as to involve the frightful infant mortality we have noticed, and to reduce the term of adult life to very narrow limits. But they will not sink to prove the last possibilities of the case ; they stop short of the bald, brutal demonstra- tion of the inability to keep up the supply of labor upon scantier food, fire, and raiment ; and stopping here, they do ' " Happily there is but one passion of the same nature ; for if there were two there would not be a single man left in the universe who would be able to follow the truth." — An Eastern writer. 116 THE WAGES QUESTION in faot i;'i\ themselves somo little nuirjiiln of living. The (^hinmuan hnys Ins jnveions ilnii;; ; the East Indian gives months of everv veav to the service of his goggle-eved di- vinity. In Fei"sia, Tnrkey, and (.>ther States of the Kast impeiu- tive enstom requiivs the most lavish outlay in the period inunediately before marriage, for whieh preparation or repartition has to be made dnring preceding or snceeeding years of labor. '* A man," writes Mr. Consul Taylor from Kooitlistan,' " one would not suppose to possess a penny, not unfrequently spends A';>0, raised on loan from his em- ployer, that is dissipated during the seven days of riotous living pi^H'eding the eeivmony." llei'e, then, we have the aetnal as distinguished from the theoretical minimum ; in other words, the " neees- Siiry wages," the wages that nuist be paid to keep the supply of labor good, if, indeed, it is to be kept gv>oJ ; for that, we have seen, is not a necessity. All the way uj> fi\>m this low })lane, through the scale of na- tions, we find points established Avhich mark the mini- mum <>f wages for one connnnnity i.>r another, those wages, namely, on which that eomnnmity will consent to keep its nunibei-s good. Such wages thus become the necessary wages for that community, necessary only in the sense that the habits of living among t!io people will not permit i"epi\xiuetiou sutKcient to repair the natural waste of labor, «.»u any lower terms, with any thin;»" les3 of the "necessiries, comfi>rts, and luxuries" of life. ^'ow, since among most peoples fo<.Kl is the main object" * Report on the Condition of the Industrial Classes. 1871. p. 800, cf. 731. In Koonlistan the annual earnings of the artitiau appear to ran^ji* fwm £1-,^ to 4'IS. * The eminent statistician, Pr. Engel. of IVrlin. has jriven the fol- lowing eom]>»irative statement as showing the average relative expt>n- ditnre in Prussia of families of three classes, ranging fi-oni those of ^veU-t^.vdo artisivus to ilio o of persons in easy cixvumstauces : THE STANDARD OF LIVING. 117 upon wliieh wages, are expended, economists liave been very nnicli in the way of grading the " necessary wages" of nations according to their habits respecting food, the princi- Pbrcextage of the Expenditure of the Family op Items of Expenditure. 1. Food 2. Clothinti;' 3. Lodjrinir 4. Firing and Lighting 5. Education, Worship, etc... G. Legal protection 7. Care of health 8. Comfort and Recreation. . . 1. A working man, with in come of $-i2b to $300 a year. Per cent. G2 10 12 2. 3. A man of the | A person in intermediate ; easy circim- class, with in- stances, within- come of $450 to ! coini; of $7bQ $(iOO a year, ito $1125 a year. Per cent. 55 18 12 5 Per cent. 50 18 12 5 90 3.5 85 5.5 3 3 3.5 l')i) 100 100 From this table Dr. Engel deduces tii3 following proposition : While the proportion of the total outlay upon food increases as the family becomes poorer, the percentage of outlay for clothing is ap- proximately, and that for lodging is invariably, the same in the three classes taken for consideration. Dr. Engel seems disposed to regard this very much as a law of expenditure. I am disposed to believe, however, that the apparent conformity has been reached by merging iirban and rural communities which ic considered sejjarately would show very wide differences of expenditure on the several objects indi- cated ; and, secondly, that the extension of the inquiry to other lati- tudes and other social conditions would develop great diversity in these respects. The Baron Riesbeck in his Travels in Germany (Pink- erton, vi. 147, 173), in 1780, notes the very marked differences existing between Southern and Northern Germany as to the scale of expendi- ture on dress. The lower orders among the Turks probably expend more of their earnings relatively upon dress than the higher classes. The same may probably be assumed respecting the ordinary Danish workman, who insists on passing himself off as a gentleman on Sun- days. Again, the scale of expenditure on lodging varies greatly ac- cording to social conditions. In England, Mr. Clifford says, " the agri- cultural laborer seldona pays, even for a good cottage, more than -j-q- of his income, and more commonly -jV. The town laborer receiving 18 or 20 Its 'I in: }VAaEs questton. pal nrtirlc in tlio diot o{ cacli hoiiiix tal<.on as i'.ulit'atiii;;" tlio wages wliii'li must there be paid to keep the supply oi lahor 3 \v^ t.> the limits of subsistenee on that food,^ thouii'h at thL> constantly-imminent risk of a scarcity fiMui the failure (>f that most uneertaiu I'rop. The Scotch, sliillinga weekly will certainly not piy les3 tli!\n ^ ; the nrti^an receiv- iuij; oO. 85 sliillings or £'v will pay ,V and, incliidinir rates and taxes, probably ji. — Asrrictiltviral Look out of 1874, p. 21(>. In France, Lord Hrabazon reports : " Whilst at about the same pe- riod town workmen were earning wages oS.^'i jier cent higher than agrieultural laliorers. these latter w.>re jiaying 40.4.') per cent less rent." — Uejiort on the (.\>udition of the Industrial Classes, 1872, p. 4!\ The well-known i>assiou of the Netherlander for having a whole house, however small, to himstdf, must, 1 think, result in a larger jmo- ]iortional expenditure in this direetion by eonunon laborei-s than by the higher classes. 1 note also that Or. Kngel's computations do not agn^e very well with those given by Mr. Scott rt^specting the expendi- tures of families in WUrtentbnrg. ^Report on the t'ondition of the In dustrial Classes, 187i. pp. ISHl. 197. 20.").') ' Mr. Brassey ssiys of the Coolie laborers em]doyed on the railway.; in India : " Their food consists of two pounds of rici> a day, mixed \\\x\\ :\ little curry ; and th.> cost of living on this, their usual diet, is only 1.*. a week." — Work and Wages, p. 88. - " No fewer than fi>nr great scarcities, amounting almost to famines." since the mutiny, namely, 1801-2, t80.")-0, 1808-0, 1873-4.— The Puke of Argyle, quoted by London Economist, May 0, 1874. ' ■• A laborer in Ireland will live and bring uj) a family on jiotatoes ; n lalxirer in England will see the world unpeopled tirst." — General T. Perronet Thompson. * " Three times the number of persons »'an bt^ fed on an acre of po tatoes who can bo maintained on an acre of wheat in ordinary sea- sons." — Alist)n"s History of Europe, 181.'J-.")1, xviii., p. 11, FOOD JIABITS. 119 again, pitcli their minimum of wages at an oaten diet ; the Gei-mans, at a diet of black bread ; while the English insist, at tlie very lowest, npon wheaten bread, though un- fortunately not so rigidly and persistently but that a con- siderable unnecessary mortality at the extremes of life, and a lowering of the vital force among large portions of the actual workers, take place/ It will be seen that, according to this doctrine, the neces- sary Avages of every country are fixed by the habits of liv- ing among the people, and that at any given time there is a point below which wages can not go Avithout diminish- ing the supply of labor. This point may change from one period to another. A people broken down by industrial misfortune or crowded by too rapid propagation may temporarily bo driven to a lower and meaner diet ; and in- stead of resenting this by Avitliholding their increase, and thereby opening the Avay, or at least holding the Avay open, to a return to better times and circumstances, may accept the degradation to which they are thus violently brought ; may lay aside that self-respect and self-control which had hitherto kept them from sinking in the social scale, and consent to bring children into the Avorld to share their own miserable lot. Tims, in a single generation, a new scale of wages may be determined, and population adjust itself accordingly. Instances of such loAvering of the necessary wages of a people are unfortunately not unconnnon. * Prof. Cairnes makes a remark in liis Logical Method of Pol. Econ. which is liable to be misunderstood. He says : " It is not assorted that population in fact increases faster than subsistence ; this would, of course, be physically impossible." In one sense of the word in- crease, that, namely, which the vital statisticians intend by tlie phrase " effective increase," Prof. Cairnes's remark is unexceptionable ; but there is nothing to prevent persons from being born into the world in large numbers, for whom there is not food enough to keep them alive, and who must consequently die prematurely. Most people would say that in such cases " population in fact increases faster than subsist- ence." Population, of course, can not increase and remain beyond the limits of subsistence. 120 THE WAGES QUESTIONS On the other ]iand, a people accustomed to a low and mean diet, and to circumstances of filth and squalor, may, imder impulses moral or economical, which it is not neces- sary to recite, raise themselves to a new standard of living,' involvin^^ a new scale of wages, which thereafter hecome necessary to them, and which determine population accordingly. Such a change, involving the substitution of the best wheaten bread for that of an inferior quality," passed upon the masses of the English people between 1715 and 1765. Food wages rose, yet, as population did not increase corre- spondingly in consequence, there was a " decided elevation in the standard of their comforts and conveniences." Such a change has, by the testimony of observers who can not be doubted, been passing over Ireland since 1S50 ; and the temporary relief from excessive population afforded by famine and forced emigration has, under the impulse of that terrific sutfering, been taken advantage of to reach a somewhat higher standard of living.' A similar change, for Avhich an easy opportunity is offered in the rapid in- crease of production, through the discovery of new re- sources in nature, and new arts and appliances in industry, is, I am fain to believe, passing upon not a few of the peo- ple of Europe who are taking advantage of the liberality of art and nature, not to increase their numbers to the limit of their former modes of life, but to Snatch something, at least, as a store for the future, and something for greater decency and comfort in the present. ' "Tlie habits of the English and Scotcli laborers of the present day arc as widely different from those of their ancestors in the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I. as they now are from the habits of the laborers of France and Spain." — J. R. McCulloch, Pol. Econ.,p. - Malthus, Pol. Econ. , p. 220. ' Note, for instance, the very general introduction of cornnieal in place, in part, of the potato. (See Mr. Purdy's paper in the Statistical Journal, xxv. 459-GO.) CHEAP FOOD. 131 It 13 in tills view of the relation of food to the increase of population, that economists have veiy generally been agreed in pronouncing cheap food a source of much evil to any people that adopts it. This doctrine can not be better stated than in the language of Prof. Rogers : " A community Avhich subsists habitually on dear food is in a position of peculiar advantage when compared with another which lives on cheap food ; one, for instance, which lives on wheat as contrasted with another which lives on rice or potatoes ; and this quite apart from the pru- dence or incautiousness of the people. Two instances v/ill illustrate this rule. The Irish famine of 1846 was due to the sudden disease which aifected the potato. It was equally severe in the northern parts of Scotland, and par- ticularly in the Western Highlands ; its effects, as we all know, were terrible ; but the same disease affected the same plant in England. That, however, which was distress to the English was death to the Irish and the Highlanders ; they had nothing else to resort to,' they subsisted on the cheap- est food. ITow, were such a calamity as the potato-dis- ease to attack wheat in England, formidable as the conse- quences would be, they would not be destructive."" JSTow, I (Xii'Q s^y Prof. Rogers would be very slow to ap- ' " When tlie standard of natural or necessary wages is higli — wlien wheat and beef, for example, form the principal part of the food of the laborer, and porter and beer the principal part of his drink, he can bear to retrench in a period of scarcity. Such a man has room to fall ; he can resort to cheaper sorts of food — to barley, oats, rice, and potatoes. But he who is habitually fed on the cheapest food has nothing to resort to when deprived of it. Laborers placed in this situ- ation are absolutely cut off from every resource. You may take from an Englishman, but you cannot take from an Irishman. The latter is already so low lie can fall no lower ; he is placed on the very verge of existence ; his wages, being regulated by the price of potatoes, will not buy wheat, or barley, or oats ; and whenever, therefore, the sup- ply of potatoes fails, it is next to impossible that he should escape falling a sacrifice to famine." — J. 11. McCulloch, Pol. Econ., p. 396. ''Pol Econ., pp. 70,71. 122 THE WAGES QUESTION. prove the tlicorv of the British Leijfislatiirc in seeking, as late as 1774, to (liseoTiraiil, InJinr iil, (liHudvanluf^c, :iiid Mm! iintivo dcHii'uH find UHpinitiouH of jnau !i.i'(^ iillowcd fnlr pliiy. Did tiio Huhntitnt ion of ^'- \s^^ jiiid Indiiiir'' for 1,1 ic. ('nd(Mit iiKiiilx^i-H of tbo fuiiiily, Mild for Ibo (M|iii|nii(nt of tbo yoiin;j; lor llicir Bti'U^gle, in tboirtiii'ii, witli iiiitdi-o jiiid witb iiion. It aHowod tlus cliild to go to Hcbool, not ^•nid^iiij^' tlio wa^cB bo niiii,'bt earn l)y Starvinfjf bin mind.' Il, nllowod tbo wilo loid tbo diiii^'litor to koo]) tbo boiiBc^ inakinj,^' poHBiblo tliiit ntoi'lin/^- H(!nHo of docoiK'y wliicli luiH boon tbo navor of JMow-J'^ugland lifu. Tliat iB wlint tbo HiibHliliilion of cboapGr food did for early Now-l*]n^land, and vvliat it !niforo mo tlio t;\x and vuliuition lists of a townsliip in Massa- cliusctts containinji: ii sniart uuuiufacturiuiir villagv. 'l"ho total ])opula- tiou of the township was about iJoOO. The Irish males above 18 years of ao-e numbereil 220. Of those, 128 imid taxes upon projierty. The total amount of estate owned by these 128 Irishmen, (jrliifiirr of all ■money in smniif/,s-b(iii/i-ii (the deposits of these institutions beini^ taxed en manfte by the State without distinction of ownership), was ^^108,560, being an av(>rage to eaeh holder of $1278. ' " Custom has rendered leather shoes a necessary of life in England. The ]ioorest creditable person of either sex would In* ashamed to appear in public without them. In Scotland custom has rendered them a necessary of life to the lowest order of men, but not to the same order of wonuMi, who may, without any discredit, walk about barefooted. In I'^nince lliey arc necessaries neither to men nor to women, the low- est rank of both sexes appeal iut;: there ]>ublicly, without any discredit, sometimes in wooden shoes, and sometimes barefooted." — Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, ii. 407. Mr. Senior says of shoes: " When a Scotchman ri.ses f rom thi- lowest to the middling classes of society, they become to him necessaries. He wars them to jircserve, not his feet, but kis station in life."— Vol. Econ. , pp. 36, 37. TEE STANDARD OF LIVING. 125 which they will labor and for which they will deny them- selves. Cheap food here has helped them to accomplish this object more easily and quickly. Cheap food in Ire- land did not tend in the same direction, but the rather allowed and excited a dangerous increase of population : and this for reasons which the public conscience of Eng- land has lonmmand. Thus it is production, not capital, which furnishes the motive for employment and the measure of wages. But it may be said, we grant that wages are really paid out of the product of current industry, and that capital only affects wages as it lirst alfects production, so that wages stand related to product in the first degree and to capital in the second degree only; still, does not produc- tion bear a certain and necessary ratio to capital i and hence nuiy not the measure of wages be derived from cap- ital virtually — though not, it is true, directly^through its determination of the product ? By no means. It would be easy to adduce many successive reasons why capita] bears no certain or constant ratio to production, but two will abundantly serve our turn. (a) The ratii> which capital bears to the product of indus- try varies, all other thingsremainingequal, with the scanti- ness or abundance of natural ageuts. Que hundred laborers having the use of a capital which we will represent by Kte mav not, in one set of circumstances, be able to ]n-oduce anv where near twice as nnich as 50 laborers using the sjnne amoimt of capital ; or, under a different set of cir- cumstances, they may be able to produce far more than twice as nnich. AVith unlimited natural agents, as in new countries like America and Australia, the 100 may, through the minuter subdivision of labor and the more effective co-operation which their numbers allow, produce twice as much as 50 with a capital of l^.r, or as 00 with a capital RATIO OF CAPITAL TO PRODUCT. i;jl of y)x. On the other hand, with limited natural agents, after the condition of " diminishing returns" has been reached, the 100 may be able to produce only twice as much as 50 with a capital of 8,^, or as 40 Matli a capital of 10a?. (b) The differences in the ratio between capital and the product of industry which are caused by the economi- cal quality of a people, their intelligence, sobriety, and thrift, their capacity for self-direction and industrial or- ganization, their manual dexterity and mechanical aptitude, are greater even than those due to the bounty of nature. Griven machinery, raw materials, and a year's subsistence for 1000 laborers, does it make no difference with the annual product whether those laborers are Englishmen or East-Indians ? Certainly if only one quarter part of what has been adduced under the head of the efficiency of labor be valid, the differences in the product of industiy arising out of differences in i\\G industrial quality of dis- tinct communities of laborers are so great as to prohibit us from making use of capital to determine the amount that can be expended in any year or series of years in the pur- chase of labor. I have no wish to disparage the importance of the service rendered in production by capital, the saved results of the industry of the past ; but I firmly deny that it furnishes the measure of wages. But while wages must in any philosophical view of the subject be regarded as paid out of the product of current industry, wages are, to a very considerable degree, in all communities, advanced^ out of capital, and this from the very necessity of the case ; while in those countries which have accumulated large stores of wealth, wages are, in fact, very generally, if not universally, so advanced, equally for ^ " EUe doit etri avancee par le capita'Iiste et le retrouver, par con- sequent, clans la vileur du produit obtenu." — A. E. Cherbuliez, Precis de la Science Economique, i. 415. y^ 133 Tin: WAGES QUESTION. tlie convenience of employers nnd of tlie employed. Yet even where the entire amount of the weekly or monthly pay-roll is taken out of a store of wealth previously <^athered and husbanded, it is not capital out of which wages are borrowed, but production out of which they are iinally paid, to which wc must look to find their true measure.' I have said that in all connnunities wages are, by the very necessity of the case, advanced to a considerable extent out of capital. It is only in a few industries, mainly of the class termed '' extractive," and in these only when pursued under circumstances peculiarly favorable, that the laborer can e;it of the ])ruduct of his labor for the day. The fish- erman, indeed, or the hunter may live from hand to mouth, catching and killing as he eats, though always at the imminent risk of privation and even of starvation. But the tiller of the soil nmst abide in faith of a harvest, through months of ])lougliiug, sowing, and cuhivating ; and his industry is oidy ]>ossible as food has been stored up from the crop of the previous year. The mechanical laborer is also removed by a longer or a shorter distance from the fruition of his labor. 80 that almost universally, it may be said, the laborer as he works is fed out of a store gathered by previous toil, and saved l)v the self-denial of the posses- sor. The extent of this in'o^-ision, thus made the primary condition of industry, may be rudely measured by the inter- val between harvests. And this provision is one which is not made without great sacrifice, even in the most advanced stao:es of industrv. Yast and varied as is the accunmlated ' Mr. F. 1). Longc, u\ lib Refutatiou of the Was-o-Fuiul Theory, insists on this distinction. Of the wealth or cajiital used " for the maintenance of laborers ■while employed in jiroducinc^ new goods or wealth," he says, it " may come either from their (the laborers') own resources or those of their employers, or be borrowed from bankers or elsewhere." Of the wealth '■ to be nsed for the purchase of their work," he says, it " may consist of funds belonging to the consumer or of funds belonging to the employer, or both, or may even be taken out of the very goods which the laborer.3 produce, or their money value." SUBSISTENCE ADVANCED BY CAPITAL. 133 wealtli of the most liiglily-civ^ilizsd com'n.Viiities, the store of food wliich must he kept on hand to meet the necessities of tlic year's subsistence constitutes no insignificant j^art of tlie aggregate vahie ; wliile among nations which com- jjrise, probably, two thirds of the human race, so severe is the struggle with nature, so hard are the conditions of life, so many its enemies, that, after all the painful accumula- tions of centuries, spring remains as it was in the days of Alknian, " the season of short fare," when the progress of the growing crop is eagerly watched, not with eyes greedy of gain, but with eyes hollow from hunger.' To the extent of a year's subsistence, then, it is necessary that some one should stand ready to make advances to the wage-laborer out of the products of past industry. All sums so advanced come out of capital ; but it is important to note that it need not be the capital of the employer. The laborer himself may be a capitalist to this extent. Where the reward of industry is as liberal as it is in America and Australia, there is no reason why a laborer should not save enough out of three or live years' wages to be a year beforehand, and thus, so far as the employer is concerned, that man's labor be thereafter freed from this condition of provisional maintenance. Moreover, even where the laborers' dependence on the employer for the year's sub- sistence is entire, it should be clearly noted (for it has been strangely overlooked,^ with most unfortunate results in the * " Tliere ij in Ireland," saya Aliion, " what ii called tli3 ' starving peason/ which is about six weeks before the ' new harvest.'" — Hist. Europe, xxi. 204. '^ " A very little consideration will render it evident that laborers whilst engaged in any particular industry can not live upon the com- modity which their labor is assisting to j^roduce. The ploughman who tills the soil from which in the following autumn the harvest will be gathered, is /e(? with the wealth which Ids master has saved; or, ill other words, the master pays his laborer's ivages from the wealth which he has previously saved." — Prof. Fawcett, Political Economy, p. 19. Here we find asserted or assumed, (1) the necessity of the laborer fcr 134 THE WAGES QUESTION. popular theory of wages) that this by no means involves the payment of his entire wages in advance of the harvest- ing of the crop or the marketing of the goods. There is nothing in the need the laborer has of provisional mainte- nance which defeats his claim to a payment, over aiid above the mere cost of his subsistence, out of the product when completed. It may be that poor Piers, the plongli- man, must, as Professor Fawcett says, depend daily nutil harvest upon the squire for bread out of the crop of the last year ; but surely that constitutes no reason why Piers should not at harvest receive some sheaves as his own. And in the case of all laborers of a higher class, whos(3 wages may be perhaps twice or three times tlie cost of their bare subsistence, it is evident that, in countries where capital is scarce, the advances which are likely to be made to them during the year will leave a very considerable por- tion of the wages to be taken out of the product at the close of the year. But how largely, in fact, ara wages advanced out of capi- tal ? In old countries, to a very great extent certainly. Yet even in these tliere is but a small proportion of cases where wages are paid of tener than once a week — that is, where the laborer does not trust his employer with six days' work. And in some exceptional industries it hap- pens that the employer realizes on \ih product' in a shorter maintenance while the crop is growing ; (2) his entire dependence on the employer for that maintenance ; (3) the natural equivalency of subsistence and wages. ' I may mention, in illustration, the case of transportation compa- nies, owning railroads, canals, steamboats, or coaches. The employees of such companici in the United States number hundreds of thou- sands, and they are rarely paid by the day, commonly by the week or month. Yet the companies collect all their fares for passage and a portion of their charges for freight, daily. They are thus always in debt, often to a vast amount, to their laborers (using that term in its generic sense) for services which have been rendered to them, and of which they have availed thenis(;lves to the full extent. So that the EMPLOYERS IN DEBT TO LABORERS. 135 time than this, so that the laborer is not only paid out of the product of his industry, but actually advances to the employer a portion of the capital on which he operates. Quite as common, probably, even yet in countries which we may call old, as weekly payments are monthly pay- ments ; and here the probability that the laborer may re- ceive his wages out of the price of this marketed product increases with the quadrupled time given the employer to dispose of it. Yet even here the cases are doubtless excep- tional where the employer does not have to " stand out," for a longer or a shorter time, of the amount which he pays in wages, though always, be it remembered, in the expectation of a reimbursement out of the product when marketed, the anticipated price of the product determin- ing the amount which he can safely thus advance. In new countries, by which we mean those to which men have gone with the industrial ideas and ambitions of older communities, but with an amount of capital which, from the necessity of the case, is niorG or less inadequate to the undertakings for which their skill and labor qualify them, the wages of labor are paid only partially out of capital. The history of our own country so amply illus- trates this statement that we need not go elsewhere for examples. From the first settlement of the colonies down to the discovery of gold in California, laborers, whether in agriculture or in manufactures, were, as a rule, hired by the year, and paid at the end of the year. Bare subsistence might be furnished by the employer meanwhile ; small amounts of money might be advanced " for accommoda- tion ;" the laborer's tax bill or doctor's bill might be settled by the employer ; but these payments were not to such an extent (except in case of protracted sickness or sudden mis- fortune) but that the employer was always in debt to his laborer. companies are virtually carrying on their operations on capital a por- ^^ tion of which is advanced by their own employees. Many other ex- amples might be given. V.m THE WAGES QUESTION. I have before me a considerable collection of accounts taken from the books of fanners in different sections as late as 1851. These show the hands charged with advances of the most miscellaneous character. There are charges for grain and salted meats from the product of the previous year, for cash for minor j)ersonal expenses, for bootmaker's bills, grocer's bills, apothecary's bills, doctor's bills, and even town- tax bills, settled by the employer, for the use of teams for liauling wood for the laborer, or breaking up liis garden in the S])ring. Yet in general the amount of such advances does not exceed one third, and it rarely reaches one half, of the stipulated wages of the year. ]N^ow it is idle to speak of wages thus paid as coming out of capital. At the time these contracts were made the wealth wliich was to pay these wages was not in existence. At the time these ser- vices were rendered, that wealth was ]iot in existence. It came into existence only as the result of those contracts and the rendering of those services. ]S"ot less distinctly did this system of paying wages pre- vail in the department of manufacturing industry during the same period. Extensive inquiries have satisfied me that manufacturers in New-England did not generally leave off paying their workmen by the year until after 1S54 or 1855. Some of the more successful were able to make the change to quarterly or monthly payments as early as 1851. A gentleman conducting one of tlie largest, oldest, and most successful manufacturing establishments in Massachusetts informs me that, up to the earliest of the dates mentioned, his firm paid their workmen yearly ; and any liand requiring an advance of wages on work done was charged interest at current rates to the end of the year. Now in this there was nothing unjust or ungenerous. Such an arrangement was the very condition on whicli alone the industry could bo prosecuted, on which alone employment could be given. Capital was scarce, because the country was comparatively new ; and if wages had been PRODUCTION THE MEASURE OF WAGES. 137 measured "by capital, wages must liave been low ; but at the same time production was large/ because natural agents were copious and efficient, and labor was intelligent and skilful, and as it is production, not capital, which affords the measure of wages, wages were high ; but the workmen had to wait for them till the crop was harvested or the goods sold. And this they gladly did, and never for an instant suspected they were being paid out of capital ; indeed, they knew better, for they had seen growing under their hands that in which they were finally paid. In the Middle States the change referred to came a few years later than in IN'ew-England ; yet by the outbreak of the civil war monthly or weekly payment of wages had j^i'oba- bly become more general than 2:>ayi;nent by the year. I^arther to the West and South the change to monthly and weekly jjayments has, in many sections, not yet begun. In these parts of our country the payment of wages out of capital is scarcely more common than it was in jNTew-England a hundred years ago. The employer ad- " vances to the laborer such provisions and cash as are absolutely required from time to time ; but the " settle-- ment " does not take ]3lace until the close of the season or of the year, and the final payment is often deferred until the crop is not only harvested but sold. But whether wages are advanced out of capital in whole, or in part, or not at all, it still remains true that it is the product to which the employer looks to ascertain the amount which he can afford to pay : the value of the pro- duct furnishes the measure of wages, ^^^len the em- ployer shall pay is a financial question ; what he shall pay is the true industrial question with which we have to do in treating wages. This is determined by the efficiency of labor under the conditions existing at the time and place. ' " Capitalists and laborers receive large remuneration in America because their industry produces largely." — J. E. Cairnes, Some Lead- ing Principles, etc., p. 462. (MIATTKK IX. TUKKK IS NO W.VOE-FUND IRUKJSPEOTIVK OV VUV. NlMr.KlI ANO INinSl'KlAl, ijr.M.irY OK l.vr.OlwKKS. AVr o;in not well ii"o farther in oiirdisvnis>ioii withiMit ei'in- sidoriuii" a tlioorv o( wajivs wh'u'U has heoii vorv ii'oiuM'ally JU'i'optoil bv the ]H>litieal iv'ouoniists o( the Kn^■lish si'liool, luunolv, that o( a Wai^e-FuntL Tiio doi'triuo is in snbstaneo as t\>llov.'s : There is, for any evnmtrv, at any time, a sinn of Mealth set apart for the payment of wauvs. This fund is a por- tion of the agurepite eapital oi the eomitry. The ratio between the agji-regate eapital ami the portion devoted to the ]\iyment of "Wrtg'es is nt,^t neeess^irily always the Siinie. It may vary, from time to time, with the eonditions of in- dustry and the habits of the people ; but at any iriven time the amount i>f the wai;e-fm\d, \mder the ei>nditious exist- iuii:, is^ determined in the amount oi eapital. Tlie \va*i-i»-fmiil, therefoiv, may be iireater or less at another time, but at the time taken it is definite. The annnmt oi it ean not be inereased by foree of law in* of pnblie o]nnion, or thnn\ii"h sympathy and eom passion on the part of en\phn-ers. or as the result of appeals or etYorts t>n the part of the workiui:: elasses.' ' " That which pays for lalior ia every country is a certain portion of m'tuixlly-jvcHnumilatod capital, wliich can not ln> increased by the ]>i>>posed action of iji>vernnient. nor l\v the intiuence of public opinii>n. uor bv a>nibinations aiuons;' the workmen themselves, 'rhere is also THE WAOE-FUND THEORY. 130 Tlio Sinn BO destined to tlio payDient of" wages is distri- buted by competition. If one obtains more, another must, for tliat reason, receive less, or be kept out of employment altogether. Laborers arc paid out of this sum, and out of this alone. The whole of that sum is distributed without loss ; and the average amoimt received by each laborer is, therefore, precisely determined by the ratio existing be- tween the wage-fund and the numljer of laborers, or, as some writers have preferred to call it, between capital and population.' The wage-fund having at any given time been deter- mined for that time, the rate of wages will be according to the number of persons then ap})lying for employment.' If they be more, wages will be low ; if they be fewer, wages will be high. I have stated this doctrine mimitcly, with something of iteration, and with full ([notations, in order to avoid all suspicion of misrepresenting that which I propose to assail. An excellent summary of the doctrine is that given by Mr. John Stuart Mill, in the Fortnightly Keview for May, 1869, as follows : " There is supposed to be, at any given instant, a sum of wealth which is unconditionally devoted to the payment of wages of labor. This sum is not regarded as unalterable, for it is augmented by saving, and increases with the pro- in every country a certain number of laborers, and this number can not be dimini.sliod l)y the proposed action of government, nor by public opinion, nor by combinations amonq; themselves. There is to bo a di- vision now among all these laborers of the portion of cai>ital actually tliore present." — A. L. Perry, Pol. Ef;on., p. 123. ' " Th(i circulating capital of a country is its Avage-fund. Honce if wo desire to calculate the average monoy-wages rocoivod by eacli laborer, wo havci simply to divide the amount of this capital by the number of the laboring population." — H. Fa wcott. Economic Position of the British Laborer, p. 120. * " TJm demand for labor consists of the whole circuldtin.f/ capital of the cotiritry. * * * * The supply is the whole luboriny popula- tion."— i. S. Mill, Fortnightly Keview, May, 1800. p;i'i'HS of \\t'!iltli ; lull il is reasoned upon as al anv <;i\'eM lUdlueiil a |ut'tleleiiiiiiieil amoiiiil. Mi^vr lliaii (lial aiuoimt it is UHHUiiied llie \\ a^e.^ I'eetMX *.ii^' eluss eaii not possihly (lividt^ innoii:;' tlieui ; dial aiiionnt, and no le.-^s, iliey can not lull olitaili. So llial llie Miiii lo liedixided l>eiiir; fixed, llie \va;i,'os i>r baeii depi'iul solel\ on llie di\ isor, llie niinili(M' of partii'ipants." The doedine of I he \\ aj-'e fund has found wide ai'cept- aiiee tui liolh sides {>[' the Allanlie. The nalui'al history iif the notion lUi which il rt-sls is not ohseiire. It j^'rew out »>f the eiuidilion o( alTaics which iv\is|»'d in luii^'land durin;;' and ininiediali'l V snhsei|ueiil lo llie Napok'onie wars. Two thiii«;s wi re then noted. I'iisl, eapitalluid heeoine acciiniii- iaU'd in the isl.and lo such an e\lent that eniplovers found no (^linaiiciah dilliciillv in paviiii;' llieii" laboi'ors h\ ihe inoiith, the we(>lv,or the day, insUvid o{ reiiiiiriui;' tluMiiloawait the fruilitui K^'i their lalutr in the harvested or marketed proihiet. Si'eoiulU , the waj^'es wi'i'i-, in fai-t, i;t'iierall\ .so low that the\' furnished no nu>i'(* than a ltart< snhsisttMU'(\ w hiU^ the ein- |»lo\nient olTiM'eil was so I'estricted that an inereasi> in tlu< numher o( lahorers had the i-lVei-| to thriiw some out t*!' eni|>loviiuM»t or to reduce the rattMif \vai;i's ftu' all. Out K^i these tiling's tlu> wai;'e fniul thi>oi'y was put toii"etlu>r. W'a^'os ari> paid out o\' capital, and the rale is detenniiu-d hy the ratio lu^lwt'iMi capital an^l popiilati»>n. r»olh the fju'ts ohsiM'yed wen^ ai-iMdeiital, not essiaiti.-d. Wa^i^'es in lMii;land were paid »Mit i>{ capital luH-anse i-apital \\m\ heeome ahmnlant, and tanploytMvs could just as well as not pay their laborers .as soon as tlu' servi^u' wjis rendi'ied. In the I'nili'd Stales,' al the s.mie time, eiiiplo\ i-rs w e;v ' "• 'V\w spii'iul of this tliuuluo lu ll»o I'uiUil States Is >u>t to Im ox plahiod hi tho .sauu' way. It would soom t»> liuvt'luHMi acf»<|>toil, so fur as it l»us lu>«Mi ao»oiit<'»l, iijion tlu' autluulty of tl\o Kui^lish oamomists. roitahitv tlio coiuritious wlilcli tvavt* l>o»>n ia>t«>il as provalUu>;' iiv Kui'- Imul ihuiivi;' tlio jualokl wUou tho lal>oit>r's sulkslst»a\»'o oamo to ho UlcutitU'vl with liis waives, luuo at (>o tii\»o l>oou known in tho Vnittnl Stall's, lli'io Uu' people ha\o not lu'on .sliut i>ut t'i\>iu tlu< \a\\d ; tho WAaiiJf! /.y rm-j uyrrun ,s"/'. i TAj.sf. 14 1 paying tlicir l.'ilxircrM l:ii'o'(>i' \V!i<;'t'S, l»iit ohligino- tli(-iii |(> wait I'oi- llic v\ li(»l(i or i\. (■(msidcniltlc |i:irl, till \\\o, product Hlumid ho liiirv(>Hlod or niiii'kctcd. In llii^ lliiiti'd Slntrs, (licrcrorc, llic iiitl iislfidi (■(iiidil ions were inoiu^ l':i\dr;dil(i lo llic I»ji3 iiH'iit: of Wii^'cs, wliiK^ in l*'ni!,'liiiid iUo J/jKnicJal (•()n'1'S, (Jui nncOHHfii'iiV'^, coniroi-ls, and lu.\iiri(\s wliicli tlu* liil)(>i'oi- vo- ciMvos; tlio liiiancinl condiliitns only dc^tcM'niinc- Mui nianncM- and lime of pavnifiil, w liclJicr at tinco <>i" at a, lultn'o da\', wlu'llicr in money or in ^'oodn, clc Again, tlio fart tlnd: in Knglund, al I lie time lliis dor trine Bpmng n|>, an incroaso of tlic ninnlior of lahoror.s luboiiii/^' claHHim liavo Iwum hIjUi Iu iiiako and havd made* va.Hl. adcuimi- lalloriH, luid llic gwnt l)ulk of vvaf>'ert liavn. hIiico {ho lirnl. hoIiNhmciiI, of tliu coiiiilry, IxMtii |MrKl,not out of ca|illiii, Iml \\^{vi\ |in) diiiMi wlicii l»ai'V('Ml<'d or luarlu'lod. " 'I'lm \vni^(< I'liiid h<'i'mn In liav(^ Ixmui courtidorod, WO know iiol. why, a, ]tillai- ill llid l(uii|>l(' ol' I'rcr Iradi'. (Vrtainly llio lino drawn in ilio 1 nilcd Shilcti litlwccii lliiiMrot('clloninlH. I'rofoHHor Howcn dlHtlnctly i'(»j('clH iL Mohhth. Uanlol IJayniond and PoHliino SinilJi ondt, all alhiHlon to it, ro far an wo luivo obnorvi'd. Mr. Claroy, il, Ih tnio, pivo It conntcnanco in IiIh lOnnay on Wa:f>'('ovorninonl.iil Inl-iM'- fpronctMvilli llir iiiclhodH and ronVHOH of indnHlry,all hlidiifj;ly pro- nonnco tlio wa/;c fund tlioory. " Dr, \>'ayland, whoHo trcatlHi* on iN.liiical Economy, thoiigli pnlilitili cd in 1H!17, would apprav (hco ricrncc) lo liavo h^Hn^ jiialuly coniposiMl ))ii()r lo llic < iiiri,"( ii((Mii ditiliiiil r (if llio wago-fnnd (licory, fol- lowed MaltliiiiH in liiH HlaUuni'nl. of Ilio law nf wagc^H. (VVayland'H I'ol. Kcon.,]). !U3.) Excopiin^^' Dr, Wayland. Mr. Aniana WalluM' In l,lio only American wiihn- on nyHlematie i>olilical e<'ononiy, of |,lio frtMt- trad-e-fiind llieory. It can Hcarcely nood to Im Ha,ld that wo rogard tho idea (if an eHuentia! connt^ctlon between tho two doctrinoH aN wholly niihiakeii. Frou-trado i-oho without tlilw theory of wagon, and will unro- ly not fall with it."— North American l{eview, cxx., pjt. DM, 91, note. 142 THE WAGES QUESTION. applying for employment involved, as it donbtless did, a reduction in the rate of wages, was due to the circumstance that English agriculture, in the then existing state of chemi- cal and mechanical knowledge, had reached the condition of " diminishing returns." But at the same time in the United States, the accession of vast bodies of laborers was accompanied with a steadily-increasing remuneration of labor, and States and counties were to be seen bidding eagerly against each other for these industrial recniits. That English writers should have been misled, by what they saw going on around them, into converting a generali- zation of insular experiences into a universal law of wages, is not greatly to be wondered at ; but that American writ- ers should have adopted this doctrine, in simple contempt of what they saw going on around them, is indeed sur- prising.' I would not impeach the scientific impartiality of those who first put forward in distinct form this theory of wages ; but it may fairly be assumed that its progress toAvards general acceptance was not a little favored by the fact that it afforded a complete justification for the existing order of things respecting wages. If there was, in truth, a definite fimd out of which wages were paid ; if competition un- erringly distributed the whole of that s-mi ; and if no more could be paid to the wages class, as a whole, without impairing capital, diminishing employment, and thus in the end injuring the laborers themselves, then surely it was an easy task to answer the complaints or remon- ' We have had a right to do better than this in political economy, in the United States. " The Americans are Englishmen whose intelli- gence is not intimidated and whose conduct is not controlled by many of the influences derived from tradition and authority, which govern the beliefs and actions of the mother country. From the course taken 'by the United States, ve may often rorreetly interpret the bent lehich out nation will follow as they gradually escape, for good or evil, from the domination of the past." — Address of Lord Napier and Ettrick as President of the British Social Science Assoc' "^ion, 1872. (Transac- tions, p. 17.) THE WAQE-FUNB THEORY. 143 strances of tlie working classes, and to demonstrate the futility of trades-unions and strikes as means of increasing wages. If an individual workman complained for himself, he could be answered that it was wholly a matter between himself and his own class. If he received more, another must, on that account, receive less, or none at all.' If a workman complained on account of his class, he could be told, in the language of Prof. Perry, that " there is no use in arguing against any one of the four fundamental rules of arithmetic. The question of wages is a question of division. It is complained that the quotient is too small. Well, then, how many ways are there to make a quotient larger ? Two ways. Enlarge your dividend, the divisor remaining the same, and the quotient will be larger ; lessen your divisor, the dividend remaining the same, and the quotient will be larger." (Pol. Econ., p. 123.) A most comfortable doctrine surely,^ and one which made it a positive pleasure to conduct a quarterly review in times when the laboring classes were discontented or mutinous. If the workman would not give up when told to enlarge his dividend, he was struck dumb on being in- formed that his only alternative was to lessen his divisor. The divisor aforesaid being flesh and blood, with certain ' " If law or opinion succeeds in fixing wages above this rate, some laborers are kept out of employment." — J. S. Mill, Pol. Econ., i. 432. ^ The writer has been sharply criticised for having said in a public address at Amherst College, in 1874, that " by the wage-fund theory, whatever is in wages, is right." This has been referred to as an in- stance of misrepresenting an opponent's position, the more easily to refute him. I confess myself so dull of apprehension as now, not- withstanding the effect of this castigation in sharpening my wits, to be unable to understand wherein my proposition is objectionable, even on the ground of my critics. If the wage-fund comprises all that can be paid in wages ; if that fund is unfailingly distributed by competition ; if farther to increase wages would be to trench on capital, and thus di- minish future employment, and thus woriv permanent injury to the laboring classes, together with the rest of the community, why is it not right that the employer should pay just such wages as he does? Why would it not be wrong were he to pay more ? 144 THE WAGES QUESTION. attaclimenta to lioine and life, and with a variety of incon- venient affections, Avas not to be lessened so easily. If the workman tnrn3d him from words to Mows, and went out " on strike " with a view to better his condition, it was regai'ded as the act of an irrational animal whose in- stincts, nnf oi'tnnatelj, were not politico-economical. S trikes could not increase the wage-fund ; strikes did not diminish the number of applicants for employment ; therefore, it was plain as a pikestaff that strikes could not raise wages. Now, it may seem wanton to break such a pretty toy as this ; but the fact is that the wage-fund theory is demon- strably fake, contrary alike to the reason of the case and to the course of history. 1st. As has been shown in a former chapter, wages are really paid out of current production, and not out of capi- tal, as the wage-fund theory assumes. {a) Granting, for the moment, that wages are wholly advanced out of capital to supply the iimnediate necessities of the laborer, I have, I think, abundantly proved that the two questions, wdiether labor shall be employed at all, and, secondly, what wages shall be paid to laborers if em- ployed, are decided by reference to production and not to capital. It is the prospect of a profit in production which determines the employer to hire laborers ; it is the anticipated value of the product which determines how much he can pay them. The product, then, and not capi- tal, furnishes at once the motive to employment and the measure of wages. If this be so, the whole wage-fund theory falls, foi' it is built on the assumption that capital furnishes the measure of wages ; that the wage-fund is no lai-ger because capital is no larger,' and that the only way to ' " It thus appears that if population increases without any increase of capital , wages fall ; and that if capital increases without an increase of population, wages rise. It is evident, also, that if both increase, but one faster than the other, the effect will be the same as if the one had not increased at all, and the other had made an increase equal to the difference." — James Mill, Pol. Econ., p. 43. EFFICIENCY AFFECTS WAGES. 145 increase the aggregate amount which can be paid in wages is to increase capital. Q>) But as matter of fact, wages are not wholly ad- vanced by capital, but are paid out of the product of the labor for which wages are due, as has been shown in the preceding chapter. This alone, which is indisputable, in- validates the theory we are considering. 2d. But there is more and worse to be said against the wage-fund. It will be noted that by every statement of this doctrine which we have quoted, the amount that can be paid in Avages is taken as fixed irrespective of the num- ber and quality of laborers seeking employment. If, then, the laborers be few, wages Avill be high ; if they be many, wages will be low, for the number of laborers is taken as the divisor of a predetermined dividend. Let us consider this. {a) This assumption disregai'ds all those elements, brought out to view in Chapter III., which go to make up the efficiency of the laborer. Thus, granted a certain store of provisions, of tools, and of materials for produc- tion, sufficient, say, for 1000 laborers, those who hold the wage-fund assert that the same rate of wages (meaning thereby the actual amounts of necessaries, comforts, and luxuries received by the laborer) would prevail whether those 1000 laborers be Englishmen or East-Indians ; or, if Englishmen, whether they be, as a body, drunken, ignorant, wasteful and indolent, or possessed of all the economical virtues. Ultimately, it is held, the former state of things would reduce capital, and hence reduce wages ; but, in the exact present, the rate of wages is fixed by the ratio be- tween the predetemiined wage-fund and the number of laborers applying for employment, and employers can and will pay the rate so fixed. On the contrary, is it not true that the present economi- cal quality of the laborers, as a whole, is an element in as- certaining the aggregate amount that can now be paid in wages ; that as wages are paid out of the product, and as 14G THE WAGES QUESTION. tlie pridluct will he nTc-atiT or siuallor 1)3^ reason of the workinan'B sobriety, iiulustry, aiul intelligenee, or his want of those (piah'ties, so wages may and shonld he higher or lower accordingly V (//) l)Ut, again, since wages are paid ont of and measured by tiie product of industry, and since productive power may be increased by the invention of machinery, the dis- covery of arts, and the iiii])rov(Miient of processes, without any inunediate increase of capital, ought it not to be possi- ble that wages should be enhanced by such causes, popula- tion and capital being assumed, for purposes of argument, to stand still 'i Now, the wage-fund advocate concedes that such inventions and im])rovements will increase capital, and hence become the reason for an advance in a more or less distant future ; but only as they lirst increase capital can they increase the wage-fund. Let us discuss this. ])oint. AVe will take a community having a capital represented by 1()(>,()()0, a po})ulation repivsented by 1(H)(), and an an- nual j)roduct represented by 10,000, of wliit-h labor receives 7000. JiCt it be supjioscnl that the productive power of this conununity is increased at once 10 per cent by im- pro"\enuMits in tools, implements, and machinery through all the departments of its industry. The new machineiy is brt)ught into use. The capital of the conununity has not been tluTcby increased ; on the contrary, all such in- vent ious involve a temporary dimimition of ca])ital. The old machiiuM'y beconu^s useless, M'hile a ]>ortion of the previouslyH'ii'culating capiral has \o be taken for the new. ' Tho view liorc takcMi of tho relation of tlio laV.oror's ofiicioncv to liifl wages substantially coincidos with that presented by Prof. Stanley Jevons in his Theory of Political Economy, pp. 250-202, and by Prof. Ilearu, of Melboiu-ni", in his Plutology. Mr. Jevons styles his own views " somewhat heretical." Mr. J. L. Shadwell, writing: in the " In- dependent Section " of the Westminster Review (January, 1872), ad- vances " the elliciency of labor" as one j^reat cause for the variations of waives, wliolly i:ul('|)i'iuh'nt of increase of popuUilion or of capital. INVENTICma AFFECT WAGES. 147 TliG capital, wlietlier we consider tlic aggregate capital or circulating capital only, being certainly no larger, wages can not at present, the wage-fund advocate declares, be in- creased, although the productive power of the community is greater, by 10 per cent, from the moment the new ma- chinery begins to move. The product is n(jw 11,000 ; but as cai)ital is now something less than 100,000, wages must even be something less than before. The additional 1000 of product will tliercforegoto the share of ca])ital, although there is less capital than before. And it is only as the capitalists, in their uncontrolled discretion, decide to save this addition to their income, or a portion of it, for future reproductive investment, instead of spending it upon their own pleasure, that caj^ital will bo increased, and, with that increase, increase of wages be realized. JN'ow, to the contrary, I hold that the moment the aggre- gate product of labor and capital is increased by inventions, which are a clear gain of power for the benefit of all,' that moment a sufficient economical reason exists for an ad- vance of wages in some degree corresponding. In the case supposed, the share of the laborers in tlie 1000 gained might be found to be 700, or it might be but 690, or it might rise to YlO. {&) But the most signal fallacy of the wage-fund do(;trine remains to be noted. Waiving now all consideration of the economical quality of the laborers in any given com- munity, and of the possible gain in production through improvements and inventions, irrespective of any increase of capital, let us inquire what foundation there is for the assumption that an increase in the number of laborers in- volves a proportionate reduction in the amount of wages going to each. Let us take, first, a community which has not reached the condition of " diminishing returns." The number of ' I omit purpoaely all consideration of the limited monopoly of in- ventiona created by law for the encouragement of ingenuity. 148 THE WAGES QUESTION. liiborers Leing taken as 100, let the amount of capital ac'cuuuilated be represented l)y lOOrt. By the wage-fund tlieory a certain rate of animal wages will result from the I'atio between these (piantities. Now let us sup})Ose that twenty atklitional laborers arrive, bringing with tlieni capital 20(i'. The ratio between capital and i)o|)ulation remains the same as before, and by the wage-fund tlieory no increase of wages can result. Upon our principles, however, an increase of wages may result, because an in- crease of production will occur. 120 laborers with capital 120(», can and will produce more, per man, in a connnnnity which has not reached the con- dition of '''diminishing returns" than 100 laborers with capital lOO^if. A more effective co-operation will become ])ossible, a minuter subdivision of labor will result, and the greater laboring force of the community will enable them to undertake highly-remunerative enterprises to which their numbers were previously inadequate. In the same way, it might be that in this same connnunity 150 laborers with capital IbOa would produce more, per man, than the 120 laborers ; and that 200 laborers only equally endowed might produce in a higher degree, jijcy' capita^ than 150. The reader is referred to Chapter Y. for a fuller discussion of the industrial })Ossibilities of such a commu- nity. Now, through all this, it is to be noted that our results are directly in contradiction of the wage-fund theory, which asserts that wages are determined by the ratio between capital and population. Now, if there is such power in association and in the subdivision of employments that the product may be largely increased although the capital, per man, remains the same, the reader will scarcely question that the opera- tion of these causes might suffice to keep the j!>^'r ccipita })roduct good, though the capital,, ])er man, should fall off somewhat. Yet this result, again, would be in contradic- tion of the wage-fund theory. Indeed, it is (pnte conceiv- able that a considerable nundjer of laborers mio;ht be WAGES WOT A PROBLEM IW DIVISION: 149 added to a community without bringing with them any capital at all, yet the j?(?r capita product be actually in- creased thereby. It is insight into this condition of pro- duction that gives motive to the exertions put forth by almost every Western and Southern State, and almost every Western and Southern county, to attract immigra- tion. Capital they want, and they would much prefer immigrants with capital ; but they want immigrants any- how. These communities are not acting foolishly. They are not calling in additional laborers to divide with them a predetermined product. They know perfectly well that the product will increase as the producers increase, and that, in their situation, the product will increase faster than the j)roducers ; and therefore that each producer may have more, and not less, by reason of the arrival of immi- grants. Laborers have come to us from every part of the world, and constantly has the existing body of laborers been benefited by the accessions. Some of these laborers have brought with them small amounts of capital, and have been all the more welcome on that account. But, however they have come, were it with but a bundle on a stick, there has been room and work enough for all. Labor has had its periods of distress ; but these have been due to the interference of government with industry, to false currencies, to extravagant speculation, or to other causes, but not to any real excess of labor. In contradiction, then, of the view that wages are uni- versally determined by the ratio between capital and pop- ulation, we see that in countries which have not reached the condition of " diminishing returns," tlie per-capita product may be largely increased while the amount of capital, per man, remains the same^ and that it may even be increased, though, of course, not in the same propor- tion, Avhile the amount of capital, per man, is actually re- duced by the accession- of new bodies of laborers destitute of accumulations. \w rni: \v.\i;i:s Qcnsrioy. I'lit sii|>|iiisc imw lli;il llic (•(Uulil ion of " diiiiiiiisli- iiii;- rcl iii'iis" is rc'tclifd ; tli;it lln' ncci'ssioiis lii |i(i|iiil:il ion li!i\i> coiirmiUMl iiiilil nil tin- ciiiMlilc hiiul is lakcii up. :iu(l llif lii'st coiii'sc (•!' sinipli" impiMv t':iiciits made. I I riirllici" ncccssidiis :ii't' mndf, w t> iii:i\ llicii r\|t('cl lo sec llic w.'i^'cs of l.'ilior l':ill, not lit'CMiisc tlicri' is:i ^fcMtcf iMiiiiluT lo (li\ ido jinioiii;' tlicni :i pfcdclmuint'il di\ idciid, luil Ix'cmiisc tlio Muniud pi'odticl is iiiil incrcMsiMl propoiM ioii:dl\ to tliciii- Cl'OllHii ol' Inlior. N.'iliirc fails lo n-spoud to frcsli applicu- tionswitli its foi'iiicr ^ciu'i-osil v. I'lidcr this coiidit ion, li\f men now prodnco, as iluv always niu^l |>i'odni'(>, nioro than foiii', Imt not on(> tonrlh as ninch nioi-c. The \\\iach h'ss than the fmir had i-i'('t>i\t'tl, that is, liu- wav.cs of hdior nuist fall. 'l\\c\ tall lu'i'ans(> prodnct ion has suslaiiu'd a ciu'rk, t hron^h iho limitations of natural ai;('nts. r.nl (his pi-(tct'ss of I'cduction in wa^i-s niav, and i;'ont>- rallv will, pi-orrcd slowlv, lirst, lu'causc foi' a lonLi,- linio lh(> lahor of tlu> iu>\v conu'i-, while it will iu>l lu' ([uile as pro(hicti\ o MS was that of lhtM'(»niinunit v npon tlu^aviTa^-o previous to his aiTi\ al, will vet not fall far slioiM o\' it, nature oivini;' h>nn' waniini>: jiiiainsl, an undue increase of population, and haviuii,- i;ri\'it patiiMiee with nu'U ; !U\d, seeondlv, lieeaus(> the limits of production ar»> heiuu- eon- slant l_v puslu>il haekwar*! 1>\ the dist-oveiw iA' new I'e- sonrees, hv increased tn'onomv ol" lahoi", hv imprin (Mni>nts of method, hv tlu- applii'ation »>f distimMlv lU'w arts, hv the inxention Ui;h all lhes»> the tendenev now is \o " diminishini;- retniais," .and luMict> to lower w ;iiies. Under these conditions, Hull, is the waii't* fuiul thooiy \\'\\o i \\"i> answer with eonlidence th.at /'//n f/ht^ri/ ('tin lir^tY)' J>t> frH(\ foi- it excluih's allo<;et hei- the eoni rihut ion which the new I'omer, the .additional lahon-r, n\akes to the pr(>duction iA the conimunit v in which he is so un- weleonu" an arri\al. '['he wau'c fund doclriui* I'l^^ards him as a pure addition to the tlivis(>r, without ri>cv>iini/.in::: tlio FALLACY OF THE WAGE-FUND. 151 fact tl)<'it liis labor must also add sc^uiotliiiii^ to tlie divi- dend. IJc no Ioniser contributes moi'o, far more to pro- duction than the cost of liis own subsistence, as in an ad- vaiuiing state of iiidusti'y, before natural agents are fully occupied and employed. He no longer contributes as much as he requires. J>ut he still contributes sometliing, and that something, however small it may be, helps to swell the ainonnt that can be j)aid in wages.' ' See the remarks by Prof. Senior on the possibilities ol English agriculture, quoted on p. 97. PART II. DISTRIBUTION. CHAPTER X. THE PROBLEM OF DISTRIBUTION : COMPETITION : THE DIFFU- SION THEORY : THE ECONOMICAL HARMONIES. Having discussed much at length certain principles in the production of wealth, in that connection showing the falsity of the current doctrine of a wages-fund, we come now to the problem of distribution, wherein we may look to find the true philosophy of wages. But is there a problem of distribution ? Can there be a philosophy of wages? Certainly if we exclude the ques- tion of rent, the orthodox^ economists hav^e scarcely rec- ognized a problem of distribution, and were it not for the space taken for refuting the opinions of heretical writers, what the text books have to say on the subject of wages would be very little. How, indeed, can there be a philoso- phy of wages, when the doctrine of a wages-fund prevails ? H" the question of wages is simply a question in long-divis- ion, what need to take much space to illustrate the opera- tions of " one of the four fundamental rules of arithmetic." ^ PopulatioPx being given, there is no philosophy of wages. The whole question of the well-being of the laboring-class is, then, reduced to a question of population. Here phil- osophy becomes possible ; but the question of population does not belong in the department of distribution at all. * " L'economie politique que j'appellerais volontiers ortliodose. . . semblait etre definitivement constituee, Comme I'eglise de Rome, elle avait son Credo." — E. de Laveleye, Revue des Deux Mondes, July 15, 1875. « See p. 143. 188 77/^.' UM( //•;>• (.H'Ksno.y. I'ut »niMi tho \v;ii;('-t'iiml ili>i'trim> ;isuli\ iho t\'om>iiiiv^t5* «>t'tlu' M;>nv>l>ost(>i' Solu>ol liavo \\o\ hccw (ii8|H>stnl to r(\i>"!U\i \\\o luoMiMU o( d\Mv\hu\\o\\, l\w qiu'f^tlou of rout (>\('t>|»tiMl, as (Mu> v>l' Muirh ur:;oiU'v (M* ilillu-ully. Thov liavo Iuhmj ol" till* opinion o\|>n>-d bv Chovalior, thirty-tivo yoars .'»i;o, tli;it this ilr|>;utu\ont »>t" politiv-al iH-onoiny is intiM'ior in intiM'ost !unl iniport.-uuv to that o( |M'oiiiu*lion.' This has not hotM> i'voux a Uis|>t>si(ii>n to liisir^aril th»> I'tVn'ts on hun\an happiiioss, and thi' stron^-th and stalulily o( tho j^tato, w i\>ni<'ht hy a ijood or an ill distriluition »>l" tho |»ro- ilni'ts ot" inilnstry ; hut fnnn a lu^liof in tho ahsohitt* sulli- ciiMu-y ot" orononiioal torros, in a slate ot' industrial tVoo- ilonu to ililluso all hunlons and all honollts aliko, to tho hii;hi*st advantaii'o of tlu* industrial conmiunity. biisso/ fairo: lot thoso prinoiplos work iinhindorod, hashomv ooino to (,'onlain protty nuuh ihi' whoh^ tluHM'y v>f distribution as i»old hy tho writors »>f this s<'1uh»1. To suoh it oan only ho a tnatttM' v( ourious intorost, t^o'' far as llu'y aro oonoiM-novl as politioal ooononiists. what aro tho !;uis o( tho distribu- tion o[' woaUh at any uivon timo, i>r what tho nu>ral and i*ooial ooudition o\' any sinulo olass o( tho oonnnunity. If tliitiji'S aro wrouii'. tlun- nood only to bo lot io work thoni- t^olvos riii'ht, \nulor iho inj|>ulsii>n oi' puroly ooononiioal foivos ; and sui'h t\>roos aro i't»nstantly oporatini; ft>v tho ivdivss of ii'riovanoos, and tho ropair o[' inoqualitios. If attiiht is wronj;- at prosont, it is simply bov'anso tho tVoo play *.A' tcvMuunio foivos has boon hindorod by arbitrary onaotn\ont, or illoual violonoo in tin* past: tho ono thiny; n\piiri>d to brim;- about industrial n^liof is iuvtustrial fivo- douu fc^o completely satisJtied aiv the writers;! of this school ' " lVrtO!», to psMlajjv »los pr\Hl»its itu tnnail ost ili^jjno do toivto h\ BollloUvuto vlo vjulivjujvio ft do rintolUjrxMioo ot du owur. (.Vpoiutant, ««M»^irAi*v>Mn^»' HUP collo do l'ftcortiiso»»t>nt h«rnuM\iquo ot ri\«:utior do Irt prtHhu'tiou."— IVilsi^mo disa>virs d'Ouvortuiv du ivurs do I'svumV, 1841^^. 77///; i'i;()i',hii!M OH' niH'i'ii.inirrioN'. \ni will) llic, siiniciciKt)' (»r IIk; force IlK'.y iii\'oI<(i lo KcciiiH! ;i ri^lil, y oinlHHiori, to do iiijuHtlco. Many of tlio wiiliTH of IliiK Hcliool \\:\\v, rcfo;nii/,c(l, in tlio I'lillcHt maiinor, not only \\m: iiioriil Mild hoc'diI, IjiiI, iiIho llin ind niilria I, iid viui1ii/j;ch of oducalion iiiit_v. Let us considi'i" the lahoi\M-s and the iMiiplovors of lahor in H stat(M)f active coui[>etiti(»n. I'^ach lahorer will sell his lahor at tlu^ hii;;hest [)rice which any cni[)Iover can atK)rcl to n'ive, since the iMiipIoyers avc in conipi'lil ion ainono; theniselvivs lor lahor. JOai-h tMuployer will n'et his lahor at the lowi'st prices at which any lahorer' can ail'ord to soil it, siui-e the lahoroi's ww in i-onipetition anion^- tluMUselves for eniploynuMit. 'I'lii' lowest prici' at which -any lahorer will si'U his lahor is thus the hi<;'hest prici> which any enij>loyer can allord to |>ay. it we suppose the rate of ■wa^vs to any single lahoi'er {o he reduceil, he it ever so lit- tle, helow the highest prii'e which any eni[>loyer can aiTord to pay, the eoniiietition amoiiij; eniployiM-s i\)r the extra ]>rolit ihusollei'ed will sjieedily reduct> that niai'^'in io the ininiuuini. If ai>;aiM we suppose the wai;'es ohtainoii by ji siMi;le lahorer to he ahi)vo the averan'e of his class, tlic rosoi't of his fellows to that hettiM- market '■•' will instantly nti'ord his iuilividual eniployei- all tlu' lahor he reijuires at the usual rate. So much for the reduction or elevation of the wai2;es of a siu^'lo lahorer helow ov ahove the stantl- ard ; hut it wi> suj^poso that standard to l>e lowi'reil, and the wat;-es of the whole body of laborers io be reduced, wo shall then tiiid a like satisfactory result wrouy-ht out \\\ uni^ o{ twi> ways; either the employers, iicllini;- their labor for less, will sell their products at eorres[)ondini;-ly reduced prices, and the laborers will thn^, as consuni- ' Wo luM'o assume tho industrial quality of nil laborers to bo the ttatut\ i\\\A all I'luployors to stand on tho saiuo footing as regards busi- ness capaeily anil credit. » •< Kvery seene of eoniiHtitlon ia callod a market." — F. W. New- luau, Lectures on l\)l. tiCou., p. 5. COMPEriTION. 1S9 ers/ iiiiikc ^ij^'ood their noiniiial loss ms prodticorB, oi*, il" ])riee8 be miiintiiitiud, the onlianced ])i'()lit thus nirordcd on each pcMiiuI, bushel or yard of the product will incite each iiuJividual cniployer to produce all he can, aiul for this purpose to employ all the labor he can ; and eni[)l()yers will thus be brouo-ht to bid n<>:ainst each other until the margin of extra profit wholly disappears, and the lowest price at which any laborer will sell his labor will thus again become the highest which any emitloyer can afford to pay. On the other hand, if we suppose the standard of wages to be raised and the body of laborers to receive a lai'ger com])ensati()n, then it will follow from the acition of competition, that either ])ricca will be raised corre- spondingly ami the laborers lose as consumers what they have nomiruilly gained as ])roduf;(!rs, oi*, prices reiiuiining the same, the employers will fiiui their profits trenched upon, and this, diminishing the motive to production, will diminish the employment offered, which Mdll iiuluce com- petition anu)ug the workmen for omploynicnt, which will restore the standard of wages. The above account will hold good of laborers and em- ployers bunid in the same locality and engaged in tiie same occupation. But if we assume laborers and employers to be disj^ei-sed among different localities and occupations, precisely the same result would, in a con- dition of absolute competition, be effected without loss and without delay. Laborers would seek employers or em[)loyers laborers, with perfect facility, across the divid- ing lines, whether territorial or industi'ial. All iiuupial- ities of condition would thus be immediately reduced. The effort of (jach to get the most possible fo]' himself ' " For this class (the proh'taires) as for all, tlio operation of com- potitioii is two-fold. 'I'lu^y feel it both as buyers, and as sellers of services." — Bastiat, ''Harmonies of Pol. Econ.," p. 380. Doul)tless* but do they feel it equally, in their two capacities ? For what Prof. Cairnes calls " the excessive friction" of retail trade, see p. IJiy-G, 160 THE WAGES QUESTION. would simpl}^ result, with equal strength and opportuni- ties, in giving the same to all. By the operation of the same principle, any burden — say, a tax — imposed arbitrarily upon any class, whether of persons, of industrial processes, or of products, is distri- buted equally over the M'hole community. That burden, wherever first imposed, becomes an clement iji determin- ing the actual net advantage enjoyed in their place by the class of persons, upon whom, or upon Avhose processes, or upon whose products, the burden is laid. The dimi- nution thus effected in theiV substantial remuneration, will either cause their products to rise in price, while the same quantity is produced by the same number of laborers (which may be the case if the products are of prime importance or necessity) ; or laborers and employers will leave these avocations until the prices of their products, thus diminished in quantity, are raised by scarcity to a point which will afford wages to laborers and profits to em- ployers equivalent, after full account be had of the excep- tional burden, to those enjoyed in other departments of production. This is the reasoning of those who hold the diffusion theory of taxation. Such is the operation of unhindered competition, achieving a beneficent distribution of the products of industry, equalizing all burdens and all benefits through- out the industrial community. These are the Economical Harmonies celebrated by Bastiat. Of course no one ever supposed that competition was perfect in any place, or in any department of human activity; but the political economists of the Manchester School have felt themselves at liberty to treat the questions of distribution precisely as if competition were perfect, regarding the failures as so far exceptional as not to impair the sul)stantial validity of practical conclusions based on the assumption of uni- vei-sal competition. Our further course will lead us to investigate this assumption oi a competition so general THE MANCHESTER SCHOOL. 161 that the exceptions thereto may for practical purposes be disregarded ; and if we find the exceptions numerous and important, to inquire liow far the conchisions based on competition alone require modification to meet the condi- tions disclosed. — But first, of a term just used. What is The Manchester School of Political Economy ? It is usually spoken of as the school of Free Traders; ^ but this, in ray estimation, does not present the real char- acteristic of the class of writers included by the term. There were Free-traders before Manchester ; there are Free-traders who are not of Manchester. I should rather define .the Manchester school to consist of those free traders who carry into the department of Distribution, that assumption of the economical sufiiciency of competition which the whole body of free-traders accept when dealing with the questions of Exchange ; who fail to recognize any differences between services and commodities, between men and merchandise, which require them to modi- fy their doctrine of laissez faire, looking on a Manchester spinner as possessing the same mobility economically, as being under the same complete subjection to the impulses of pecuniary interest, as a bale of Manchester cottons on the wharf, free to go to India or Iceland as the difference of a penny in the price offered may determine ; free-traders, who, to come down to single practical questions, object to laws against truck ^ as an interference with the freedom of contract ; who oppose exceptional legislation respecting ^ the employment of women under ground in mines and at ' Le point de depart des Katheder-socialisten est entierement diiferent de celui des economistes ortliodoxes, qu'ils designent sous le nom de Mancliester-tlium, on secte de MancJiester, parce que c'est en eflFet, I'ecole des lihres echangistes qui a expose avec plus de logique les dog- mes du Credo ancien." — Laveleye. — Revue des Deux Mondes, .15 July, 1875. ' See this term defined and truck practices described, pp. 324-42, ' Fawcett, Speeclies, p. 130. 103 THE WAGES QUESTION. factory hibor during pregnancy and for the period im- mediately succeeding confinement, on the ground tliatsuch matters should bo regulated by the interest of the parties thereto ; who, while perhaps approving, on social consid- erations, laws regulating the employment of children in mines and factories,^ yet deny that such regulations have any economical justification, holding that self-interest is here, again, a sufHcient guide; who object to laws or compulsory rules respecting api)renticeshij>, or admission to the professions, to the gov(M'nmental regulation or in- spection of industrial operations, and tt) any and all acts of the state directed to the promotion of ]>rudence anil fru- gality on the part of the working classes. It was to the effects of such teaching that Prof. Oairnes referred when he said : " Laissez faire, freedom of contract, and phrases of like import, have of late become somewhat of bugbears, with a large number of people. Tt is enough to mention them to discredit by anticipation the most useful practical scheme." '^ But it may be here asked, are not the ]\ranchester econ- omists merely more consistent and thorough than those who stop short in their advocacy of freedom from legal restraints wlicn they leave the department of exchange ; does it not amount to this, that the Manchesterians stick to their principles, while others do not? It is to be in a pi)sition to meet this question that I have stated the theory of com- petition so much at length ; and I now answer, no ques- tion of principle is involved, but only a question of fact. Nj one will deny that if conJi)ctition be perfect, a right distri- bution will be effected by its agency, but on the other hand no one can claim that any such assurance exists if com- petition be seriously impaired. If laborers anil employers » The Factory Act of 1844 was passed against the opposition of the majority of English economists in Parliament and out. ' Essays in Pol. Econ. p. 351. LA1S8EZ FAIRE A PRACTICAL RULE. 1G3 do not in fact,^ whatever the cause, resort to the best market, then injuries may be inflicted on labor or on capital, and no economical principle whatever will operate to secure redress. The entire justilication for laissez faire is found in an assumed sufficiency of the individual motive-force to reach the best market. With immobility, total or partial, there is no certainty, or probability, of an equalization of burdens and benefits, or of the propagation, without delay or loss, of any economical impulse whatever. Competition, to have the beneficent effects which have been ascribed to it, must be all-pervading and unremitting ; like the pressure of the atuiospherc of which we are happily unconscious because it is all the while equal within and without us, above and below us. Were that pressure to be made unequal, its effects would instantly become crushing and destructive. So it is with competition ; when it becomes unequal, when the ability of one industrial class to respond to the Impulses of self-interest is seriously reduced by igno- rance, poverty, or whatever cause, Mdiile the classes with which it is to divide the product of industry, are active, alert, mobile in a high degree, the most mischievous effects may be experienced. Free traders, therefore, who decline to carry the rule of ^ laissez faire into the department of distribution, are not dodging their principles. They deny that the condition which alone justifies that rule, exists in this department. With respect to merchandise, destitute alike of sympa- thies and antipathies, competition is so far perfect that it may be reasoned upon as if no obstruction to exchange existed. The one additional penny of profit will send the bale of goods cast or west, nortli or south, to kinsman or to stranger, to black man or white, with absolute indiffer- 3*^ ence. But with that strange bundle of " apathies, sympa- thies and antipathies"^ called man, bound by manifold ' The mobility of labor forms the subject of Chap. XI. " Charles Lamb — Essays of Ella. uij rill-: )VAGi:s qikstion. stron>;- nttni'limonts t(^ pl.'U'oand scono, toliomo :\iu1 tVionds, \viMi;-litcil with clailv hiu'tliMis, nlinost ov tinito to tho limit o( his stroni;-th, hosot with roasonahU^ ami with supersti- tions I'oars, !i prompt rrsort to tho host markot must so ovidoiUly hi» a mattiM- of ii-ri>at unci'rtaintv, tliat no oi'oiio- mist can justly ho aiH-uscd »>!' ahaiuloniui:; his prinoiplos wlu> rofusos to trust wholly to tho individual ini[nilso for tho riii'ht distrih\ition of tho products o( industry. Tho (pu^stion o'^ a oi>mpotitii>n sutVioiont or insuthoiont to this ond, is a tpiostion i>f fact. And it is important to ho homo in mind that tho ohsti'uotions ti> oomjHMitiou wiiiolulofont a rii^ht distrihntion, aro m>t physical moroly, or mainly, hut nu>ral ; i^noranoo. snporstitii>n, timidity, procrastination, mental imM'tia, lovo oi i-ountry, lovo o'C homo, love of friends. So much t'or tho ohstructions to competition, on llu^ sidiM^t" tho workini; classes. Hut it is oipially impor- tant lo note that a t'urihi>r otVoct prejudicial to thorn may ho prinlucod hy tho iiriH^l (>f omployoi*s I'ounteracting' x\ true r(\>;-ard for tiuMr own solf-intorost. The theory of eompetitiiMi asstimos that thoomployiM- in soekim:; his own interests \M11 hocome tho conservator o'i tho interests of tl»o lahoror, there htMUi;: :i triu' harmony o^ interests ho- twoen them. 'This may ho so. as Prof. C'airnos has noted, with interests; as they really exist, and as they \vould bo seen hy an enliiihtened eye. l>nt it does not follow that tho omjdoyor's interest, as he may regard it, coincides witli the interests oi those dopendent on him for employment. '* This chasm ii\ the aro-umont of the laissez fairo school has never hoon hriilijod. The advocates of tho doctrine shut their eyes and leap over it." ^ Put hero wo have to meet tho t'urthor ipiostions : irrant- ing that eonipetitioii is in fact impaired to an extent ' Ejisuvs in Tol. V'oou., p. '^415. IMPERFECT COMPETITION. 163 which allows serious unci lumeutablc injury to result in tlie distribution of the products of industry, from the i nubility of persons and classes to resort to their best market, is it the part of the legislator or of the economist to do or to speak otherwise than as if competition were perfect? Ai"e ■we not to accept competition, as it is, for wliat it can now do; and wait for the action of economical forces in gradu- ally perfecting it ? Does not the existence of competition, liowever much impaired, establish a steady tendency which must sooner or later wear out the obstructions wliioh are admitted to beset the resort to the best market, on the part oi" no inconsiderable portion of the industrial community? And meanwhile, to repeat, should we argue or act other- wise than as if competition were complete? To these questions I have to answer as ff)llow8 : 1. The reader is referred to wliat has been said in Chap- ter TV. on the degradation of labor : the bi'eakiuei'sons sustains in the competitions of industry, weak- ens the cai)al>ility for future resistance. This ])rinci])le applies with iiici'casing fort-e as men sink in the industrial scale. Emphatically is it true that the curse of the poor is their ]H)verty. (Mu>ated in (luantity, (Quality and price* in whatever they purcliasi\ tlu\y are notoriously uiuiblo ' to get as much, propoi'tu>nally, for their little, as the rich for their larger means. Economically speaking, tliis V must ever i-emain true, aiul operate witli increasing power. Moral forces may indeed enter to restore the equilibrium ; the liberality of nature may afford to the weaker class a margin sutHcient for them to long maintain themselves; the discovery of new arts and new resources may open np fresh opportunities for retrieving loss; but, through all, it cannot be controverted that the tendency of purely eco- nomical fori-es is to widen the ditferences existing in the constitution of industrial society, and to subject any and every person aiul class of persons who may, from any cause, be at disadvantage in respect to selling his or their service or product, to a constantly increasing burden. 3. Progress toward freedom is not necessarily accom- plished by indiscriminately throwing off' restraints, either in the political or the industrial "• body. True, men * Count Rumford'a Essaya contain much intcrestinfj mivttor in illustration of tho losses which tho working classes suftbr in tho do- mestic use of what they have purchased, from the want of simple and elementary a])i)aratus for cookini::, storing, etc. ■^ Thus. I cannot hesitate to assent to the opinion of M. Say, that the l)reaking down of all the fraternities in Paris, after the Revolution of IS;U>, anil the sudden ru.sh, without order or discretion, of a mob of THE PROBLEM OF DISTRIBUTION. 107 only learn to swim by goiiii^ into the water; only make their eyes of use by going into the light ; but, out of regard to human weakness, exposure to either element should be conducted with measure, and in order. While progress toward freedom is to be made by the removal of industrial restrictions, it doea not follow that the removal of any specific restriction at any given time, conduces to such progress. The restriction may bo, in the situation existing, correspondent to an inlirmity whicli (junnot so summarily be done away. A crutch operates by restraint only ; but it is a rosti-aint which prevents a lame man from falling to the ground, whence he might have no strength to raise himself again; wliile, if artilicially sustained, he tnay be able to achieve a very considerable freedom of movement and of action. A law prohibiting a child under eight years to work in a factory, operates by restraint only ; but it is a restraint upon parental folly or greed, which may prevent a horrible waste of ])liysical force, and cause a larger amount of actual labor to l)e accomplished during the entire term of life, than would be effected were the child to be stunted by ])rematiire exposure and hardship. For this reason I boli(!V(!, with Mr. Horner, that "the interposition of the legislature in behalf of children, is justified by the most cold and severe [)rincij)lesof political c!coiiomy," i labor into trades imuiemorially rustricted, was the cause of great disaatcr in 1831; that it would have Ixjen better, both for the tradeH and for the mass of outHide labor, had the barriers been removed more gradually. ' " Employment of children in factories," p. 15. Mr. Horner, who was government insijector of factories, states that in the lace mills of Nottingham, children, 9 to 15 years of age, were frequently employed 20 hours on a stretch, from 4 A.M. to 12 at night, [p. 14.] He quotes a witness who testified that " being frequently detained in his counting- houHc late at night, till 12 or 1 o'clock, he has often, in going liome, in tlie depth of winter, met mothers taking their children to the neigh- boring print- works, the children crying." [p. 133.] Dr. Villcnne, in his memorable report to the French Academy, / 168 THE WAGES QUESTION. Jnst liow much force, on pui-ely economical principles, has the objection uri;-ed against many proposed measures, that they are in violation of the freedom of contract? Let us candidly but searchingly consider this question. What is the authority of laissez taire^ when levelled against a factory act, or a proposition to restrain truck ? Laws in restraint of trade, or interfering with the times and methods of employment, with wages and prices, are not mischievous because they violate a theoretical self-suffi- ciency of labor, but because they effect a certain actual result. What is that result ? They diminish mobility, which, as we liave seen, is the prime condition of compe- tition, while competition affords the only security the laborer can have that he will get the utmost possible for his service. The mischief of such laws is simply and solely that they are obstructive. Here, then, and not in the shibboleth, laissez foAre, laissez passer, Ave have the true test of the expediency of a proposed regulation of indus- try or trade. Does it practically obsti'uct movement ? used the following language in writing of the factory laborers of Alsace : " The rents in the manufacturing towns and villages imme- diately adjoining, are so high that they are often obliged to live at the distance of a league and even a league and a half. The poor children, many of whom are scarcely seven years old, and some even yo'unger, have to take from their sleep and their meal-hours, whatever is required to traverse that long and weary road, in the morning to get to the factory, in the evening to get home To judge how excessive is the labor of children in the factories, one has only to recollect that it is unlawful to employ galley-slaves more than 13 hours a day, and these 12 must be broken by two hours for meals, reducing the actual labor to ten hours a day ; while the young people of whom I speak have to toil 13 hours, and sometimes 133^^, independent of their meal times." * "So understood, I hold it to be a pretentious sophism, destitute of foundation in nature and fact, and rapidly becoming an obstruction and nuisance in public affairs." — J. E. Cairnes' Essays in Pol. Econ., p. 253. LAISSEZ FAIRE. 169 But is it said : every restriction or regulation is in some degree, obstructive? Right and wrong, at once. Restric- tion and regidation are obstructive as against a pi^e-existing condition of perfect practical freedom. B iit perfect free- dom obtains in nothing human. There are obstructions on every hand, not physical only, but also intellectual and moral. May not a regulative act well conceived to remove certain moral and intellectual obstacles to free action, have the effect to promote, not retard, industrial movement ? For instance : take the transfer of real estate. An act for the registration of ownership is restrictive upon transfers; yet can any one doubt that judicious provis- ions for registration, instead of retarding transfers of land and buildings, do in fact, in the most important degree, promote them ? The compliance with the requirement of registration is indeed, in itself, an obstruction : it involves a certain expenditure of labor and money ; a few shillings and an hour's time. But it gives every possible buyer such an assurance as to his title and the history of the property, as constitutes an intellectual and moral help in the acquisition of estates, of the greatest effectiveness.^ For it should be borne in mind, in all discussions relating to the exchange and distribution of wealth, that fear, ignorance, superstition and custom are as truly obstruc- tive as are rivers and mountains; and if a registrative pro- vision gives certainty and clearness, where before was doubt and apprehension, or utter ignorance, it may pay a thousand times over, for the nominal hindrance to action which is involved in a formal compliance with its requirements. It is difficult to see how perfect freedom becomes the condition of economical, any more than it is of political, security and advancement. Why should not the throw- ing-off of economical restrictions among a people long * In England, the absence of a system of registering titles has bur- dened the transfer of estates most oppressively. 170 TEE WAGES QUESTION. abused and deeply abased, be accomplished with the same catition, and the same regard for the order of things, as the social and political emancipation and enfranchisement of oppressed masses ? Yet we find wi-iters who would ridicule the notion that one form of government is equally ajood for all peoples, or that any form of government could be good for an}"- people, which had not respect to national peculiarities of character and structure ; who hold that no people long degraded can safely be raised at once to politi- cal freedom ; and even insist that among a people long habituated to universal suffrage, and with traditions of self-rule extending through centuries, stringent limitations should be imposed on the popular will : we find, I say, these writers declaring for the removal of all restrictions throughout industrial society, even such as are of a regu- lative character merely, not only without regard to the habits or condition of the people, but equally M'ithout reijard to the order in which such restrictions should be removed. For myself, I am utterly at a loss to conceive how such reasoners, some of whom are conservatives and pessimists of the deepest dye in politics, justify their optimistic radi- calism in industry. Certainly, if, as (3hevalier, the great apostle of free trade in France, has said, Political Econ- omy and politics rest on the same principles, ^ there would seem to be as much virtue in judicious and disinterested restraint in labor, as in government or society. Nowhere has restraint any positive virtue; no life or healing comes out of it ; but grave evils may be suppressed ; great waste and mischief prevented by it. But while I hold that discretion and order should be observed in throwing off social, political and economical restrictions, alike, I hold this in no desponding ordistrust- ^"L'economie politiqu'e s'appuie sur les memes principes que la politique." — 8th Discours d'ouverture de I'annee, 1847-8. THE PROBLEM OF DISTRIBUTION. 171 ful vein. I believe that society and industry may unload rapid!}', if in due order; that there is something in the very name of liberty to which the heart of man, in what- ever condition, responds ; and that men who believe in freedom are the safest guides in directing the progress of a people toward perfect freedom. I do not say that progress should be made slowly ; but that it should be made by steps, by due gradation — and with something of preparation for each successive stage of the advance. AVhat then is the problem of Distribution ? We have seen that so far as diiferences exist in respect to the ability and opportunities of the several classes of Indus- trial society to resort swiftly and surely to the best market, such difference must put at an economical disadvantage the class suffering the greatest relative obstruction, and con- fer corresponding advantages at their expense, upon the class or classes more favorably situated and better en- dowed. We have seen, moreover, that such disadvantages, be they great or small, at the outset, are cumulative ; that the word " to him that hath shall be given, and from him 1/ that hath not shall be taken away even the little that he seemeth to have," is a law of universal operation and a very unharmonizing tendency; that economical forces, thus, instead of bringing redress, tend to crowd further down the classes who enter the struggle weakest. If, then, the political economist finds the obstructions be- setting the resort to the best market, existing in the present condition of industrial society, to be, in fact, serious, is he not bound to abandon a rule of conduct based on the assumption of a competition so general that it may for prac- tical purposes be deemed universal, and to study critically the condition of the several classes of persons making claims on the product of industry with a view to ascertain what help n«3 THE WAGES QUESTION. can 1)0 lirouulit from tlu'outsidc% in the absence of any repar- ative virtue in imlustrialeauses, to supi)ly the deticieneies of competition 'i Failinsj: to iiml relief in economical forces, he will look away to moral fi)rces to achieve the emancipation of the economically ojipressed classes, not by takini;- them out from under the operation of economical laws, for that is impossible, but by providin*encies of competition. Fortunatelv he may look with confidence to see this amelioration coincide with a continued increase in the ])roductive power of labor, due to fresh advances in the arts and sciences, whii-h will facilitate the upwanl move- ment. Meanwhile the question whether any specilic legislation in protection of the working classes (say, a factory act), or anv measure of regulation and restraint adopted by an in- dustrial class for their own benefit (say, a trades union ride), is likely to })romote the desired object, should be treated, I suggest, cm the following principle. Remem- bering that the one thing to be secured lor the right dis- tribution of wealth, is perfect competition, it should bo inquired, whether that act or measure will, all things con- sidered, on the whole and in the long run, increase or dimin- ish the substantial, not the nominal, freedom of movement. If the effect would be to quicken the resort to market, then, no matter how far restrictive in form, it must be approved. But in considering the probable tendencies of such acts or measures, we should bear in mind how great are the liabilities to error and corruption in legislation ; how cer- tain is the administration of the law to fall short of its intent; how much better most results are reached through social than through legal press\ire ; how destitute of all positive virtue, all healing efficacy, is restraint, its only THE PROBLEM OF DISTRIBUTION: 173 office being to prevent waste ; how frequently, too, good acts become bad precedents. ^ Yet these considerations, strong as they are, do not suffice to create (h)ubt in vay mind of the justification, on purely economical grounds, of laws for the registration of real estate, for the limitation or prohibition of truck, or for the regulation of the labor of children, of women, or even of men, in accordance with the dictates of the most advanced sanitary science. In Chapter XYIII, questions will arise respecting the practical influence of legislation upon the substantial freedom of industrial movement. These will be discussed with single reference to the prin- ciple of judgment here set up. And when tlie question of trades unions and strikes comes before us, it will be treated on the same grounds. I shall not deem the question to be decided against these agencies by the fact that they take the form of inhibition and restriction ; but shall hold myself bound to inquire whether they do, in their time and place, increase or diminish the freedom and the fulness of the laborer's resort to market, bearing in mind that his practical ability to accomplish that resort, is made up of a material element, the means of transporta- tion and of provisional )naintenance, and of intellectual and moral elements, quite as essential. ' "It is one thing to repudiate the scientific authority of laissez faire, freedom of contract, and so forth : it is a totally different thing to set up the opposite principle of state control, the doctrine of pa- ternal government. For my part, I accept neither one doctrine nor the other, and, as a practical rule, I hold laissez faire to be incomparably the safer guide. Only let us remember that it is a practical rule, and not a doctrine of science ; a rule in the main sound, but, like most other sound practical rules, liable to numerous exceptions ; above all, a rule which must never for a moment be allowed to stand in the way of the candid consideration of any promising proposal of social or industrial reform." — J. E. Cairnes' Essays in Pol. Econ., p. 251. (nTAPTKR XI THE MOBILITY OK I.AVa^K. Wk liave seen that, with pertot't competition, the work- ing classes have ample security that tliev will, at all times, receive the greatest amount of wages which is consistent with the existing conditions of industry. The object of the present chapter is to ascertain, if we may, how far the actual mobilit}' of labor corresponds to tiiat theoretical mobility which is involved in perfect compe- tition. And first, we note that the theoretical mobility of la- bor rests on the assumption that laborers will, in all things and at all times, pursue their economic interests; that they perfectly comprehend those interests, and will sufller nothing to stand in the Nvay of their attainment. Of course the men of whom this can be predicated are not real human men. They are a class of beings devised for the purposes of economical reasoning in accordance with the definition given by Mr. ^lill in his ''Essays on some Unsettled Questions in Political Economy," as follows: "Political Economy is concerned with man solely as a being who desires to possess wealth, and who is capable of judging of the comparative efficacy of means to that end. . . It makes entire abstraction of every other human passion or motive, except those Mhich may be regarded as perpetually antagonizing principles to the desire of wealth, namely, aversion to labor and desire of the present enjoyment of costly indulgences. These it takes, to a certjvin extent, into its calculations, because these do THE MOBILITY OF LA BOIL 175 not merely, like other desires, occasionally conflict with tlie piirHuit of wealth, but accompany it always as a drag or im[)ediment, and arc therefore inseparal^ly mixed np in the consideration of it. Political Economy considers mankind as occupied solely ^ in acquiring and consuming wealth." But thus to frame a system of economics upon the as- sumption of the perfect, unintermitted, unimpeded action (;f one, and that not always the most potential, of many human motives, is it not, as Dr. Whewell has said, ^ as if the pliysical geographer should construct hisschenic in rec- ognition of gravitation alone, disregarding the yjower of cohesion in preserving the original structure of the earth's surface, and should tlius reach the conclusion that all the mountains must at once run down into the valleys and the face of nature become a ])lain ? In much the same way the economist of the a priori school disregards the original structure cf industrial society, the separation of classes and nations, the obstructions offered by differences of race, religion and speech,^ the effects of strangeness and ap»pre- ' If Mr. Mill had Raid, " Political economy considerB mankind solely as occupied in ac(juiring and consuming wealth," the statement would liave ))een un<;xceptionabIe. But if " Political economy considers man- kind an occupied nolely in acquiring and consuming wealth," Political economy considers mankind most falsely ; and the results in economi- cal reasoning of that unwarranted assumption have been most mis- chievous. Political economy is not bound to consider mankind so far as they are occupied in anything else than in acquiring and consuming wealth ; but it is bound in simple honesty not to c/jnsider them as oc- cupied in acquiring and consuming wealth when they are not, and to a degree they are not. * Introduction to R. Jones' Pol. Econ. ' The effects of speech-differences in preventing the easy and rapid flow of labor are clearly to be seen in France and Scotland. The greater number of the Bas Bretons cannot speak or understand French, and are hence confined more closely to their native fields, than the people of any other section. [Report of H. B. M. Consul Clipperton, 1872, p. 160.] The coramissionerB of the Scotch Census of 1871 found the influ 176 Tiib: }Y.\ai:s question. luMision oi i'li;iiiu-c, tlu> I'oiistrainls (»!' ii;-iior;iin't' and supiM"- stitiiMi, tho attarlmu'iils iif 1u)Mu\ I'tMintry and iVionds, tlui hel}>U'Ssm>ss ot" nicn in new oi-i'iipatioiis, thojoalousy of im- |H>rtod Inlx*!',' and ju'rhajts niDiv than all (>lsi\ the inhihition of migration, in tlio case of ]HM'haj^s the vast niajority of the race, h\ the want of tlie supplies of fiuxl and money noeessary to their renu>val and immediate snhsistenee. Does the eompai'istMi seem extravai^-ant 'I Lin>k at iMiina. There is found a ]>o[iulatii>n ot' thi-tH' ov ti>ur hnndi'i'd inillii>ns, o{ w hi>se ujoiie of life and means of snhsisteneo tra\ellei's i2,'ive aeeiumts that are simply slnn-Uini!;; reduced to tiii> vile>t t'ood, the viU>st elothinj^-, the vilest slu>lter, or none at all of the latter twoidasses of assumed necessaries. ()ppi^siti> tlii'ir i>\vn huul lies a re^'ion of i^'reat fertility, containing- vast expanses with an avera^'O pojndatiou of tr(>m one to four, six or ti>n to the sipnire mile. Why has not this mountain run down into this valley: Why have not untidd millions poured \\\^o\\ our sliores to relieve the fear- t'nl intei-nal press\iri> of the (\>lestial l'jupiri> ^ The rea- sons are \oo fauiiliar to nei>il to be stateil. The fact is what we wish to use here. What a commentary on tho political ei'onomy which has been ri'artnl on the assump- tiiui (d' the absolute moliility of labor! Three or four hundred million Ohinesesutferin<>" tho oxtromity of misery fttluune; OajSt'J Chinese in tho United States in 1S70, and that, after tho energetic! recruiting of Mr. Koopmans- «>m'i> v>f tills oi\ust< vt>n' powcvfiil in pri'vtMithij:; t nortluTu uml wostoni pints of Si-otliunl, im-liutini:: tlio Islos. whoro the (hiflii" is t on tho cm- j>K\vnu>nt of womon niut oliildi't>n in Agr., p. llTd ' Miss Miirtineau notos tho jotilousy of " iiwportod hvbor " ^from Ire- land") duriujj tho Napoloonio wars. [Hist Vlnsjlaml I.;5;{3.| Even so Into ns lS4t!, tho oommittoo on Hailwuv l,aborors roportod that not only did tho Irish and tho Scotch not work on the saino i?ansjs with tho Kng. lish navvies, but tlioy were kept apart fmin each other. [Keport p. 5.] There was especial jeaUnisy manifested toward the Irish importations. [Ibid. p. 50, 77.] FAILURE OF EMIGRATION: 177 choop and his emigrant-runners! The original struct- ure of that mountain, at least, lias withstood the effects of gravitation with not a little success. Popocatapetl has lost a larger proportion of his bulk, in the last one hun- dred years. J3ut we may turn to a people less strangely constituted and less strongly conserved than the Chinese ; a people longer in contact with the western world, and in blood, speech and faith far less removed from the nations of Europe. The inhabitants of Jiritish India have been moved even less than those of China, by the pressure of population, to seek relief in more sparsely settled portiinlilui'«> (»!' I'ui'iHt ; wUy lilliMllii llllh W ilhin lin ilU'lll'I'tuI 'i ll II'. llin lllHM|ll|ll i|n\ olii|i|niMll ul | >i >|>llllll ioll 1111(1 illtlllM'- \[\ lliiil iiiiiil>ii Iho lii'"iimiii'.', ul iii(i>| III' liiiMliBti'tirirtCrt ol' liilioi liiiliiMlrv Mini |>o|iiihil loll iniitil, it Irt ovIdiMil, llli lii^-nlhiM' I lil'iitl'.-liiMil IIioomIiI'ii ii\|piiI hI IimIIi, ii|' liuiriol' |iii\Vi*l' mitl III' IH'iiilurllull will rnlliiW, oil llin niiu liiill*! ; ijuhliliiliiiii, hi|iiMliii', mill |ioi'liM|in niMi'Viitiiiii, mi llir hIIiim'. Iwilmi' uill niillri Imllt Iiimii tml liiMu;^', wliri'i^ it 1m wmiiIi'iI, mill IVtiiii lioiiim' vvliiM'o il in iiiil wmiloil Nuw in I'ik^i, tluij'it Im nvor rmiiiil II liitlillilv ill |iii|iiihil lull mul iinliiHh'y to ^'I'llW ll|i|ll I , |i\ llln M|i|ioiU' lO I'U- liuilii iiiirluiii'jiMi ; wliilo III) iinw raili>oi'tiii Im^ill In iipo^ nilo III lliiwiuriul or |iuliliriil lilo ul ;i ciiiniiiiiiiilv, wliluh lliiiv iiul M'I'V (lill'iM'ontl^V llU'rrl lliiMll, NVIu'l'oVtM' llivtM'- ^•;«iiiiM< tipiirm'rt, tliiM'n 1h (llBtrowH, At liiiicM ilm nH'ocI, Im hIiiiuhI. iiihliiiilmiiMiiiH, wlioii hiiililoii ciilmiiitirri oviM'litko llio |iiMMllitll' illillintri(>ri ul Htiltrh mill oitioh. At tliiiiHi llio i^iXwt \* NVroll^'Ikt n» ^ruilimllv lui llm ruin ul' ii wnll iiilo wliuMO Hoaiiirt «niiu> bIow iimliiiiiif^' viiiu Iiiim llirunt. itn tlln'uu, iio\(M' lo ho wltliilnivvii till htuiio in lliiuwn iVuiii hti'lir. N illiilMMiin^n illllnlrnliullti lili;L<,lll l>o ill.'lWII I'l'iUM hliitui'v Hi>*l I'nnii tlu' hliitihlicfi of |»i'o(liu'tioii, ul' thin \v\\' (iiMii'v to «llvtM'goiUH> l)ot\vu()|i |ioi)ulutioii HUll Imitititi')' i ' * TltK Kitllling fi'Hinii oiviiHm\ nliioKinij' iiuikln^' In MnHlmnl In In* IrttiiBfoi'i'iul fi'uiii IIh fmimn' Hful ul Nrnwioli, 'Tlin whkIimi nninnfuo tni'«> liKH, willtin living innniiiiy, inigiivlMil l'i'iii\t I'.nnoN iiml SiiltUlK in llin Nni'lli, Holwiuni IHft'J niul iWtll ooiMilivil iv tulllny nU' In llu> ninw lin ililt>t\v inHnufttolniv uf Irtilivint unil Sonllunil, wlilolt \\\- viilvoil IV I'tnlnollmi ill lilt' niimlinr itf pinnnnfi jinililuvini iif Utt.UOO (HUlUlUml .lunniiil \ \ I \' .Mil .) Aloml IMlll, Un> Mngllnli |ii>\vin imnmni tlit> iklmulnlo ilrndnotiiMi \<( iin liiilnnli',Y wlilrli pn|i|Mn'(iMl \)i«niUiglv |>i'llv oluVII^H^n III (udIiIuii will iiflrii |>ii \vliti> I'lMirliiiig rl)\ri>iliii< MoyiilMhlN'I'H ()//' INDIini'liV, 370 uiul it will 1)(! Jiol; Ichh inlovuRlin^ !,<» iiofio tho inf-osHfinl; HtntiJf vibniiioiiH of iiidnHlry wliidi \'VA[n\m m\ )i,Iiiioh(; diiily rotuljlliJ liKWil of |Mi|iiil;iiii)ii, iJiiui \,it wrnvl. iJifw-tMil'i-iU of tIi()H(i p;rciiX (ijcliciil cliiui^i^H wliii'li Lriumloi' IJk! hfuil; of coiiiiii(!i'ci)i,| (5in|»ii'n, ,'i,ii(| Iciivc, cil.irtH ii,ii(| (foiiiiLrioH for- hiikcM ;iiii| :i,Iiii()hI. loiv'ol I.cii IM-Jiind. Hiuili Ixiin^' Uic (uiiduiicy (W iii(|iiH(-ry to ootJiiHioiml or |)(!f!()(li(', tii(»v('iiiuiil,, tho iiiuliilily of liiboi' ' bocioinoH, iuhIoi' till- llicory ol' coi(i[)oti!-i<»ii, Mil (iHHoiitiiiJ condition ol' itu (lull, Mr, Miili,liii« Hlutos thiU- tUo «id»Htlt.uttou of slioo ribbons fop buukluM wflM ft severe blow, long Mi by Hlindluld and JJlrnilngiiftm. " On II, hiiiiill'H'fifiivld and wit,li lues nolorlnly," wiys ii, writer In tli« Allio- iiiiiiiiii, " lliidiHiiiiil U'ligi'dy of {.lid coLUmi I'lunlnn, 1h uniicUtd ovtiry ynar 111 oiH) or u.iiiil,li(ir of our f^i'niil, clUi^w. Kvury Uiiim fiiMiiioii hhIhcIh ii, ni*w niiititi'liil for druHfi, or a ntiw tiivdiillon wiiixtrcuddH old coiiLrl- viiiii^i'M, workman iiro ilirowii out of iitii|iloyni(inl,," I'rof, llo^urt!) glvis tliii following plijuiuil, illiitiU'iiUon of Uio nffnol, of (dmny«s In Uih in«r« fiiMJiloii of (IriiMfi. " A year OP two ago every woman who iimda any pntuninloii to dmWM iiwiordlng to tlin ciiBtoni of tlm day, surronndftd limwdf wltli (1/ congH»'lH« of iiamlbdntmd l)on|.ti ltiM»iii.id that (ifty t(»ii« of rrliiolliiit wiro witnt tiirimil out wnoMy from tbo facto i'Ioh f-Iilidly III Vorkhlili'H, 'riio faMJiJon liaH \iw.mi\ away and tlio dniiiaiid /or tliH miitmlal and tli*', lalior ban ciiamtd, 'rii(nimtnd«of |)itrHoii« oncw tiiigagttd 111 tliiw prodiictlon ai'« now rndiiBiid to (infon-od Idlnimss, op coiiHtralniid to botalio tlioniHidvuH to Horna otlun' oficupatlou, Again, II f<»w yinu'H ago, wonmn divtNMod tboinsolviis iibditlfiiliy wltli ribbons. 'I'lils fawliion liaw al«o eliangod | wbdrri a linndrud yards ^f^imi sold, ono Ih lianlly |Hii'c,Iiati(id now, and tlm looiii« of a iiiiiltltiido of silk opi-ratlvHM iiro Idbi, 'I'o (|iiot ruturn, as It will liavo tliii lul vaiitafjtd of clmap labor, 'I'IiIh in mucli an if ono sboiilil say; tliw approacb of cold IikIiuuih sliivcring: slilvoring is of tho naturn of (ixurclsn : oxerrsistt Induces warnitll ; tlicrcforc a man may not frec/n on a Minndsota pralrlo in an icH storm, wiili tli<-, ilor rnoiiifitdi'at 40 dtignuis bolow Kuro ; iiiKMiiilcnil tlui coldfi ji, ^mIc, llni ijiuri', he, will ttbaliW, and, COnSt'JI4Clill_y, l,li<-, wiui/h r Ik-, will I/'- IHO 77/W W.H/ti'S QUh'STIdN, \\v\\ \nn\\'^, ll in t>l" fixirno not ntn-nnniuv lli.il lln' wliulo ImmIv of lid'urd'h rtlhMiliI l>o (•I'jj^iini/.tnl liUo u Tui lur Inltc, pm'ktul uotl HiuMN'il roiulv I'ur lli^lit. The ^rt'iil nuijorilj oT Iwluirorn will lunor l>n rot|iur\«' lluit. ( loulil ^',t>, miuiy will liol, ami »>r |lu>iu> who woiiUI g'«>, UlHIiy i'uniui|,\\o iiuiy I'tiiil)' Hiiy thill lh»i lahoring population in movim' lilvclv to l»o luoi'«i I'ouipli^lt'lv iM(»l>ili/,otl hv iutollii;'tMifo iii\tl llir ])O^Ht>0itlon ol pit'porl V, ihiiu in tliuiiniMo in oiiirr lo i'i'IhUm' it. tn^rtaiii that junt {\\v aiuoimt ol' iuo\ niu'iil I'loiu iiuliintry to iiuliinlrv, aiul iVom plafi^ to plafo, \\ hifh iiiav l>t^ iiMpiiiiMl, will li(i olVtH'ltnl wilh tlu< iuii\iuuiin ot Ion ami dotav. SlU^h luMllg lh<< mn-onnilv lor llio molulilv of l:ilu>r lo tMtuUlo it to I'ollow i\\y> luovonu^uln, arroiiulahU^ aittl in\ainUMii»lal>lo, ol' imlimliv, it in tu>l iicodliil to ^o into tl>»i hi-.loi_v ol' iMnii;i'aliou lo nhow ihal lahof hart HUJUVU- Iv, in any roimtiv, pon«rn,s»>d llu< roailiiionn aiul activity Nvhii'h anHwtM'otl tho rtnpiirfMUMit. Tho Utiiti'tl Slalrrt' porhapn nlVoivl lh»^ hii^^hrnl ovampio of a hodv ol lahor pi'o- \n\vvy\ ami inpiipptul to mooK itn lu^rtt luarkt^t, whoi'«nor that luarkot \uav ho\ ami Aiin'iicann, familiar with tlu^ prompt Hiul OUHy tlow ol popiilalion hort\ art* liuhlo lo mulor-csti- iuut»> tho dillhultioM whirh honi^t tin* liKo mov»*nuMit« ill almoKt auv olhm- roiintrv i>\' tho wt>rhl. lt\ part, tho at^iv- ity i>l' lahor in ihi* I'mUnl Slalon in »luo lo tin* gomu'unit)' iA' nalmo with \in, whuh allowt* »u largo H mai'g'iu of OX- pomliliin^ In ntill groalor imnisuri\ it in *lm> to tho \vi»lo ililViusion of ii»fv>rmatiou thri>iii;h tlu^ pross ami tho post- » In 1H70, 7.500.000 j^t^vwuin >>( (Uo muiv«> i»>|M(l«lioi\ \v<oi' tluui Ihimn of tl»oir l>U'll», Sfr roiiMViH l{o|u>rtrt, "'I'liti <»n lit*u>»li»l AivuMlottu," p«v» ("lioviUlor. " ttuH ll»i« \\\ o\>»uinou »itl\ \\\v> 'I'ttHttV. tl»Hl 1(0 It* i>«ott«up«Hl. uot t>i»t«l>UHh»ul. o« \\w m>ll l>t> tnuulii u|«»n." TmvolHlu iho t'utlwl Stut«'H, p. \W. \\\ KuhhIh, too. \\w frt'o dom of mlgi'utiou fi'»>j\» pltvoo to j>l«oo. Iu>k fnujuoullv l>i>ou noloil. Htr Aroh, Allnon ivIlill'^Un llvlw loll»o 'I'lvrtwr l>loo»l. Minloiv of tCino XV, HU, Soo Sir A Huolu\i»«n'rt tvoooutvl of Uio iuilu«tvi«l uoiUMvld o( 14u««l»k. lu'i'v>rt.-i, 11. ft M r.MiMulrt. oto, lt<70. l>. iiOl. MOV li'.MICNTIl oliti'%'i,l in:<;r<, an; uw rnucl) a »fiutf,<'j' u( (;ow<;r of r'\t;i'.iM wit)) liii', ;(,rrf). 'J'lir? cxf-^jpiion;, >,<> fliic, n;;tfilfi<>«» to ColloW ififliiklry in if^', tiiovctitctiiM, /U'<; foti;i(J unton^ i\n'(;^,ont)i, if/ fCM\K:<'i to wlio;o no (;;()\u\K:\\t'A to cmU-.v \]k; ^(;in',ni\ iiinrUcX i'or hi\)<)t; and, luntly, our i'oriu^u pojMilution, (ttt<\ urnofi^ th'inc tli»t; foiYjJji^fi <,'/)ofn<;nt, 0(;<'A\\i''i,lin),d,i'',;i.lly b<;yon'l »,}/<{ control of indivi'JnalH ; that tl/-,<; l>(;(;(>lo un: doifi;^ what thcy ttro (Joifjg hmnum ilioy am w)M;ro tlioy an;. A n'J tfio roa*«on for hijcIi a wliol<;i',alo ^tiil;- j(;ction of lahor to itM ,Uuuu'.H, i^fonnd in ihn rtihcMl' htU'/tmucM, i]ni prottimuomtuim, awl wo may my tho tiunul- ini)\mu;m oi' tlio inonl^ratiofi to tl«; ( In/tf/l Htat(j» («lrif?(5 tfu) fjayx of tin; IrlHli fa»nino. Of all wl/o ))avrn<; iin|;rovid<'/] and uninxtr/icUj'J for the (}Xperi«nc'0« of tlioir Ani'irican lifo. W}j<5t})r5r (Mihlio prtntu>U>4l, io «vefy ntnptu^, i\m y,(;ni',rti] UnprovcjficM of, Dii', f'liUM HtnU'M iUtw tht; u.hmu<'A', of ihitm nyr.U:iiiii of inU;niH,l rcnir'n-^fum mh\ /^onopolj^, w)/i';)/ i'/oui\tnii; Ut tVni' i'lti^nrt', ilc! «!,«,(/ it, |>a.H,icu)«,f oi'AiiitfiA,ioti or plfl/'/j, or i;xr,\iiiiiin( »,iiy nii'i'At'.ti from smy hmncJi U*', iitny nX ti,iiy f,lf«/j i\t'iuk profU'r Ut piirtmc. Uniimtry 'itt in cvi-iy rf.nfit-.rX trcj; ti.nii tiiiffX- l^mV—AWmt Hftllitiin. 183 THE WAGES QUESTION: of adventure, or buniing with the gold fever, or alhired l)j the false reports of relatives and acquaintances on this side the water, they have fallen on our shores, the inuni- gratory impulse exhausted, thbir money gone, with no definite purpose, ■with no special preparation, to become the victims of their place and circumstances. There is a tendency at every harbor which lies at the debouche of a river, to the formation of a bar composed of mud and sand brought down by the current which yet has not the force to scour its channel clear out to deep water. And in much the same way, there is a tendency at every port of immigration to the accumulation, from the failure of the immigrating force, of large deposits of more or less help- less labor which a little assistance from government would serve to carry far inland, and distribute widely, to the best advantage at once of the immigrants and of the indus- try of the country. " Of those foreigners whose occupations have deter- mined their location, the most notable instances are the "Welsh and the Scandinavians. '' AVliy should there be four times as many Welsh in Pennsylvania as in New York: AVhy four times as many in Ohio as in Illinois ? The reason is obvious : the Welsh are famous iron miners and iron makers. They have come out to this country under intelligent direction, and have gone straight to the place wliere the}'^ were wanted. Quite as striking has been the self -direction of the Swedish and Norwegian immigrants. Four states, all west of Lake Michigan, contain ninety-four per cent of all the Norwegians in the country and sixty-six per cent of the Swedes. It is probably not owing so much to superior foresight or to ampler means that the British Americans " in the States" have, as it would appear, located them- selves according to their itulustrial preferences, as to the fact of their original proximity and the advantages they found in this for obtaining information, for easily reaching THE MOBILITY OF LABOR. 183 the place of their choice, and for easily recovering them- selves in case of mistake Of all our foreign elements, the Irish is that which would seem, from a study of their occupations, to have been most subject to circum- stances. The conditions of the forced and most painful emigration from Ireland must be held to account amply for this." 1 With exception, then, of the three classes named, there has been, in the fortunate state of freedom from social and legal restraints, in the great generosity of nature on our behalf, and in the general intelligence of our population, if not that perfect competition which the economists assume in their reasonings, at least a very active resort of labor to market. Our advantages in this respect are, how- ever, highly exceptional. In general it is found as Adam Smith has expressed it, tliat ''of all sorts of luggage, man is the most difhcult to be transported." Mr. Frederick Harrison ^ has thus set forth this difti- cnlty of moving labor to its market : " In most cases, the seller of a commodity can send it or carry it about from place to place, and market to mar- ket, with perfect ease. He need not be on the spot; he generally can send a sample ; he usually treats by corre- spondence. A merchant sits in his counting house, and by a few letters or forms, transports and distributes the sub- sistence of a whole city from continent to continent. In other cases, as the shopkeeper, the ebb and flow of pass- ing multitudes, supplies the want of locomotion in his wares. Ilis customers supply the locomotion for him. This is a true market. Here competition acts rapidly, I The Advance, Dec. 10, 1874. In the last century the Irish emigra- tion was from an altogetlier different class. " The spirit of emigration in Ireland," said Arthur Young in 1777, " appears to be confined to two circumstances, the Presbyterian religion and the linen manufacture." — Pinkerton, iii. 808. » Fortnightly Review, III. 50. 184 THE WAGES question: fully, simply, fairly. It is totally otherwise with a day- laborer, who has no commodity to sell. He must himself be present at every market, which means costly, personal locomotion. He cannot correspond with his employer; he cannot send a sample of his strength ; nor do employ- ers knock at his cottage door." Of the freedom of movement among the states of Europe, we get an approximate measure from the follow- ing Census Statistics, ^ which are about twenty-six years old. Switzerland, a small country bordering three great nations, and having the languages of all thi-ee spoken as native tongues in her own limits, contains the largest pro- portion of foreigners to total population, viz., 2.99 per cent. Holland (romes next of those on our list, with 2.32 per cent ; Belgium next with 1.76 ; France with 1.06 ; Denmark with 0.93 ; the United Kingdom last, with 0.27 per cent. But the statistics of international migration afford a very inadequate and often a very deceptive notion as to those quick and apt movements of population which anticipate in- dustrial distress and prevent the breaking down of the labor market, with all its consequences in the degradation of the working classes. To move from one county to another, or even only from one parish to another, would (!ost incom- parably less than to move across the sea, and would often be quite as effectual. And here the systematic writers in economics commonly assume the complete mobility of labor. 2 Yet we find that the impulse which is sufficient to send laborers from England to Australia, is not always sufficient to send them from Devon to Durham. Prof. Senior, in one of his illustrations, supposed that, in case of ' Statistical Journal, xx. 1^. ^ " The assumption commonly made in treatises of political econ- omy, is tbat, as between occupations and localities within the sam^ country, the freedom of movement of capital and labor is perfect." [J, E. Cairnes, " Some Leading Principles," etc., p. 363.] THE MOBILITY OF LABOR. 185 a local failure of employment, laborers would follow their landlord from Leicestershire to- London, but not from Lon- don to Paris. In real life, however, the difficulty of mi- gration is not so graded. Thus Mr. Chadwick cites instances ^ of laborers in the south and southwest of Eng- land, who had heard of America, but had not heard of Lancashire, and could not be persuaded to go there, on oifer of favorable emploj'raent. ^ Mr. Muggeridge bears quite as explicit testimony in his evidence before the com- mittee of 1855. " The workman never goes out of his village, and is as ignorant as a cart-horse of what is going on elsewhere, even in his own county. I found on going into the North of England, that there was a demand everywhere for laborers ; but when I got to the South and West of England I heard general complaints of the superabundance of the laboring population, and consequentlj' of high poor rates. I then suggested to the government a plan for removing, with their own consent, the unemployed portion of the population. I think that, altogether, something like 17,000 persons who were paupers and wholly out of em- ployment in the South and West of England were, in the !North of England put into most lucrative employment." Q. " At the time to which you refer, there was, I presume, a great demand for labor in the Korth of Eng- land ? " A. " There was ; but I do not think that the people in the South and West of England ever heard of it. I carried the news of it into Suflblk and Norfolk also. They knew > Statistical Journal, xxviii. p. 12. * A part of this effect, viz., the preference of emigration from the kingdom over migration within the kingdom, is due to the ineffable stupidity of the act of 12 and 13 Victoria (c. 103) which enables guar- dians of the poor to borrow money to send laborers out of the country ; but does not authorize them to spend a penny in sending a person from the parish of his residence to another part of the kingdom where em- ployment may be freely offered. 186 TUE WAGES QUESTION. no nun-e of it there, than they did of what might be going on in North America." ^ Tliis inniiobility of hihor has of conrse powerfully affected wages. A century ago Adam Smith -wrote:** " The wages of labor in a great town and its neighborhood arc frequently a fourth or a fifth part — twenty or twenty- five per cent — higher than at a few miles distance. Eigh- teen pence a day may be reckoned the cominiju price of labor in London and its neighborhood. At a few miles distance, it falls to fburteiMi and fifteen pence. Ten })ence may bo reckoned its price in Etlinburgh and its neighbor- hood. At a few miles distance it falls to eight i)cnce, the usual price of common labor through the greater part of the low country of Scotland, where it varies a good deal less than in England. Such a difference of pi' Ices which it seems is not always sufficient to traiisjjort a man from one parish to another, would necessarily occasion so great a transportation of the most hidky commodities, not only from one foint to cmother, hut from one end of the king- dom, almost from one end of the too/'ld, to another, as would soon reduce them more nearly to a leveir '^ One might suppose that the vast in(U'easc in the facilities for transportation of freight and passengers, and for the diffusion of information through the post-office and the printing-press, would have gone far in this century to i-emove the obstruction which then retarded the flow of ' Uupcjrl on tho Stoppage of Wages, p. 173. •' W.iilth of Nations, I. 79. ^ In discussing his extremely valuable Returns before the Statistical Society, Mr. Purdy says : " It would appear that no commodity in this country presents so grciat a variation in price at one time, as agricul- tural labor, taking the money wages of the menas the bestexponent of its value. A labt)rer's wages in Dorset or Devon are bari^ly half the sum given for similar services in the Northern parts of England." — Statistical Journal, xxiv. 344. Mr. Purdy refers, as among the causes of this, " to the natural vis inertia) of the class. . . . and above all, a well founded dread of tho miseries of a disputed poor-law settlement in the hour of their destitution." THE MOBILITY OF LABOR. 187 labor to its market ; ' but the force of ignorance, timidity and superstition is not so easily broken. Prof. Fawcett writes : '• During tlie winter months, an ordinary agricul- tural laborer in Yorkshire earns thirteen shillings a week. The wages of a Wiltshire or Dorsetshire laborer, doing the same kind of work, and working a similar number of hours, are only nine shillings a week. This great differ- ence in wages is not counterbalanced by other considera- tions; living is not more expensive in Yorkshire than in Dorsetshire, and the Dorsetshire laborer does not enjoy any particular advantages or privileges which are denied to the Yorkshire laborer." ^ ' Professor Rogers, in his History of Agriculture and Prices, ex- presses the opinion that not only the transport of freight, but the tran- sit of persons, was as free in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth, as in the eighteenth century. The roads were maintained in good order, chiefly by the monasteries, and travelling was then professional in many trades. The tiler, the slater, the mason, and the finer carpenter (who made furniture) were migratory. [Hist. I. 234-5 ]. Of a period a little later. Prof. Rogei-s says, " Labor travelled in those days (If\yO- 1G20) as freely as now ; indeed, in the account books of Elizabeth, we find that mechanics for Greenwich and the Tower are procured from places as distant as Cardiff, Dorchester, Brighton, Bristol and Bridge- water." — [Statistical Journal, xxiv. 548.] The practice of travelling or " wandering " as it is called, which has come down from this period, still prevails extensively in Germany among the younger journeymen (" Herbergen") — see Mr. Petre's report on the condition of the industrial classes, 1870, p. 56. The ease with which the German artisans are "metamorphosed into Frenchmen, Englishmen, Italians, Americans or Turks" (Mr. Strachey, Ihid p. 507) has doubtless contributed to the freedom of their movement. Not less than 8,000 German workmen were reported at Mulhouse before the war of 1870. Consul Wilkinson reports that the settled population of the province of Macedonia is augmented in winter by five or six thousand itiner- ant artisans who quit their native mountains in central Albania, and distribute themselves over the province in quest of employment, [ibid p. 248]. M. Ducarre's report to the French assembly of 1875, notes the considerable proportions of the annual migration from Italy into Cor- sica, [p. 247.] 2 Pol. Econ. p. 107. 188 THE WAGES QUESTION. But while, in modification of the assumption of the complete mobility of population under economical im- pulses, we find such great and permanent differences in the remuneration of labor in neighboring districts, if we look to the condition of the lowest order of laborers in many European countries, we shall see reason not to assert many and large exceptions to the rule of mobility, but to deny the validity of the rule altogether. If we consider the population of the more squalid sections of any city, we can only conclude that, contrary to the assumption of the economists, the more miserable men are, the less and not the more likely they are to seek and find a better place in society and industry. Their poverty, their ignorance, their superstitious fears and, perhaps more than all, the apathy that comes with a broken spirit, bind them in their place and to their fate. To apply to human beings in their condition, maxims derived from the contemplation of the Economic Man, is little less than preposterous. Such populations do uot migrate ; they abide in their lot; sinking lower in helplessness, hopelessness and squalor; economic forces have not the slightest virtue either to give them higher wages, or to make them deservins: of hiffher washes. 2d. I have spoken of change of location as a means of restoring the due relations of population and industry which have, as has been shown, an incessant tendency to grow apart. Let us now consider the change of occu- pation, within the same locality, as a second means to that end. Not only may the industry of different places or sections develop with great irregularity relatively to their respective populations ; but in any place or section the proportions borne by the several branches of industry are liable to frequent and extensive alterations, from the effects of changing fashions, from the exhaustion of the THE MOBILITY OF LABOR. 189 materials which have formed the basis of production, from the invention or discovery of substitutes, or from the growth of other habits of living in the community. In- deed, as between the two great divisions, agriculture and manufactures, there is not only a constant tendency to change, but there is the highest improbability of the proportions long remaining the same, the reason being the more rapid and extensive introduction of machinery, and the more minute subdivision of work in the latter than in the former department. Again, as between any two mechanical pursuits, the demand for labor is likely to be differently affected by change of fashion, by the application of new arts and the discovery of new resources. Thus, to consider a single cause, the productive power of a hundred hands engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes was in- creased thirty per cent by the introduction of special machinery between 1860 and 1870. This is by no means an extreme example. The wholesale discharges of laborers from employment in the textile manufactures during the last quarter of the last century and the first quarter of the present, as the result of the successive inven- tions and improvements of machinery, required a readjust- ment of population to industry which amounted almost to a continuous revolution. In a greater or less degree, the need of such readjustment is constantly pressing upon labor, and if it fails to be effected or is effected partially and tardily, there will be a loss to labor, a two-fold loss, first, in that the laboring class will miss, in whole or part, the advantages of the opening employment, and second, in that the body of laborers remaining in the crowded occupations will trample each other down in their in- dividual eagerness to obtain work and wages, with all the consequences in the degradation of labor, which have been depicted in Chap. IV. A similar result may be brought about by changes in 190 THE WAGES QUESTION. the comparative demand for the products of the several branches of manufactures. These changes are literally in- cessant, sometimes amounting only to a temporary quick- eninut not infrequently such change of demand exhibits a persistency which brings to the body of laborers tradition- ally engaged in these industries the choice of CTicountering a general failure of employment, bringing them sooner or later to the condition of hopeless pauperism, or of seeking in some other department of industry, perhaps in some other laud, the means of supporting themselves and their families. l>ut while the irregular growth of different branches of industry would thus require a frequent readjustment of labor, if we assumed an equable growth of the populations which furnish the natural supply of such branches of indus- try, severally, there is the possibility of a further and more nrgent need of a readjustment arising out of the irregular growth of the latter. By the population M-hich furnishes the natural supply of labor in each branch of industry, I mean, simply, the offspring of families engaged therein. It will not be ques- tioned that there is at least a strong tendency within each trade to supply its own labor by its own increase. That tendency may, according to circumstances and character, > See p. 2G. THE MOBILITY OF LABOR. 191 be sIio;ht, or it may be very strong, or abnost irresistible. It differs from some- of the asserted tendencies on which we have had occasion to comment, in that it is a real and not an ideal tendency : all the weaknesses of human nature minister to make it powerful and effective. Now, there being an admitted disposition of children to settle down in their parents' occupation, the need of a readjustment of labor, which can only be effected through positive efforts and sacrifices, becomes greater on account of the irregular- ity in the natural increase of population within the dif- ferent branches of industry, which is wholly additional to the irregularity in the growth of those branches them- selves, viewed as furnishing employment to laborers. The rate of effective increase varies greatly within eacli such natural population, through differences both in the aver- age number of children to a family and in the proportion of children who survive infancy.' In agriculture, for instance, the social and vital conditions of the occupation encourage births, while pure air and food give the chil- dren born on the farm a better chance of life. On the other hand, in some occupations, domestic increase is almost practically forbidden. Occupations range all the way between these extremes, in this respect of their nat- ural supply of labor. Thus the census of Scotland, 1871, shows that there are 177 dependents to 100 bread-win- \^- ' It is not merely by differences in the birth-rate and in the death- rate of these natural labor-populations, that the supply of labor is made to vary. The census of Scotland quoted above, shows that the proportion of males born varies greatly in the different occupations. Thus, among the workers in chemicals there are but 85.3 males to 100 female children under five years of age ; among operatives in silk factories, there are 93.9, in cotton-factories, 95.8, in woolen factories, 97.8 ; while among the agricultural population there are 105.2, among fishermen, 107.5, among general out-door laborers, 10G.6, among quarry- men and brickmakers, 107.8, and among railway laborers and navvies, 117.1. See Report, p. 44. Of course the greater the proportional / number of males, the greater the supply of effective labor. 193 THE WAGES QUESTIOIf. ners within the agricultural class, while there are but 122 dependents to 100 bread-winners within the manufactur- ing class.^ Doubtless, some portion of this relative deii- ciency in the manufacturing class is due to the larger oppor- tunity for the employment of children productively in mechanical industry ; but doubtless, also, a considerable remainder testifies to the superior fecundity of the agricul- tural population, and the greater vitality of children bred in the country. Such being the occasion for a frequent readjustment of population within the several occupations, arising from great irregularity of growth in both population and indus- try, how far is labor able to respond to such economical necessities ? Adam Smith's treatment of this subject constitutes one of the most extraordinary phenomena of economical lite- rature. No TTian has dwelt more strongly than he on the difficulties which embarrass and delay the movement of laborers from place to place. It is his own phrase that man is "of all sorts of luggage, the most difficult to be transported." He saw in his own little island the wages of common, nnsldlled laborers ranging from eighteen pence to eight pence a day, while in the islands, just a bit smaller, to the west, he saw them lower by from twenty to forty per cent ; he saw "• a few miles distance," make a difference in the remuneration of the same sort of labor of " a fourth or a fifth part ; " he knew that such differences had existed for generations without any adequate movement of labor, new causes continually creating divergence faster than population conld close up the intervals ; and he exclaimed that a difference of prices which proved insufficient to carry a man to the next parish would be enough to carry the most bulky commodities " from one end of the king- dom, almost from one end of the world, to the other." » Report, p. 43. THE MOBILITY OF LABOB. 1U3 Yet the same philosopher, a few pages on, treats the dif- ferences which appear in the remuneration of the different occupations as either imaginarj'- or else transient. It is thus he writes : " The whole of the advantages and disad- vantages of the different employments of labor and stock must, in the same neighborhood, be either perfectly equal or continually tending to equality. If in the same neigh- borhood there was any employment evidently either more or less advantageous than the rest, so many people would crowd into it, in the one case, and so many would desert it, in the other, that its advantages would soon return to the level of other employments. This, at least, would be the case in a society where things were left to follow their natural course."^ It would almost seem as though Dr. Smith deemed the obstacles which beset the movement of laborers from place to place, to be physical merely, and, since no physical difficulties stand in the wa}' of a change of occupation by the laborer while remaining in the same place, he saw no important, no note- worthy, obstacles to the free movement of labor from employment to employment. But if the obstacles which beset migration were physical merely, man, instead of being " of all sorts of luggage, the most difficult to be transported," would, with his own consent, be the easiest to be transported. It is because the difficulties which beset migration are, after all, mainly moral, that the statement quoted above is true. Economists writing since Adam Smith's time have gen- erally followed his lead in regarding the obstacles which hinder the movement of laborers within the several branches of industry as of little or no account. Some exceptions appear, but as Prof. Cairnes remarks, it is commonly assumed in treatises of political economy that between occupations, as between localities, in the same * Wealth of Nations i, pp. 103-4. 194 THE WAGES QUESTION. country, the freedom of movement, for labor or for capi- tal, is perfect.' In 1874, however, that eminent economist brought forward his theory of "" Non-Competing Groups " in industry, a contribution of so much importance that I insert his statement substantially entire. Tlie form of Prof. C^airnes' opening is due to the fact that he is reply- ing to a '' school of reusoners " of M'hom Mr. F. 1). Longe was, we may assume, the individual most conspicuously in his view at the time, who hold the uK^vement of labor as between occupations to be practically nil. '' Granted, that labor once engaged in a particular occu- pation is practically committed to that species of occupa- tion, all labor is not thus engaged and committed. A young generation is constantly coming forward, whose capabilities may be regarded as still in disposable form. . . . The young persons composing this body, or others interested in their welfare, are eagerly watching the pros- pects of industry in its several branches, and will not be slow to turn toward the pursuits that promise the largest rewards. . . . On the other hand, while fresh labor is coming on the scene, worn-out labor is passing ofi'; and the departments of industry in which remunera- tion has from any cause fallen below tiie average level, ceasing to be recruited, the numbers of those employed in them will quickly decline, until su}>]ily is brought witliiu the limits of demand, and remuneration is restored to its just proportions. In this Avay. then, in the case of labor as in that of capital, the conditions for an effective ct>mpetition exist, notwithstanding the practical difficulties in the way of transferring labor, once trained to a particu- lar occupation, to new pursuits. But as I have already in- timated, fhe conditions are, in this case, recJi.ied onhj in a7i imjierfect manner. . . Iloc/i individual laborer can only c/ioose his eni_ployment irithin certain tolerahli/ loell-dejined limits. These limits are the limits set by the qnalitica- ' Some Lead iug Piiucipleti, etc., p. oG"2. THE MOBILITY OF LABOR. 195 tions required for each branch of trade, and the amount of preparation necessary for their acquisition. Take an indi- vidual workman whose occupation is still undetermined, he will, according to circumstances, have a narrower or wider field of clioice ; but in no case will this be co-exten- sive with the entire range of domestic industry. If he belongs to the class of agricultural laborers, all forms of mere unskilled labor are open to him^ but beyond tliis lie is practieall}^ shut out from competition. The barrier is his social position and circumstances which render his education defective, while his means are too narrow to allow of his repairing the defect, or of deferring the return upon his industry, till he has qualified himself for a skilled occupation. Mounting a step higher in the industrial scale — to the artisan class, including with them the class of small dealers whose pecuniary position is much upon a par with artisans— here also within certiiin limits there is complete freedom of choice ; but beyond a certain range, practical exclusion. The man who is brought up to be an ordinary carpenter, mason, or smith, may go to any of these callings, or a hundred more, according as his taste prompts, or tlie prospect of remuneration attracts him ; but practically he has no power to compete in those higher departments of skilled labor for which a more elaborate education and larger training are necessary, for example, mechanical engineering. Ascend a step higher still, and we find ourselves again in the presence of similar limita- tions ; we encounter persons competent to take part in any of the higher skilled industries, but practically excluded from the professions. " It is true indeed that in none of these cases is the exclusion absolute. The limits imposed are not such as may not be overcome by extraordinary energy, self-denial and enterprise;' and by virtue of these qualities indi- 1 " The founder of the cottou manafacture was a barber. The inven- tor of the power loom was a clergyman. A farmer devised the appli- V 196 THE WAGES QUESTION. viduals in all classes are escaping everj day from the bounds of their original position and forcing their way into the ranks of those who stand above them. All this is no doubt true. But such exceptional phenomena do not aftect the substantial truth of our position. What we find, hi effect is, not a whole population competing indis- criminately for all occiqKitions, hut a series of industrial layers superimposed on one another, within each of lohich the various candidates for employment possess a real and effective power of selection, while those occupying the several strata are, for all purposes of effective co7npetitioji, practically isolated from each other.^ The consequences economically of this practical isola- tion of large industrial groups, must, on the first state- ment, strike the mind of the reader as very important and far-reaching. If this isolation exists, then there is not a tendency, through the operation of economical causes alone, to the equalization ])rimarily of wages throughout the several groups : and, derivatively, of the prices of the corresponding products of such groups. Prof. Cairnes does not flinch from carrying his theory to its proper con- sequences. Citing Mr. John S. Mill's law of International Values," he declares that this doctrine is manifestly appli- cation of the screw-propeller. A fancy -goods shopkeeper is one of the most enterprising experimentalists in agriculture. The most remark- able architectural design of our day has been furnished by a gardener. The first person who supplied London with water was a goldsmith. The first extensive maker of English roads was a blind man, bred to no trade. The father of English inland navigation was a duke, and liis engineer was a millwright. The first great builder of iron bridges was a stone mason, and the greatest railway engineer commenced his life as a colliery engineer." — Hearn's Plutology, p. 379. ' Some Leading Principles, etc., pp. 70-3. * " That doctrine may be thus briefly stated : International values are governed by the reciprocal demand of commercial countries for each other's productions, or more precisely, by the demand of each country for the productions of all other countries as against the demand of all other countries for what it produces. . . Whatever be the eJc/iiiH*?- THE MOBILITY OF LABOR. 197 cable to all cases in wliich gi'onps of producers, excluded from reciprocal industrial competition, exchange their products. Such cases, as I have shown, occur in domestic trade, in the exchanges between those non-competing in- dustrial groups of which I have spoken." As applied to such groups, the law formulated by Mr. Mill would leave the average relative level of prices witliin each group to be determined by the reciprocal demand of the groups ; or, to abandon technical language, we have the result of large groups, each of which is left to meet its industrial fate by itself, without sharing in the advantages of other groups, or contributing to their welfare out of its own abundance ; a condition in which it can no longer be claimed that if one group be exceptionally prosperous, labor will flow into it from the outside, till the rate of wages therein is reduced to an assumed general average, and vice versa. What then, becomes of the Economic Harmonies, and of the assumption that the " Laws of Trade " only need to be left to their unimpeded operation to bring out the best good of the whole industrial community ? Is this doctrine, bringing with it such vast consequences, true? I answer, there is, in my judgment, a great deal of truth in it, otherwise I should not be justified in having introduced it at such length; but that it will be finally ac- cepted in the form in which Pruf. Cairnes left it, I do not believe, though it is not unlikely that his statement, over- strained as it is, will compel the attention of economists to considerations of real importance heretofore overlooked, or avoided on account of their difficulty, more effectually even than a more measured statement would have done. Certainly after so emphatic an ntterance, by an economist iag proportions — or, let us say, whatever be the state of relative prices — in different countries, which is requisite to secure this result, those exchanging proportions, that state of relative prices, will become normal — will furnish the centra] point toward which the fluctuations of international prices will gravitate." — "Some Leading Principles, etc." pp. 99, 100. 108 THE M'AQKS QUKSTION. 80 dis^tiu^'uisluHl, ^vl•ito^^< in oi'onomii's t'lin li;ii>ll_v CKutiniie to assiuue ;i jn-i-fiH't tVcodiuii of luoNi'mont (n\ tlio }>:irt oi labor, as Uetwoon U>c'alitios ami ocriipations within any coimti'v, an assumption as niisi-hiovoiis as it is false. Instead of assort in u\ as Pi'ot". (\iirnos has clone, the prae- tical isolation of I'ertain i^-reat gnnij^s, with entire treedoni of nunenient within thi>se u'l-oups, I heti(>ve that a fuller study of industrial soeiety will establish the ei>nviftion that nowhere is uiobility }KM'feet, theoretically or i^veu praetieally. aiul nowhere is there entire inunobility of labor; that all classes and conditions i>f uumi are apprecia- bly affected by the force of competition ; but that, on the other hand, the force (A' competition, which ni>where be- comes nil, even for practical jnirposes, rany-es from a very high tt> a very low degree of etliciency, acciM'ding to national temperament, acconliug to ]>cculiarities o^ per- sonal character and circumstani'e, according to the laws and institutions oi the connnunity, and according to natu- ral or geographical influences. And first, briefly, of the assununl isolation <>f i-ertain great groups, as of skilled or unskilled labor. Here Prof. Oairnes asserts that not only will adult laborei"?, oni*e engaged in unskilled occnj^ations, not go up into skilled occupations in any a}^preciable numbers ; but that tho transtcr will not take place in the next generation, by tho passing o{ the children (>f unskilled laborers into skilleil occiipatioiis, to an extent which will practically affect, in any appreciable degree, the nnndters o'C the class into which or out of which, such children, if any, shall go. It cannot be denied that there is a strong constraint, made up of both moral and physical forces, whirh keeps the vast majority of children not only within the great in- dustrial group into wliich they were born, but even Avith- in tho very trades which their fathers individually pursue. I shall have occasion hereafter to dwell on this as of great importance in the philosophy of wages, l^ut that this THE MOBLLITT OF LABOR. 199 constniiiit is so powerful and unremitting that tliose who escape are so few as not in any appreciable degree to re- lieve the class which they leave or to influence the class into which they thus enter, I must doubt. It is not so in the United States, in Canada, in Australia. I seriously doubt whether it is so in Germany, with its universal pri- mary instruction for the young and its admirable system of technical education. It surely is not so in Scotland. If Prof. Cairnes' generalization remains sound for his own country, it is still true that the humblest English laboi'er has only to emigrate to the United States, as tens of thousands do every year, in order to place his children in a situation where they can pass into a higher industrial group, not by the display of " extraordinary energy, self- denial and enterprise," but by tlie exercise of ordinary social and industi-ial virtues. On the other hand, how is it witli the assumed free- dom of movement within the industrial groups which Prof. Cairnes has in view ? Let us recur to his own state- ment of the case. He does not claim that laborers who have once become engaged in any occupation are practi- cally free to leave it for any (jther wliicli may seem more remunerative. He admits, perhaps too fully if we have regard to the United States, Canada, and Australia, that the mass of laborers ai'e held in their place and lot by a constraint from which it is ])ractically beyond their power to escape. But he does claim that the rising generation of laborers furnishes a disposable force — a disposable fund, he terms it — vvdiich can be and will be directed freely within the great groups he defines, according " as remu- neration may tempt, in various dii'ections. The young persons composing this body, or others interested in their welfare, are eagerly watching the prospects of industry in its several branches, and will not be slow to turn towards the pursuits that promise the largest rewards."^ ' Some Liiuduig Princi];les, etc., p. 69. aOO Tin: M'AORS QUESTION. ]S\)\v lot it for the nuinuMit bo i;-i':inttHl that Prof, (^ainics' proposition is triio to tlio full ovtoiit, how far does tho mobility thus i;ivoii \o labor aiiswor tho rocjuiroinonts of tho oaso i lu'forouoo to tabhvs t>f vital statistios will show that tho miiiil>or of porsons aniuially arriviui^at tho aii'o of twenty is from two ami a half to throe [hh' eeiit of the ]n>pulatioii twenty years of ai^-o ami npwards. This then is tho extent of this 'Viisposahlo fuml." Now in C^hap. IV. wo have sonu;ht to sliow how serious often is tho evil elToet npiMi those elements o'i oharactor which n^o to make up tho i^tru'ioiu'y of labor, ot" tn on a brief tailuro of employment; how ahnost eortainly extensive mischief results from '• hanl times" protracted throu£!;h months ami years; hi)w easily and ipiic-kly harm is done ; how slowly and painfully industi-ial charartor is built up ai^ain. In vimv of such possibilities o( disaster, always imminent fnnn tho very nature of moilern industry, the (piesti(>n becomes one of i^rt'at im[>ortance, whether this "disposable fund," which Prof. Oairnes adduces, is larg'o enouiih for its purpose, M'hethor it secures the needed mobility of labor, l^ut before tinaily answeriuij!: this inipiiry, lot us ask whether Prof. Oairnes is justilied by the facts in assuming that the whole of tho risiui; li'eneratitMi of laborers is thus disposable, '' fullilliui;- the same functii^n in relation to the ii;onoi-al labor Wnw o( tho country whit-h caj>ital, while yet existinii; as purchasini!: power, dischar>i-es in its rela- tion to its oeneral capital i " Olio would ni>t lii^htly speak in terms of riilii'ulo of any- thino; which Pn>f. (\virnes has written ; yet there is some- thing ludicrous in the picture which his words suggest of a weaver, with hnlf a d(.>/.on children anil fifteen shillings a week, earnestly pondering the question, to which of tho various trades of the group to which he belongs he shall devote the o|KMiing talents of his nine-year-old boy, now just able to earn thivo [hmico a day in the mill ; or of pro- tracted and froi[uontly adjournod taniily councils in which TEE MOBILITY OF LABOR. 201 poor IJods^c, his wife and eldest dauj^liter, discuss the indus- trial capabilities of the younger members of the family, and the comparative inducements of the several hundred manual occupations recognized in the tables of tlie census. The picture is ludicrous only because the truth of the case is so pitifully the other way. We know that mill owners arc harassed with a])|)lication8 from their hands to take chil- dren into employment on almost any terms, and that the consciences of employers have required to be rein- forced by the sternest prohibitions and jjcruilties of the law to save children ten, seven, or four years old, from the liorrors of "sweating dens" and crowded factories, since the more miserable the parents' condition, the greater becomes the pressure on them to crowd their children somehow, somewhere, into service; the scantier the re- muneration of their i)rcsent em])l()yiru3nt, the less b(!come8 their ability to secure ])romisiiig openings, or to obtain favor from outside for the bettei- disposition of tlieir off- spring. Once in the mill, we know how little chance there is of the children afterwards taking up for tliemselves an- other way of life. We know, too, that in the agricultural districts of Eng- land, gangs of children of all ages, from sixteen down to ten or even five years, have been formed, and driven from farm to farm, and from parish to parish, to work all day under strange overseers, and to sleep at night in barns huddled all together, without distinction of sex. We know tliat the system of public gangs re({uired an act of parliament ten years ago, to break it up, and we have the testimony of the commissioners of 18G7, that, in si)ite of the law, it is still continued in some parts of the king- dom ; while the system of private gangs,' only less shock- ' " Even sometimes as many as eighty or one hundred may be taken from a neighboring town to one farm." Rciport of E. B. Portman, asst. comm'r., — Employment of women and cliildren, 1807-8, p. 1)5. "At present, parents solicit employers to take children into service often i\W THK WAOKS qvssTJoy, inij lo iVMUoiupljUo, is^ still ivntiiwunl without wlntko of lj»\v, Smvlv, i^uoli fjiotss as thoso aiv \\o\ ismsisttMii with iho assutuplioti that the oouiparativo luorits of a larijo »>\uuIh>\' oV oooupaiion!^ ootistitutiny: a "" ivinpotitii»' jjjN»up " are oaivfuUv atu\ intelliiyenllv cauvajisiHl h\ paivnts, juix- ions tor tho hiijhost ultimato ij\>ovi of thoir otf?ipriuii\ anii wUliuij; atul ahlo to lako ailvataaii>> of opportunitiosatKu'tUHl iti hranolu-^ of imltistrv s^Uattijo t\> ihotn atul porhajv^ pj\>s- wuteil at a ilisitaiuw 80 lato as 1870, childtvn wot^ eniploYtHi in the briekvatxlj^of Kuiilaiul, under sjitnuii^vtajik' masters, at lh»\H^ at\vl a half veai*?* of aii"t\* Aeeottnt is ijiven US, siokeiunij iti its \letails, of a bov weiiihini» tiftv-two jviutuls, earrvinij o)\ Ins lu\ul a load of elav weijilunj^ fort\-thi\H> pound*, seven miles a dawaml walk- iuij another seven to the plaee whet\> his hnnlen w as to l>e assun\ed. Perl»aj\s his tnother was t\^i»vrlv "watehinj* tl>e pt\\!ijHvts of industry it\ its seveml hnujohes," w ith a view to seUvtiuij a thoJV>uv»hly a^irtvahle, ivniunerjuive, atid at the s^^me time impiwitijf OiVU|V{»tion, w1um>? ho i\uild at ot»oe earn a handsonie livini* and seeutv opjxu^ tunitleji for the l>arnu>nious development of his physieal, iuteUeetual and spiritual faoulties, hut I sean^elv think it, John Alliuxsworth tells Mr, White, Asst. Oonunissioner, how he at\d his sou, a^^ni nine yeai^ earn their daily ht\\»d. *• Work i« the furnaee, ]*«ist Saturday morninjy we l>egan at two. We had slept in the furnaiH>, heiuj;^ stnu\^xM^> to the town. We live at Wadsley, four or tivo miles ^^l". We have to be hero by six .v. m. Ji is a loujy way for the Ih\v to oi>nH> and j»t^ Ivu'k t\aeh day, though I ean n>anajiv it, I should like to get some plaee iu the town fvu^ luui to stay in,'*^ ^vow Mf'iv is a father wl^o ♦»< KH^king ao Yo«»$ *s to h* worihtess." — It>i*t, j\ 1>7. *' la C»»utMfUtjjt>j>l»irte', th» ehlKtn^n go out lo work ** yowng *s *ix y<^*r» txl^i, iu»nY Mt ;*t*vt*» \>r eiyht,"— tWvJ< }\ i\V ot )^\v l^.lA.nojt?, * Ktfiv^rt of tSttt. p, lit THE MOBILITY OF LAIiOR. 2()'i out for liis soil, 'dcj-ord'ut'/ to Prof. Cairnes' assumption ; 3'et Mr. Cr^mrnis.-j'onor Wliito would pi'obably, from liis lari^e experience, ^ive lieavy odds tliat John Aliinswortli's little son, aged nine, will be found twenty years from this, if still alive, working in the furnace, perhaps sleeping in it, stunted and blighted, the father of a nine-years-old boy, for whom he too, "would like" to get a better place to woi'k and sleep. J have not called up such pictures of human misery with the object of exciting compassion, much less with a view to obtain an advantage in controversy, but to show graphically the eiTor of Prof. Cairnes' assumption that parents who are tied down hopelessly to an occupation which affords but the barest subsistence can freely dispose of their children to the best advantage among a large class of occupations. Especially when we consider that, in the development of modern industry, trades become highly localized, entire towns and cities being given up to a single branch of manufacture, shall we see the practical fallacy of this assum]>tion. Even if we supy^ose the parent to be advised of better opportunities for employment opening in some trade prosecuted at a distance, and to be pecuniarily able to send his child thither and secure him a position, yet, years before the boy or girl would be fit to send away from home, the chance of earning a few pence in the mill where the parent works would almost irresistibly have drawn the child into the vortex. May we not then question Prof. Cairnes' assumption that the children of the working classes constitute "a disposa- ble fund " to be distributed to the highest advantage of labor among those occupations which at the time are most remunerative 'i The truth is, that until you secure raohility to adult labor you will fail to find it in the rising genera- tion, and that among an ignorant and degraded population four-fifths, perhaps nine-tenths, of all children, by what may be called a moral necessity, follow the occupations of 204 THE WAGES QUESTION. their parents, or those with whom their fortune has placed them. The great exception is that which Prof. Fawcett has indicated/ that of the children of agricultnral laborers in the immediate vicinity of flourishing manufiictories. We have now reached a position where we can judge of the adequacy of the force which Prof. Cairnes invokes to secure to labor its needed mobility, and we must pronounce it wholly insufficient. Even were the whole mass of labor coming each year into market to be reckoned as "disposable" in the sense in which he uses the term, it would 3'et sometimes fall short of effecting that redistribu- tion which is required by changes which, as "we have seen not infrequently amount in a few years almost to a revo- lution of industry ; but when we consider how partial and doubtful is the mobility thus claimed for the rising gen- eration of laborers, we are constrained to say that nnless more can be adduced than Prof. Cairnes has shown, the freedom of movement within industrial groups which he has claimed to be practically perfect, is in truth very inadequate to effect that object of supreme importance to labor — the free and quick resort to the best market. But it may be asked, is not the ubiquity of the " tramp " a proof that you have over-estimated the difficulty which besets the movement of labor ? Is there not a large adult population which is constantly shifting its place, here to- day and there to-morrow ? What more could you ask ? I answer, there is no more virtue to relieve the pres- sure upon honest self-respecting labor in the forces which direct the movement of the " tramp," than there is of vir- tue to save men from drowning in the forces wdiich bring a human body to the surface after a certain period of putre- faction. The body comes up, indeed, but only when ' "An agricultural laborer is not suddenly converted into a cotton weaver. Such a transition rarely takes place ; but if there is a manu- factory close at hand many of the children of the agricultural laborers will be employed therein." — Pol. Econ., p. 170. TEE MOBILITY OF LABOR. 205 swollen and discolored by the processes of corruption ; and so the laborer, who has lost his hopefulness and self- respect and become industrially degraded, wiiether by bad habits for which he is primarily in fault, or by the force of causes he had no strength to resist, wanders about the country begging his food and stealing his lodgings as he can ; but his freedom, thus obtained by being loosed from all ties to social and domestic life, does not so much relieve labor as it curses the whole community, rich and poor alike. riivrrKK Ml. IIIK Wvr.KS Cl..\!^S. Ir hrtii boon s^iivl that, bv mos^t svsitoniatio wrltors on political ooonoiuy, tho \vaiiV!> olassji is takon aj^ ivitu'idont with tho labor class. In tho opoivinu" i-haptor T briotly indio.-Uod tivo important olassos thus broug-ht toirothor luuiora sinijK* titlo. In tho prosont ohaptor it is propv>sovl tv^ show that of tho tivo, but two oan with any pro}unoty bo said to ivooivo \vai::os; and of thoso two. it is proposed, thoujih not with tho s;\t\io dogivo of assurance, to oxohulo one, leaving; but a sinijle class as ivally the ivcipient t»f waiivs. It is hopovl that, by strictly dotininu: the wairos class, and setting tho other classes thus distinirnishod in their true ivlatious to it. souiothing may be added to tho understand iuiT of the law of wauvs. To be>rin : The waiji^s class includes ojily the emj^of/eth It is not uecess,ary to spend time in pivvinir that by etymology, at once, ami popular us;\go. tho word is rc^ stricti\l to the jvn\nnoration paivl by otio poi'son to another. Those who give tho \voi\i a wid.er signiticance in political economy are bouml to justify themselves in doing so. by showing that something is g^iinevl, in clearness, theivby. But my reason for desiring to eontine the woril as has Kvn pivposeil, in a ti-eatise on wagt^s, is better than a linguistic one. It is that tho very object of the inquiry is to .ascertain Mr htw\>wtvif action^ ar^ «>W/^if to ««yZ' emjifo^ TIIK WAGMH (JLAhiH. 207 merit and the means of H'nhninten/;e at the hands of oUw/rn. It is tin; foiulition of this cImhb tluit the ])liilantlii-oj)i8t is (;sfK!(;i!ill_v inlorostcd in, l;(;f;auKO tliiH JH pivicWriiiKjiitiy tlio (J('|)Mi'l(.'nt cIhrb. The economist shoiihl be equally inter- esled hef^aii.se jiiBt here coiries tlie real Btrairi in the distri- hiition ol" the products of industry. How, for example, if we ^rou[) employer and employed in one great " wages'* elasK, can we [)rr>pcr]y reach tlie subjects of strikes and ti'ad(!S unions? Ai'o we not, most unnecessarily and in most undeserved contempl, of [)0])iilar spe(;ch, Kliii-j-ing over and (;bliteniting the natural and obvious distinction which ])ointH us the; way to the right disr^ussion of some of the iriost ijriporiant questions of distribution, wlien we speak of the wages of a cotton maniiraflurci- ; wages stipulated by no one, due fi'om no one, and, il" paid at all, y)aid by the accidental consumer of the product? if employers do not Ixjhuig in the wages class, no more do those who are neither enij>loyei's nc))- employed ; who having command of the agencies and instruinentalities of pi'0(biC;lion Hiidicicnt b>r th(;ii' own laboi", tak(,' a most im- portant pai't, indeed, in the ]>roduction of wealth ; but, own- ing th(5 entin; prodnci, have no concei-n whatever with the distribution of wealth, and hence rH^thiiig to do with wages. We thus exclude the whole body of peasant proprietors, who in many countries constitute the bulk of the po])ula- tion, and are, taking the whole world together, undoul^t- edly moi'c mirrujrouB than an_y other single class which we shall have occasion to characterize. These persons, culti- vating their own land with their own labor only, or per- ha])S with that of thcjir wives and mifior children (having no separate rights or interests recognizied by the law of the land, and hence caj)able of making no demand, as laljorers, for any portion of the product), create in the aggregate a vast amount of wealth, but it is wealth not distributed. Eacii such peasant proprietor owns the entire product of his land (subject only to the claims of the government for 208 THE WAGES QUESTION. contribution, which claims, being legal and not eeonomieal in their nature, cannot be recognized in an economical treatise), to be consumed for the subsistence of himself and family and the increase of his own stock, or to be exchanged at his pleasure for the products of others. Such wealth, therefore, is not subject to distribution, and hence we clearly must exclude this body of laborers from the wages class. In England the peasant proprietor does not exist. Forty years ago Prof. Jones' wrote " In parts of England and Wales, though the race is fast vanishing, there may V be seen specimens of our first division of laborers, unhired by any one, occupiers of the soil, tilling it with their own hands." ' The "specimens" have by this time all disappeared except possibly from Westmoreland and Cumberland, coun- ties characterized by comparatively small estates. But while the condition of large landed properties, cultivated by hired agricultural laborers, is almost universal in Eng- land and Scotland, one cannot cross the narrow seas in any direction without coming upon a condition very different.' To the west, Ireland furnishes an example of which we shall speak in connection with another class of producers ; while, before one reaches the coast of France, he finds in the " Channel Islands," a part of the British empire but retaining their own laws regulating the descent of landed property, a body of peasant proprietors who have furnished the advocates of that system of cultivation with some of their most valued illustrations. In France ' " Whose Essay on the distribution of Wealth (or rather Rent) is a copious repertory of valuable facts on the landed tenure of different countries."— J. S. Mill, Pol. Econ., I. 297. « Pol. Econ., p. 15. ^ " You have no other peasantry like that of England. You have no other country in which it 's entirely divorced from the land. There is no other country in the v/orld where you will not find men turning up the furrow in their own freehold." — Cobden, Speeches, II, 116. THE WAGE 8 CLASS. 209 the principle of " partible succession," introduced by the Revolution, has created a vast number of small properties, estimated at between four and five and a half millions. " In Germany a revolution of the same nature, though not of the same magnitude, has been effected in a more regular manner. The benefits of landed property have been imparted progressively to a numerous and prosperous class of cultivators b}'' the abolition of feudal superiorities, by the restriction of entails and special destination of property, by the deliberate division of estates between the landlord and the occupier, on a basis, if not always equitable to the former, at least patriotic in its motives and happy in its results, and by the operation of rules of succession re- producing in some instances and in others adopting with various raodiiications, the maxims of the French Code.* " In Italj', under the principle of partible succession, somewhat modified, and through sale of church lands and the dismemberment of feudal estates subject to commu- nal rights ; and in Russia, through the emancipation of the serfs and their investiture with portions of the estates to which they formerly belonged, we have a large and increasing portion of the soil cultivated by its owners, working for themselves and by themselves, receiving the whole produce of the soil, subject only to deduction through taxation. But it is not only the peasant proprietor of Europe, the " farmer " of America, M^ho must be excluded from the wages class on the ground that he is not dependent on another for employment. In the same class economically, so far as the principles of distribution are concerned, are large bodies of mechanical laborers, artisans, who having possession of the agencies and instrumentalities of pro- * Address of Lord Napier and Ettrick. Soc. Sc. Transactions, 1873. 210 THE WAGES QUESTION. dnction, are enabled to produce wealth by their own labor, without the consent of any person, the product being all their own and hence not subject to distribution, though presumably in great part exchanged for the pro- ducts, especially the agricultural products, of others. These persons, again, receive no wages, are not hired. They are no more the employed than they are the em- ployers ; indeed they are neither. Distribution has nothing to do with them. Adam Smith recognized this class. "It sometimes happens," he says, " that a single independent workman has stock enough both to purchase the materials of his work and to maintain himself till it be completed. He is both master and workman, and enjoys the whole produce of his labor.* I do not, for the present, say that the condition of this class is better or worse than that of the wages class, but only that the two classes stand in different economical relations, and should be treated separately. The self-em- ployed laborer has still to seek his market, and if the mar- ket fail him he may suffer or starve like the wage laborer ; but it is a market for his product that he seeks, not for his labor ; and in the pregnant fact that he has possession of the agencies and instrumentalities of production, and may work in his place witliout the leave or help of any, is found an abundant reason for preserving the distinction expressed above. Closely allied to the peasant proprietor in many respec^.s economically, though differing widely in others, and not the less distinctly to be excluded from the wages class, are those tenants, whether known as ryots in Asia or meta- yers in Europe, who have, whether by law or by impera- tive custom, a, recognized right to the cultivation of soil which they do not own, upon the payment of a fixed share > Wealth of Nations, I. 69. THE WAGES CLASS. 211 of the produce. The wealth thus produced is, indeed, un- like that produced by the classes previously described, subject to distribution, inasmuch as the owner of the soil is here entitled to participate in the results of the industry ; but the tenant's share is still in no sense wages. He is not of the employed class ; he is not dependent on the will of another for the opportunity to labor ; he has a right to work on that particular body of land and to enjoy the fruits of his labor, subject only to the due payment of the share of the product going to the landlord — be the same an individual or the state. And this is equally true whether the right of the tenant to remain in occupancy is one fixed by law, or only by a custom which is so distinct and im- perative as to give a practical assurance of permanency. And it is equally true whether the amount of rent be fixed by law, or by a custom which the owner so far respects as to put it out of his disposition to undertake to raise it.^ The metayer system, under which' the landowner re- ceives a definite share of the produce, originally one-half, as the term implies, but varying in present usage from one-half to two-thirds, according to local law or custom, once prevailed throughout the western division of Conti- nental Europe, Italy, France, and Spain.^ In France, > " In Tuscany," writes Sismondi, and the remark holds true of most parts of Italy where the metayer system prevails, "public opinion protects the cultivator. A proprietor would not dare to im- pose conditions unusual in the country, and even in changing one metayer for another he alters nothing of the rent." " In this country (England) the cultivator of the soil and the owner of the soil are, as a rule, different persons ; in other countries they are, as a rule, the same ; or where they are not the same the owner of the soil rather occupies the position of a perpetuallessor or mortgagee than that of a landlord whose contracts with his tenants are constantly lia- ble to revision." — Prof. Rogers' Pol. Econ., p. 151. ^ Prof. Jones finds the origin of the metayer system of Western Europe, in Greece, from which it was adopted by the Romans, and in- troduced into Italy first, and France and Spain afterwards. Prof. Rogers finds that the metayer system was introduced quite generally 212 THE WAGES QUESTION. since the Revolution, it has been largely superseded by peasant proprietorship ; and in Italy, since the unification of the kingdom, the same process has been going on, though more slowly. A large portion of the soil of these three countries is, however, still cultivated under this tenure. The ryot system of Asia and Turkey in Europe is held by some economists to be substantially equivalent to per- sonal proprietorship; by others to be the Oriental equiva- lent of the metayer system, the taxes, varying from fifty upwards to perhaps seventy per cent., which the govern- ment levies on the produce, being regarded as virtually the rent of the land. The question need not be discussed here, for it is evident that, whichever way it might be decided, the ryot is not a wage laborer. In a very diflferent economical position is the cottar ten- ant, who is liable, on the expiry of his longer or shorter lease, or at the will of the landlord in the absence of a lease, to have his rent raised ; and on his inability to re- sist or to satisfy sucli a demand, or even from the personal prejudices or [)references of the landlord, to be ejected from liis occupancy ; yet we cannot designate his share of the product of the soil, after deducting rent, by the term wages. The condition of the cottar may be better than that of the wage laborer, or it may easily be worse ; but worse or better, it is certainly different, and results from wholly different economical relations. As we go forward the unfitness of such a designation, if, indeed, there should be any question concerning it, will be made to appear more clearly than could be done at present M'ith- into England after the great plague of 1848, and prevailed for about sixty years, when it was " superseded by the growth of a hardy and prosperous yeomanry, who either purchased the land in parcels, or bargained to work it with their own capital, and at a money rent." Pol. Econ., 168, 170. The fate of these yeomen in England has been noticed. THE WAGES CLASS. 213 out an extensive excursion from the path of our discus- sion ; but it will perhaps be sufficient at this point, waiv- ing objections from etymology and popular use, to say that it is of tlie essence of wages that they are at stipulated rates, and therefore certain in amount, while the produce of the cottar tenant is never certain, since nature deehnes to make any stipulation, and the quantity and quality of the crop must always remain, up to the moment of har- vesting, a matter of conjecture. The cottar tenancy is still very general in Ireland. The soil is held in small quantities/ by the great body of the agricultural laboring population." We have thus far insisted tliat only the employed shall be included in the wages class. Applying this test of dependence on others for the opportunity to labor, we have successively excluded several large bodies of laborers, constituting in the aggregate the vast majority^ of the hu- man race. In respect to the production of most of these,- the principles of distribution do not apply. In contem- plating their condition and prospects, we have only to consider the law of production taken in connection with the law of population. Masters of their own fate, econom- ically, whether they shall be happy or miserable will depend [assuming their own industry, frugality and sobri- ety], lirst, upon their habits in respect to procreation ; 1 Of the 682,237 holdings in Ireland, 513,080 are of less value than 15^. a year each, 527,000 are tenancies at will. — Statistical Journal, xxxiii, 152. '^ Day-laborers in agriculture were, until recently, almost unknown in Ireland. Tliey are now appearing in considerable numbers. — Les- lie's Land Systems, etc. p. 44. * " The unliired laborers who are peasant cultivators," according to Prof. Jones, comprised in his day "probably two-thirds of the la- boring population of the globe." — Pol. Econ., p. 14. 314 THE WAGES QUESTION: second, upon tlie acts of their government, protecting tliem or robbing them, as the case may be, with which poHtical economy has nothing to do ; and third, on the kindness or nnkindness of nature in affording sun and shower in due order and proportion, and with this, again, political economy has nothing to do. We have applied the test of employment. We must now apply other tests, still further to reduce the range of our investigation. First, we count out all those who, though em- ployed, are employed on shares. It is, as has been said, of the essence of wages, that they are stipulated in amount. In the case of laborers working on shares, no definite amount is stipulated ; but only the proportion of an uncer- tain product which shall go to the laborer. His remunera tion, therefore, becomes greater with good luck and favor- able weather, or smaller with the reverse. He shares with the employer the risk of bad seasons and accidental loss; and is entitled to participate in all the advantage of every fortunate venture. In other words, he is the partner of his employer, dependent indeed, with no voice in tlie man- agement, and perhaps on hard terms, but a partner still in the distribution of the product; a condition which is strongly contrasted with that of the wage-laborers proper, who have their remuneration at fixed rates, receiving no less if the business be unsuccessful (except in the rare and not anticipated event of bankruptcy) ; and receiving no more, however great the returns of the industry. The class of hired laborers "working on shares is not large, but it is desirable that it should be clearly separated and excluded from the wage class for scientific precision. The share principle is applied somewhat extensively in mining, but its chief application is on the sea, where it becomes of great importance to interest all hands in the success of the enterprise. In fishing vessels and whalers of almost all nationalities, and with the Greeks even in THE WAGES CLASS. 315 the general merchant service, the crews take shares in the venture. Secondly, it is m}' view that another and a very large body of laborers should be excluded from the wages class in treating the questions of distribution, though the term wages is applied, and with entire propriety, to the remu- neration of this class of persons, and its exclusion may not meet the general assent which I trust will be accorded to the exclusions previously effected. What, then, is the class thus to be excluded against common usage ? It includes those persons -who are defined by Prof. Jones ^ as paid, or supported, out of the revenues of their employers. I deem the difference between this class, which it is proposed throughout the further course of this work to call the salary or stipend class, and that wbich I shall call the wages class, to be not only sufficiently clear to justify the economist in giving to the former a distinctive name, but so important in its bearings on the relation of persons of that class to their employers, and on their claim to a share of distributed wealth, as to render it imperative to treat them separately. The domestic servant affords, perhaps, the best illustra- tion, for present purposes, of the salary or stipend class. He is not employed as a means to his masters profit. His master's income is not due in any part to his employment ; on the conti'ary, that income is first acquired, or its acqui- sition reasonably assured ; and in the amount of the in- come is determined whether the servant shall be employed or not, while to the full extent of that employment the income is diminished. As Adam Smith expresses it, "a man grows rich by employing a multitude of manufac- turers ; he grows poor by maintaining a multitude of menial servants.'' ^ > Pol. Econ., p. 420. » Wealth of Nations, I, 332. 21G THE WAGES QUESTION. The case of the wage laborer is different. He is em- ployed with a view to his master's profit ; the masters income is the result of such employment of labor ; and, with the exercise of due judgment, that income will be greater by reason of the employment, within the limits of his productive capacity, of eacii additional man. " Though the manufacturer has his wages advanced to him by his master, he in reality costs him no expense, the whole value of those wages being generally restored, together with a profit, in the improved value of the subject upon which his labor is bestowed. But the maintenance of a menial servant is never restored." ^ The expectation of profits, be it observed, furnishes the test for discriminating the wages class from the stipend or salary class. It is not necessary that the profit expected in the employment of persons of the former class should always be realized ; naj', in a given case, actual loss may result without changing the character of the service. .But unless the reason for the employment is found in the ex- pectation of a profit to the employer out of the production in which the laborer is to be engaged, we do not find in such employment the true sign of the wages class. Hence we may broadly say, No profits, no wages. Let us recapitulate. We have, first, excluded the em- ploying class; second, all who, having possession of the agencies and instrumentalities of production, whether agricultural or mechanical, are not dependent on others for the opportunity to prodttce ; third, those who, though not owning land, lease it, whether under the protection of law or subject to all the hardships of competition. These successive exclusions leave us the employed class, whether in asrriculture or manufactures. From this we further ex- ' Wealth of Nations. 1 THE WAGES CLASS. 217 elude all who produce on shares, and all who are paid or subsisted out of the revenues of tlieir employers. We have left the wages class proper, including- all persons who afe employed in production with a view to the profit of their employers, and are paid at stipulated rates. This is the class whose economical position and interests it is pro- posed here to discuss. With such limitations as have been imposed, the wages cpiestion is not of that wide interest which is given to it when pretty much the whole human race is brought within its scope ; but it may be that by this limitation our inquiries will become more fruitful, i But though the wage class includes but a fraction of humanity, it is perhaps as large as can be comfortably treated in a work of a single volume. Of the eighty mil- lions of English-speaking people, three-fourths probabl.y, two-thirds certainly, subsist on wages. It may be well here to anticipate a hostile criticism. It may be said that we have made our analysis of the laboi- ing population an essential part of our theory of wages, while yet, in fact, no inconsiderable nnmber of persons sustain economical relations which refuse to submit to such a classification. Thus there are persons belonging alter- nately to the wages and to the stipend class, now employed for profit, now paid out of revenue. In like manner there are persons in every community who are employed as hired laborers during portions of the year, while at other seasons they are engaged in production on their own ac- count in their own shops or on their own small holdings of land. To this it may be replied that while the recognition of 1 " Tlie (third) class of hired laborers, paid from capital, has so ex- clusively met the eyes and occupied the thoughts of English writers on wages, that it has led them into some serious and very unfor- . tunate mistakes as to the nature, extent, and formation of the funds out of which the laboring population of the globe is fed, and, as usual, they have misled foreign writers." — R, Jones, Pol. Econ., p. 15. 218 THE WAGES QUESTION. vast bodies of undistributed wealth which are jet subject to exchange, is here asserted to be necessary to a right understanding of some of the phenomena of wages, the validity of this position does not depend on the possibility of an exact enumeration of the several classes defined. On this point I cannot do better than quote from the admirable chapter on Economic Definition, which Prof. Cairues, just before his lamented death, added to his treat- ise on the Logical Method of Political Economy. " In controversies about definitions, nothing is more common than to meet objections founded on the assump- tion that the attribute on which a definition turns, ought to be one which does not admit of deij'rees. This beino' assumed, the objector goes on to show that the facts or objects placed within the boundary line of some definilion to which objection is taken, cannot, in their extreme instances be clearly discriminated from those which lie without. Some equivocal example is then taken, and the framer of the definition is challenged to say in which category it is to be placed. Xow it seems to me that an objection of this kind ignores the inevitable conditions under which a scientific nomenclature is constructed, alike in political economy and in all the positive sciences. In such sciences, nomenclature, and therefore definition, is based on classification, and to admit of degrees is the char- acter of all natural facts. As has been said, there are no hard lines in nature. Between the animal and vegetable king- doms, for example, where is the line to bo drawn ? . . . It is, therefore, no valid objection to a classification, nor consequently, to the definition founded upon it, tliat instances may be found which fall, or seem to fall, on our lines of demarcation. This is inevitable in the nature of things. But this notwithstanding, the classification, and therefore the definition, is a good one, if, in those instances which do not fall on the line, the distinetlons marked hy the definition are such as it is important to marh, sash THE WAGES CLASS. 319 that the recognition of them will help the inquirer for- ward toward the desiderated goal." ^ THE EXCHANGE OF DISTRIBUTED FOR UNDISTRIBUTED" WEALTH. But it may be asked, what avails it to show that the wages classes, instead of being co-extensive with the labor class, as is assnrned in the current theories respecting wages, is only a small fraction of it, communicating with those other great masses of labor, only in the exchange of its completed and marketed products ? How can this fact bear on the question, whether wages may be increased actually and permanently? Are not wages governed by exactly the same principles as if the wages class constituted the whole of the labor class, instead of one-tifth, one-sixth, or one-seventh ? I answer, in the iirst place, that if the wages class is only a fraction of the labor class, that fact should be clearly set forth in discussions of the wages question, and the extent of the interests involved should be, as nearly as possible, indicated. The reader has a right to know whether the principles laid down govern the fortunes of substantially the whole human race, or of only one-iifth or one-seventh of it. The confusion of the labor question with the wages question, is as unnecessary as it is unscien- tific. But secondly, I answer that the fact of the production of a vast body of undistributed wealth, portions of which are subject to exchange with distributed wealth, may, and does, powerfully affect the condition of the wages class. Let us discriminate. So far as undistributed wealth, that is, w^ealth which is produced entire by one person,^ » Log. Metli. Pol. Econ. p. 139-141. » p. 4. ' With tbe assistance, it may be, of his wife and minor children, whose labor is, in the eye of the law, his own. 220 THE WAGES QUESTION. who owns the whole product, is not exchanged but is con- sumed by the producer, as is the case with probably the major part of such wealth, the world over, no effect on the wages dass can be wrought thereby. That wealth, being neither distributed nor exchanged, neither its production nor its consumption concerns other classes of prodncers. But so far as nndistributed wealth is exchanged against distributed wealth, there is a distinct possibility, therein, of gain or loss to the wages class. It was remarked in our first chapter, that it is as truly impossible to explain all the phenomena of wages, with- out reference to this outside body of nndistributed wealth, as it would be to account for the Gulf Stream, withont reference to the colder waters between which, and over which, it flows. AVe are now in a position to justify this remark. We have seen (^hap. x,) that the theory tliat all burdens are divided and all benefits dilfused equally throughout industrial society, rests on the assumption of perfect competition. Industrial society is taken, for the purposes of this reasoning, as composed of economical atoms, absolutely equivalent, possessing complete mobility and elasticity. Given this condition, all that Eastiat has claimed for the economical harmonies, is happily true. The laborer and the employer feel the force of competition eqnally, and neitlier has a natural advantage over the other. The laborer feels the force of competition alike as seller of labor and as bnyer of commodities. Labor and capital flow freely to their best market. The highest price which any emploj'er can afford to give will be the lowest which any laborer w^ill consent to receive; while, as between any two departments of production, the advantages enjoyed by the laborers, capitalists and employees engaged will be absolutely equalized. But, on the other hand, it is evident that the least vis- cositi/ qf material, the slightest idiosyjicrasy of structure must, in a degree, defer, if not enih'ely defeat, the tend- THE WAGES CLASS. 231 ency to the •propagation^ thi'ongh economic media, of any economic impulse. JiLst so far as men differ in their industrial quality, or are diversely organized in natural or artificial groups, just so far there is the possibility that one person or class of persons may he disproportionately affected by an economic force ; may receive more or receive less of the benefit, may suffer less or suffer more of the burden, than his just distributive share. Now the division of the body of laborers into the employed and the non-employed, or independent work- men, is a great structural fact which cannot but profoundly influence the propagation of economic impulses. Doubt- less there are compensations in the condition of the wages class; while nothing could exceed the misei-y of whole nations of peasant proprietors or tenant occupiers, where the government fails to render the protection to which the subject is entitled, or where, as too often happens, the government becomes the plunderer of the people. Yet, through all, we discern in the fact that the wages class are dependent on others for the opportunity and the means to labor, not having, in their own right, possession of the agencies and instrumentalities of production, the possibil- ity of deep and lasting detriment. I have already expressed the opinion, in criticism of Prof. Cairnes' doctrine of non-competing groups, that com- petition never becomes nil, for practical purposes. But let us for the moment inquire what would be the effects, did the employed and the non-emplo^^ed constitute two great non-competing groups ; that is, did not the employed ever become an independent workman ; or the independent workman ever seek employment. We will also suppose competition to be perfect within the employed class. It is evident that upon these assumptions any economi- cal impulse, for good or for evil, which should be experi- enced anywhere in the latter class, M'ould extend at once and without loss through the whole body of the employed, 338 Tin: WAGES QUKSTWy. that {ho luniliMi wtMiKl ln> divided or tho benotit ditVusod nmoHii; tho iniiii> muss, action and reaction continning un- til iHiuililuiuin was ovorywhcro resti>ri>d. r>nt this im- pulse would not he propa<2:ated across the. dividing]: lino between the employed and the non-emj)loyed. The econo- nucal mo\ emiMtt would ceasi> in this direction as abruptly' as a vein of gold stops at n new geologic formation. For good or for evil, the non-emploved would feel no econo- mical symjKithy with the employed. Kach group would meet its own fate, iiulividually, by itself. Certain "ex- changing proportions " would bo established for the sur- plus products of the two groups; a scale of relative prices would be reached by trade between them ; but so long as labor was tmt free to tlow across the line of demarcation there wt>idd not be even a tendency to the ecpialization of the wages of the employed to the average production of the independent workman. Now, as has been said, there is no such utter failure of eonipetition as is here assumed for the purposes of illustra- tion. Tho employed do come, in greater or loss degree, to be independent workmen : independent workmen do oomo under empU>yment. The facility with which these intert'hanges are made depends much upon the nature of special industries, much upon the character of the individ- ual workman, much upon the state of legislatioti and the social condition of the ciumtry. Tn some lauds the move- ment across the lino dividing the employed and the non- employed is very free, many laborers alternating between their own little farms or shops, where they work for them- selves by themselves, reoeiving all advantages and suffer- ing all losses, and tho larger estates or factories where they come under direction and control, and receive wages at stipulated rates. In other lands the transition is slow and iiaitiful ; in some it can scarcely be said to be etiectod at all. ^ On the whole, it is notorious that interchanges be- ' " >"o Englisli ag^ricultural laborer, in his most sanguine dreams. THE WAOim CLASS. 233 twecn tlic two groups are comparatively rare; tlic great mass of the employed never have the choice v^'hether they will set up for themselves; they abide in their lot and share, because they have no resource, the fortune of their class, be that good or evil. The division we have indi- cated remains incontestibly the greatest structural fact in modern industrial society, telling powerfully upon the rate and direction in which economic impulses shall be propagated. If this be so, and I do not look to see it questioned by any one, then there clearly is the possibility that one of these groups may profit at the expense of the other, since the only security which could exist for their sharing equally the benefits and burdens of production would be found in the unimpeded intercliange of labor. Which of the two is more likely to be the gainer in the exchange of its marketed products, whether it be the independent work- man who has possession of the means and materials of production, who can create wealth in his own name and right, and has to ask no man's leave to labor, or the era- ployed workman, will more clearly appear the further we carry our discussion of the conditions of the wages class in modern industrial society. has the vision of occupying, still less of possessing, land." — Rogers' Hist, of Agr. and Prices, I, 693. CHAPTER XIIT. THE CAPITALIST CLASS : RETURNS OF CAPITAL : RENT AND INTEREST. Of capital it is not necessary to discuss here either the ori<;in or the office. Man}' economists carefully exclude land from the lists of capital. What Ricardo calls " the original and indestructible^ powers of the soil," not being the creation of labor, and commanding, as they do, for their possessor, an annual remuneration, over and above the proper returns of labor (as determined by the yield of the poorest soils under cultivation), are, these writers hold, not in the nature of capital. But whatever be the economical nature or the social justification of rent, the facts that land almost everywhere bears its price proportioned to this annual income ; that a great part of all the land in possession to-day in civilized countries was actuall}' acquired by purchase, through the payment of undoubted capital ; that this interchange of fixed and circulating capital is constantly taking place, land always practically having its price in denominations of capital, capital surely commanding the use or fee of land; and finally that no small part, often by far the greatest part, of the selling price of land represents, on any theory of rent, the actual investment of capital merged indistin- guishably with the original productive powers of the soil, these facts justify me, 1 think, for all present purposes, in embracing alike the proprietors of land and the owners of * Ricardo's theory of rent applies to land only as it is assumed to be THE RETURNS OF CAPITAL. 225 other forms of wealth which may be used productively, in one capital-class. Capital, then, whether in land or in some other form, if it be employed productively, yields a return to its owner, over and above the remuneration of the labor applied. The laws which govern these returns of capital it is not nfecessary to discuss here. My only concern with the capital class is to define its membership and ascertain how far that coincides with the membership of the employing class. But, first, a definition. When capital is employed re- productively by the owner, the generic term, returns, suffi- ciently describes the increase of production effected there- by. When capital is employed by a person not the owner, "returns" still describe the increased product; but the special terms, rent and interest, come into use to charac- terize the sums paid out of those returns to the owner. I say " out of those returns," for commonly rent and interest are sometliing less than the amount by which the product has been enhanced, otherwise it would not ordinarily be worth the wliile to borrow and become responsible for the capital so applied, though it may happen, and not infre- quently does, that the desire of the borrower (I use the term here genericalh^, to include the occupier of land) to relieve himself of dependence on an employer, by coming into possession himself of the agencies and instrumentali- ties of production, may lead him to pay more, as interest or rent, than the returns of capital, measured by the ex- cess of the product over the value of his labor expressed in wages at current rates. It seems to me best that the words rent and interest should only be used where capital is actually leased or loaned. There is, indeed, highly respectable authority for unimproved. Differences of fertility wrought by actual applications of capital, are to be compensated on the same principles as invest- ments of equal safety and permanence. 226 THE WAGES QUESTION. saying of a man cultivating liis own land, that he j)ay8 'rent to himself, or of one using his own circulating capital, that \\ki pays interest to himself. But it is better to avoid all such strained uses of words which have a precise mean- ing, by wdiich the^^ fill an important place in economical terminology. Let the returns of capital remain the generic term, while rent and interest are employed only with re- spect to payments for'capital actually leased or loaned. Who, then, constitute the capital class? Who receive the returns of capital ? With that vast body of propert}-, real and personal, which is employed in production by peasant proprietors, or occupiers of land under a practically indefeasible ten- ure, whether guaranteed by law or imperative custom, this treatise has nothing to do, except that it may be noted in passing that those who speak of the capitalist as the em- ployer of labor, are obliged to regard these peasant pro- prietors or occupiers as their own employers, another instance of a perversion of economical terms made neces- sary by a false analj'Sis. If we turn to England and Scotland, where the soil is cultivated under farmer-rents, we do not find the owners of land employing agricultural labor to any considerable extent, except in the ornamentation of grounds, payment for which is made out of revenues already acquired, and the sums so paid are hence, according to our definition, not wages, but salary or stipend. Where agricultui'al laborers are employed for profit in England, it is almost universally by a middle-man, a farmer, who, on the one hand, leases the land from the owner, and on the other agrees with the laborer for his work, by the year, the month, or the day, oljligating himself to pay landlord and laborer at fixed rates, and looking to his own enterprise and economy to secure his own remuneration out of a product which varies continual!}' with good or ill fortune, with good or ill management. The English farmer is, however, almost THE CAPITALIST GLASS. 227 necessarily the owner of circulating capital to some ex- tent, not only to guarantee the landlord's rent and the laborers' wages, but also to purchase live stock, seed, tools, and machinery, and to make advance of wages while the crops are growing. But he is not necessarily the owner of circulating capital to anything like the extent to which he uses "it ; good character and a reputation for business capacity will enable him, under the modern organization of credit, to command the use of far more than he actually possesses. In France, peasant proprietorship gives form to the agriculture of the country ; but even under the old regime the seignior-capitalist did not directly employ labor, and Arthur Young pokes fun at the great lords who, desiring the reputation of cultivating the soil, when that had be- come a fashion in France, let out on shares portions of their estates immediately about the chateau ! In the United States the land is, as a rule, held either by persons corresponding industrially to the " peasant proprietors" of Europe, but rejecting that term, and calling themselves very inappropriately " farmers," or by larger operators Mdio hold the fee of the land and cultivate it by hired labor. Land leased for purposes of agriculture is here highly exceptional. But while the legal owner of the land is thus in a considerable degree the emploj'er of labor, it is to a very large extent capital borrowed on note or mortgage which enables him to eke out the purcliase money of the " farm," to stock it, and to pay wages in anticipation of the crop. We thus see that even in agriculture, where the effects of lordship still survive, the capitalist is not necessaril}'- the employer of labor, nor is the employer of labor limited in his operations by the extent of his personal ownership of capital. But if we turn to the department of mechanical industry, in which lordship never had existence, and all that has survived from feudal times (the trades unions, as 328 THE WAGES QUESTION. the illegitimate successors of tlie ancient guilds) is antago- nistic to the employer's authority; a department which is eminently the field of " new men," and in which the hered- itary principle is reduced to a minimum, we find the as- sumption that the capitalist is the employer, the employer the capitalist, monstrously unreal. True it is that the employer should be a capitalist, that he should have posses- sion of some accumulations, not only to guarantee ^ the loans he contracts and the wages he becomes responsible for, but also to steady his own operations, lest he should act as one who has everything to gain and nothing to lose ; true it is that able employers come to own an increasing share of the capital used in their increasing business ; and that the larger their accumulations become, the greater the freedom and strength" with which they conduct business. Yet it still remains that the employer is not an employer because he is a capitalist, or in proportion as he is a capi- talist. Of capitalists under our modern organization of in- dustry, but a small minority employ labor ; of employers few but use capital far in excess of what they own. More- over the employer who owns little capital ; the. employer who owns much, and the employer who owns perchance all he employs, are not to be distinguished in their indus- trial attitude and relations, or in the nature, or, generally we may say, in the extent of their operations; but differ only in the ease, freedom, and security with which they conduct their respective businesses. And that difference is, in ordinary times, not very noticeable. One employer, in- deed, is down on the books of the Commercial Agency with A five times repeated, and his paper is known as ' Mr. Ricardo makes this distinction in respect to the banker him- self. " The distinctive function of the banker begins as soon as he uses the money of otliers." Yet, though it is the use of other penple'ri money tliat characterizes the banker, it is important tliat he should be IvHown or supposed to have money of his own to afford guaranty of his good faith and prudence. THE CAPITALIST CLASS. 229 " gilt edged." Another must be content to be rated lower by the Agency, live smaller, pay a little more interest on loans, run around a little more lively before the close of banking hours, and be served after his betters. But the outside world sees verj'^ little difference, granting them equality of business ability, in their employment of labor or conduct of affairs. Who, then, are the capitalists who are not employers of labor ? I answer, first, those who by age, sex, or infirm- ity are disabled from active operations; men retired from business, women of all ages, children and young persons of both sexes, the crippled and incompetent for whom provis- ion has been made ; these, in the order of nature, own a large part of the property of the world. If their wealth is in their own hands, they know their limitations, and do not undertake to emplo}^ it personally ; if their wealth is held for them, the responsibilities of the trustee or guar- dian are incompatible with the ventures of manufacture or trade. Secondly, those who, from dignity and love of leisure, as is especially the case with men of inherited means, are indisposed to increase their store by active ex- ertions, but live upon their income ; and those who are engaged in professions ' which do not allow the invest- ment of their earnings. Thirdly, the laboring classes, whether receiving wages or salaries, who are able, even out of scanty earnings, to make savings which they are, fi'om the nature of their industrial position, unable to apply personally to production. Small as are the individ- ual contributions of this class to the loanable capital of a community, the statistics of the savings banks show what is the virtue of a large multiplier. There might be added, perhaps should be added, to the vast aggregate of capital thus constituted, the accumulating profits of industries ^ E. g., Lawyers, physicians, clergymen, architects, engineers, gov- ernment officials, and the like. 300 TUB WAGES QUESTION. which arc :ih'e;uly full of capital uj) ti) the point of " di- luinishing returns," where overflow must take place into newer bninches of production. Thus no small part of the net annual profits of ajj^riculture in Somersetshire and llampsliiro go up to London to be loaned to the manufac- turers of Yorkshire and Jjancashire ; ^ while in the United States the current is reverseil, and the manufacturing divi- dends of New England gi> to the AV'^est to be invested in agriculture, which can still afford to pay eight, ten, and even twelve per cent. Here again we have a large body of capital, which, though the owners of it are employers in some branch of industry, yet goes to sweU the aggregate of loanable capital to which employers who are not capi- talists, or wlio wish to bo employers beyond the extent which their own capital permits, may resort under the modern ora-anization of credit. It is so clear that the membership of the capitalist class is not coincident with that of the employing class, not- withstanding the use by the economists of the word capi- talist to signify the employer of labor ; and the subject of the relation of the capitalist to the employer is, as far as I have occasion to consider it, so simple, that I should not have devoted a separate chapter to this class, but have de- lined it in remarks introductory of the employing class proper, were it not that I desired to emphasize this my difference with the text-book writers ; and secondly and chiefly, that it becomes necessary for me to take exception to the use, by the same M'riters, of the word Profits, an exception best taken under the present title. My exception is not on linguistic grounds. Profits, so far as the etymology of the word goes, might include in- terest, rent, wages, and the gain derived from the conduct • Bagehot's Lombard Street, p. 13. DEFINITION OF PROFITS. 331 of business, any one or all of these. The economists gen- erally use the word to express the returns of capital.^ I propose to express by it the gains of the employing class, letting the returns of capital stand as previously explained in this chapter. By what, then, do the economists express that which I call profits? I answer, that as they refuse to the employing class a separate entity ,2 so they, logically enough, practically deny the existence of profits distinctly from the returns of capital. If the employer, mIio is assumed to become an employer because he is a capitalist, and to the extent to which he is a capitalist, gives his per- sonal attention and his time to the business, they acknowl- edge that he receives an addition to his income on that ac- count, which addition they define as " the wages of super- vision and management." This they regard as belonging strictly to the category of wages, and treat the case pre- cisely as if the employer or "capitalist'' had dispensed with a paid overseer, superintendent, or manager, and drawn the salary of the position himself — otherwise his "profits" are all the proper returns of capital. If he chooses to withdraw his personal attention and retain the overseer, superintendent, or manager, then his " profits " have no such foreign admixture. But inasmuch as the theory of distribution offered in » " Profits proper, or interest." — Prof. Rogers, Pol. Econ., p. 139. "The return for abstinence is profit." — Prof. Cairnes' " Some Lead- ing Principles," etc., p. 48. " As Mr. Amasa Walker is the only systematic writer on political economy, with whose work I am familiar, who recognizes the employ- ers of labor as constituting a distinct industrial class, so he is the only one who gives the word. Profits the significance it has in the text. " By the term profits we mean that share of wealth, which, in the general distribution, falls to those who eflFect an advantageous union between labor and capital .... the parties, then, to production are (1) the laborer, (2) the capitalist, (3) the employer, or manager. Each ha.3 a distinct province and a separate interest." — Science of Wealth, pp. 279-80. 233 THE WAGES QUESTION. tliis treatise requires the recognition of tlie employers ol labor as a distinct industrial class (see Chapter XIV), per- forming a function of high importance, something beyond " supervision and management," as exercised by hired agents, it is evident that a term is needed to designate the share of this class in the product of industry. !N"o\v, while the use Avhich the text-books make of the term Profits is, as has been said, not objectionable on linguistic grounds, that which is here proposed certainly corresponds far better to the popular usage, at least in America. I cannot speak with assurance in respect to the significance of the word in England ; but witli us, few practical men would understand a manufacturer's or a merchant's profits to include his interest-account. Webster's Dictionary gathers the American sense of the word correctly in the following definition : " The 2>f'oJH of the tanner and the manufacturer is the gain made by sale of produce or man- ufactures, after deducting the value of the labor, materials, rent, and all expenses, together with the interest of the capital employed, whether land, machinery, buildings, instruments, or money." And since this use of the word agrees thus with the speech of practical men, while the term, Eeturns of Capital, is perfectly descriptive of the •object to which it is applied, I trust the reader will not revolt at beingi asked to carry through the further course of this enquiry the definition of Profits, as the remunera- tion of the employing class, or the gains of business. According to our analysis and definition, then, tha parties to the distribution of the product of modern indus- try, in its highest organization, and the shares they re- spectively receive, are as follows : 1. The Wages Class Wages. ^ 2. The Capitalist Class Returns of Capital (Rent : Interest). 3. The Employing Class Profits. IS INTEREST AT ITS MINIMUM f 333 Are the returns of capital alreacl_y at or near the mini- mum? A very common answer to complaints respecting the inadequacy of wages, or to schemes for securing their increase, is that the returns of capital are already as low as it is for the interest of the laborers themselves they should go ; that if a smaller annual return were to be made to the capitalist for the use of his accumulated wealth, the disposition to save would be so far affected thereby as to reduce the store of capital, and thus diminish employment. 1 am embarrassed in making quotations from economical writers to show the direction of this argument, by the fact that they generally use the word profits ^ to express the returns of capital (including remu- neration for its risk), but with always a possible addition of "the wages of supervision and management," It is, therefore, difficult to say whether, in a specific instance, the rate of interest is referred to alone, or the remunera- tion of the man of business, after estimating the proper returns of capital, is also included. Eut as the latter element is treated as of comparatively slight importance, I think I may assume that, when Professor Cairnes says " Profits are already at or within a hand's breadth of the minimum," '■' he refers chiefly, if not wholly, to the returns Tipon capital. Of course, if profits be at the minimum, an}'- increase of wages which involved a further reduction in the retui'ns of capital,' would nnquestionablj^ be detri- mental. Prof. Fawcett thus works out the effects of such a reduction : " If profits are diminished, there is not so great an inducement to save, and the amount of capital accumulated will decrease ; the wages fund will conse- 1 " Profit : a word which, like many others in political economy, is very loosely applied." — Prof. Rogers' Pol. Econ., p. 5. 2 " Some Leading Principles," etc., p. 258. 3 It has been shown that it is possible that an advance of wages may be made in several ways without involving a reduction either in profits or in the returns of capital. 2^4 THE WAGES QUESTION. quently be diiniiiishcd, and there will be a smaller amount to distribute among the laboring classes." ^ But I fail wholly to understand what evidence Prof. Oairnes can have had that the retui-ns of capital are at or near the minimum. Jf he liad in view the fact that in England the rate of interest and the returns from capital invested in land are now so low that a continually increas- ing amount of capital is going abroad to newer countries, this is undoubtedly true ; but it affords no proof that the rate of interest in England has reached the point where a further reduction would touch the principle of frugality in the quick. Every dollar of British capital fortunately invested in Australia or the United States helps to cheapen the materials of British manufactures, and to widen the market for British products. So long as these new coun- tries enjoy such extraordinary natural advantages, English capital will doubtless continue to go abroad ; but were these countries filled up with capital, so as to bring the rate of interest down to what it is in England, where is the reason for believing that Englishmen would not save their wealth for the sake of an annual return lower than the present ? The return to an investor in the British consols, which are regarded as the ideal security, is about three and three-sevenths per cent, per annum. The in- surance companies realize about four and one-half per cent, on their investments. Railway shares paying five ]^er cent, a year sell ordinarily close on 100. Could Prof. Cairnes have meant that, if Englishmen could not get five per cent, for their capital, or at least three and three-sev- enths per annum, they would consume it in self-indul- gence? But we know that the Dutch have accumulated vast savings on still lower inducements, for the rate of interest in Holland long ruled at two and one-half per cent., while the government borrowed freely at two per ' Pol. Econ., p. 343. TEE MOTIVE TO SA VING. 235 cent. Nor Imve we any grounds for assuming that even a lower rate might not find people still saving, be it from profits, from wages, or from the returns of previously existing capital. One consideration of importance, which is often lost sight of in this connection, is that the motive to save con- tains an element besides the expectation of an annual income from the accumulation. Saving is also in the nature of an insurance against the casualties of life. The strength of this motive to self-denial for the sake of insur- ance alone, is seen in communities where there are no banks, as in many of the departments of France, and no means of oi'dinary investment, where yet vast sums are accumulated by the peasantry.^ Not the less in countries where banks afford the safe and sure means of deriving present revenue from savings, does this' desire to save, as an insurance against the inevitable ills of life, constitute a considerable part of the motive to accumulation. Men would in a degree provide against old age and sickness, provide for the possible widowhood and orphanage of those dependent on them, were there no interest on money; and saving thus, a very low rate of interest on absolutely safe investments would call their funds into productive use. Now this view, the justice of which cannot, I think, be questioned, affords the means of judging somewhat more critically the statement of Prof. Fawcett just quoted. Prof. Fawcett says, If wages are enhanced, profits are diminished, and hence less capital will be accumulated. But we know, both from the reason of the case and from the statistics of the savings banks, that capital may be ac- cumulated from wages as well as from profits, whether we understand by that term, the returns of capital, or the ' European financiers have been more than once astonished by the enormous accumulations of the French peasantry, when these were tapped by a popular loan. 236 THE WAGES QUESTION. gains of business. Does any one say, a reduction in the rate of interest would afiect the disposition of the laborers to save out of their wages equally with the disposition of the capitalist or the employers, to save out of their earn- ings? I answer, no, decidedly not. The motive to save, for the sake of insurance, operates with far greater force among the laboring class than among the more fortunate classes. Thus, taking the case of a hundred laborers work- ing for one employer, can it be doubted that the desires of all these individuals, even if we make deduction of spend- thrifts and drunkards, to provide against old age, sickness, and the premature death of the bread-winner, would con- stitute a stronger force to direct towards savings an extra thousand pounds of wages, than would the corresponding desire on the part of the single employer, in the matter of an extra thousand pounds of profits ? That this would be so in France or Germany, would not, I think, be questioned l)y any Frenchman or German. If it should not prove so in England, it would be in no small degree due to the fact that the tenure of the land, the true savings banks of the people, has been so much embarrassed by statute and by judicial fictions. It should, of course, be expected that a large and sud- den increase of wages, due to general industrial causes like that which took place four years ago in the iron and coal ^ trades of Great Britain, would, most likely, human nature being what it is, be employed in ministering, more or less, to folly and vice, or squandered in expenditures, not per- haps hurtful in themselves, but unnecessary, and therefore, as against a strong reason for saving, mischievous. The possible increase of wages which I have in view is rather a steady advance due to the increasing mobility of labor from the growth of the industrial virtues, enabling the * Coal rose, between July 1871, and February, 1873, in the proportion of 100 to 256, iron following, though at a considerable interval. 1 INTEREST AT THE MINIMUM. 237 wages class to resort more promptly to their market, and to press their employers more closely with a truly effective competition. Wages thus won would, in general, be well employed. So much for that desire to make savings as an insurance ao'ainst the contino^encies of life and health, which is one element of the principle of frugality. Of the other, and doubtless more important, element, the desire to secure an annual income from investments, or from the personal use of capital, it is not necessary to speak here at any length. I know no reason for believing that interest in any coun- try has reached its minimum, that is, the point where the desire to spend overpowers the disposition to save, in such a proportion of instances as to waste capital, or to prevent it from increasing proportionally to population and to the opportunities for its reproductive use at current rates. It is quite another question whether it makes any differ- ence whether the returns of capital are at the minimum, or are very much above that point. I have already ^ quoted a paragraph from Prof. Perry in which he takes the ground that if, from any cause, an undue amount of the product of industry goes to the share of the capitalist-em- ployer, nothing can defeat the tendency that the excess shall be restored to wages. Prof. Cairnes, in his " Lead- ing Principles," has expressed himself on the same ques- tion as follows : " Thus, supposing," he says, " a group of employers to have succeeded, as no doubt w^ould be perfecth' possible for them, in temporarily forcing down wages by combina- tion in a particular trade, a portion of their wealth previ- ously invested would now become free — how would it be employed ? Unless we are to suppose the character of a > Pp. 81-2. 98* THE WAGES QUESTION. large section of a cominnnit}^ to be suddenly changed in a leading attribute, the wealth so withdrawn from wages would, in the end, and before long, be restored to wages. The same motives which led to its investment would lead to its reinvestment, and once reinvested, the interests of those concerned would cause it to be distributed amongst the several elements of capital in the same proportion as before. In this way covetousncM U held in check hy cov- etoiisness, and the desire for aggrandizement sets limits to its own gratification." The doctrine here seems to be that the desire for accu- mulation, or aggrandizement,^ is a constant force, and thus the effects of covetousness, through the employer's efforts to give the laborer as little as may be for his services, are compensated b}' the effects of covetousness through the emplover's eiforts to make a profit on the amount thus saved by again euiploying it in the purchase of labor. The motives to investment and reinvestment are therefore ecjual. Now it seems to me that this doctrine is inconsistent with any recognition of the varying strength of the econo- mical motives. While in particular instances, with per- sons of the miserly, disposition, the passion for accumula- tion may grow with increasing wealth, the observation of every one must convince him that, with tlie vast majority of men, especially in this age of retinement and of artificial wants, the impulse to spend luxuriously acquires force, after the comforts and decencies of life are once provided for, faster than the impulse to save ; that large incomes are not applied as severely and judiciously to further get- ting as are moderate incomes ; that the rich expend their revenues with a lavishness, a capriciousness and a heed- lessness which are unknown to men of smaller means. If this be so, and, with full regard to no inconsiderable num- > Pp. 278-9. INTEREST AT THE MINIMUM. 239 ber of particular instances to the contrary, I do not think it will be denied, then tlie motives to reinvestment cannot be held to be necessarily equal to the motives to invest- ment ; and instead of covetousness being held in check by covetousness, luxuriousness comes in to consume a portion at least of such excessive gains. It needs to be noted, moreover, that, upon Prof. Cairnes' own doctrine of " non-competing groups,"^ it would not follow that the suras thus taken from one body of labor- ers in excessive profits will be restored in wages to the class or classes suffering such losses. Capital having, on Prof. Cairnes' statement, a much higher degree of mobility than labor, the body of laborers to be benefited by such restoration of profits to wages, will not necessarily, or even probably, be identical with that which was in the first in- stance depleted. And if a right distribution of the pro- ducts of industry be important to secure the highest indus- try and zeal in future production, then incontestibly, in addition to all considerations of the iniquity of thus bleed- ing one class for the benefit of others, we have a strictly economic argument against the theory of the practical in- difference of the present proportions of wages and profits. But we may go further and say that all this kind of reasoning in economics which makes the employing or the capitalist class, in a state of imperfect competition, the guardians of the wages class, in such a way that it really doesn't matter whether the laborer gets all the wages he might, or even, at any specified time, gets any at all, because excessive profits will further enrich those other classes who hold their wealth as a sort of sacred trust for liim, so that at another time he will get all the more, if he gets less or nothing now — all this sort of reasoning is much to be dis- ' See p. 104. 240 THE WAGES QUESTION. trusted. And I cannot sufficiently express my astonish- ment that an economist of Prof. Cairnes' eminent ability, who made the most important contribntion ever offered in modification of the theory of competition, and who pointed out tlie frightful hiatus in Ba^tiat's coniposition of the Economical Harmonies,' should have fallen into the trap at this point. Anything more contradictoiy of his own doctrine of the extensive failure of competition, and the want of harmony between the interests of the work- man and the employer, as each imderstands his interests and is prepared to act with reference thereto, than this assumption of the certain restoration to wages of all sums taken for excessive profits, it would be impossible to conceive. It is a poor rule that doesn't work l)oth ways. Yet writers who hold it to be of no consequence at all that the "capitalists'' should, by pressure brought upon the labor- ers, reduce tlieir wages below the equitable point, since the extra profits thus acquired are certain to be restored to wages, seem to regard it as a subject of just apprehen- sion lest laborers should, by trades unions or strikes, bring a pressure to bear, on their side, which might reduce profits unduly. But why should not such extra wages be restoi^ed to j^rqfit'i, just as certainly, peacefully, and auto- matically ? What difference does it make if the "capital- ist," in any given time or place, gets an inadequate profit, or indeed no profit at all»? He will only get just so much more the next time. Certainly, if the laborer can wait to have excessive profits restored to wages, the " capitalist" can wait to have extra wages restored to profits. This notion of a see-saw between wages and profits is well hit-off in a story which Governor Winthrop tells : " I may upon this occasion report a passage between one of Rowley and his servant. The master being forced to sell > See p. 164. THE LABORER HIS OWN GUARDIAN. 341 a pair of oxen to pay his servant his wages, told his ser- vant he could keep him no longer, not knowing how to pay him the next year. The servant answered him that he wonld serve him for more of his cattle. But how shall I do (saith the master) when all my cattle are gone ? The servant replied, you shall then serve me, and so you may have your cattle again.^^ ^ Surely, if a man becomes an employer in industry, only because he is a capitalist, and as he is a capitalist, the servant in this story was not more of a wag than of a political economist. ISTo, in a state of imperfect competition, the employer is not the laborer's guardian, or the trustee of his earnings. The workman's legitimate wages are a great deal better in his own pocket, or standing in his own name on the books of the savings bank, than paid into the hands of the employer as extra profits. The reasoning to the contrary, on the assumption of a vital harmony of interests, cannot fail to remind one of the economical plea, with which it is point by point identical, once so widely urged, that the owner's interest would abundantly protect the slave against ph^'sical abuse or privation. It is also closely analogous with the political plea by which the privileged classes have always sought to show that it really didn't matter how much political power was entrusted to them ; that the interests of rich and poor, high and low were indissolubly bound up together, so that if one suffered, all must suffer with it ; and that, therefore, the class most intelligent, most apt for government, having most leisure for public affairs, with, moreover, the largest stake in society, might safely be trusted to make and execute all laws, their own true and permanent interests prohibiting them from any and every course prejudicial to the lower classes, who » History of New England, 11. 319-30. 342 THE WAGES 'QUESTION. could not, it was urged, be in any wa}'^ oppressed but that social and industrial disorders would afford immediate retribution for the neglect of duty or abuse of power on the part of their self-constituted guardians. The argument is a very pretty one, but alas ! and alas ! what a dreary and sickening tale is that of the exactions and oppressions of the Old Rfegime ! There is no class fit to determine its own rights and prescribe the duties of others. Inevitably will tyranny be engendered, whenever there is weakness or helplessness on the one side. N'oblesse oblige ; and the sentiments of compassion and charity go far to mitigate the natural severity of legislation and administration ; but, after all, there is only one way in which the rights of any body of men can be secured, and that is by being placed in their own keeping. ^c^' 'y^^' CHAPTER XIM,^ ^Jjn THE EMPLOYING CLASS! THE ENTREPRENEUR) FUNCTION I THE PROFITS OF BUSINESS. We have seen (Chapter I.) that much confusion has been introdnced into the theory of wages by the economists carrying the classification which results from their analy- sis of functions in production over into the distribution of wealth, assuming, it would seem, that industrial functions must needs characterize distinct industrial classes. We have seen that, in fact, the laborer and the capitalist are largely the same person ; and that no division of the pro- duct into shares, representing the claims of different par- ties, in such cases takes place. We have now to note a further source of error in the almost universal neglect by the text-book writers to make account of an industrial function which, while, the world over and history through, it characterizes a class no more^ than labor or capital, does yet, in the most highly organized forms of industry, espe- cially in these modern times, characterize a distinct and a most important class. This class comprises the modern employers of labor, men of business, " capfains of indus- try." It is much to be regretted that we have not a single English word which exactly fits the person who performs this office in modern industry. The word " undertaker," ^ Thus the peasant proprietor takes all the responsibilities of pro- duction, determines its courses and its methods, and acts, so to speak, as the entrepreneur in respect to his own little affairs, at the same time owning the capital employed and performing all the labor. 244 THE WAGES QUESTION. the man wlio undertakes, at one time liad very much this extent ; but it has long since been so e\'clnsively devoted to funereal uses as to become an impossible term in politi- cal econom3\ The word "adventurer," the man who makes ventures, also had this sense ; but in modern par- lance it has acquired a wholly sinister meaning. The French word " entrepreneur " has very nearly the desired significance ; and it may be that the exigencies of politico- economical reasoning will yet lead to its being naturalized among us. This function, then, of the man of business, middleman, undertaker, adventurer, entrepreneur, employer, requires to be carefully discriminated. The economists, almost without exception, have regarded capital and labor as together sufficient unto production, the capitalist being the emploj'er, the laborer being the employed. It may fairly be presumed that the failure to recognize a third party to production, the middleman, has been due in part "to the fact that these writers have been accustomed to take their illustrations of the offices of labor and capital from the savage state, or at least from a very primitive condition of industiy. The bow, the spear, the canoe, are the favorite subjects when it is to be shown how it is that the results of labor may pass into the form of capital ; how it is that capital may assist current labor; and how it is that a reward can be given to capital out of the product of industry without any wrong being done to the laborer. And it is true that when the forms of pro- duction are few and sinq:)le, and when the producer and the consumer are either the same person, or are found in close proximity, the possession of capital is the one suffi- cient qualification for the employment of labor ; and, on the other hand, a supply of food and of tools and materials is all that labor needs to institute production. But when, in the development of industry, the forms of production become almost infinitely numerous and eorapli- THE EMPLOYING CLASS. 245 cated ; when many persons of all degrees of skill and strength must be joined in labor, each in his place contri- buting to a result which he very imperfectly, if at all, com- prehends ; when the materials to be used are brought from distant fields, and the products are in turn to be scattered by the agencies of commerce over vast regions, the con- sumers constituting an ill-defined or an undefined body, personally unknown to the producer or any immediate agent of his ; then a reason for an emploj'er exists which is wholly in addition to that which exists in a primitive con- dition of industry. The mere possession of capital no longer constitutes the one qualification for employing labor ; and, on the other hand, the laborer no longer looks to the employer to furnish merely food and the materials and tools of the trade ; but to furnish also technical skill, com- mercial knowledge, and powers of administration ; to as- sume responsibilities and provide against contingencies ; to shape and direct production, and to organize and control the industrial machinery. And, moreover, so much more important and difiicult are the last specified duties of the employer; so much rarer are the abilities they require, that he who can perform these will find it easy to perform those ; if he be the man to conduct business, capital to purchase food, tools, and materials will not, under our modern system of credit, long be wanting to him. On the other hand, without these higher qualifications, the capi- talist will employ labor at the risk, or almost the certainly, of total or partial loss. The employer thus rises to be master of the situation. It is no longer true that a man becomes an employer because he is a capitalist. Men command capital because they have the qualifications to profitably employ labor. To these, captains of industry, despots of industry, if one pleases to call them so, capital and labor alike resort for the opportunity to perform their several functions. I do not mean that the employer is not in any case, or to any extent, a capitalist ; but that he is 346 THE WAGES QUESTION. not an employer simply because he is a capitalist, or to the extent only to which he is a capitalist. Now all this is evident to any man who looks carefully on our modern industry. Yet the economists, having made their analysis of production in a primitive state, wholly neglect these later developed duties of the em- ployer, this new and far higher function ; and insist on regarding the capitalist as himself the employer. They resolve the entire industrial community into capitalists and laborers;^ and divide the whole product between tlie two. To the contrary, I hold that no theory of the dis- tribution of wealth, in modern industry, can be couiplete which fails to make account of the employing class, as dis- tinguished in idea, and largely also in its jyersonnel, from the capitalist class. It would, I admit, be difficult to prove the importance of the entrepreneur function in industry, just as it would be difficult by argument to establish in the mind of an objector, a true conception of the functions of the general in war. Those who know nothing about warfare might believe that campaigns could be conducted on the principle of popular rights and universal suffrage. Why not ? There is the materiel of war (capital) in abundance ; here are the soldiers (laborers), who, if any lighting is to be done, will have to do the whole of it ; \vhy should not these soldiers take those guns, and do their work ? In much the same way, those who know little practically about production are easily pei'suaded that the trouble- some and expensive " captain of industry" may be dis- })ensed with, and his place occupied by a committee or a mass meeting. ' "The ultimate partners in any production maybe divided into two classes, capitalists and laborers. ... If the distributor be the capitalist, the share of the laborer is called wages. If the distributor be the laborer, the share of the capitalist is called either interest or rent." — Hearu's Plutology, pp. 325-7. THE EMPLOYING CLASS. 247 We have had but few instances of actual attempts to conduct campaigns on the town-meeting plan, the most notable, perhaps, being the crusade of Walter the Penni- less and the first Bull E.un ; but there have been numerous eflPorts made to get rid of the entrepreneur, and it is in the almost universal failure of such efforts that we have the highest evidence of the importance of this functionary in modern industry. Cooperation,^ which is nothing more y^ or less than the doing away with the middleman, has several distinct advantages, of vast scope, in production ; vet these have been weighed down again and again, even under conditions most favorable to the experiment, by the losses resulting from the suspension of the employing function. Let those who resolve the industrial community into capitalists and laborers only, and divide the whole product between these two classes, explain, if they can, the failures of cooperation. It has been said that the omission of the economists to recognize the employers as a distinct class in modern in- dustry, is presumably due, in part, to the tendency to go back to the savage, or to a very primitive state, for illus- trations of the nature and offices of labor and capital. But I believe that it is also in part due to the fact that the real employing class is covered up, more or less, from casual view, by what may be called a false employing class, many times more numerous. This false employing class, as I make bold to call it, is composed of several con- siderable bodies of so-called employers. 1. Those who hire servants or retain assistants who are to be paid out of revenues already acquired. Reasons have already ^ been assigned for removing persons so en- gaged or employed from the wages class, and treating them by themselves as the " salary or stipend class.'' Of ' ' A wholly erroneous conception of cooperation, due to the neglect of the entrepreneur-function, is exposed on page 264. = P. 215. 348 THE WAGES QUESTION. course, the same reasons require the removal of their masters or patrons froui the lists of the employing class. If we were to consider the domestic servants, alone, of England and the United States, we should lind the so- called employers to be far more numerous than those who pay wages to laborers whom they hire for profit. Ko wonder that when those who are paid out of revenue are confounded with those who are paid out of the product of their labor, the inclusion of the masters of the former class should obstruct the view of the far less numerous employers of the latter class. 2. In this false employing class are large numbers of artisans who have single apprentices. Such an artisan might, for instance, earn $500 a year by his own unassisted labor, while his gains by the apprentice's services might be $50. So far, doubtless, he is an employer of labor, and his gains are entitled, on a nice judgment of the case, to be called "profits ; " but these bear so small a proportion to his other source of income, and he is, in his capacitj^ of employer, of so little account, that we cannot afford to be encumbered by carrying him on as the employer of a third or a fifth part of an able laborer. A single cotton manu- facturer or iron master may employ a thousand times, or five thousand times, as much effective labor. It is of more importance that we should see the cotton manufacturer and the iron master in their true relations to the great body of labor seeking employment, than that we should trouble ourselves about the economical status of the fraction of a laborer who is perhaps, at present, spoiling more material than his work is worth. The principle of the law, de mini- rais non cttratw, applies with even greater force in politi- cal economy. What we need in studying the problem of distribution is not a nice theoretical classification, but a just and strong exhibition of the great groups of our mod- ern industrial society.^ ' For remarks of Prof. Cainies regarding the office of economic de- finition, see page 218. THE FALSE EMPLOYING GLASS. 249 3, Another large body which we need to exclude, tem- porarily, at least, from the employing class, in order that we may get a proper view of its real constitution, is that where the condition is one of nominal employment but of substantial partnership. This includes a great number of cases where two men, or perhaps three, of a trade, approxi- mately equal in skill and experience, the work of the one being merely a repetition of the work of the other, labor together at the bench, one being recognized as the master, the other receiving wages ; yet where the reason for one being the employer and the other the employed is so slight, the equality of skill and experience so well main- tained, the character and the profits of the business so well understood by him who receives wages, and the ability of that person to set up for himself so evident, that the employer virtually becomes little more than the senior member of a partnership where the nominal wages and terms of service are scaled to give a substantial equality of remuneration, with some slight compensation to the senior member for extra trouble and responsibility. 4. There remains to be characterized a fourth class of persons to whom I do not wish to deny the title of em- ployer, but whom it is desirable for the moment to isolate, those, namely, who, having mistakenly become by occupa- tion the employers of labor, through helplessness or false pride cling to the skirts of the profession, and i^emain in a small and miserable way conductors of industry, follow- ing humbly and at a distance the example of leading houses; content, in flush times, to make a. little profit on a little product, using generally antiquated machinery, con- suming materials of doubtful quality, and making a low class of goods, but shutting up promptly on the first inti- mation of hard times, or just so soon as competition be- comes close and persistent. Numerically the men of this class constitute a considerable proportion of every trade ; but if we consider the aggregate product, their part is com- paratively slight. 250 THE WAGES QUESTION. I do not mean to embrace in this class any manufacturer merely because his establishment is a small one. It would be easy to show that in some departments of production, perhaps in most, petty establishments fill a place, take up a certain amount of labor not othei'wise employed (as, for instance, the labor of the wives and daughters of agricul- turists in the immediate neighborhood), find a distinct market to which, in a homely but useful way, they adapt themselves perhaps better than the monster factory can do. The commerce of the world requires not only the ship of 5,000 tons, but the schooner, the lighter, and the dory. Yet of no small part of these petty establishments which make short runs from point to point between storm and squall, it may be boldly asserted that they answer no true industrial purpose. Their only 7'aison d'elre is found in the fact that their proprietors, having committed them- selves to the profession of the entrepreneur, having come into the possession of a certain auiount of the machinery and agencies of production, and being unable to betake theniselves, at the point of life they have reached, to an- other occupation, or being unwilling to so openly confess failure, can pick up a very poor living in this way. And of employers of this sort, it is significant to note, laborers are not apt to be jealous. They are known to have a pretty hard time of it. Their lot is not envied, and they commonly receive the sympathy of the general community and of their hands ; while the successful captain of indus- try, who amasses a giant fortune, is regarded by not a few as having despoiled the laboring class. Yet it is incon- testable that the profits of the former constitute by far the heavier tax, dollar for dollar, upon the product of labor. Nothing costs the working classes so dearly, in the long run, as the bad or merely commonplace conduct of business. THE REAL EMPLOYING CLASS. 251 Putting aside for the moment the several classes enu- merated, we have plainly in view the real emploj'ing class of our modern industrial society : a comparatively small body of men, who control the destinies of labor no more than they do the destinies of capital. These men consti- tute a class strictly limited in numbers, and dealing most despotically, as indeed they must, with the outside world. The conditions of admission are a long self-initiation, a high premium of immediate loss, and a great degree of uncertainty as to ultimate success. Into this guild, in these modern days, no aspirant for profits needs to be inducted witli ceremonies, or first invited by the existing membership. All are in theory free to enter ; but the number who venture is closely restricted by the known conditions of business. Those only undertake it who are able, or, like the rowers of Mnestheus, think they are able, to sustain the ordeal of fierce and unrelenting competition ; while those wlio have the courage to venture are contin- ually sifted by commercial and industrial pressures and panics, so that only the fittest survive. I have no wish to idealize the successful employer of labor. He may easily be found to be a very nnamiable and a very uninteresting person. For the perfect temper of business something doubtless of hardness is needed, just as it is the alloy of baser metal which fits the gold for cir- culating in the hands of men. A little too much sensi- bility or a little too much imagination, is often a sufficient cause of failure in the stern competitions of business. The successful entrepreneur need not even understand the theory of trade, or be a financier in the larger sense of that word. A kind of subtle instinct often directs the move- ments of the ablest merchants, bankers, and manufacturers. The}' know that the market is about to experience a con- vulsion, because they know it ; just as the cattle know that a storm is brewing. They not only could not give reasons intelligible to others for the course they take ; they 253 THE WAOES QUESTION. do not even analyze their intellectual processes for their own satisfaction. It is not necessarj' to draw the outlines of the represen- tative entrepreneur. Living illustrations will rise before the mind of every reader, far more vivid than any art of mine could execute. M. Courcelle-Seneuil, in his Opera- tions de JBanqtie, has grouped the qualities the employer should possess : " du jugement, du bon sens, de la fermete, de la decision, une appreciation froide et calrae, uue intel- ligence ouverte et vigilante, pen d'imagination, beaucoup de memoire et d'application." ^ I said that the real employing class is comparatively small. I do not speak alone of those employing workmen by the thousand or the ten thousand, or even of those alone whose pay-rolls count up hundreds of hands." If we go down to the captains of fifties and the captains of tens, it still remains true that the bulk of the wage-labor of England, France, Germany, and the United States, is controlled by a small, choice band of men, who are masters in industry because, whatever be their social quality, in industry they are nuisterly. To call these men the creat- ures of their workmen, and speak of the sums they exact in royalty on all the business which passes through their hands, as "the wages of supervision and management," seems to me as idle a fiction as it would Jiave been to call the seigniors under the Old Regime the social representa- tives of the tiers etat, and to speak of the sums they lavished in pomp and pleasure, as their " allowances." Are profits already at the minimum, so that we may ' P. 392. ■^ Thus, even in Austria, one of the most backward of European countries in the organization of industry, we find that 493 employers provide lodging for not less than 59,343 workmen. In France, Messrs. Schneider & Co. (" Le Creusot") employ 10,000 workmen. Anzin employs 15,000 under a single direction. At the great cannon foundry of Krupp, at Essen in Westphalia, between 8,000 and 10,000 are employed. In Great Britain, like gigantic establishments abound. i ARE PROFITS AT THE MINIMUM? 353 not look to see an increase of wages obtained from tliis source ? Much of what has been said relative to the asserted restoration to wages, of all sums whicli may go in excessive returns to capital, applies equally in the case of excessive profits, the remuneration of the man of business, tlie employer, the entrepreneur. It cannot safely be assumed that, to .use Prof. Cairnes' phrase,' covetousness be held in check by covetousness, inasmuch as luxurious- ness will inevitably enter to absorb a portion of such undue gains. But here still another reason appears, namely, that, as the part of the employer in production is active ; not abstinence, as in the case of the capitalist, but exertion ; in addition, then, to the effects of luxuriousness, excessive profits will, with no small proportion of employ- ers, allow the native propensity to indolence and ease of life to enter to take something from the zeal and enter- prise with which business is conducted. It is only the exceptionally ambitious and resolute who will wdiolly "withstand this propensity. So that when Prof. Perry says, " If, in the division between profits and wages, at the end of any industrial cycle, profits get more than their due share, these very profits will wish to become capital, and will thus become an extra demand for labor, and the next w^ages fund will be larger than the last," ^ I am obliged to take the exception that a portion of these profits, so far as Prof. Perry includes in that term the gains of the man of business, will wish to become fine horses and houses, fine clothes and opera boxes ; w^hile another portion will wish to take the form of coming to the office an hour later in the morning and going home an hour earlier in the afternoon. Hence, if we cannot safely assume that it is a matter of indifference to the wages class wdi ether a little more or less goes in profits to the employer, it becomes of importance ' P. 338. a The Financier, August 1, 1874. 254 THE WAGES QUESTION. to inquire whether there is any reason to believe that pro- tits are already at the niininuini. And as to this, one can have no hesitation in saying that the probabilities are strongly against such a supposition. The present average rate of profits, or annual aggregate of profits, has noto- riously been reached as the result of unequal competition, in which employers have been active, alert, and mobile, while laborers have been, in a great degree, ignorant and inert, resorting to the right market tardily, or mistakenly to the wrong market. It does not follow that because the laborers have lost heavily by this failure of competition, the employers have gained it all. Much has been lost to the laborers and to the world. Nowhere does the monopolist gain all that others lose by him. Yet the em- ploying class have profited, and still profit, greatly by this partial immobility of labor. The lowest price which any laborer M'ill receive for his services is no longer the highest j)rice which any emploj'er can afford to give. In the first part of this work, wlien treating of produc- tion, I had occasion to show that the wages of the laborer might be increased in several ways without diminishing profits, the explanation being that the laborer's efficiency Avill be increased proportionally or more than proportion- ally. In dealing with the problem of Distribution, the laborer's efficiency will be assumed constant, and I shall inquire what causes may operate to increase the laborer's share of the product, not the absolute amount of his wages. And, first, let it be noted that a gain might be efi'ected through a reduction in what may be called the cost of em- ployment, without involving any reduction in the aggre- gate profits of employers as a body. Let me illustrate: I was much struck at the complaints made at some of the meetings of agricultural laborers in England during the lockout of iST4, that many of the employers were hard- drinking men and poor farmers, and that if they attended more closely to their business and managed it better, they INCOMPETENT EMPLOYERS. 355 could afford to pay higher wages. Now no one should lightly credit the complaints of angry men ; nor was there any reason to suppose that the farmers of the lockout sec- tion comprised more than the usual proportion of dissolute and negligent employers. What occurs to me as notice- able in this matter is the correctness with which these laborers apprehended the principle that when men who are unfit to conduct business force themselves into the employment of labor, it is at the expense of labor. The theory of competition assumes the intelligence and capacity of the employer to see and follow his own interests. ^ His doing this is (assuming the mobility of labor) to be the very means by which the laborer's interest is secured. If the employer fails in this requirement of intelligence and capacity, it may be not the better but the worse for the laborer. Bad business management is the heaviest possible tax on production, and while the incapable em- ployer gets little for himself, the laborer loses heavily in the rate or the regularit_y of his wages. Now, several causes may help to swell the proportion of incapable employers. Shilly-shally laws relating to insolvency do this ; fictitious currencj^ does this ; truck does this.^ Each of these causes enables men to escape * Errors in directing production are never oflFset one against another, as mistakes in computation so often are with a result of substantial accuracy. Whether the employer err in being too timid or too ven- turesome, loss is alike sustained, an injury is suffered which is with- out compensation. There is no balancing of one mistake against another in industry. It is needless to say that the employer is almost always either too timid or too venturesome. The perfect temper of business, we might suppose, is found in no living man. But the sterner the responsibility to which the employer is held, the more steady and severe the compe- tition to which he is subjected, the nearer will be the approach to this ideal, the less will be the waste in production due to mis-direction of the industrial force. ^ The evidence before the Committee of 1854 brought out strongly this feature of the truck system ; that it was chiefly resorted to by 256 TUB WAGES QUESTION. tlie conseqnoiices of incompetency, and to hang miserably on to business, where they are an obstruction and a nuisance, kwy thing which sliould decisively cut them off, and remit tliem to subordinate positions, would be a great gain to the laboring classes, and very likely, in the result, prove a real relief to themselves. Slavery, in like manner, enables men to control labor and direct produc- tion who never would become, on an equal scale, the employers of fi'ee labor ; and it is not more to the ineffi- ciency of the slave than to the incompetency of the master, that the unproductiveness of chattel labor is due. The lower the industrial quality of free labor, the more ignorant and inert the individual laborer, the lower may be the industrial quality of the men who can just sustain themselves in the position of employer. Men become the employers of cheap labor who M'onld never be the employ- ers of dear labor, and who ought not to be the employers of any sort of labor. The more active becomes the com- petition among the wages class, the more prompt their resort to market, the more persistent their demand for every possible increase of remuneration, the greater will be the pressure bronght to bear npon such employers to drop out of the place into which they have crowded them- selves at the cost of the general community, and where they have been able to maintain themselves only because the working classes have failed, through ignorance and inertness, to exact their full terms. But, secondly, a rise of wages due to a quickened com- petition on the part of the wages class, might be to a very great extent compensated by increased zeal, energy, and small and doubtful establishments which thus contrived to make up, by "sweating" the wages of their operatives, what they could not make in legitimate profits, and thus kept themselves alive. Indeed, the excuse most frequently urged by truck masters was that, but for gains thus realized, they would be obliged to give up business. It is needless to say that the sooner such employers are driven out, the better for the laboring class. EMPLOYERS ON THEIR METTLE. 257 economy on the part-of the really able men of business. It does no man good to have much odds given him ; and the inertness of labor has always a mischievous effect even upon the best of the employing class. So far as the increasing demands of the laborer are due to his greater vigilance, activity, and social ambition, we may be pretty sure that these demands will be I'esponded to full}^ by the entrepreneur. Whether we consider business on its side of enterprise, or on its side of economy, we shall find that it does the manager no harm to be sharply followed up. Where large margins are afforded, there is likely to be much waste; and, on the other hand, no man does his best except when his best is required. "It was an axiom of the late Mr. John Kennedy, who was called the father of the cotton manufacture, that no manufacturing im- provements were ever made except on threadbare profits." Mr. Babbage, in his Economy of Manufactures,' has ^ shown that inventions and improvements in the mechan- ical arts have sometimes been healthfully stimulated by the goadings of industrial distress; and Mr. Chadwick has given an interesting exposition ^ of the manner in which the increasing pressure of competition lias served to pro- mote the commercial ventures which have successively widened the market for British manufactures. But surely we need no "modern instances" to establish a principle so old and familiar. The weighty words of Gibbon : " the spirit of monopolists is barren, lazy, and opj)ressive," ^ apply to all production in just the degree in which com- petition is defeated or deferred, whether by the, force of law, or by the ignorance and inertness of the laboring classes. Perhaps as good an illustration as could be given of the effects of increased competition in winnowing the employ- ing class of its least efficient members, and stimulating » P. 294. 2 Statistical Journal., xxviii. 3-5. 258 THE WAGES QUESTION. the enterprise and the economy of tliose who survive the process, is afforded by the course of English agriculture since the repeal of the Coi'n Laws, a measure which the landed interest believed at the time would be absolutely fatal, and which, indeed, would have ruined that interest but for the saving virtue of the forces here invoked. Yet English agriculture never stood on a better foundation than to-day : the gains of the farmer probably were never larger through an equal term of years. The reason is that the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the opening of English markets to the bread-stuffs of the world, put tlie agricultural interest on its mettle ; the farmei'S found that they must abandon the old clumsy and wasteful ways ; break up the old clumsy and wasteful machinery ; pay higher wages for better work ; breed only from the choicest stock ; make improvements in every process of cultivation, from selecting the seed to garnering the grain ; find some chance for saving, every day, from harvest round to har- vest again, and that, too, without pinching nseful expend- itures. These things the farmers of England had to do, and consequently did them. The less energetic and thrifty, one by one, dropped out of a contest so severe and unremitting ; those who survived studied their business as never before, scanned their expenses as men do who have small margin for waste, brought the latest results of chemical and physiological science into their selection of crops and of breeding animals, made a business, and not a drinking bout, of the annual fair, set np agricultural clubs, compared notes among themselves, and read Mr. Caird's letters in the Tirnes. But, thirdly, a rise of wages due to a quickened compe- tition on the part of the wages class become more intelli- gent, frugal, and self-assertive, should it proceed so far, after exhausting the two resources already named, as to cut into the profits of tlie employing class, as a whole, would bring a partial compensation in the increased dig- I i EMPLOYERS PARTLY PAID IN HONOR. 259 nity and the heightened intellectual gratification attend- ing the conduct of business and the control of labor, under such a condition. I have said, in a previous chapter, that the pride of directing great operations, and the sense of power in moving masses of men at will, could not, at present at least, be relied upon, primarily or principally, as furnishing the motive to production on the part of tlie employing class. And yet we know these do enter, in no inconsiderable degree, to make up the remuneration of the entrepreneur. It is true that but a small portion of the human race are much alive to these feelings, but it is also true that the men of the entrepreneur stamp are just those of all in the world to respond to such im- pulses.^ We have a very pleasant and instructive picture, by Ml'. Gould in his report to the British government in 18T2, of the relations existing between the employer and the laborer in Switzerland. No country has achieved industrial success under heavier disadvantages. No conti- nental country has developed a higher order of business managers. The Swiss employers maintain themselves against a severe and unremitting competition only by the constant exercise of all the industrial virtues. But the Swiss laborers are politically and socially their equals. The employer has no feeling of degradation in the contact : the laborer no feeling of inferiority. Perfect democracy and universal education have cast out all notions of that sort as between free Switzers. Hence the employers of labor of every class, even such as are wealthy, are found in general among their men, not to be distinguished from * "As, even wlien relieved from the pressure of necessity, tlie large-brained Europeans voluntarily enter on enterprises or activities "wliicli the savage could not keep up, even to satisfy urgent wants ; so their larger brained descendants will, in a still higher degree, find their gratification in careers entailing still greater mental expendi- tures." — H. Spencer, Principles of Biology, II. 520. 260 THE WAGES QUESTION. them in appearance, and taking hold freely with them at any part of the work, as occasion serves.^ I cannot but believe that, as the working classes advance in individual and mutual intelligence, and push their em- ployers closer with a more searching and vital competition, more and more will the reward of the employer come to consist of the zest of intellectual activity, the joys of creative energy, the honor of directing affairs, and the social distinctions of mastership. For after all, it must be remembered that the employ- ment of labor is an occupation, as truly as is manual labor itself; and that the body of employers must continue to employ labor, or find other ways and means to live. To assume that employers generally are going to leave busi- ness on account of a reduction of profits, would be more sensible if it were shown that they would also leave the world on that account. Not a little of the reasoning in books as to what employers will do, or capitalists will do, or laborers will do, if something happens which they can- not be expected to like, practically assumes that men have a choice whether they will be born into this world or not ; and that, once in it, if they are not satisfied, they have at hand one or more eligible spheres into which thej'' can pass, easily and gracefully, with a perfect assurance of welcome; and tiiat indeed they will be quite likely to do so, unless treated with distinguished consideration here. > Mr. Gould's Report, p. 346. Mr. Bonar reported in 1870: "In enumerating tlie highly favorable circumstances in which the Swiss working man is placed, prominence must be given to the immense extension of the principle of democracy, whicli, whatever may be its defects and dangers from a political point of view, when pushed to extremes, serves in Switzerland, in its economical effects, to advance the cause of the operative, by removing the barriers dividing class from class, and to establish among all grades the bonds of mutual sympathy and good will." — Report, p. 271. Coxe, in his travels in Switzerland during the last century, notes the frank, courteous as- sumption of absolute equality on the part of the Swiss peasantry.— (Pinkertou, V. 657). THE EMPLOYING CLASS. 261 Whereas, the most of us, in this world, do, not what we would like, but what we must, or the best we can ; and I entertain no manner of doubt that long after profits should be forced down, if that were to happen, below what might be deemed an equitable rate, the superior men of every country, the men of thought, of prudence, and of natural command, would be found directing and animating the movements of industij*. (IIAI'IM-.K .\V CtHU-KUATlON : (HClTlNd UID iM-' Til 10 ICMl'HU'INO CLASS. In its iirst aiul lar^ji^ost sonso, CDoporntion si^ijjniHos tho union in jinHlnctinn of iliilorcnt ]nM'.-^(^n^^, it n>nv ho of dilVeront cImssos of ]t(M'!>ons, aiul it iii.iy he on the most unoqiml toi-ius. In this 8onst>, coopciMtitMi is conipatihlc with tlio snhonlinntion of tho oiujtlDvcd to thi' oniph>vor, nrul with tlio oxistonco (»f intlustrial " priui-ipalities and powoi's." In tlio sonso wliich h:is Uvcn niado of lat(> vcvirs so popuhir, and in whit-h ah>iu' it w ill ho nsoil in this troatist>, coi'iporation means imioii in j^rothirtiiMi, npon Oipial ti'i'ins. It is doiuori';U'_v intrcchu-tMl into lahor. It is as wo tiuMi from discMk^sini^; tho indtistrial oharactor of tho onipUn'ini;" olass, that wo caji most advantai»voiisly oonsidov tho si'hoines pi\t]H>st'il, nudoi- tho titio ot" o(»iipora- tion, for tho nnu'lioi'atii>n ol' tho oondition ol" tlio waijos cdass; and, at tho san\o tinu>, it is as wi^ try to iind tho real si^nilloanco of tlioso soluMiios tliat wo roalizo most t'nlly tho oonfnsion inti»diu-od into tho thoory o\' distrihii- tion by tho faihiro to disi-riminato tho ontropronour-funo- tion, and by tho nndno o\tonsi(m o( tho word pi'otits. In \\\y opinion, it is simply not p(>ssihU^ to i;ivo an intolliy'ihlo aec'onnt of oooj^oration tl>rt>nt!,h tlio nso of tho dollnitions by tho text-book writers. If wl\rtt we have ealled tlio profits of business are only '* tho wages of snporvision and n\anagemcnt," what is it that ooi>peration aims to elloct ? Snporvisi«>n and management nnist still bo exereised, or cooperation will come to a very speedy end. If super- coo I 'inn A I'lOM. 203 vision and inana^einont are to bo exercised, it must ije by some one, and if the [n'esent supervisors and mana;(ers (the eni[>h»yerH, as I call them) are to be turned Jidrlft or reduced to tiie ranks, then tliese duties will have to be performed by men now taking some other part in indus- try, and to tiiem " tlie wages of supervision and manage- ^ ment" will be paid. Wlierein have the workmen gained anything ? It is fairly to be presumed that these peculiar and diflicult duties will not be performed any better by men chosen l^y caucus and ballot, than by men selected through the stern processes of unremitting business com- petition. If the wages of supervision and management are to be paid, in manner and in amount, as heretofore, to super- visors and managers chosen by the workmen themselves, we can readily understand that the pride of the workmen may be gratified (whether that will tend to make them more easily supervised and managed, is a question we need not anticipate); but wherein is the economical advan- tage? If it is said, wages are not to be paid to the super- visors and managers, under the cooperative system, equal to those paid under the existing industrial organization, while yet the work is done as well, what does this amount to but a confession that the sums now received by the employers are not wages, but something more than, and different from, wages; the difference in amount represent- ing the power given to the employer by his industrial position to wrest an undue share of tlio products of in- dustry ? To repeat: if, under the cooperative system, the work of "sujjervision and management" is to be done by a new set of men for the same " wages," the workmen will gain nothing; if, on the other hand, the workmen, controlling the operations .of industry for themselves, can get the work done for less (and the great promises hold out as to the benefits of cooperation would imply that it must be 264 THE WAOKS QUESTION. for very much less), then it must be concluded that em- })lojer8 at present receive something more than and differ- ent from wages. But if we find it difficult to conceive what account one could give of cooperation, using the definitions of the text-hooks, we find that, if we stand aside and allow the textbook writers to state it in their own way, the result is not a whit the more happy. Prof. Cairnes, so highly dis- tinguislied for his justness and clearness of reasoning, stumbles, at the ver}'' threshold of the subject, across an obstacle of his own devising. Thus in the very act of bringing forward the scheme of cooperation as a cure for the industrial ills of society, he makes a statement of cooperation which reduces it to a nullity: "It appears to me that the condition of any substantial improvement of a permanent kind in the laborer's lot is that the separation of industrial chisses into laborers and capitalists shall not be maintained ; that the laborer shall cease to be a mere laborer — in a word, that projits shall be brought to reen- force the wages fundT ^ And again, more tersely : " The characteristic feature of cooperation, looked at from the economic point of view, is that it combines in the same person the two capacities of laborer and capitalist.''^ ' This needs but tt) be looked at a moment to reveal its uttei- fallacy. Keniember, this is not the declaration of an irresponsible philanthropist that every workman ought to have a palace and a coach, but the grave statement of an accountable economist as to the manner in which the wel- 1 fare of the working class may, under economical condi- ' " Some Leading Principles," etc., p. 339. " " Essays on Political Economy." How singularly unfortunate this would be as a definition, even were Prof. Cairnes not mistaken in his general view of cooperation, will bo seen when we say that the above would be a very good description of a peasant proprietor, or small .'\merican farmer. He "combines in the same person the two capacities of laborer and capitalist." Is he a coiiperator? OETTING RID OF THE ENTBEPBENEUB. 265 tions, be advanced. What is this industrial panacea ? Why, the laborers are to become capitalists. A most, felicitous result truly ; but how is it to be accomplished ? By saving their own earnings ? But this they can and do accomplish at present ; and, through the medium of the bank of savings, they may and do lend their money in vast amounts to the employing class (oftentimes to their individual employers), and thus, under the present system profits (in Prof. Cairnes' sense) may be and are " brought to reenforce " wages. Is it, then, by saving somebody else's earnings, and bringing the profits thereof to " reen- force the wages fund " ? But this is spoliation, confiscation, a resort which no one would be before Prof. Cairnes in denouncing, and whose disastrous consequences to the laborers themselves no one could more forcibly portray. We see, therefore, that Prof Cairnes' statement is a form utterly without content. Cooperation is to be an admirable thing, because in coopei'ation the workmen are to be both laborers and capitalists. But if we inquire how they are to become capitalists, otherwise than at present, we fail to find an answer. No ! Cooperation, considered as a question in the dis- tribution of wealth, is nothing more or less than getting rid of the employer, the entrepreneur, the middleman. It does not get rid of the capitalist. In modern industrial society, that society which Prof. Cairnes is contemplating when he finds the condition of the workman hard and requiring relief, there are three functions, not two merely ; and the reform to be effected through cooperation, if indeed cooperation be practicable, is by combining in the same person, not the labor function and the capital func- tion, but the labor function and the entrepreneur function. What then is the attitude of laborers in cooperation ? To the employer they say : You have performed an im- 266 THE WAGES QUESTION. portant part in production, and you have performed it well ; but you are now relieved. You have charged too liigli for your services. Your annual profits, taking good years and bad together, are greater than we need to pay to get the work done, if we will take the responsibilities of business on ourselves, and exercise a forethought, patience, and pains we have had no call to exercise while you were in charge. Up to this time the state of the case has been this : 1. A product, varying with seasons and circumstances multifarious. 2. Our wages, fixed ; you making yourself responsible for their payment, whatever be the character of the season or the state of the market, yourself receiving nothing till we are paid. 3. From a variable quantity deducting a fixed quantity leaves a variable remainder, viz., your profits fluctuating with good or bad fortune, good or bad management. Hereafter the state of the case will be : 1. A product, variable, so long as the laws of nature remain the same. 2. A fixed salary paid to a manager whom we select, and to whom we make ourselves responsible with what- ever we possess, meanwhile receiving nothing till he is paid. 3. From a variable quantity deducting a certain quan- tity leaves a variable result : our earnings, no longer called wages, greater in good years, smaller in bad years ; greater as we labor with zeal and conduct our business with discretion, smaller as we fail in either respect. One word more before we part. "We intend no dis- respect. With woi'kmen who are ignorant, dissolute, un- willing to subordinate the present to the future, incapable of organization, such services as you are qualified to render are absolutely indispensable ; and we M'ill not say that such remuneration as you exact is excessive. But we pro- NATURE OF CO-OPERATION. 267- fess better things. We are prepared to exercise patience, industry, economy, and to subject our individual desires to the general will, for the sake of dividing among our- selves the profits you have been accustomed to make out of us.^ We know it will be hard ; but we believe it can be done. If men are not lit for an industrial republic, then they must submit to the despot of industry, and they have no right to complain of Civil List and Privy Purse. But M^e are republicans, cheerfully accepting all the re- sponsibilities of freedom, and boldly laying claim to all its privileges. This is, in effect, what the laborers, by cooperation, say to the entrepreneur. Do they give the capitalist his conge after the same fashion ? Do they assert independ- ence of him, and ability to go along without him ? Not in the least. Not a word of it. Cooperation is not going to rid them of dependence on capital. They are to be just as dependent on the capitalist as were their employers whose place they aspire to till. They know that they must have just as much and just as good machinery, just as abundant and good materials, as competing establish- ments under entrepreneur management. So far as they themselves have capital, the results of their savings out of past M-ages, they will employ these and receive the returns therefrom directly, instead of lending it to the entrepre- neur through the savings bank and getting interest there- for. So far as they want capital for their operations over what they can scrape togethei', they must go to the banks or to private lenders, and pay as high a price for its use as their quondam employer was wont to do ; indeed, for * "A scheme . . . by which the laborer can unite tlie functions and earn the wages of laborer and employer by superseding the neces- sity of using the services of the latter functionary ." — Prof. Rogers, Pol. Econ., 108. This is a strictly accurate, and but for the regretable use of the word wages, would be a felicitous, statement of the design of cooperation. 268 TEE WAGES QUESTION. awhile at least, probably a higher price, as their credit will not be likely to be so good at first as his. And if cooperation should start earliest, and make most progress, in those industries where the amount of capital required is comparatively small, this Avould be but a recognition of the fact that cooperation has no tendency to free the labor- ing class from any domination of capital, of which com- plaint may have been made, but that its sole object is to Get Hid of the Entrepreneur. Such being, as I apprehend it, the true nature of coop- eration, let us inquire as to the advantages which may be anticipated from it, if accomplished ; as to the obstacles to be encountered by it ; and as to the probability of its success in any such measure as to afford an appreciable relief from the peculiar hardships of the wages class. Let it be remembered that it is the question of wages, and not the question of labor, which cooperation aims to solve. The welfare of labor depends on the laws of production, under the rule of diminishing returns, taken in connection with the laws of population. The question of wages is a question in the distribution of wealth, and arises out of the dependence of a portion of the laboring population upon the entrepreneur-class for employment. What, then, might we fairly look to cooperation to accomplish ? Considering the scheme from the laborer's point of view, we say : First, to reap the profits of the entrepreneur, which are verj'- large,^ large enough if divided among the wages 1 " Double interest is, in Great Britain, reckoned wliat the mer- chants call a good, moderate, reasonable profit." Adam SmitJi 1, 103. Sir Arch. Alison gives as an argument against what would practically be cooperation, that the profits if divided among the laborers, " would not make an addition to them of more than thirty or forty per cent " — {Hist. Europe, xxii, 237.) " Profits " here include both the returns of capital and the gains of the middleman. Prof. Senior says; "it ABVAHTTAGES OF CO-OPERATION. 269 class to make a substantial addition to their means of sub- sistence. Second : to secure employment independently of the will of the " middle man." It has been shown in a pre- vious chapter, that the interest which the employer has in production is found in the balance of profit left after the payment of wages. The payment of these, perhaps to the extent of ten, twenty, or fifty times his profit, is to him merely a necessary means to that end. It may be, as has been said, that his relations to a body of customers shall be such as to induce him to continue producing even though, for a time, he sinks his own profit. After the efi'ect of this has been exhausted, however, and it is soon exhausted, he will pay wages only to get a profit. But the condition of the market will often be such as to ren- der him exceedingly doubtful of his profit, or even appre- hensive of a loss ; and then his whole interest in produc- tion ceases. Because he can not see his way to make ten or five thousand dollars profit, he is ready to stop a pro- duction, the agencies and instrumentalities of which are wholly at his command, which involves the payment of one or two hundred thousand dollars in wages. Now, with reference to such an oft recurring condition of in- dustry, a body of workmen may properly say that, wdiile they cannot blame the employer /or refusing to risk the payment of such large amounts in wages to them, without a reasonable assurance of getting it back, with a may be laid down generally, that in no country have profits continued for any considerable period at the average rate of fifty per cent per annum." {Pol. Econ., p. 140.) Mr. Pardy estimates the division of the annual product of the land of England and Wales as follows : Landlord's share (returns of capital) £42,955,963 Farmer's share (profits) 21,477,981 Laborer's share (wages) 39,768 156 £104,200,100 ,/ [^Statistical Journal xxiv, 358.J 270 THE WAGES QUESTION. profit, in the price of the goods, yet the}' are raucli dis- posed to take the responsibility of production upon them- selves. Thus, especially in branches of manufacture where the value of the materials bears a small proportion to the value of the finished goods, they might propose to go on producing moderatel}' in spite of the most unfavora- ble aspect of the market, on the ground that they might just as well be laboring as lying idle, and sell the product for what it would bring. All they should thus receive would be clear gain, as against a period of enforced idle- ness, and it might not infrequently happen that, on settling up their venture, they would find a turn ia the market giving them a compensation as large or nearly as large as usual. But it may be asked why should iiot the employer in times of business depression, agree with his workmen to pay them whatever he should find in the result he could afford. But this would be cooperation, slightly disguised. The essence of wages is that they are stipulated before- hand : the essence of profits is that they are, as DeQuinccy calls them, "the leavings of wages," and therefoi-e vary as the product varies under the varying conditions of industry, natural or artificial. It is of the essence of the relation of employer and employed, that the employer secures to the employed their wages, and after that, appropriates his own remuneration. Were the employed to consent to give the employer his profit first, and take their wages afterwards, their relations would merely be reversed. Five hundred mill hands entering into this arrangemeijt would become a body of cooperative produ- cers ; the so-called manufacturer would become simply their paid manager, their hired man. It is true that arrangements for a ''sliding scale" of wages, adapted to the market price of the product, are sometimes entered into in coal and iron mining ; but these cover only a portion of the ground embraced in the ADVANTAGES OF CO-OPERATION. 271 cooperative plan, as the cost of materials and transporta- tion, rent, interest, and the general expenses of business management, may vary so greatly as very much to reduce, and at times to destroy, the employer's expectations of profit, in spite of the sliding scale of wages. Such, as we understand the matter, are the two econom- ical advantages for which the wages class look to coopera- tion. There is still another advantage, non-economical and therefore not in our province, namely, the getting rid of the feeling of dependence and the securing of a higher social standing. In addition to the advantages which the wages class have generally in contemplation when plans of coopera- tion are proposed, the political economist sees three advan- tages of high importance which would result from this system if fairly established. First : cooperation would, by the very terms of it, / obviate strikes. The employer being abolished, the work- men being now self-employed, these destructive contests would cease. The industrial " non-ego" disappearing, the industrial egotism which precipitates strikes wotild dis- appear also. Second: the workman would be stimulated to greater industry and greater carefulness. He would work more and waste less, for, under the cooperative system, he would receive a direct, instant, and certain advantage from his own increased carefulness and labori- ousness. It is true that the pressure thus brought to bear upon the individual laborer is not so great as in the case of the individual proprietor of land, since there the gain is all his own, while here the workman has to divide with his fellow-cooperators the advantages of his own extra exertions, looking, though not with absolute assurance, to receive an equivalent from each of them in turn. Third : the workman would be incited to frugality. He has at once furnished him the best possible opportunity for in- vesting his savings, namely, in materials and implements . 273 TUE WAGES QUESTION. whieli he is himself to use in hibor. Especially in the early days of cooperative industry, when the great need of cooperators is capital, will this pressure be felt, constrain- ing the M'orknian to invest in his trade all of his earnings that can be spared from necessary subsistence. Capital thus saved and thus invested is likely to be eared for and used to the best ability of the cooperators. They will make the most of it, for it will have cost them dear. The additional considerations that cooperation tends to improve the moral, social, and political character of the workman, by giving him a larger stake in society, making liis remuneration depend more directly on his own con- duct, and allowing him to participate in the deliberations and decisions of industry : these considerations, being non-economical, belong to the statesman and the moralist. Here are several disthict advantages, not fanciful but real and unquestionable, which together make up an argu- ment for cooperation which is simply' unanswerable and overwhelming, unless there is validity in our theory of the character and functions of the employing class. In spite of these marked advantages, however, we have to note that cooperation in mechanical industry has achieved a very slight and even doubtful success. Mr. I^rederick Harrison has called attention in the Fortnightly Review ^ to the fact that the vast majority of all the cooperative establishments maintained in England are ^ simply stores, i. e. shops, "for the sale of food and some- times clothing." " These, of course, cannot affect the con- dition of industry materially. Labor here does not in any sense share in the produce with capital. The relation of emplo^'cr and employed remains just the same, and not a single workman would chany-e the conditions of his em- » Fortnightly Review, III., 4S3. SMALL SUCCESS OF COOPERATION. 273 ployment if the store were to extinguish all the shops of a town." The indnstrial cooperative societies, Mr. Harrison con- tinues, are mainly flour mills and cotton mills. The flour mills cliiefly supply members, though they often employ persons unconnected with the society, at ordinary market wages, and on the usual terms. Thev are joint-stock companies, for a specific purpose, like gas or railway com- panies. The only true instances of mannfacturing coop- erative societies of any importance are the cotton mills. " Some of the mills never got to work at all ; some took the simple form of joint-stock companies in few hands ; others passed into the hands of small capitalists, or the shares were concentrated among the promoters. In fact, there is now, I believe, no cooperative cotton mill, owned by working men, in actual operation, on any scale, with the notable exception of Rochdale. . . . Here and there, an association of bootmakers, hatters, painters, or gilders, is carried on, upon a small scale, with varying success. . . . But small bodies of handicraftsmen (or rather artists), working in common, with moderate capital, plant and premises, obviously establisli nothing." This is certainly a discouraging account to come from a labor-champion, at the end of thirty years of eflbrt, and after the inauguration of so many hopeful enterprises which have enjoyed an amount of gratuitous advertise- ment, from philanthropic journals and sanguine econo- mists, M^hich would have sufficed to sell a hundred millions of railroad bonds, or make the fortunes of a hundred manufacturing establishments. A later writer gives a not more encouraging picture : " A large proportion of all cooperative societies are dealers in food, provisions, and articles of clothing, consumed chiefly by themselves and families. Others, but in a small ratio, are manufacturers of flax, spinners of cotton or wool, and manufacturers of shoes, etc. But very few of them iX 274 THE WAGES QUESTION succeed ; and the failures are to be found chiefly in these attempts at production." ^ The same tale comes from France, where these enter- prises were inaugurated during the revolutionary period of 1848. M. Dncarre's report of 1875, from the Commis- sion on Wages and the Eelations between Workmen and their Employers, claims even less success for cooperative production in that counti-y than is reported in England and Gernumy." In Switzerland, the nui-sery of accomplished artisans, whose citizens are trained in self-government more per- fectly thau those of any other country in the w^orld, we And, at the latest date for which the facts are given,^ only thirteen small cooperative societies of production. In these inconsiderable results, if not failure, of cooperative manufacturing, we And the most striking testimony that could be given to the importance of the entrepreneur- function in modern industry. Small groups of highly skilled artisans — artists, Mr. Harrison would call them — carefully selected, using inexpensive materials and small "plant,"' and working for a market^ close at hand, per- haps for customers personally known, may achieve success by the exercise of no impossible patience and pains. But where laborers of very various qualifications, of all ages and both sexes, are to be brought together in industries ' Social Science Transactions, 1871, p. 585. * " Les societes cooperatives n'ont pas eu jusqu'a ce jour en France le succes qu'elles ont obtenu, soit en Angleterre, soit en Allemague. . . . En France, les societes de production n'existent qu'il I'etat de niinimes exceptions " — pp. 264-5. ' Report of Mr. Gould, on the Condition of the Industrial Classes, 1872, p. 355. * " Pour la petite Industrie, les placements sont en quelque sorte assures ; le marclie est la sous les yeux du producteur, il en peut a cliaque instant consulter les besoins, il reconnait a des signes certains I'engorgement et la pletliore, aussi bien que I'iusnffisance et la disette." — Blauqui (aiue), Cours d'Economie Industrielle, II., G2. DIFFICULTIES OF COOPERATION. 275 which involve a great many processes requiring diifering degrees of strength and skill, and which produce goods for distant, and perhaps, at the time of production, unknown markets, we see as yet scarcely a sign of the services of the employer being dispensed with. What, then, is the reason for this comparative failure of indus- trial cooperation ? I answer, the difficulty of effecting cooperation on a large scale is directly as its desirableness. It is solely because of the importance of the entrepreneur- function that the employing class are enabled to realize those large profits which so naturally and properly excite the desires of the wages class ; and it is for preciselj' the same reason that it is found so difficult to get rid of the employing class. The qualities of the successful entrepreneur are rare. i-^ "We need only to look around us, within the most limited field, and for the shortest time, to see how vast a differ- ence is made by the able, as, contrasted with the merely common-place, not to say bad, conduct of business ; and how great losses may be incurred by the failure to realize all the conditions of purchase, production, and sale. And the more extensively markets are opened by the removal of commercial I'estrictions, the more intense competition becomes under the opportunities of frequent communica- tion and rapid transportation, the richer the prizes, the heavier the penalties, of the entrepreneur; the wider the breach between the able and the commonplace manage- ment of business. In these days, a person who should, upon the strength of respectable general abilities, under- take a branch of manufacture to which he had not been trained, and in which he had not long been exercised in subordinate positions, would run a serious risk of sinking a large part of his capital in a few years, it might be in a few months ; and this, without any great catastrophe in trade, or any flagrant instance of misconduct in the opera- 14* -A 276 THE WAGES QUESTION. tions undertaken. Simply not to do well is generally, in production, to do very ill. It is, of course, hard for workmen to see such large amounts taken out of the product to remunerate the entrepreneur, leaving so much the less to be divided among themselves; and the ambition which leads them to attempt to earn these profits by undertaking this part in industry, is wholly honorable and commendable. But it is clear that it is a great deal better, even for the work- men, that this heavy tax should be paid to the entrepre- neur, than that production should be carried on without the highest skill, efficienc}-, and enei-gy. The proof is that, as a rule almost without exception, those employers who make the highest profits are the emploj'ers who, when regularity of employment is taken into account, as it ought to be, pay the highest wages. Business must be well conducted, no matter how much is paid for it: that is the first condition of modern industrial life. The ques- tion who shall conduct it, must, even in the interest of the working classes, be secondary and subordinate. Is it asked, why ma}^ not the men who have the knowl- edge, skill, and experience requisite for the conduct of business, be employed as agents of eooperators, receiving wages for their services ? In the first place, I answer, the same men cannot conduct the same business as well for others as for themselves. You might as well expect the bow to send the arrow as far when unbent as when bent. The knowledge that he will gain what is gained ; that he will lose what is lost, is essential to the temper of the man of business. No matter how faithfully disposed, he simply cannot meet the exigencies and make the choices of purchase, production, and sale, if the gain or the loss is to be another's, with the same spirit as if the gain or the loss were to be all his own. That alertness and activity of mind, that perfect mingling of caution and audacity, those unaccountable suggestions of possibilities, DIFFICULTIES OF COOPERATION. 377 opportunities, and contingencies, which, at least, make the difference between great and merely moderate success, are not to be had at a salary.* Yet I do not claim that the effect of this would extend so far as to neutralize all the great advantages^ of coopera- tion. If a body of workmen possessed the faith and patience necessary to carry them through tlie period of outlay and experiment, if they had the good judgment to select the best manager t\\ey could find, the good sense to pay him enough to keep him solidly attached to them, and the good humor to support hira heartily, submit promptly to his decisions, and remain harmonious among themselves, cooperation might become a triumphant suc- cess with them. But let us see liow much all this demands from poor human nature. In the first place, there is the all-important choice of a manager. Not to dwell on the danger of a body of work- men mistaking presumption for a true self-confidence, a brave show of information for thorough knowledge, an affected brusqueness for decision of character; or being led away by the plausibility and popular acts of a candi- date, we have the almost certainty that such a body would, in the result, lose the best man, if not by turns every competent man, through indisposition to pay a sufficient salary. In his address before the Cooperative Congress already cpioted, Mr. Thomas Brassey asked : " Where shall we find cooperative shareholders ready to give £5,000 a year for a competent manager ? And yet the sum I have ^ "It is impossible to hire commercial genius, or tlie instincts of a skilful trader." — Fred'k Harrison, Fortnightly Review, III, 492. ^ " I am confident that the manual operations will be skilfully and probably more diligently performed in a cooperative establishment. The personal interests of the workmen will be so directly advanced by their application aiad perseverance that they will naturally work hard. But their best efforts will fail to ensure a satisfactory result, unless the general organization is perfect also." — Mr. Brassey, at Hali- fax. The Times' Report. iT 278 THE WAGES QUESTION. named is sometimes readily paid by private employers to an able lieutenant." ^ But it is not merely an able lieu- J tenant, but a "captain of industry," that cooperators must secure, if they are to conduct purchase, production, and sale in competition with establishments under individual control. Can we imagine such a body paying $50,000 a year to a manager, when they I'eceive on an average not more than $500 themselves ? Would not jealousy of such high wages sooner or later, in one way or another, over- come their sense of their own interest 1 Even if we sup- pose them intellectually convinced of the expediency, upon general principles, of paying largely for good service, will they not be found calculating that for this particular manager this particular sum is altogether too much, or, without any disparagement of his merits, experimenting to see how much they can " cut him down " without driv- ing him off, an experiment always dangerous, always breeding ill-feeling, and preparing the way for a separa- tion. For why should the man who has the skill and knowledge necessary to conduct business on his own account be content to remain on a salary greatly below the amount he might fairly expect to earn for himself ? Is it said his salary is regular and his profits always more or less uncertain ? But the men of the temper to condnct business are not generally timid men or self-distrustful ; they like responsibility and the exercise of authorit}^ — it is a part of their pay. Nor are they averse to a risk well taken ; it braces them up and makes the game exciting. Is it said that want of capital may constrain some of the best men to seek employment at the hand of such associa- tions ? This is true, in a degree, and here is one of the possibilities of cooperation. Yet if a man have the real stuff in him, want of capital is not likely long to keep him under. The history of modern industry teaches that. * The Times' Report. DIFFICULTIES OF COOPERATION. 279 Getting into business in the most humble way, the mer- chants from whom lie buys his materials, those to whom he sells his products, and the bankers to whom he resorts with his modest note,^ all soon take his measure, and when they have taken his measure they give him room. Genius will have its appointed course : antagonism and adversity only incite, inspire, instruct. We have thus far spoken only of those diflSculties of co5peration which attend the selection and retention of able raanasers. On the difficulties to which this is but an. introduction, arising out of the tendency to intrigue which exists in all numerous bodies, and the disposition to meddlesomeness on the part of committees or boards of directors,^ I need not dwell. A sufficient lively impres- sion of them is likely to be created by the merest mention. I will only further refer to . an embarrassment which attends the extension of the cooperative plan to all branches of manufacture which employ laborers of very different degrees of industrial efficiency. Thus, in a cot- ton or woolen mill are to be found persons of both sexes and of all ages, earning under the present system from a few pence up to as many shillings a day. Under the cooperative plan, how is the scale of prices to be fixed ? To say that all should be paid alike would be monstrous, impossible. It would be grossly unjust, and would be quite sufficient to wreck tlie enterprise from the start.^ ' My honored fatlier lias told me of the discussion once held over a note for $250, offered at the bank of which he was a director, signed with the then unknown name of James M. Beebe. ^ Mr. Thornton (On Labor, p. 441) argues that while societies of workingmen may be unable to administer their affairs directly, they may be competent, like political societies, " to provide for their own government." 'J'o the contrary, Mr. Harrison urges (Fortnightly Keview, III., 493) that " he who is unfit to manage, is unfit to direct the manager." ^ Mr. Babbage has shown (Econ. of Manufactures, p. 172-183) that the earnings of persons employed in the production of pins, in his day. / 280 THE WAGES QUESTION. But if the laborers are to be paid at different rates, wlio, I ask again, is to determine the proportions in which the product shall be divided ? How is general consent to be obtained to a scheme which must condemn the sfi'eat majority to receive but a contemptible fraction of their proportional share ? Without general consent, what chance of harmonious action ? But if we suppose the scale of distribution to be fixed, who is to assign the j?6r- sonnel of the association to their several categories, to say that this man shall go into one class, and that man, Mdio thinks quite as well of himself, shall go into a lower class 1 Is there not here the occasion, almost the provocation, of disputes and bad blood highly dangerous to such an enter- prise ? I have no desire to multiply objections to this system or to magnify the scope of those that offer themselves to view. Heartily do 1 wish that workingmen might be found rising more an-d more to the demands which cooperation makes upon them ; but I entertain no great expectations of success in this direction. The reduction of profits through increasing intelligence, sobriety and frugality on the part of the wages class, securing them a prompt, easy and sure resort to the best market, is the most hopeful path of progress for the immediate future. There are of course some departments of industry where the services of the entrepreneur can be more easily dispensed with, than in others. Here cooperation under good auspices may achieve no doubtful success. It would a})pear that if cooperation could be intro- duced anywhere, it would be in agriculture : 3-et in no ranged from 4J^d. to 6s. If the workmen who were capable of doing the higher parts of the work (pointing, whitening, etc.) were to be put to making the whole pin, through all the ten processes described, the cost of the pins would be three and three-quarter times as great as under the application of the division of labor, with payments to each workman according to his capacity. COOPERATION. 381 department of production have the experiments tried proved less satisfactory.^ One reason which, in addition to those ah-eadj enumerated, will probably alwaj^s serve to delay the extension of the cooperative system in this direction, is the great difficulty of determining the actual profits of a year or a term of years, with reference, as is essential, to the value of unexhausted improvements. So long as the eooperators hold together and divide the yearly produce, all goes well ; but if at anj' time one desires to withdraw, and men will not enter into associations of this character without the right of retiring, at pleasure, with- out forfeiture, the question of undivided profits becomes of the most serious importance. To settle it with absolute justice is simply impossible,^ and no method of arriving roughly at a result of substantial justice, is likely to avoid deep dissatisfaction and sense of wrong. 1 An apparently successfal experiment in this direction obtains notice in Prof. Fawcett's Pol. Econ., pp. 292-3, note. ^ Perhaps the difficulty of the problem will be best outlined, to those who are not familiar with this special subject of undivided profits, or " unexhausted improvements," in agriculture, by present- ing the following classification of tenants' expenditures on the soil, which was embraced in the Duke of Richmond's Bill of 1875. That bill divided improvements into three categories ; permanent, wasting and temporary. In the first class were included reclaiming, warping, draining, making or improving watercourses, ponds, etc., roads, f-ences, buildings, and the planting of orchards and gardens. With respect to these, it was proposed that an outgoing tenant should be allowed compensation for the unexhausted value of such of them as he might have made within 20 years of the termination of his tenancy with the written consent of his landlord. The second class included liming, clayiug, chalking, marling, boring, clay-burning, and planting hops, and it was proposed that the tenant should be able to claim for these processes, if done within seven years of the end of his tenancy, no consent being necessary. So also with respect to the third class- consuming by cattle, sheep, or pigs, of corn, cake, or other feeding stuffs, or using artificial manures — where, however, a claim could not go back beyond two years. 382 THE WAGES QUESTION. The difficulties of industrial cooperation have been so manifest that schemes have been suggested for avoiding them in great part, by methods which should sacrifice a proportionally smaller part of the advantages looked for from cooperation. Among these schemes, one, which seems to have been first definitely brought forward by Mr. Bab- bage,' has been tried upon a considerable scale. By this plan, which may be called one of partial cooperation, the employer is induced to admit his workmen to a participa- tion to a certain extent in tiie profits of manufacture, while himself retaining tiie full authority and responsibility of the entrepreneur. By this plan the employer might fairly hope to attach iiis workmen to himself by more than the slight tie of daily or monthly employment, and to interest them so directly in the production of the establishment, as to secure a greater activity in labor and more carefulness in avoiding waste. The resulting advantages to the workmen would clearly be both moral and economical. There is quite a body of literature relating to the experiments in this direction, of MJVf. Leclairer Dupont, Giscpiet, and Lemaire. in France ; of tlie Messrs. Briggs, OMmers of exten- sive collieries and others in England;-^ of a few manufactu- rers in a small way in Switzerland,^ of M. Cini, an exten- sive paper manufacturer of Tuscany,^ and the Messrs. ' In Mr. Biibbage's admirable little work on " tlie Economy of Man- ufactures," published in 1833, a plan of industrial organization is pro- posed on the idea that " a considerable part of the wages received by each person employed should depend on the profits made by the establishment." (pp. 249-50.) •^ J. S. Mill, Pol. Econ., ii. 335-7. =■ Thornton "On Labor," pp. 309-84— McDonnell's Survey of Pol. Econ. 230-1. * Report of Mr. Gould on the condition of the industrial classes, 1872, p. 355. * Report of Mr. Harries on the condition of the industrial classes of Italy. 1871 p. 234-5. COOPEBATION. 283 BreM'ster,^ carriage manufacturers, of Broome st,, N"ew York. That something of the sort is practicable, with the exercise of no more of patience, pains and mutual good faith than it is reasonable to expect of many em- ployers and many bodies of workmen, I am greatly dis- posed to believe. Many experiments, and probably much disappointment and some failures, w-ill be required to develop the possibilities of this scheme, and determine its best working shape, yet in the end I see no reason to doubt that such a relation will be introduced extensively w'itli the most beneficial results. The objections which have been shown to exist to p7'o- ductive cooperation do not apply v/ith anything like equal force to distributive cooperation, so-called (but which could moie properly be termed consiirnptive cooperation), that is, the supplying of the wages class with the necessa- ^ The proposal of the Messrs. Brewster was most honorable at once to the good feeling and to the sagacity of the members of the firm, especially Mr. J. W". Britton, with whom the enterprise originated. The firm offered to divide ten per cent of their net profits among their employees, in proportion to the wages severally earned by them, no charge to be made by the members of the firm for their services prior to this deduction of ten per cent, or for interest on the capital in- vested ; the business of each year to stand by itself, and be independ- ent of that of any other year. This handsome proposal was accepted by the employees, and an association formed. The plan worked to the satisfaction of all parties, as high as $11,000 a year being divided among the hands : but at the great strike of the trades in New York three years ago, the workmen of this establishment were carried away by the general excitement, and the strong pressure bi-ought to bear upon them from the outside ; and the scheme was abandoned. So long as it worked, it worked well ; and showed that the plan had no financial or industrial weaknesses. The failure was at the point of patience, forbearance and faith, a very important point ; but may not masters and men be educated up to this requirement, in view of the great advantages to result ? 284 THE WAGES QUESTION. ries of life throui;-li a^-cneics cstablislioil and supported by themselves. By productive cooperation, workmen seek to increase their incomes. By distributive or consumptive cooperation, they seek to expiMid their ii;comes to better advantage. They no longer seek to divide among themselves the profits of manufacture, but the profits of retail ^ and perhaps even of wholesale - trade. The advantages of this species of cooperation are: First : the division among the cooperators of the ordi- nary net profits of the retail trade. Second : the saving of all expenses in the line of adver- tising, whether in the way of printing and bill posting, or of the decoration of stores with gilding and frescoing, with costly counters, shelves, aiul show cases, with plate glass windows and elaborate lighting ap]>aratus, or ot high rents paid on account of superior location. The aggre- gate saving on these accounts is very large. The " union " store may be on a back street, with the simplest arrange- ments, yet the associates will be certain to go to it for their supplies, without invitation through newspapers or posters. Third : a great reduction in the expenses of handling and dealing out goods. The retail trader must be pre- pared at all times to serve the public, ami he does not dare to greatly delay one while serving another, lest hi^ should drive custom to a rival shop. He is therefore ' For remarks of Messrs. Mill and Cairnes respecting the "excessive friction," and consequent undue protits and expenses of retail trade, the reader is referred to i>age olo-5. * Very recently tlie coui)eraiive societies of England have decided on a new and far reacliing step, and have undertaken the importation of foreign supplies required for their numerous stores and shops. This step evidently involves a very largo addition of responsihility and risk, without, as I should apprehend, a proportional gain in tlie event of success. COOI'J'^JiA TJON. 2Hr, obliged to be at an expcnwi for clerks and porters far exceeding what would be required were the tra^le of tho day Bomewhat more corKjcntrated. Some curious regultB of obftervatiofiB concerning the average num}>er of cu»- tomerK in fcliopo in J^^ndon, are given in Mr. Ifead'« paper bfjforc t)/f; Hocial Bcience A»ftomtion/ which may be hiirnrnarizcd an follows : iHt ol^H^jrvation : time, 4 to o'clock i'. m, ; in 88 8hopg there were 70 per»ong «= .86 per^ong to a ijhop, 2d observation : time, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. ; o4 persons in the Bame 88 8hop8 »-= .01 ixiraonn to a fehop. 3d oJ>Rcrvation : time, 2 to 4 p.m. ; 114 j)ergon» «=• 1.3 persons to a fehop. Average of the tliree observationK : ,02 persons to a fchop. Xow cooperatore can effect a great saving in this re- npect. Joeing 8ure of their ciiaifmi, they can control it, and cjnKtiintrnUi it into a few hours or the day. or }>erhap8 of the evening wholly. Fourth : a saving, of vast moment, in the abolition of the credit system, involving as that does the keeping of hooks, the rendering of accounts, and much solicitation of "^ payment, and, secondly, a very considerable percentage of loss by bad debts. Fifth : sd.^ and to the cultivator Avas left the miserable pittance of 65., or one twelfth of the whole, and one eighth of the proprietor's share ; or if the proprietor cultivated his own land, the king drew £1 I85. Aid.^ and the proprietor only £1 45. ?)d. Whereas in Eng- land the produce of an acre being calculated at £8, the rent may be stated at £1 10«., land tax and poor rates 10^., and there remains £6 for the farmer, being twelve times the amount of the public burdens, and four times that of the rent to the landlord." (On Population, i. 412.) And the same writer (Hist. Europe, xxii. 490, 491) quotes from Balleydier as follows respecting the taxation of Ilnngary prior to 1848 : " To such a length had the abuse of thes3 privileges been carried that the nobles and their servants paid no toll on passing the bridge into Pesth, though it contributed one of the principal sources of revenue enjoyed by the town. The peasants, bourgeoisie, and mechanics alone were burdened with it. The peasant alone paid the hearth- tax ; he alone contributed to the expenses of the Diet and the county charges ; he paid the dues of the schoolmasters, guards, notaries, clergy, and curates ; he alone kept up the roads, the bridges, the churches, the public buildings, the dykes, and the canals ; he alone paid the whole war taxes, and furnished the recruits to the army ; and in addition to all this he was compelled to hand over a ninth of his income to his lord, and to give him fifty-two days' service in the year. Finally, besides the charges of transporting ■wood for his lord's family, he was burdened exclusively with the quartering of soldiers, and he was compelled at -all times, and for a merely nominal remuneration, to furnish such to the county authorities or their attendants. The Spartan Helots were kings in comparison." CHANGES OF TAX-LAWS. 319 It may appropriately be added in this connection that while taxation, unequal in its incidence, may have the effect to place the laborer at a disadvantage, frequent changes of tax-laws are almost certain to prove prejudi- cial to his interests. We have seen that there is no assur- ance that excessive burdens imposed by taxation ill-con- sidered or intentionally oppressive will be diffused by the course of exchange over the entire community in due pro- portion, but it can at least be claimed that there is a ten- dency to such a result, however far that tendency may be defeated or deferred. That this tendency should even begin to operate it is, however, essential that time should be given. It is only by a long course that the ameliorat- ing effects looked for in the diffusion of burdens can be brought aroimd, if at all. If tax-laws are often to be changed, the class which is from any cause already at disadvantage is sure to suffer further and increasingly. Those who are buying and selling, watching and manipu- lating the market, are certain to get all the benefit of the remissions, and to recoup themselves for all the substituted impositions. Those who are economically weakest, the ignorant, the very poor, and those who are distant from the centres of infomiation and of trade, will suffer most. lY. The wages class may be put at disadvantage by in- A judicious poor-laws. The subject is a large one, and I must te content with a "fierce abridgment." Let us go back at once to the elementary question, "Why does the laborer work? Clearly that he may eat. If he may eat without it, he will not work. Simple and obvious ; yet the neglect or contempt of this truth by the English Parlia- ment, between 176Y and 1832, brought the working classes to the verge of ruin, created a vast body of pauperism which has become hereditary, and engendered vices in the whole labor-system of the kingdom which work their evil work to this day. The Law of Settlement has already been spoken of among the acts restraining labor in its resort to market; let us now contemplate the English. C20 TRE WAGES qUESTION. poor-laws as destroying the A'ery disposition of the ]ab3:'- ing class to seek an opportunity to labor. By statute of the 27th year of Henry VIII. giving of alms was forbidden, and collections for the impotent poor were to be made in each parish. By Ist Edward VI. bishops were authorized to proceed against persons who .should refuse to contribute or dissuade others from con- tributing. By 5th Elizabeth the justices were made judges of what constituted a reasonable contriljution. By 14tli Elizabeth regular compulsory contributions were ex- acted. But the more famous act of 43d Elizabeth created the permament poor-system of England. By it every person was given a legal right to relief, and the body of inhabitants were to be taxed for this object.' By sub- sequent legislation the burden was thrown entire upon the landowners. Voluntary pauperism was vigorously dealt with ; the able-bodied were compelled to work ; Avhile by the act of 9th George I. parishes or unions of parishes were authorized to build workhouses, a residence in which might be made the condition of relief. This system, fairly administered, reduced the necessary evil of pauperism to the minimum. But, unfortunately for the working classes, a different theory directed legislation in the latter half of the eighteenth century, and a different temper of adminis- tration began to prevail. Six acts, passed in the early part of the reign of George III., intimated the changed spirit in which pauperism was thereafter to be dealt with. This spirit found fuller expression in Gilbert's act (22d George III.). Guardians were to be appointed to protect the poor against the natural parsimony of parish officers. The workhouse test was repealed for the able-bodied poor. Guardians were required to find work for all applicants as near their own homes as might be, and to make up, out of the rates, any deficiency in w^ages. By this latter provi- ' J. W. Willis Bund on Local Taxation, p. 17. POOR-LAWS AND WAGES. 321 sion, says Sir George NiclioUs,' " the act appears to as- sume that there can never be a lack of profitable employ- ment, and it makes the guardian of the parish answerable for finding it near the laborer's own residence, where, if it existed at all, the laborer might surely, by due diligence, find it himself. But why — it may be asked — should he use such diligence when the guardian is bound to find it for him, and take the whole responsibility of bargaining for wages and making up to him all deficiency? He is certain of employment. He is certain of receiving, either from the parish or the employer, suflicient for the main- tenance of himself and his family; and if he earns a sur- plus, he is certain of its being paid over to him. There may be uncertainty with others and in other occupations. The farmer, the lawyer, the merchant, the manufacturer, however industrious, active, and observant, may labor imder uncertainties in their several callings ; not so the laborer. He bears, as it were, a charmed life in this respect, and is made secure, and that, too, without the exercise of care or forethought. Could a more certain way be devised for lowering character, destroying self- reliance, and discouraging, if not absolutely preventing, improvement V The experience of England, under the operation of the false and vicious principle of Gilbert's act, answers the inquiry with which this quotation closes, in the negative. By 1832 the principle had been carried logically out to its limits in almost universal pauperism. In the case of one parish, the collections of the poor-rates had actually ceased, because the landlords preferred to give up their rents, the clergyman his glebe and tithes, the farmers their tenan- cies.^ In numerous other parishes the pressure of the poor-rate had become so great that the net rent was re- duced one half and more, while it was impossible for land- lords to find tenants. The pauper class had been elevated * History of the English Poor-Laws, ii. 96, 97. "" Ibid., p. 253. 322 THE WAGES QUESTION. by a system of liberal relief, imaccompanied by a work- house test, far above the condition of the independent laborers,' who had only to drop-down npon the rates to be better fed, clothed, and lodged than their utmost exer- tions could effect while working for hire. Thus not only did industry lose its natural reward, but a positive pre- mium was put upon indolence, wastefulness, and vice. All the incidents of the English system were bad : the allowance for each additional child was so much out of proportion to the allowance for adults, that the more numerous a man's family the better his condition ;^ while the allowance for illegitimate children was more liberal than for those born in wedlock. Such was tlie s^'stem which the wisdom of Parliament, under the influence of the squirearchy, substituted for the economic law that he that wonld eat must work. The natural effects of this system were wrought speedily and completely. The disposition to labor was cut up by the roots; all restraints upon increase of population disap- peared under a premium upon births ; self-respect and social decency vanished under a premium upon bastardy.' The amount expended in the relief and maintenance of ' The commissioners of 1832, as the result of extended comparisons, found tliat, while the pauper received 151 ounces of solid food per week, tlie independent laborer received but 123 ounces. '^ " In some instances," says Dr. Chalmers, " the vestries have felt themselves obliged to rent and even to furnisli houses for the reception of the nevvly-marritd couple." — Pol. Econ. 307. ^ " The English law has abolished female chastity." — Mr. Cowell's Report. " It may safely be affirmed that the virtue of female chastity does not exist among the lower orders of England, except to a certain extent among domestic servants, who know that they hold their situations by that tenure, and are more prudent in consequence." — Re- port of the Commissioners of 1831. "In many rural districts it was scarcely possible to meet with a young woman who was respectable, so tem])ting was the parish allowance for infants in a time of great pressure." — Martineau, Hist. England, iii. 168. THE ENGLISH POOR-LA W8. 323 the poor had risen to £Y,036,969, or 10 sliillitigs per head of the population. In this exigency, which in truth con- stituted one of the gravest crises of English history, Parlia- ment, by the Poor-Law Amendment Act (4th and 5tli William IV.), returned to the principle of the earlier laws ; that principle being, as expressed by Prof. Senior, that it is "the great object of pauper legislation" to render " the situation of the pauper less agreeable than that of the in- dependent laborer.'" The workhouse test was restored, allowances in aid of wages were abolished, paid overseers were to be appointed, and a central commission was insti- tuted for the due supervision of the system. Illegitimacy was discouraged by making the father responsible, instead of rewarding the mother, as under the former system. The conditions of " settlement" were mitigated so as to facilitate the migration of laborers in search of employ- ment. By this great legislative reform the burden of pauperism, notwithstanding that the evil effects of the old system still remained in a great degree, had by 1837 become so much reduced that the expenditure, per head of the population, sank to 5^*?. hd. Mr. Baxter in his work on Local Taxa- tion° gives some of the details by counties : 1834. 1837. Sussex 18s. Id. 8.9. Id. Bedford 16 4 8 Bucks IG 11 8 8 Nortliampton 15 8 8 3 Suffolk 16 7 9 3 There is no need to draw, at any length, the moral of this episode in the industrial history of England. It is of the highest economical importance that pauperism shall not be made inviting. It is not necessary that any bru- tality of administration shall deter the worthy poor from public relief, but, in Prof. Senior's phrase, the situation of * Foreign Poor-Laws, etc., p. 88. 2 P. 11, //■ 324 THE WAGES QUESTIOX. the pauper, whether in or out of the workhouse, should al- ways be made less agreeable than that of the independent laborer. The workhouse test for all the able-bodied poor, and genuine labor up to the limit of strength within the workhouse, are imperatively demanded by the interests of self-supporting labor. One might, indeed, hesitate to carry ' thelabortest quite so far as Pennant observed it in his Second . Tour in Scotland, where he writes : " Tlie workhouse is thinly inhabited, for few of the poor choose to enter : those whomever necessity compels are most usefully employed. With pleasure I ohsen'ed old age, idiocy, and even in- fants of three years of age contrihuting to their oivn sup- port hy the })ulling of oahumT^ There is no reason that I know of, why the principle of the factory acts should not be extended to the poor-asylum, to excuse infants ot tender years from work, or any danger to helpful labor in allov/- ing repose to old age or idiocy ; but wherever there is a possible choice between self-support and public support, there the inclination of the poor to lal)or for their own sub- sistence should be quickened by something of a penalty, though not in the way of cruelty or of actual privation, upon the pauper condition. •■' All," says Mr. George Woodyatt Hastings, '' who have administered the Poor Law must know the fatal readiness with which those hovering on the brink of pauperism believe that they can not earn a living, and the marvellous Avay in which, if the test be firmly applied, the means of subsistence will be found somehow.''''^ Y. May the laborer be put at disadvantage through the form in M'hich his wages are paid ? A great deal of public indignation and not a little of the force of law* have been levelled at Truck. How, in an effort to treat the wages question systematically, are we to regard this practice ? ' Pinkerton. iii. 197. - Soc. Sc. Transactions', 1871, p. 146. ' About sixty acts of the British Parliament have dealt with Truck. THE TBUCK SYSTEM. 335 To truck (Fr. Troc) is to exchange commodities, to barter. The truck system of wages, then, is the barter sys- tem introduced between the laborer and his employer. "What objection can there be to this ? How can it be snp- ]")osed to injure the laboring class? I sliall discuss this (juestion at length, not more on account of its intrinsic im- portance, than because it affords an excellent practical ap- plication of important principles relating to the distri- bution of wealth. The truck system may take two forms. First, tliero may be given to the laborer a portion of that which he actually produces, whether that product be suitable to his wants or not, leaving him, in the latter event, to exchange it as he can for whatever he may desire, food, drink, cloth- ing, fuel or shelter. Second, under the truck system the laborer may receive, not what he produces, but what he is to consume; he is paid in commodities supposed to be more or less suited to his wants. Both these forms of truck are as old as labor ; but in the earliest times they were generally found not separate but united. "What the workman produced he also de- sired to consume, and for his labor in tending sheep and cattle, and in sowing and reaping grain, he received wool for his clothing, and meat and bread for his food. And so to-day are the laborers of many countries mainly paid ; and doubtless in the majority of cases the practice is botli nec- essary and beneficial. But when distinction came to be made of labor as agricultural and as mechanical, and when employments came to be much subdivided, it would happen that a laborer's production was calculated to sup- ply but a part only, or perhaps none at all, of his wants ; for it might be that an artisan of Birmingham or Shef- field Avould be employed in making an article which he not only never used but never, even saw used. Hence, if he were to be paid in kind, he would be obliged to sell or ex- change the same for commodities more suitable to his ne- cessities, and this, it will be seen, he might have to do at 326' THE WAGES QUESTION a very great disadvantage, having no place of trade, no business acquaintance, and no time to spend in bartering off his wares. So we find, in the fourth year (1464) of King Edward lY. of Enghmd, an act passed in which oc- curs the following : " Also whereas, before this Time, in the occupations of Cloth-Making, the Laborers thereof have been driven to take a great part of their AY ages in Fins, Girdles, and other unprofitable wares, under such price that it did not extend unto .... therefore it is ordained and established that every man and woman being cloth-makers, from the (said) feast of St. Peter, shall pay to the carders, spinsters, and all such other laborers, in any part of the said trade, lawful money for all their lawful wages." This is the first English act aimed at the truck system. Between that and the act of 1st and 2d AVilliam IV. (c. 37) intervened nearly four centuries, during which this system, in one or both its pliases, prevailed in respect to a great part of Englisli labor, and apparently the British Parlia- ment lias not even yet done legislating about it. I have said that the second form of truck is where the laborer is paid in commodities supposed to be suitable to his wants as a consumer, irrespective of the question whether he has helped to produce the identical articles or similar articles himself. This is done where board is given as a part of wages, but truck to this extent was ex- pressly excepted' from the prohibitions of the great Eng- lish truck act — namely, that of William TV., already re- ferred to. Another form of partial payment which is in the nature of truck, is the allowance of perquisites and privi- leges, such as the keep of a cow, the gleaning of the wheat-field, the cutting of turf, and others which we have had occasion to mention in speaking of the difticulty of ' It was made lawful to stop wages on account of victuals dressed or prepared under the roof of the employer and there consumed by the artificer. BEER AND CIDER TRUCK. 327 estimating tlie real wages of the laborer. This kind of payment prevails, from the nature of the case, mainly in respect to agricnltnral labor, and agrioultuixd truck was not forbidden^ by the act of William lY. One form of agricultural truck deserves especially to be noted. It is found in the beer or cider allowances so prevalent in Eng- land.^ The farms in that country where such payment is not stipulated or is not customary would doubtless be found, on a count, to be in a decided minority. In many cases the allowance is in amount reasonable, if we assume that the use of these drinks in any quantity at all is de- sirable ; but in a vast number of instances the figures of these allowances as reported are startling to minds unfamiliar with the statistics of beer-gardens. In some places Mr. Purdy reports' that the men have from 2 to 4 quarts of beer daily ; women and children half that quan- tity. The cider-truck would seem to be carried to a far greater extent. Mr. Edward Spender states* that the agri- cultural laborers of the cider-producing countries, ])articu- larly Herefordshire and Devonshire, receive from 20 to 50 per cent of their wages in cider ! Eight to twenty pints a day he indicates as the actual range.^ With such a state of ' " Nctlnng herein contained shall extend to any domestic servant, or servant in Imsbanclry" (xx.). This exception was due in part to the rea- son of the case, and in part, we can not doubt, to the want of political power in the agricultural labor class. 2 The words of the Massachusetts General Court are worthy to be commended to the hioh and mighty Parliament of England. "Whereas it is found, by too common and sad experience, in all parts of the colony, that the forcing of laborers and other workmen to take wine in pay for their labor is a great nursery or preparative to drunkenness and unlawful tippling, . . . it is therefore ordered and ordained by this Court that no laborer or workman whatsoever shall, after the publication and promulgation hereof, be enforced or pressed to take wine in pay for Lis labor." (May 14, 1645.) ^ Statistical Journal, xxvii. 526. * Statistical Journal, xxiv. 333, cf. 339. ' "In Herefordshire it has happened that a farmer paid his laborers 9 shillings a week in money, and during harvest-time 9 gallons of cider a 328 THE WAGES QUESTION: things, no wonder Mr. Spender can quote the statement of a medical gentleman, long resident in the eider district, that " the faihire of the apple crop has the same favorable effects on the health of the laborer as the good drainage of a parish has on the health of the inhabitants generally." But the form of truck which has especially excited the opposition of the working classes, and which has been stringently prohibited' by law in England, is the furnish- ing by the employer to the mechanical laborer, of goods for his personal and family consumption, the charges for the same being set off against the wages due. It is of truck in this sense only that we shall hereafter speak. The custom of part-payment in goods, M'hich at one time prevailed almost universally in many districts in England and very generally in the United States, did not fail to iind excuse for itself in the supposed advantage of both parties. It was claimed that, in many branches of "week." Mr. Spender's computations assume that the cider was a good merchantable article. On this point see Heath's EnjiJish Peasantry. One of the " clergy returns" published in the Report of the Convoca- tion of Canterbury on Intemperance, states the allowance of cider to a laborer at harvest-time. at 2^ gallons daily ; another at nearly 2 gallons (p. 39). In one of the " workhouse returns" the governor speaks of la- borers as "swallowing, some of them, as much as 3 or 4 gallons a ■day." (Ibid., p. 40.) ' The Act of 1st and 2d William IV. provides that " in all contracts for the hiring of any artificer in any of the trades enumerated, the wages of such aitificer shall be made payable in the current coin of the realm, and not otherwise." The trades enumerated are the manufactures of iron and steel ; the mining of coal or iron, limestone, salt-rock ; the ■working or getting of clay, stone, or slate ; manufactures of salt, bricks, tiles, or quarries; hardware manufactures, textile manufactures, glass, china, and earthenware, mailufactures of leather, and others. There was excepted the right to supply to artificers medicine and medical attendance ; fuel, materials, tools, and implements in mining ; also hay, corn, and provender to be consumed by any horse or beast of burden employed by tlie artificer in the occupation ; also, to furnish tenements at a rent to be thereon reserved ; also, to advance to arti- ficers money to be contributed to friendly societies and savings-banks, or for relief in sickness, or for the education of children. BAIL WAT AND MmiNG TRUCK. 339 industry, the proximity of stores and shops kept by per- sons disconnected with the employers could not be relied on to the degree recpiired for the supply of the laborers' wants. This plea was urged with most assurance, and probably with the greatest degree of truth, in respect to truck-stores for navvies engaged upon canals and rail- ways, as the gangs employed on such w^orks are, from the nature of the work, continually shifting their place, and often pushing into districts settled sparsely or not at all. At the same time, evidence was presented in the Com- mons Report on Railway Laborers (184:6) going to show that the supposed necessity for truck did not exist even here.* But as the building of canals and railways had reached no great proportions in 1831, when the act of 1st and 2d William IV. prohibiting truck passed, this depart- ment of industry was omitted from the enumeration in that act, and the truck system was kept up in full vigor on the canals and railways of the kingdom long after it had ceased elsewhere, or had sunk into an illicit traffic main- tained, under disguise and at risk, by the least reput- able employers. The department of industry which, next to that men- tioned, put in the strongest plea for truck, was coal and iron mining. In the nature of the case, works of this character are found principally at considerable elevations, upon difficult and broken ground, and often at consider- able distances from market towns.^ Hence the proprie- tors were not without a show of reason in holding that the prompt and sure supply of a large and perhaps fluc- tuating body of workmen required that shops for the sale of the necessaries of life should be established in im- mediate connection with the works themselves. ^ Sir Morton Peto, then a great contractor, and one of the partners of Thomas Brassey, testified that there was no difficulty in provision- ing men on the most remote sections of railway. (Report, p. 75.) 2 Commons Committee on Payment of Wages Bill, 1854. Eeport, pp. 37-9. 300 THE WAGES qVESTIOR. But the opportunity to add to tlie profits of manufac- ture tlie profits, and (through the unscrupulous exei'cise of the influence and authority of tlie employer) more than the ordinary profits, of trade, did not suffer truck to be confined to departments of industry presenting so much of an excuse for the system as the building of canals and railways, and the mining of coal and iron. Truck long prevailed, to a vast extent, in connection with many branches of manufacture, and in many communities, where no reason but the greed of employers existed for the. practice. Workmen were compelled to buy at the mas- ter's store, on pain of discharge. Sometimes hints accom- plished the object ; sometimes threats were necessary ; sometimes examples had to be made. However strong the disapprobation of the workmen, or of the larger com- munity around, the profits of truck were so enormous as to overcome the scruples and the shame of many em- ployers. Those profits were five-fold. First, the ordi- nary profit of tlie retail trader, large as that is, and larger as we know it becomes, in proportion to the igno- rance and poverty of the customer. Second, there was a great diminution of ordinary expenses, due to the com- pulsion exercised. The trader, who was also the manufac- turer, did not have to resort to costly advertising to draw custom, to maintain an attractive establishment in a con- venient location, or to keep up an efficient body of clerks and attendants. The only advertisement needed wms the ominous notice to trade there : the store might be the merest barn, the service might be reduced to a degree involving the greatest inconvenience, and even hardship, to the customer.' Third, it seems to be abundantly ' Mr. Seymour Tremenheere, in his exhaustive evidence before the Select Committee of 1854, stated tliat tlie truck-shops were so small, and the persons retained to serve customers so few, that the women attending to get supplies for their families, on the credit of their hus- bands' watjes, frequently could not enter, but that fifty or one hundred would be seen collected outside, waiting their turn to be served. He TRUCK PRACTICES. 381- proved, by the evidence before the several commissions and committees, that the charges at the ti"uck-shops were generally higher by 5, 10, or 15 per cent than at the ordi- nary retail stores. Fourth, the employer, having the absolute control of the laborers' wages, incurred no bad debts such as eat up the profit of the open trader. Fifth, the quality of the goods furnished was likely to be as best suited the interests of the employer, who, for the best of reasons, feared no loss of custom. Such was truck in England before the act of 1st and 2d William lY. ; and there can be no question in the mind of any candid person who peruses the painful evidence ad- duced in the course of tlie several inquiries which took place before and after that legislation, and who carefully considers the nature of the case, that, wdiether the system be intrinsically mischievous or not, abuses' shameful and had liimself seen women with children in their arms standing in the open air in bad weather, and on asking had been told they had been waiting for hours. (Report, p. 8.) Otlier witnesses placed the time for which a woman might thus be compelled to wait at the truck shop at two, four, or six hours, or even longer. (Report, pp.42, 128, 156-7,322,^30, 371.) Meanwhile the children not in arms were locked np at borne. Mr. J. Fellows, Registrar of Births, Marriages, and Deaths at Bilston, but also, it ought to be mentioned, a retail grocer, stated tliat in six- teen years he had had occasion to record a number of deaths, which he placed, from memory, at eleven, of young children burned in the ab- sence of their mothers while waiting at these shops. (Report, p. 43). ' Sir Archibald Alison appeared before the Committee of 1854 as the champion of truck. " I think," he said, "generally speaking, the people are furnished with subsistence, and with articles of use for themselves and their families infinitely better than from the stores of private dealers." — Re- port, p. 229. "From all that I have seen I think the establishment of stores has been followed by a great improvement in the condition of the work- men." — Ibid. " I have known instances of workmen going miles to the master's stores in preference to dealing with the private shops."— P. 234. ". . . . the immense advantage of the truck system in compelling 382 THE WAGES QUESTION. even liorriblo Avere perpetrated under it. Doubtless there was mueli passionate exaggeration by men smarting under its evils, as there was in respect to the abuses of the old nnreformed jails ; to the Avrongs of American slavery ; to the outrages of the Confederate prison-pens ; but if the simple truth respecting truck in England in the early days of this century could be written out, it Avould form one of the most painful chapters in the long and dreary story of " man's inhumanity to man." Another wron.g which it is charged is done to laborers through the form of their payment, is by the so-called rental by the employer to the laborer, of the tools and machines necessary to production, the wages being stop- ped to the amount of the " rent." This alleged abuse attracted attention from economists and legislators in England particularly in connection with tlie hosiery man- ufacture, and we will, for brevity, draw our ilhistrations wholly from that branch of industry. The system of Frame Rents, as exposed by the evidence before the Commission of 1844 and the Committee of J 855, was this: Instead of the employer hiring laborers to work upon his own machines, paying them net wages for their ser- vice, the knitting is let out to middlemen upon contracts ; " the middleman supplies the workman with frames and other machinery, sometimes belonging to himself and sometimes hired of the manufacturer or other owner, and when he settles wnth the workman, he deducts out of the gross price per dozen of the work perfomied, first, a sura the workman to spendnlarge portion of his earnings in fooil for himself and his family." — P. 245. " I think the workmen in the jireat manufactories and collieries are just like a great ill-disciplined army. It is just as impossible to make them dispose of their money properly as it would be to provide an army with adequate subsistence if you were to abolish the commissariat and pay every man in money, and let liim buy his provisions where he pleased."— Pp. 237, 238. FRAME RENTS. 333 as rent for the use of the frame ; secondly, a snm for winding the yarn, which is a necessary operation for each workman ; a third sum to remunerate himself for the use of the premises where the work is performed, and for the standing-room of the frame ; and a fourth for his trouble and loss of time in procuring and conveying to the work- man the materials to be manufactured, for his responsibili- ty to the manufacturer for the due return of the materials when manufactured, for superintending the work itself, and for his pains in sorting the goods Avhen made, and in redelivering them at the warehouse of the manufacturer." The language quoted is that of the Committee of 1855. That this system of gross wages, with deductions to be made for the use of machinery employed and on the other accounts specified, was not necessary to protect the owners of the machinery was abundantly proved by the fact that in trades requiring the use of even more costly and deli- cate machinery, the plan of clear net wages prevailed. The real reason for the frame-rent system, as brought out unmistakably by the evidence, was the profit to be made from the use of the frames, owned partly by the manufac- turers and partly by the middlemen. This was admitted by the manufacturers themselves, who even claimed that but for this profit they could not carry on their business in a depressed condition of trade.' ^ Just as Sir Arcliibald Alison admitted, tlie masters made use of llie opportunities of the trucli-systeiu. Tims lie speaks of "periods of great distress, wlien the masters are driven to he sharp with their furnishings." (Report of the Committee of 1854, p. 232.) " I have no doubt that under these circumstances, during^ these periods of distress, they sometimes furnish inferior articles, at least to what they have furnished before." .... The complaints which I have heard have almost always been complaints about measure ; or, in some in- stances, I have heard complaints, in periods of distress, that the quali- ty of the goods was inferior." .... I think when a master is receiving high prices for his articles, for iron and coal, then his pockets are full of money, he is in affluent circumstances, and he is not, therefore, under the necssity of being strict with his furnishinrfs ; 334 THE WAGES QUESTION. The fact of rents so high as to make this profit often enormous was abundantly proved. Mr. Muggeridge pre- sented authentic accounts of transactions where the an- nual rent charged approached, equalled, or even exceeded the value of the frames. Thus one workman in 22 years ]iaid as rent upon a frame worth but £8 or £9 between £170 and £180.' Another paid ninepence a week for 30 years, on a frame costing at the beginning but £7, and requiring but £6 or £7 for repairs during the entire period. Still, again, Mr. William Biggs, a member of the Committee of 1855, had testified before the Commission of 1841: that during the two years 1835-36 his firm owned £8000 of frames ; that the rents amounted to £5100, which, after deducting 5 per cent interest 2^<^^ annurn on the capital invested, and the cost of all repairs and inciden- tal expense?, left a clear profit of £1950, or 2tt| per cent for the two years. Such was the sj^stem by the admission of those inte- rested in its maintenance. But there can be no questioa that abuses were easily perpetrated under it. " The amount of this deduction," says Mr. Muggeridge,'' " is regulated by no fixed rule or principle whatever ; it is not dependent upon the value of the frame, upon the amount of money earned on it, or on the extent of the w^ork made ; it has differed in amount at different times, and now does so in different places ; the youthful learner or apprentice pays the same rate from his scanty earnings as that is to say, wlien trade is good, he gives good measure, he gives the best articles, and is liberal with his workmen ; he does not feel the pressure himself. If in bad times he is out at elbow and feels the pressure, as he always does in a monetary crisis, then he is obliged to be more strict with his workmen, and then complaints are made." There is somethinfj beautiful in this Tory confidence in luinian nature, leading to the assurance that masters wit] never cheat their workmen in measure or quality unless it is positively necessary to save them- selves. ' Report of the Committee of 1855, p. 160. ' Ibid. TRUCK AND LA188EZ FAIBE. 335 the most expert and skilful workman in tlie trade from his of four-fold the amount." Moreover, the workman, obliged to hire the machine if he would have employment at all, was compelled, not infrequently, to pay the rent not only when prevented by sickness from labor, but also when no work was furnished him by the middleman, who had a direct interest not only in " spreading the work over a greater number of frames than were requisite,"' the amount given out being, accordingly, in some cases, " what would be three full days' work in a week, in others four, in some as little as two,"'' but also in keeping inferior ma- chines of antiquated pattern worn to the very edge of absolute inetficiencj^, since the less each machine could perform, the larger the number wliicli would be required ; and the more hands he could hold in dependence on him for an inadequate occupation, the move complete his control over these unfortunates ; the more meagre the living they were able to get off their frames, the less likely they were to have either the spirit or the material means to remove. I have given so much space to the questions of Trusk \^ and Frame Rents, both because of their prominence in the history of labor and in economical literature, and be- cause they afford illustrations of certain very important principles in the philosophy of wages. To the appeals of the working classes for legislation abolishing these systems, the economists of the Manches- ter school have replied with the doctrine of laissez /aire. Asserting, as they did in their contest for free trade, the self-sufficiency of capital, they felt bound to vindicate their consistency by asserting the self-sufficiency of labor. To them truck and frame-rents were a mode of ascertaining the wages of labor ; and they deemed the liours and me- ' Report of the Committee of 1855, pp. 163,164, cf. p. 32. 2 Ibid., p. 165, cf. p. 24. 336 THE WAGES QUESTION. thocls of labor and the amount and kind of wages mat- ters to be left to employers and employed, i subject only to the " law of supply and demand." By the opei'ation of this law, the}^ claimed, the employer gets the laborer's ser- vices for the least snm possible nnder the conditions of supply ; and on the other, the laboi'er secures the greatest sum for his services consistent with the existing deunmd. The employer's least price and the laborer's greatest price are therefore the same, and no injustice can be done eo long as both parties are left free by law. It is, however, fairly a question whether the writers and statesmen of this school, in their valorous disposition to stand by their principle in every case where issue on it might be joined, have not mistaken their ground in the matter of frame-rents and truck. Surely, freedom oi contract, on which the Manchesterians insist so strongly, does not involve freedom to break contracts or to evade contracts ; nor does the most advanced advocate of laissez y«w'(? propose that breach of contract shall be left to be pun- ished by natural causes — that is, by the loss of business repu- tation, by the withdrawal of confidence, or by public repro- bation. But if exactitude of performance may be enforced by law without any interference with industrial freedom, why, pray, may not precision in terms be required by the law, as the very first condition of a due and just enforcement of contracts? Precision in terms is, however, manifestly incompatible, in the very nature of the case, with truck ; for if the employer says to the laborer, " 1 will paj' you for your work twent}^ shillings a week, but you shall take it in commodities at my prices," he does not in fact agree how much he will pay the laborer ; the use of the term twenty shillings becomes purely deceptive: it may mean more or less according as the employer chooses to fix his prices at the time ; the laborer can not tell what his wages really are ; the law can not tell, and therefore can not enforce ' Fawcetfs Speeches, p. 130. TRUCK AND LAIS8EZ FAIRS. 337 the laborer's right if litigated.' Perhaps we can not say that precision in terms is incom])atible with the very nature of the sj'^stem of machine rents ; but there is ample evidence to prove that it has been so in fact, and therefore the law, which is bound to enforce the contract, may justly demand that the contract shall not contain an element unsuscep- tible of exact determination. This is not interference with freedom of contract, but with looseness and uncer- tainty of contract, or with the power of one party to a contract to break, evade, or pervert its terms. But I am not anxious to reconcile the prohibition of truck and machine rents with laissez fairs. The autho- rity accorded to that precept is not, in my opinion, to be jufetilied on strictly economical principles. We hare previously (p. 168-9) discussed the principles on which it should be judged whether a law prohibitive or regulative in form really impairs competition, and pre- vents the resort of labor to its market. It was there seen that such a measure, though unquestionably obstructive as against a supposed pre-existing condition of perfect practical freedom, might, by removing important moral or intellectual obstacles to free action, which actually exist in human society as it is, have the effect to promote, and not retard, industrial movement. !Now, let us apply this principle to a proposed law in re- gulation or restraint of truck. It is, say Mr. Bright and Prof. Fawcett, an inteiference with freedom of contract and an obstruction to trade, and therefore mischievous — ' For instance, suppose in a truck establisliment a workman to die having undisputed claims on the employer, for work done, to the nomi- nal amount of 100 sliillinfrs : what amount wnuld his widow be en- titled to recover in money at law, or would the employer be entitled to pay the debt into court in groceries and provisions, in quantities and at prices to suit himself V If the man had lived, the 100 shillings, would have been paid, wholly or in part, in truck. His death certainly does not change the nature of his claim ; yet is it conceivable that a court should award a payment in kind ? I^ 888 THE WAGES QUESTIOK lalm-'z faire^ laisscz jms'^er. l>ut is it really or only form- ally obstructive ? There will not be absolute f readoni of luoveiuent with it. (irantetl. r>nt is there absolute free- dom of movement without \ii Assuredly not. Shall not, then, the (piestion be, whether there will be moro freedom with or without sueh a law 'i Now, if we ask the (|uestion respect iiiij;- truck and frame- rents in England as they were in the lrr^t half of the cen- tury, it must, I think, be answered that intiM-ference with the formal freedom of contract in these ])articulars served to enhance, in a most important degree, the substantial freedom of movement among the laboring classes. The laborer's practical ability to seek his best market is made up of a material element — the means of transportation and present subsistence — and of intellectual and moral elements quite as essential, the knowledge of the comparative ad- vantages of the diifercnt occupations and locations offering themselves, and the courage to break away from place and custom to seek his fortnne elsewhere. Ignorance and fear keep far more men in a miserable lot than does the sheer physical dithculty of getting from place to place, and sus- taining life meanwhile. At the laborer's knowledge of the comparative advan- tages of ditfjrent occnpations and locations, the truck and machine-rent systems struck a deadly blow. In addi- tion to the inevitable difficulties in determining the real wages of labor, which were detailed in Cliapter 11., this system introduced a new and most luipehsstlemcnt of un- certainty. The laborer's wages, p.iid nominally in money, were to be converted into commodities for his consump- tion, by an illicit process at ratesgoverned by the pleasure of the individual em])loyer at the ])articular time. The truck system Avas maintained for the jiurpose chiefly, as was admitted, of enabling the employers to " sweat" their laborers' wages, as counterfeiters " sweat" the coin of the realm. It M^as clainunl that in this way emjdoyers might make themselves good, if the nominal wag s they were TRUCK BLINDFOLDS THE LABORER. ;3C9 paying were too liigli, more easily than they could obtain a reduction in the nominal wages tlieniselves. Moreover, the degree to which wages should be thus reduced would depend upon the rapacity or the necessities of individual employers, and also upon the state of manufacture and trade.' The great ilexibility of these charges was univer- sally admitted ; and, indeed, the readiness with which they could be adapted, in form and degree, to the times and exigencies of the master's business was made one of the chief reconmiendations. If workmen are to seek their own interests, they must know them. Every thing that tends to simplify wages makes it easier for the laborer to dispose of Ins service to the highest advantage. Every thing that tends to compli- cates wages puts the laborer at disadvantage. A system of gross wages, witli deductions " regulated by no fixed rule or jsrinciple whatever" (Muggeridge), varying with times and jdaces, and, as Sir A. Alison admits, varying with the state of trade and the disposition of employers, makes it impossible for the most enlightened workman to act intelligently respecting his interests, while the unedu- cated workman loses his reckoning completely : his senses arc deceived, and he is put wholly at the mercy of the ex- tortioner.'^ But it is said the w^orkman may not, indeed, be able to compute with exactness his net wages and tliose of his fellows, through all this system of allowances and deduc- tions and payments in kind ; but he surely can appreciate the result so far as his own comfort and well-being are ' See Sir A. Alison's remarkaljle admissions on this point, quoted in note to pajye 333. ■■' " This is a ^rreat oppression," quotli Arthur Younjr. " Farmers and gentlemen keeping accounts with the poor is a great abuse. So many- days' work for a cabin, so many for a potato-garden, so many for keep- ing a horse, and so many for a cow, are clear accounts which a poor man can understand well ; hut further it ought not to go, — and when lie has worked out what he has of this sort, the rest of his work ouglit punctually to be paid him every Saturday night." — Pinkerton, iii. 815. W) THE WAGES QUESTION concerned ; he siirelj knows whether he is well off or not ; and if he feels himself wronged, he will seek a bet- ter employer. But how, I ask, is he to jndge in ad- vance, under such a system of combined truck and ma- chine rents as oppressed the framework-knitters of Eng- land fifty years ago, whether his condition would be more tolerable nnder another master or in another place? Suppose him to have the rare intelligence and enter- prise to ascertain the gross wages paid by other employers, perhaps in distant localities, and to find some more favorable than his own, how^ can he have the slightest as- surance that greater severity in the administration of the system of stoppages and deductions, and greater greed in pxirsuing the profits of truck, might not make the dif- ference, and perchance more than the difi^erence, in nomi- nal rates? He can not tell nntil he has tried, and how often would a workman, on such a narrow margin of liv- ing, and it may be with a family, be able to change em- ployers and shift his place in order to better his lot ? How surely would he, after one or two bitter disap- pointments, relinquish the effort, and sink without a strug- gle iuto his miserable place, getting what wages he could, and taking for them what he might, at "the master's store." The fact is, the system of truck and machine rents, as administered in England in the early part of the century, completely Windfolded the workman, and left him to grope about in search of his true interest, in peril of pitfalls and quagmires, or, as was most likely, to sub- mit in sullen despair to every indignity and injury of the position in which he found himself. Surely, then, we are entitled to say that laws in re- straint of these practices differ from those other laws af- fecting labor which have been described in this chapter, in the one all-important particular, that the latter Avere intended to diminish that mobility by which laborers could seek their best market, while the former have the effect to make competition more easy and certain. IS TRUCK EVER JUSTIFIABLE f 341 Is truck, tlien, always subjeat to economical censure ? I answer, Ko. Truck is a form of barter ; and lie v/ould be a bold man wlio should say that barter is always and everywhere prejudicial. When truck arises naturally, is compatible with the general usages of exchange, and is maintained in good faith by common consent, it may not only be unobjectionable but highly advantageous to all classes.' When, however, truck is forced upon a body of impoverished and ignorant workmen against the general usages of exchange, and maintained by intimidation as the means of " sweating" their wages, and keeping them down to the barest subsistence and under an incapacity to miojrate, then truck becomes a horrid wronrey — on his arrival. But if we come, now, to consider a state of industrial society in which exchanges are generally' effected through the use of money, and iiupiire as to the results to a single class of the connnunity of being reduced, through some force operating ujxm them when in a position of disad- vantage, to accept payment for their services in commodi- ties' instead of currency, those, at least, who discard the ' Clearly the evil, if there is any evil in the system, will be some- what according t > the variety of the articles thus forced upon the la- borer. The greater that variety the greater his disadvantage. One of the ariruments against ab dishing or abating agricultural truck has been that the arrangement was generally restricted to " one, two, or three distinct things." — Testimony of Mr. Tremenheere before tho Comuuttee of 1854. Report, p. 103. • HOW TRUCK MAY BE A HABDSHIP. 343 theory of diffusion can easily see that wrong amounting to robbery might be wrought by this means. To deny to one class the advantage they would naturally derive from the introduction of a universal " standard of value and medium of exchange," while allowing it to the classes with which that single class is to compete for the posses- sion of wealth, would be not unlike prohibiting to one merchant the use of the railway, and sending him back to the stage-coach, while his competitors were permitted to use the telegi'aph and the steam-car. So long as the coach was common to all, none had equitable cause of complaint of the want of a better means of transportation. The hard- ship, such as it was, lay in the constitution of things. When the steam-car and telegraph came, they did not bone- fit all alike ; on the contrary, they tended to inequality ;' to make the great greater, the small, Ijy comparison at least, smaller, yet no one could rightfully charge blame in that he received less than others of the great addition to human well-being. It would be quite another thing, however, were one individual or class to be prohibited from par- ticipating, in his measure, in what should be the gain of all. This would be ground for complaint ; this would be gross, palpable injustice. And such a wrong was that truck against which the statute of 1st and 2d William \Y. was levelled. Truck prevailed, not because it consisted M'ith the general system of exchange in the country at the time, not because it was for the convenience of both parties, not from any scarcity of currency to allow cash pay- ments, but, in the vast majority of instances, it had been forced'' upon the working classes simply and solely be- * Tlie effects of railways in taking the life out of small country- towns, and drawing trade and manufactures to junctions and termini, are too familiar to need illustration. * In some cases even the pretence of adapting the commodities, in which the laborer was paid, to his wants was abandoned, and the la- borer was paid in whatever was most convenient to tlie employer. Evidence was given before the Committee of 1854 that workmen were 344 TEE WAGES QUESTION. cause it enabled the employers to add the profits of trade to the profits of iiiaiuifacture ; because it kept the laborers always poor and in debt, and diminished the ease, or j^rac- tically destroyed the possibility, of migration, sometimes forced to receive such an excess of flour, for instance, as to have to pay their rent in this article, of course at inconvenience and with a loss. (Report, p. 6.) CHAPTER XYIII. WHAT MAY HELP THE WAGES CLA8S IN ITS COMPETITION roil THE PEODUCTS OF INDUSTRY. In Chapter III. were set forth certain causes which go to lieighten the etficieney of labor and increase the product of industry. Under the present title I shall have occasion to speak of causes, some of them the same, as operating to give the wage-laborer a larger share of that i^roduct, with- out reference to its absolute amount. Bearing in mind still that it is competition in the full sense of that word, involving as it does the strong desire and the persistent effort to buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market, which alone is needed to give the wages class the highest remuneration which the existing conditions of industry will allow, we can not find difiiculty in enumerating the principal helj^s to this end.' These are : I. Frugality. All capital is the result of saving ; and the frugality of the working classes, contributing to the increase of the wealth available for the pui'poses of industry, secures indirectly an increase of production. ' Mr. Mill says : " When the object is to raise the permanent condi- tion of a people, tmall means do not merely produce small effects, they produce no effect at all." (Pol. Econ., i. 459.) The remark is just, but is perhaps liable to be misunderstood. Causes which, when contem- plated as operating in a given moment, appear so small as to be incon- siderable, may, if they operate continuously in any direction, produce great effects ; but then such causes can not, in a philosophical view, be considered small. v" 346 THE WAGES QUESTION But Ave liavo licro only to do with tlic fact that, without reference to any increase of production, the "workman's frngility gives him a distinct advantage, rendering com- petition on his side, in one degree, more effective. No matter how clearly workingmen may discern their interest in a prompt resort to another market, whether that im- ply a change of occupation or of place, or both, without some savings out of their })ast earnings they must e'en say, with the " Third Citizen" in Coriolanus, " We have the power in ourselves to do it ; l)ut it is a power that we have no power to do." No human thought can distin- guish the several parts of ignorance and of penury in the immobility of agricultural labor in the AVest of England ; but it can not bo doubted that the poverty which has existed among that class siuce the I^apoleonic wars has contributed largely to the miserable result. Their scanty earnings have rendered it extremely dithcult for them to make any savings out of their Avages ; the lack of savings has ]daced them at the mercy of their employers by ren- dering it extremely dilhcult for them to escape to locali- ties offering superior inducements. Prof. Fawcett, writ- iug from Salisbury iu 1S73 or '4, says of tbe agricultural laborers of that section : " They are so poor that it is ab- solutely impossible for many of them to pay the expense of removing even to a neighboring county." ' I have al- ready cited the testimon_y of Mr. Muggeridge'^ respecting the removal of large nund)ers from the south and west of England at the public expense, by which persons who had actually been su])ported as paupers were imniediately brought to a condition of comfortable self-support. In some rare instances this removal of laborers has been ef- fected by the enterprise of private employers. Thus, at the meeting of the Social Science Association iu ISTi, Mr. C. M. Palmer, of JSTcM^castle, one of the largest employers ' Correspondence of the Daily News. " P. 185. FRUGALITY AFFECTS WAGES. 347 in England, stated that some years previously, when there was great distress in Cornwall, he had sent an agent to collect laborers, paying him so much for each man re- crnited, offering minimum wages until the men should hecome instructed in mining, one half the cost of trans- portation to be ultimately deducted from their wages. Mr. Palmer deemed that the enterprise had been very prosperous botli in his own interest and in that of the la- borers. The philanthropic endeavors of Canon Girdle- stone in securing the removal of laborers from the crowd- ed districts have also been alluded to. But whether such schemes are undertaken by government, by business en- terprise, or by private charity, they are almost sure to be successful, if at all, in some lower degree than where the laborer is furnished with means of his own earning and sav- ing, and undertakes his own removal. In strong contrast with the helpless condition of the agricultural laborers of the south and west, Prof. Rogers notes the independence of the laborers of Cumberland and Westmoreland, of whom it is reported that they " never allow themselves to be destitute of such a sum of money as will enable them to emigrate in case the ordinary rate of wages shows signs of yielding to the pressure for employment." ' On men thus provided, the casualties of production will work small permanent injur3^ Their reserves enable them to tide over any commercial disaster, and the return of prosperity fir.ds their efficiency unimpaired. If, on the 1 Pol. Econ., pp. 101, 102. The savings-banks statistics bear out this assertion respecting the laboring classes of these counties. By the report of the Penrith Branch of the Carlisle Savings-Bank, it appears that the total amount due to 260 male farm servants was £9259 9s. 5fZ. ; to 240 female farm-servants, £7904. 8«. 9fZ. Instances are given of £200, £300, or even £500 liaving been accumulated by a single per- son. (Second Report (1869) of the Commission of 1867 on the Em^iloy- ment of Children in Agriculture, p. 141.) Sir Frederick Eden in his " History of the Poor" has preserved some remarkable instances of considerable accumulations out of earnings. (I. 495, 496, note.) 348 THE WAGES QUESTION: other hand, the steady decline of industry in their section, under any general or special cause, imposes on them the necessity of migr.ition, they can go at the best time and in the best way. Thus we see that frugality on the part of the working classes g03s far to supply that condition on which competition will secure to them absolutely the liigh- est wages which the existing conditions of industry allow. "Wages," says Mr. Mill, " arc likely to be high where none are compelled by necessity to sell their labor.'' ' But while frugality is thus a condition of great impor- tance in seauring a beneficent distribution of the product of industry, we are compelled to acknowledge that the condition of the wage-laborer is not conducive to the devel- opment of this (piality. We saw '^ that he must, liuman nature being what it is, be somewhat less industrious than the person who works on his own account ; he is also likely to be less frugal. Take the case of the " peasant jjroprie- tor " of laud. Is there an hour of the day left, there is always something to be done ; the land is ever crying out for labor. lias he a few shillings t > spare at the end of the month, there is always something connected with the land which demands its investment. Whether it be work on the growing crop, or the ditching, fencing, and clear- ing of land, the increase of live stock and implements, or additions to stables and barns, the small farmer has always a good use to which to put every hour of labor and every shilling of money which he can command. After all, it is as Sismondi said : " The true savings-bank is the land." With the wage-laborer the case is different. lie can not reipply any portion of the product of his labor di- rectly to the subject-matter of his labor, for that is not his. If he would put any portion of his wages to a re- productive use, he must seek out some borrower, and the amount he has to lend being small, this borrower must 1 Pol. Econ., i. 443. » P. 74-7. INTEMPERANCE AND WAGES. 349 be the bank, which will lend the money out, he knows not when, he knows not where. This is a verv cold- blooded affair compared with the application of earnings to the land by the proprietor thereof, who works over it and lives upon it, who feels that it is all his, and shall be his children's after him. ^Neither the imagination nor the affections are addressed very powerfully by the sav- ings-bank. There is, besides, some delay involved in a deposit, which, however slight, defeats many a good reso- lution and brings many a half-consecrated sixpence to the grocery or the bar-room. I have named in the last word the great foe to frugality in the working classes. Wholly aside from the perversion of instincts, the loss of laboring power, and the actual vice and crime resulting from drunkenness, the waste of wealth shown by the statistics of the consumption of wine, beer, and liquors by the working-classes is appalling. I had occasion in the preceding chapter to refer to the payment of beer and cider as a part of . agricultural wages in England. The amount of money actually received and spent for these and stronger drinks is estimated, on respect- able authority, as follows :• 18(;9, £113,464,874: ; 1871, £118, 906,066 ; 1873, £140,014,712. The author of this compu- tation proceeds to estimate the cost of the bread consumed annually by the people of England at £2 12.s. 6cZ. per head ; the cost of tea, coffee, sugar, rice, and cocoa consumed, at £1. 10s. 9d. per head : making altogether an average expend- iture for these articles of £4. 7.5. Sd., against an expenditure of £4. 7.5?. 2d. for alcoholic drinks, on the basis of 1873. At this rate, six years' expenditure would amount to enough to pay the national debt, or to build a house worth £150 for every family in the kingdom. There may be some exag- geration in these estimates ; audit is to be considered that the expenditure of the higher classes on this account is more than proportional ; yet one can not set the cost of ^ The Temperance Reformation and the Christian Chixrch, pp. 112, 113. aSO THE WAGES QUESTION. AviiiOc!, ales, and li(|uois eoiisuiueil by the wa«;"c-hiburinj5 I'lassi's of (»rc:it Uritaiu lowi-r than £100,000,000 per anuiiiu. Afr. (i, K. Porter, in a })aper read before the Statistical Society, adopted the estimate that one-half tlio income of worl reaching $312,000,000. The deposits in savings-banks throughout all Euntpe," exclusive of Ivussia ' and Turkey, are estimated, in a ri'})ort of M. ISoniuindie to the French National As- sembly in 1875, at a total of $1,180,000,000. ' Statistical Jmu'iial, xiil. iUM. Mr. Baiiu's states that ninctoon-twentietlis of tho ocrupantsof cottagTS in Leeds pay their rent weekly, tind could not lie trusted lonfjer. (Statis- tical Journal, xxii. 130, 13*:^.) The plan of Monday-morning- payments has been widely urged as iv simple, practical measure in aid ot the laborer's instincts of fruj^ality. French laborers find less dilliculty in carrying their earnings past the cabaret. Mr, Brassey relati-s that during the construction of the Paris and Houen Kaihvay, the Frenehmeu employetl were, at their own request, paid only once a month. (AVork and Wages, ]). 17.) iMr. Mot'nlloch in his Commercial DieticMiary (p. 47S) argues strenu- ously that the State should refuse to protect snuill debts, with a view to promote triigality on tho part of the working-clnsscs. - The fullest body of information relating to banks of saving is to bo found in n recent report by Prof, Louis Bodio, the nccomplished chief of the Italian Bureau oi Statistics. " Casse di Kisparmio in Italia, ed all' estero." ' Russia, however, has her system of saviiigs-bnks, nuniiiering six- ty-two, with deposits to the amount of lour and a half million roubles, in the name of si>venty thousand depositors. In ccmtrast with these facts we tind in little Switzerland not less than 05:5, 8')") dejiositors, or one in every seven of the jiopulation. In Denmark tlu- proportion is one to eight and a half. 77/ a; HAVfNaH OH' TIIM WAOI'^.H CLASS. .351 On l,lio (Continent (;i" Eui'op'j the uuiount of deposits in saviii^s-buikB represents but a fraction of tlio uccuniwhi- tions of the working classes. The passion of tlie coiriinou p'opic; for ui^quirin^ land leads to the continuous appiica- tioii of circuhitin;^ caj>ital to the purchase of this species of property,' while the various classes of credit institutions facilitate tlie erection of workinginen's houses. If it l)e asked how the acquisition of real property by tlie work- ing classes consists with the mobility of labor which is so much to be desired, 1 answer, one need have no fear that the true mol)ility of labor will be impaired at all by any form which the savings of the working classes may take; that the virtues which are required for the exercise of frugality, and wliich the exer(;ise of frugality strengthens, afford the best S3curity for all n;i(;de 1 movement of labor at the right time and in the right way; and finally, tliat the individual acquisition of I'cal property is never likely to become so general as not to le.tve a considerable ]) xtion of the members of every trade without ties to the soil. It is quite anoth'?r question how the extonsivo a(;f[uis!- tion of publi*; pi'opca'ty by the Swiss commimes''' affects the desired mobility of labor in that countiy. It would certainly appear at tliis distance to be inexpr^dient, as re- quiring an undue saci'ifice on the part of iudividii;ds who;n the conditions of industry seem to invite to other ]o.';ah'- ties. The statistics of savings-banks In Ihe [[nit(;d States arc not to be used with, much confidence, for the reason that onerous taxation has in several States driven large amounts of personal property, belonging to persons of means, under the ]>roter;tion of these institutions, which ' III tho C'a.iitf)n of Bpriie, of 500,090 inliabitante, tlie real property- holderH numl)ere(l, in 180=?, 88,670. (Report of Mr. Gould on the Condi- tion of the Industrial C'lasne.s, 1871, p. 670.) ''"The estiniiited value of the property held hy the Swiss communeH betvv(;en the years 186:} and 1804, in h^iien lently of the Cantons, may Vje put down at the large sum of i580.8'5o,077 francs." (Ihid.) 353 THE WAGES QUESTION. enjoy a pai-tial immunity from contribution. It is not un- usual to deposit, up to the lin'iit of tlie amount authorized by law, in each of a number of banks, and still further to multiply such deposits by ejitering ccpial amounts in the names of wife and children.' J^otwithstanding this, however, it is evident that a vast body of wealth is held by the laboring classes of the United States in movable form, in addition to the sums invested in houses and lands. In 1ST3 the savings-banks of Maine showed 91,398 separate accounts, with an aggregate deposit of $29,550,524:; Khode Island, 93,124 accounts, $46,617,183; Massachusetts, 666,229 accounts, $202,195,- 344 ; New- York, 839,472 accounts, $285,520,085. II. Individual and mutual intelligence among the work- ing classes. The phrase mobility of labor is very useful in discussions of the questions of wages, as expressing better than any other the one condition upon which laborers can receive the highest remuneration which the state of productive industry (their own present efficiency being taken into account) will allow, and the sole security which society can have that the inevitable immediate effects of industrial pressure or disaster shall not become permanent. Yet there is danger that the conception of what is involved in this term will be inadequate. Assum- ing the desire of industrial well-being to be universal, the mobility of labor should supply on the part of the wages class all that is needed for a perfect competition ; and this clearly requires something more than legalized freedom of movement, something more, even, than the possession of the physical means of transportation and subsistence need- ed for migration. The laborer must bo in a position to discern where his real interest lies, for to move in any other than the right direction may be more injurious than * One case has come to my knowledge where a depositor, after ex- hausting tlie list of his human family, entered the maximum amount in the name of his dog. INTELLIGENCE AFFECTS WAGES. 353 to abide in liis lot, since all movement implies loss of force, and is only to be justified bj the prospect of a distinct gain in the result. This ability to discern where one's interest lies requires two things, the acquisition of just information and the rejection of false information. Of the former it is not necessary to speak. It is seen in the mere mention, how large is the requirement it makes of the working classes ; how slight the probability that this requirement will be completely filled. The second requirement is, among an ignorant population, even more difficult. So prone to dis- couragement are men, especially men lacking in mental training and culture ; so efficient is Rumor in her evil office of spreading the news of failure and disaster, that the effects of acting upon false information in a single instance may, with ignorant persons, neutralize the most substantial inducements of self-interest in many other in- stances. Such persons have little to hold on to, or steady their minds upon ; they generalize hastily and passionate- ly, or, rather, they do not in any true sense generalize at all ; and after the first shock to their confidence they be- come absurdly suspicious. Even in enterprises of less pith and moment, the cloud of prejudice, vague apprehensions, and false conceits, originating in ignorance, obscures the view, in every direc- tion, of the laborer's true interest. " Few," says Mr. Chadwick,' " who have not had ex- perience in the administration of relief to the destitute in periods of wide distress, can be fully sensible of -the dif- ference, in amount of trouble and chargeability to the ratepayers, between educated and intelligent and uneducat- ed and unintelligent people of the wage-class — the heavy lumpishness of the uneducated, their abject prostration, their liability to misconception and to wild passion, their frequent moroseness and intractability, and the difficulty ' Statistical Journal, xsviii. 11, 13. 854 TUE WAGES QUESTIOK of teaching them, as compared with the self-lielp of the better educated, who can write and inquire for themselves, and find out for themselves new outlets and sources of productive employment, and wlio can read for themselves and act on written or printed instructions. The really well-trained, educated, and intelligent are tlie best to bear distress ; " they aro the last to come upon charitable relief- lists, and the first to leave them." III. Sexual self-restraint. I am not speaking here in the Malthiisian sense with reference to the general supply of labor. In Malthusianism the average number of children to the family is the single consideration ; it matters not whether each family have four children, or one family none, and the next eight : tho supply of labor is equally affected. Again, while in Malthusianism the ago at which marriage shall be contracted and children produced is not a matter of in- difference, it i, only of consequence as it affects the period within which population shall double. I here adduce the desirableness of sexual self-restraint on an account which is wholly additional to this — namely, the infiuence it must exert upon the mobility of the laborer. We have seen the occasion iu modern society for a frequent, one might almost say an incessant, readjustment of population and industry. It is clear, that though the laborer can never wholly escape from this necessity, it is of peculiar im- portance that he should be as disembarrassed as possible durino- the vears when he is coming to find out his own powers and capabiHties, learning how to work, and getting into industrial relations, presumably for life. It is certain that he can make a favorable disposition of his labor then, if ever ; that he will never be able afterwards to seek his market with so little of effort and so little of loss. It is, therefore, economically desirable, without respect to the effect his earlier marriage might have on the general supply of labor, that at this critical period his mobility should be at the maxinmm. Of course, this proposition does not apply generally to communities iu A EARLY MARRIAGES AFFECT WAGES. 355 tlie condition of tlie American colonies and tlie early- United States, where laljor was almost painfully deficient, and Avliere land was abundant. A young man there could scarcely have placed himself wrong; and any disadvan- tage the impediments of a youthful marriage might have occasioned him was amply compensated by the access of productive power which liis rising family soon bronght him, in a country where the condition of " diminishing returns" had not been reached. But when settlements became dense and production diversified, the necessity of a precise adaptation of labor to industry, and a consequent readjustment of population, becomes urgent, and that urgency increases with increase of numbers and diversi- fication of products. Hence it is that early and improv- ident marriages, such as characterize the Irish* at home and in foreign lands, influence unfavorably the rate of wages, wholly besides their effect on the general supply of labor. The young laborer is no longer free to abandon tlie avocation his adaptation to which he finds he has wrongly estimated, or the locality where he finds himself crowded by equally needy competitors, and to seek the price of his labor in a better market ; but, tied down by the cares of family, and harassed by immediate necessi- ties, he sinks hopelessly into what he knows to be the wrong place for him. But if we turn our attention from the fortunes of the individual to those of the whole wages class, we shall see an additional reason, in the interest of a be- neficent distribution of the products of industry, for the procrastination of marriage. The desideraticm is, we have seen, to secure the readjustment of population to industry. It is clearly true that the longei' marriage is postponed, the larger the proportion of the total labor- ' Sir Arcliibald Alison, writing of the Irisii peasants in tlie days be- fore tlie Famine, speaks of tUem as "almost alwaj's" marrying at eighteen, and not infrequently becoming grandfathers at thir+y-four. (Hist, of Europe, xviii. 5.) l^ 356 THE WAGES QUESTION: ing population which ■ will be free, so far as domestic incumbrances are concerned, to respond to economical impulses suggesting a change of avocation or of residence. It is not merely that, if they go in obedience to such sug- gestions, they secure their own highest remuneration, but they also relieve the market in those localities or occu- pations which they forsake. With the disposable element thus increased by the procrastination of marriage, the heads of families, those who, in the words of Bacon, " have given hostages to fortune," may to a very large ex- tent, except only in extraordinary emergencies, be exempt from this necessity. The average age at which marriages are contracted varies greatly with the industrial necessities and the social habits of different communities.' In Belgium, in 21.17 out of 100 marria^s the groom is under 25 years ; in Hol- land, 21.42; in Sweden, 21.83; in Norway, 23.95; in Austria, 2S.40 ; in France, 29.06 ; in Scotland, 41.32 ; in England, 50.95. IV. Legal regulations clearly correspondent to infirmi- ties in the mass of laborers, which tend to defeat the real freedom of choice and power of movement. After making all allowances for the proneness of legis- latures to meddle and blunder, and for defects in ad- ministration of the law, it still remains true that the wages class may, in exceptional instances, be helped for- ' Marriages take place at a very early age in India. Mr. Beverley, the Census Commissioner, calls attention to the fact that the religious be- liefs of the people contribute to this result, as it is deemed highly im- portant that the burial rites, on whicli the welfare of the soul after death, according to their faith, greatly depends, should be performed by male offspring. (Economist, May 9th, 1874, p. 555.) In Ireland early marriages have undoubtedly been promoted by the influence of the priesthood. (J. S. Mill's Pol. Econ. i. 345. 44G ; Alison's Hist, of Europe, xviii. 10 ; Statistical Journal, ssii. 217, xxiii. 205 ; Prof. Senior, quoted in the Edinburgh Review, October, 18G8, p. 328, cf. p. 336.) In Eng- land Mr. J. S. Mill charires that the policy of the Tory party has been to encourage early marriages. (Pol. Econ., i. 426.) LAWS PBOTEGTINQ LABOR, 357 ward in an important degree towards a real and vital com- petition, by the exercise of the prohibitory power of the State. During the present century, says the Duke of Argyle, in his Reign of Law, ' " two great discoveries have been made in the scienca of government : the one is the immense advantage of abolishing restrictions upon Trade; the other is the absolute necessity of imposing y- restrictions upon Labor." There is here no inconsist- ency. I have shown in a preceding chapter that those economists who refuse to carry into the department of Distribution the ride of perfect freedom from restraint whicli they accept in the department of Exchange, do not abandon an economical principle, but only leave behind a practical rule, the conditions of which no longer exist. The possible justification of Factory Acts and kindred legislation may be thus briefly stated. For perfect competi- tion in wage-labor it is required that the employer and the laborer shall each understand and pursue his own true permanent interest. But this requirement is never com- pletely fulfilled. The employer, on his part, is always, in a higher or lower degree, unduly under the domination of immediate purposes. The haste to be rich, which often makes waste ; greed, which is always unwise ; parsimony, which disables from business success many a man who has every other qualification, rendering him incapable of ever taking; a large and liberal view of his industrial relations : rivalry, mutual jealousy among manufacturers affecting the temper of business and warping production from its best course — these passions and infirmities among employ- ers, quickened at times by stringent financial necessities, must more or less make separation between their seeming present and their true permanent interest. Thus it be- comes possible that the employer shall seek to crowd down wages, extend the hours of work, quicken the movement of machinery, admit children of tender age to painful and ' Pp. 334, 335. 3o8 THE WAGES QUESTION protracted labor,^ scrimp in tlie conveniences of produc- tion, and neglect the ventilation and sanitary care of his shop or factory, all in the etfort to increase tlic month's and the year's protits, though sucli a course is, in the long view, prejudicial alike to himself and his hands. Perfect competition would make the employer the guardian of the laborer's interests. AVhat sort of a guardian imperfect competition makes of the employer unrestrained by law or an active public sentiment, may be read in the official re- ports of Great Britain, in which the ct)ndition of her mines and mills and factories prior to their legal regulation is described. Put the failure of true competition is, as has already been abundantly shown, far greater on the side of the wages class, though in this respect very wide dilferences exist, due both to the industrial quality of the individual laborer and to the nature of the occupation pursued. The skilled workman, receiving high Avages, with an ample niaro'in of subsistence, is always fairly able to seek his best market. Doubtless he fails in a considerable degree, at times, for want of apprehension, or of the spirit of enter- prise ; but, in the main, he satisfies the condition of a riffht distribution. Even the unskilled and unintelligent la- borer, in occupations involving no extensive subdivision of work or expensive machinery and materials, may find his place tardily and painfully, and make his terms, though at some loss. It is when laborers of both sexes and all ages, each doing some special operation — a small part of a great ■svork — are aggregated in mills and factories where costly materials are consumed and complicated machinery is em- ployed, that the control of the individual over his lot is. diminished to the minimum. What is the single laborer in ' " Quand Tenfant n'est pas extenue par iin travail premature, et quand on attend qu'il ait les forces necessaires avant de 1' astreindre au travail, uue fois parvenu sx luge d'homme, il est meilleur ouvrier, tra- vaillemieux, plus vite et produit davantago." — M. Wolowr»ki: — I^egis- latiou sur le Travail des Enfauts. (MM. Tallon and Maurice, p. 233.) EN0LI8H FACTORY ACTS. 359 a cotton-mill ? What does liis will or wish stand for ? The mill itself becomes one vast machine which rolls on in its appointed work, tearing, crushing, or grinding its human, just as relentlessly as it does its other, material. The force of discipline completely subjects the interests and the objects of the individual to the necessities of a great establishment. Whoever fails to keep up, or faints by the way, is relentlessly thrown out. If the wheel runs for twelve hours in the day, every operative must be in his place from the first to the last revolution. If it runs for thirteen hours or fourteen, he must still be at his post. Per- sonality disappears ; even the instinct of self-assertion is lost ; apathy soon succeeds to ambition and hopefulness. The laborer can quarrel no more with the foul air of his unventilated factory, burdened with poisons, than he can quarrel with the great wheel that turns below. This helplessness, this subjection to an order which the workman has not established, and can not in one particular change, becomes more complete in the case of women and children, while the responsibility of the State therefor becomes more direct and urgent. It is on such considerations as these, that the econonlist may, acting under the fullest accountability to strictly economical principles, advocate what Mr. ISTewmarch calls' " a sound system of interference with the hours of labor." The Factory legislation of England, the necessity and economical j ustiiication of which tlie Duke of Argyle has called one of the great discoveries of the century in the science of government, began in 1802 with the act of 4:2d George III., limiting tlie hours of labor in woolen and cotton mills and factories to twelve, exclusive of meal-times, imposing many sanitary regulations upon the working and sleeping rooms of operatives, requiring the instruction of children in letters for the first four years of their apprenticeship, and providing an official inspection ' Statistical Journal, xxiv. 462. 360 THE WAGES QUESTIOK. of establishments for the due execution of the Liw. Additional legislation was had in 1816 and 1831 ; and in 1833 was passed the important act known as 3d and 4th William IV. (c. 103), which forbade night-work in tlie / case of all persons undar eighteen years of age, and limit- ed the labor of such persons to twelve hours, inclusive of an hour and a half for meals ; prohibited the employ- ment (except in silk-mills) of children under nine years of age, while between the ages of nine and thirteen the hours were reduced to eight a day (in silk-mills, ten) ; prescribed a certain number of half-holidays in the year, and required medical certificates of health on the admis- sion of children to factory labor. The scope of these provisions has been extended, successively, by legislation in 1844, 1847, 1850, 1853, 1861, 1864, and 1867, until they now embrace all persons engaged in processes inci- dental to the manufacture of textile fabrics, with but slight exception, and also to the manufacture of earthenware, lucifer-matches, percussion-caps and cartridges, or in the employments of paper-staining and fustian-cutting. , The principle of the English Factory Acts has been slow- ly extended over a considerable portion of Europe, Before 1839 England, Prussia, and Austria had, in greater or less degree, controlled the labor of children,' though to but little effect in the last-named country, where the day of labor was still cruelly long, frequently reaching to fifteen hours, exclusive of meals, and sometimes to seventeen.'' French factory legislation dates from 1841. By the act of that year (March 22d) children were not to be ad- mitted to factories under eight years of age. They were only to work eight hours in the twenty-four up to twelve years, and twelve hours from twelve years to sixteen. They were not to work at night, with a few exceptions in the case of children above thirteen, or to work at all on ' L. Horner, Employment of Children, p. 45, cf. p. 54. » Ibid, p. 105. EUROPEAN FACTORY ACTS. 361 Sundays or holidays. School attendance was required up to twelve years. The number of children in 18T0 working subject to this act was about 100,000, nine-tenths of these being employed in spinning and weaving facto- ries.' May loth, 1874, a new law of much greater range and higher efficiency was passed by the ISTational Assem- bly. By this act children under ten years of age can not be admitted to work in factories, mines, or shops ; from ten to twelve years they can work only in certain indus- tries to be specially designated by a government commis- sion, and they only work for six hom's in the day ; from twelve years onwards they are not to M^ork in excess of twelve hours a dsij. Until sixteen years of age they are not to work at night. No child can be admitted to work in mines under twelve years, and no female at any age. Universal primary instruction is provided by the law, and a rigid inspection of all establishments in which children are employed.^ In Belgium there has been no legislation protective of children since the decree of 1813, which prohibited their employment under ten years of age in mines. In Germany, by the Industrial Code of April 6th, 1869 (p. 127-132), the age of admission to labor is fixed at twelve years ; from twelve to fourteen, children can be em- ployed but six hours a day ; from fourteen to sixteen, but ten hours, with two intervals of rest. ]^ight-labor is pro- hibited. School-attendance and factory-inspection are rig- idly enforced. In Switzerland the age of admission varies according to the character of the industry pursued ; in some twelve years, in others thirteen, in others fourteen.^ ' Report of Mr. Malet on the Condition of the Industrial Classes of France. 2 For the text of this law see the work published by MM. Tallon and Maurice in 1875, Legislation sur le Travail des Enfants, pp. 445-53. ^ See the work of MM. Tallon and Maurice, p. 34. 3G2 THE WAGES QUESTION. • In Italy there are no laws relating to tlie employment of cliildren in factories, but children under ten years are not permitted to work in mines.' In Sweden, by royal statute of June 18th, 1864, cliildren under twelve years are not allowed to work in factories, nor any person under eighteen years to be em- ployed at niglit.^ In Spain and Portugal no laws exist respecting the age at which, or the number of hours in the day for which, children shall be employed. In Russia and in Holhmd there were, according to the British Consular Reports of 18 T3 relative to Textile Fac- tories, no laws regulating or restricting the labor of chil- dren.' Mr. Walsham reported that in the JSTetherlands children were employed so young that they could earn but a shilling a week. Mr. Egerton reported that in Russia thirteen hours a day was the general average of the fac- tories, the children working as long as the men. Y. Sympathy and respect for labor in the community. It is at this point that we traverse most completely the orthodox political economy. There has been no end of contemptuous ridicule, or grave rebuke from the profes- sors of the science, and from reviews and journals es- pecially affecting that character, towards those who have assumed that a friendly public opinion could effect any substantial improvement in the condition of the work- ing classes. " It is not unusual," says Mr. McLeod, " to hear persons of benevolence who see the shocking misery which even now prevails among so many in this country, exclaim that employers ought to pay higher wages. But all such ideas are' visionary."* Especially has the agitation respecting the wages of women been deprecated as useless or mischievous. We ' Report of Mr. Herries, 1871, p. 284. '-' Report, of Mr. Goslinn; on Textile Factories. 1873, p. 116. '' P. G6 (Mr. V7alsham) ; p. Ill (Mr. Egerton). ' Pol. Econ., pp. 211, 212. PUBLIC OPINION AFFECTS WAGES. 363 are told that "the inexorable laws of supply and de- mand" determine the rate of wages; that benevolence has no more to do here than with the operations of the steam-engine ; that competition is tlie one irresistible, mirelenting force which overbears all considerations of compassion or charity, and works out a predetermined re- sult with unerring certainty. Who is not familiar with these phrases ? The man would be weak or ignorant Avho should ex- pect that any but the most exceptional and eccentric of mortals would at any given time pay more than the market rate of wages, or should look upon such possible exhibitions of disinterested philanthropy as likely to set a fasliion to be followed by the shrewd, eager, and bnt lit- tle unselfish men who make up tlie mass of employers. But the question is, whether the force we here invoke may not help to fix that very market rate of wages. It is not asserted that this sympathy and respect entertained for labor by the general community need ever be distinctly present in the consciousness, as a motive to individual or class for advancing wages. Bat I base the proposition that these do constitute one condition of a right distribu- tion of the products of industry, upon accepted principles of moral philosophy, supported by inferences, which ap- pear to me conclusive, from economic statistics of wide range and undoubted authority in a kindred department of industrial contract. First, of the reason of the case. Let us recall the prin- ciple so frequently insisted on, that it is only as competi- tion is perfect that the wages class have any security that they will receive the highest remuneration which the ex- isting conditions of industry will permit; that in the failure of competition they may be pushed down grade after grade in the industrial as in the social scale, there being almost no limit to the possible degradation of the working classes Avhere a free circulation of labor is denied. Let us recall, moreover, that the failure of com- 364 THE WAGES QUESTION. petition may be due to moral as mueli as to physical causes ; that if the workman from any cause does not pur- sne his interest, he loses iiis interest, whether he refrain from bodily fear, from poverty, from ignorance, from timidity and dread of censure, or from the effects of bad political economy M'hich assures him that if he does not seek his interest, his interest will seek him. Let us bear in mind, moreover, that it matters nothing whether compe- tition fails in his case because lie does not begin to seek a better market, or, having begun, gives np in discourage- ment. Now, I ask, can it be doubtful that the respect and sympathy of the community must strengthen the wages class in this unceasing struggle for economical advan- tages ; must give weight and force to all their reasonable demands ; must make them more resolute and patient in resisting encroachment ; must add to the confidence with which each individual laborer will rely on the good faitli of those who are joined with him in his cause, and* make it harder for any weak or doubtful comrade to succumb in the contest? And, on the other hand, will not the consciousness that the whole community sympathize with the efforts of labor to advance its condition by all fair means, inevit- ably weaken the resistance of the employing class to claims which can be conceded, diminish the confidence with which each employer looks to his fellows to hold out to the end, and make it easier for the less resolute to re- tii'e from the contest and grant, amid general applause, what has been demanded ? He must be more than liu- man or less than human who is uninfluenced by the friendly or the cold regards of men. And if such a disposition of the public mind must con- firm the union and exalt the courage and sustain the faith of the party that hears everywhere approving words, meets everywhere looks of sympathy, and must tend to impair somewhat, at least, the mutual trust -*nd common POPULAR SYMPATHY WITH LABOR. 365 resolution of their opponents, who shall saj that wages may not be affected thereby ? Let ns apply these principles to an individual case. Hodge thinks — Hodge is a ploughman, and has been get- ting twelve shillings a week — that he ought to have more wages ; or, rather — for Hodge would scarcely put it so abruptly — he feels that it is dreadfully hard to live on twelve shillings. He has attended a lecture delivered by Mr. Joseph Arch, from a wagon on the green. He is uneasy, and wants to improve his condition. So far, then, he is a hopeful subject economically. The desire to improve one's condition is the sine qua non of compe- tition. Will these stirrings of industrial ambition comer to any thing ? Will this little leaven of unrest leaven the whole of the very lumpish lump christened Hodge ? Will the discontented ploughman seek and find his bet- ter market ? This is a great question, for upon the an- swer to it depends the future of Hodge, and perhaps of his sons and grandsons. Let the Spectator' tell how he is assisted on his way and encouraged in his weak, ignorant, doubting mind by landlord, bishop, and judge. " The man has been, so to speak, morally whipped for six months. He has found no friend anywhere, except in a press he can neither read nor understand. The duke has deprived him of liis allotment ; the bishoj) has rec- ommended that his instructor should be ducked ; the squire has threatened him with dismissal in winter ; the magistrate has fined him for quitting work, which is just, and scolded him for listening to lectures, which is tyranny ; the mayor at Evesham has prohibited him from meeting on the green ; and the lawyer — witness a re- cent case near Chelmsford — has told him that any one who advises and helps him to emigrate is a hopeless rascal." IS'ow, I ask, is Hodge quite as likely to pursue his in- ' August 4tli, 1873. 366 THE WAGE 8 QUESTION. terest and psrsist in whatever that requires, as if his social superiors and the men who should be his instructors and helpers were enconraging him to better his fortune if he finds a chance, instead of telling him that if he de- mands more wages, he is kicking against the wage-fund, and that if he kicks against the wage-fund, he is defying an ordinance of heaven ; or as if the law were adminis- tered occasionally by men indifferent' in the dispute between himself and ]iis employer; as if the shop-keeper and the publican and the lawyer and tlie rector were not all ranged against him ? Is it not possible that, for the lack of a little fanning, the feeble flame iu Hodge's breast Inay die out, and he, giving np all thoughts of seeking his fortune elsewhere, return to his furrow, never to stray from it again ? And so vale, Hodge ! Political economy, says Mr. Mill, is concerned witli man " solely as a being who desires to possess wealth, and who 'x) is capable of judging of the comparative efficacy of meansfor obtaining that end. . . . It makes entire abstrac- tion of every other human passion or motive except those which may be regarded as perpetually antagonizing prin- ciples to the desire of wealth — namely, aversion to labor and desire of the present enjoyment of costly indulgences," Among beings thus constituted, doubtless competition would prove " inexorable." But, surely, economists should be careful how they apply to mankind as they are, conclu- sions which they have deduced from the study of such a monstrous race, made up entire of laziness and greed, in- capable of love or hate or shame. Abstract every other human passion and motive ! elimi- nate respect and sympathy! Why, who can say how largely this vkry love of wealth is due to the unwilling- ness to be thought meanly of by our fellow-men, or the more positive desire to excite their envy or admiration ? 'As I understand it, no man in England can be a justice of tlie peace unless he have an estate of £100 a year in land. A PUBLIC OPINION INFLUENCES RENTS. 367 And if regard for the opinions of otliers may be a suffi- cient reason, as we know it is, for men to exert tliemselves laboriously and painfully, why may it not be a reason for men to forbear* to press their power and their undoubted rights to the point of cruelty ? As this subject is of prime importance, I beg my reader's indulgence in making an excursion into another department of political economy — namely, that of rent — -to see if we may not find there evidence of the influence of this very cause which we have invoked in aid of labor. If competition is " inexorable ;" if the laws of supply and demand are "immutable;" if the desu^e of gain is an all -controlling passion, these things ought to be found so in the department of rent as truly as in the department of wages. As we must make a selection, let us take three countries whose land systems have been carefully studied ; countries in which peasant proprietorship is found in an exceptionall}^ small degree, and where, consequently, the question of rent becomes of the highest importance to the welfare of the people. These are England, Italy, and Ireland. In England, Prof. Thorold Hogers declares, rents have remained at a point much below that to which com- petition alone would carry them. The vaunted gene- rosity of land-owners is, he says, " really the necessity of the situation. Englishmen would not tamely acquiesce in a practice which continually revalued their occupancies and made their own outlay the basis for an enhanced rent. The rent of agricultural land is therefore seldom the maximum annual value of the occupancy ; in many cases, is considerably below such an amount."" Again he says : ' Mr. Tremenlieere, in his testimony on truck before the Committee of 1854 on the Payment of Wages, says : "I believe, from all that I have heard in different mininor-districts, that, as a rule, the large com- panies, and the persons who are amenable to puhlic opinion among gen- tlemen, do not resort to those petty and indirect modes of cheating their workmen." (Report, p. 40.) ^ Cobden and Political Opinion, p. 94. ^ 368 THE WAGES QUESTION " The tenant is virtually protected by the disreputable publicity which would be given to a sudden eviction or a dishonest appropriation of the tenant's improvements." ^ In Italy we find local usages respecting land nearly all- powerful, though exceptions exist of provinces where competition^ has entered to enhance rents. " The same misfortune," says Sismondi, in writing of Tuscany, " would probably have befallen this people ii public opinio7i did not protect the cultivator ; but a proprietor would not dare to impose conditions unusual in the country ; and even in changing one metayer for another, he alters no- thing of the terms of the engagement." The third country I have taken is probably the only one of Western Europe to which we could turn as affording an example of rents kept at the point to which unre- strained competition would carry them. And if we ask why it M^as that the " laws of supply and demand " proved liere indeed " inexorable," we find not contradiction but corroboration of our principle. It is not necessary to go far back in the history of Ireland to show why it v/as that nothing intervened here to prevent the tenantry from be- ing ground down by uninterinitted competition. It was because sympathy and confidence and lAutiial respect^ 'Pol. Econ., p. 184. ''Is it said, You are speaking of a failure of competition as if it were favorable to a beneficial distribution of property ? I answer, Absolute competition, equal on both sides, is the single condition of a perfect distribution. But if the laborers are disabled from competition by ignorance, poverty, or other cause — as the laborers of so many coun- tries are, in the mass — then it is merciful that public opinion or the force of law enters to prevent them from b-ing crushed, as they would be, in their inertia if competition remained in full force on the mas- ter's side. Competition to be beneficial must be exerted like the pres- sure of the atmosphere — everywhere and uniformly. ^ " The landlord of an Irish estate inhabited by Roman Catholics is a sort of despot who yields obedience, in whatever concerns the poor, to no law but that of his will. . . . Nothing satisfies him but an unlimited submission. Disrespect, or any thing tending toward sauci- ness, he may punish with his cane or his horse-wLip with the most i BENTS m IRELAND. 369 were unknown between tlie two classes of tlie population. It was not merely that tlie land-owners of Ireland and its peasantry were of different races, of different religions/ and, to no small degree, of different speech — distinctions in themselves of tremendous moment. There was more than this and worse than this in Ireland. The title of the landlord was from conquest' and confiscation, and to sus- tain an original wrong had required a system of legal discrimination and proscription, of which the judicious Hallam says : " To have exterminated the Catholics by the sword, or expelled them like the Moriscoes of Spain, would have been little more repugnant to justice and hu- manity, but incomparably more politic." ^ It is' thus that Macaulay describes the relations of the Saxon and the Celtic inhabitants of Ireland in 1685 : " On the same soil dwelt two populations locally intermixed, mor- ally and politically sundered. The difference of religion was by no means the only difference, or even the chief difference. They sprang from different stocks ; they spoke different languages. They had different national characters, as strongly opposed as any two national charac- ters in Europe. They were in widely different stages of civilization. Between two such populations there could be little sympathy ; and centuries of calamities and wrongs had generated a strong antipathy. The relation in which the minority stood to the majority resembled the relation in which the followers of William the Conqueror stood to perfect security. A poor man would have his bones broken if he offered to lift his hands in his own defence. . . . The execution of the laws lies tiery much in the hands of justices of the 'peace, many of whom, are draion f'^om the most illiberal class in the kingdom." — Ar- thur Young, Tour in Ireland (Pinkerton's Travels, iii. 887, cf. p. 816.) ' Of three great divisions of Ireland — Leinster, Munster, and Con- naught — Mr. O'Connor Morris says: " Probably seven eighths of the land belong to a proprietary of Protestants, and perhaps even a greater proportion of the occupiers are Roman Catholics." (The Land Ques- tion of Ireland, p. 231.) ^ Constitutif^nal F'story of England, iii. 383. 370 THE WAGES QUESTION. the Saxon cliurls, or tlie relation in which tjie followers of Cortes stood to the Indians of Mexico.'" This truly is a state of things in which we might look with confidence to find the law of supply and demand " inexorable," and so, in these circumstances, it proved. The improvidence and ignoi'ance of the peasantry concur- ring, rents were advanced by the acquisitive and aggres- sive passion of the land-holding class, unchecked by public sentiment or generally by individual kindness, until Lord Devon's commission, in 1844, found that in numerous cases the nominal rent of land was greater than the money ^ value of the annual produce, the tenant being kept there- by perpetually in debt to the landlord, whose interest it became to allow him, thus involved, to remain upon the ^soil.' JSTow, I desire not to disparage the influence of other causes in bringing about this result, but I can not think that the history of the land in Ireland would have been what w^e know it was, had the landlord and tenant classes con- stituted one proper population, with ties of a common speech, faith, and blood, having equal rights before the law, and with those kindly feelings which, for all that is evil in us, are more natural between men and classes of men, than distrust and dislike. And even with such a miserable relation as existed between the two classes of the Iribli population, I, for one, do not believe that such a miserable result would have been possible, had not so large a portion of the land-owners been absentees,^ conducting their exactions through agents selected and rewarded for their success in wringing money from the soil, seeing and ' History of Entjland, chap. vi. \ . - " The Irish peasantry were incomparably worse off than the French ' peasantry Avere before the Revolution." — Prof. Rogers, Pol. Econ. 180. ^ " I am aware that, in the view of political economy as taught liy writers of the hypothetical school, an absent landlord is identical with a landlord present ; just as, by Mr. Mill's definition, Simon Magus and Simon Peter, John of Cappadocia and John the Baptist, are exact economical equivalents " — Adlress at Amherst, 1874. ' BE8PECT AND SYMPATHY FOR LABOR. 371 hearing notliing of the wretchedness they caused, and drowning all misgivings in the revelry of foreign capitals. Time would fail to trace the course of that improve- ment in the condition of the people which, by general admission, has taken place in Ireland since 1850. Here, again, I desire not to disparage the influence of other causes, but I can not doubt that some part of the beneficial result observed has been clue, first, to the great liberalizing and ameliorating movement throughout the kingdom, which threw down so many of the old hateful distinctions of faith and class ; a movement in which the reform of the crimi- nal code. Catholic emancipation, the suffrage act of 1832, the repeal of the j)enal acts against Jews and Dissenters, and the abolition of the corn-laws — each was at once effect and cause of new effects ; a movement which was felt latest in Ireland because Ireland had been so widely and deeply sundered in interest and feeling ; and, secondly, to the remorse and shame and pity which were awakened by the disclosures of Lord Devon's commission, followed close by that horrible and sickening demonstration, the Famine of 1846-7, which bronght home to every man and woman in the United Kingdom, in images never to fade from view, the wrongs and miseries of Ireland. If the peasantry of the Green Isle are better off to-day than a generation ogo, it is due, not alone to the general indus- trial advances of the intervening period, or to the migra- tion of surplus labor, if, indeed, that labor was ever truly in excess, but also, and in no small part, to the happy change which has passed over the moral relations of land- lord and tenant. If, then, after so brief a survey we find public opinion operating tluis powerfully in the department of Rent, are we not justified in the assertion that it must also be opera- tive in some degree in Wages ? I do not, be it observed, claim that wages can be en- hanced by any but economical causes ; I merely assert that respect for labor and sympathy with the body of laborers. 373 THE WAGES QUESTION. on the part of tlie general cominuiiity, const,itnte an eco- nomical cause, in just so far as tliev strengthen the laborer in his pursuit of liis own interest, thus making competi- tion on his part more elfective, and in just so far as they take something from the severity with which the employer insists upon his innnediate interest, thus reducing tlie force of competition on that side, making it more nearly equal to that wdiich the laborer, poor, fearful, and ignorant, may be able to oppose. WOMAN 8 WAGES. It is in the partial failure of the condition on which I have here dwelt so much at length that we find one impor- tant cause of the in adecpiate wages of women. But first as to the fact of wages inadequate to the ser- vice performed. Nothing is more commoii than the asser- tion, in print, that women are paid but one half or one third as much as men for performing the same w^ork. Such assertions are generallv based on a misconception of the actual constitution of industrial society. Because a woman working in a woollen factory receives but twelve shillings a week while a man gets twenty-four, it can not properly be said that the latter receives twice as much for doing the same work, since the work done in a factory is of many kinds, making A'ery different demands upon the operatives in the respects of strength, skill, and intelli- gence, and hence jnstly remunerated at very different rates, from threepence a day, it may be, to as many shil- lings. And if we inquire, we shall find that women in a w^oollen factory are in fact rarely engaged upon the same kind of work as tlie men. Thus in an account of the organi- zation of a representative establishment given in the Sta- tistical Journal, where the number and sex of the opera- tives of each class are stated, and the wages paid to each, I note that all the hand-loom weavers are men, all tlie power-loom weavers women. And I also note what is significant, that the wages of the men employed as hand- WOMAJ^'S WAGES. 373 loom weavers are much nearer women's wages than the wages of the men employed in any other department of the factory. in. the same way, in his history of the cotton manu- facture, published a generation ago, Mr. Baines stated that large departments were then entirely given up to women and children. ISTow, clearly, as Mr. Baines re- marks, "that which is only a child's labor can be remimer- ated only by a child's wages." We have seen that the employer can not pay in wages more than he may fairly look to get back in the ]3rice of his products. Hence the fact that a woman may require more to subsist upon than a twelve-year-old boy affords no economical reason why she should receive more wages if she only does the same kind of work. But even though women performed the same kind of work as men, receiving therefor wages less than men, it would not follow, as of course, that their wages were in- adequate to their service. The differences existing in re- spect to the efficiency of labor, both on the side of work and on the side of waste, have been seen (Chapter III.) to be very great as between laborers actually employed in the same operation. Hence it might be true that a man and a woman working at the same table, upon the same material, with the same implements, or laboring side by side in the fields,' should receive wages in -sery dif- ferent amounts, and yet their respective services be most exactly recompensed. lN"ow, there are reasons, some of a social and some of a physiological nature, for the services of women, as a body, being in a degree less desirable to employers than those of men. The physiological reasons have been well stated by Dr. Ames in his recent book, Sex in Industry. These are suflfieient totally to debar women from many occupa- * It may fairly be assumed, for instance, that the ratio between tlie averar tlio 1io;ul of 11k; lioii^c, ^o out to Hook fitrango orrj- ployerH hm'J bo jostJod in jmMio j^luci-s. Sliaino on llio inaii, If Ik; b(; man, who wiJI nr^t ^';lH(Jly ^ivo tlK^rri j-ooiri ! (Join(;idently with this groat infJiiHtrial chango, involv- ing tho rieccHKity of vvivoH und daughtern conli-ibnting by wage labor to the Hii])port of tlic family, have oc- curred HOfJal chaiig(!S, of Hearcoly h;,ss impoi'tance, wliir;h have reHijlt(;d in a nteady increafjc in the j^roportion' of women who are wholly d(;pendent on themHelves for inain- tenariee. What tliese Hocial clianges arc I need not point out ; the result itBcIf is patent, palpable, and needs no proof. I have Hpoken of wife and daiigliter entering the mar- ket of wage la]>or, as a necessity resulting from the social and industrial, changes indicated. And so, in a melan- choly ])rofjoi-tion of cases, it is. Yet there can Ije little doubt that it is sometimes accepted as a necessity wliere more courage and patience and a broader view of self- interest would prove that this miglit be avoided ; and in such a case it would often Ije truer economy to forego wages to he earned at tho expense of leaving the house uncared for. " 1 iind," says Mr. Fi-asor, Assistant Corn- missionci' on tij(; Einployment of Women and Children in Agriculture, " that in my own parish, in J>erkshire, the women have a sort of proverb f hat ' there's only four- pence a year difference between what she gets who goes " TlioHO cauHOH oporatf! witli ruiicli ^Toator force in Homo countries tlian in otliorH. Tho fo)Io\vin;.j lal)l(; hIiowh tlio number of HpinHtfjrs in eaol) 100,000 women in Eiif^lanrl and in Scotland HeveralJy, as hy tho census of 1871, 1 only insert the figures for the period 30-05. Period of Life. England. Scotland. Period of Life. England. Scotland. 20-25 25-30 30-35 35-40 40-45 65,100 35,022 22.305 10.844 14,150 73,790 44,290 30,145 25,01 1 31,800 45-50 50-55 55-00 00-05 12,373 11,094 10,884 10,905 20,150 19,917 19,211 20,343 Eri^rlanrl annually cclubratos 83 marriagew for every 10,000 inliabi- tauts ; Swjtland only 70. 383 THE WAGES QUESTION. out to work and what she gets who stays at home, and she loho stays at home wins it.'' " ' With something of exaggeration there is, no doubt, niucli of truth in this proverb of the Berkshire women. In the eagerness to increase the family income it is not sufficiently considered that, in the absence of the wife and mother, great loss must necessarily be sustained in the expenditure of that income ; and spcondly, that the ill- effects on the health of tlie family, on the duration of the laboring pow'er, and on the moral elements of industry may be sufficient in many cases to offset the nominal gain achieved by stripping the house of its service and depriv- ing the household of their proper care. The failure to appreciate that a penny saved is a penny earned, lies at the bottom of many a far-reaching mistake in domestic life as in productive industry. Waste in food, clothing, and utensils ; waste in laboring force through ill-prepared and ill-preserved food ; waste of the vital endowment of the rising generation through lack of that constant care which is the essential condition of well-being in child- hood ; waste of character and the formation of indolent and vicious habits through neglect to instruct and train the young, and through making the house cheerless and distasteful to the mature : the waste in these and many other forms which the entry of the wife and daughter on wage labor necessarily implies, in greater or less degree, will surely balance the addition of many shillings a week to the family income.* 1 Report of 1867-8, p. 17, n. " The wear and tear of a neglected home," says Mr. R. Smith Baker, " is greater than the income which the wife's labor adds to the weekly means ; and he who can earn enough and to spare ought to feel it a degradation for the wife of his hosom to mingle in these dangerous assemblies. Moreover, a workingman's family is his wealth when well brought up ; his bane when sickly and unhealthy." ^ The disposition to allow married women to undertake paid labor in pnblic places varies greatly in different communities. Mr. Carey in his Essay on Wages (1835) states that out of one thousand females in the Lawrence Factory at Lowell, there were but eleven married wo WOMAI^'S WAGES. 383 Yet, after all, there is an increasing multitude of women who, through having no house to keep, or throngh the straitness of the family means, have no choice bnt to en- ter the mill or the shop, and submit to the rude hustlings of the marketplace — and room, has not been made for them. It may sound strangely that even in the United States, where it is of general consent that women are treated with higher relative consideration than in any other conn- try in the world, respect and sympathy for thein are want- ing in such a degree as to deprive them of any part of their equitable wages. I speak, however, of respect and sympathy for women as laborers. In their " sphere," to use the phrase which so exasperates the advocates of suffrage without regard to sex, women have always re- ceived homage and service, but as w^age-laborers in the public market they have suffered not a little in the past. This has not been from want of chivalry, but from defects men (p. 88, n.) The proportion in tliese later days is mucli greater. I am indebted to the Hon. Wm. P. Haines for the information that of 1506 and 1203 persons employed respectively by the Pepperell Manu- facturing Company and by the Laconia Company, both of Biddeford, Me., engaged in cotton-spinning, 105 in the former and 135 in the lat- ter were married women. Much indisposition to allow the wife to go into the mill is seen in the flax and jute districts of Scotland. Of 784 women employed in the mills at Arbroath, only 5^ per cent were married. " It appears," say the commissioners of the Local Government Board (1873), " to be con- sidered somewhat discreditable for a woman to work in a factory after her marriage, and she does so only under the pressure of a stern ne- cessity." At the same time almost 28 per cent of the females of Scotland were actually bread-winners. This is due to the excess of spinsters previously noted. The married women employed in the textile manu- factories of England and Wales are estimated by Mr. W. C. Taylor, Inspector of Factories, at about 150,000 (Soc. Sc. Trans., 1874, p. 571). " Married women in factories are exceptional," says Mr. Phipps in his Eeport of 1870 on the Condition of the Industrial Classes of Wurtem- burg (p. 223). M. LePlay, in his work on the Organization of Labor, dwells strongly on the economical advantages of leaving the mother and daughter at the fireside. 384 THE WAGES QUESTION. of education. The need that woman is coming to have, in modern life, to enter tlie competitions of industry, has not become snfficiently familiar to the public mind ; the idei lias been stran.^e, her image in such garb unwelcome.' That pnblic opinion which should open to her avenues of employment ; which shoidd be a strong support to her in her demands for fair remuneration ; which should be a de- fence to her in her close pursuit of employment, in her urgent and persistent application for work, in her neces- sary exposure to gaze and comment, and in her contact with much that is strange and rude, has not yet been cre- ated in such a degree as to give to the sex all that freedom of industrial movement which might be consistent with feminine purity and delicacy. We have not yet come to appi'eciatethe obligation which their necessity imposes upon us, as men and gentlemen, to follow them with our ear- nest, active sympathy, and to protect and champion them not less in their labor than at dance or festival. And what is the remedy ? Agitation and the diffusion of correct ideas. Let gifted women continue, as in the past, to appeal for public respect and sympathy for their sisters in their work ; let the schools teach that public opin- ion may powerfully affect wages, and that nothing which depends on human volition is " inexorable ;" let the sta- tistics of women's wages he carefully gathered and i:)ersist- ently held up to view. Efforts like these will not fail to strengthen and support woman in her resort to market, thus enabling her the better to realize the condition upon which alone she can expect to receive the highest wages which the existing state of industry will allow, ' " Fancy," saya Miss Emily Faitlifull, "a gentleman seeking remu- nerative work sub rosa ! And yet this is the state of mind in which so many ladies come to our Industrial and Educational Bureau, that they even refuse to state their requirements to the lady manager, but insist upon seeing me personally on ' strictly private and confidential business.' Public opinion is to be blamed for this ; and unless the press will help us to strike a blow at the false pride now in our midst, parents will still neglect to place their daughters in honorable independs^bt positiona."— Letter to the London Times, 1876. CHAPTER XIX. MAT ANY ADVANTAGE BE ACQUIRED BY THE WAGES CLASS THEOUGH STEIKES OE TEADES-TJNIONS ? It was seen in our ana]ysis of the operation of competi- tion (Chapter X.) that the members of the wages class on their side, and the members of the employing class on theirs, act singly, each for himself, with individual spon- taneity ; and that out of this complete mobility of the individual, in subjection only to his own sense of his own interest, issue the highest conceivable industrial order and an absolutely right division of burdens and diffusion of benehts. The question in the present chapter is, whether, there being an acknowledged failure of competition, greater or less, on the side of the wages class, from ignorance, inertia, poverty, or the undue anxiety of individuals to snatch, each for himself, at the first employment offered, any thing can be added to the real power of this class in com- petition, through restraints voluntarily adopted. The perfect reasonableness of supposing that some advantage might be derived by the wages class from such arrano-e- mehts, will be seen if we compare their situation witli that of an audience seeking to escape from a crowded tlie- atre which has taken fire. There may be time enough to allow the safe discharge of every soul, and in that case the individual interest of each person clearly coincides willi llu' iiiti'fi't of till- Miulii'iuc lakfu fulli'i't i\(>lv — nmm'l\ , that lu> should fall in pi'i-i-isi'lv arcordiiin- to his presout .situation rrlativti to tho i-oiuuiou placo ot" exit. W^t ^\■^^ ktu>\v that, luuuau ii.atiii't^ beiiiti,- what it iv><, punio is liki'lv to ari^o and a cca/v rush cnsui', i-arh trying' to get hofon* lii.s nei«;hl»oi', with tho I'lTtain residl that tlio (lischargo of tho wliolo mass will ho inipodiul, and iho strong" ]>robabililv that not a fow will hi- tramploil to death. If now, n|>(»n men ii\ siieh a situation, diseiplino can hv imposed, and tlu^ piMeiulure which is for tl\t^ inte- rest ;dike o( ci\A\ .and of .all ran he allowed to go forward steadily, swiftly, ami snrt^ly muler authoritatiye dirtn-tion, a gre.at deal of nusery m.ay he preyt>nted, l)is('iplii\t*, n^- straint, ereateno foree, hut thev may sa\i> n\urh waste. In just such a situati*>n, t-ay those who are tho }>ri>fessetl adyoeates of the **eause of lahor," is the wagt>s class in tnany if mvt in most eomnumities, (Jrant th.at the true interest of each niend>er consists \vith the interest id' the w lu'le, no one will assert that each man's inten>st, as he may uiulerst:uid it :md he prepared to act on it, neces- sarily consists Nyith tho giHul oi .all. When industry slacki'ns and employment hocomes scarce, there is the same danger to tho mass, from the heailh>ng h.aste anil greed o( indiyiduals, as in the ease of the theatre just iv- ferred to. A mistaken sense of self-inten>st nuiy eyen peryert I'ompt^tition from its tnie ends, aiul make its force destructiyo. If, tluMi, it is urged, boilies id' labor c.an he ]nit umhn" discipline so ihattluw shall proceed in i>riler and w ith ti'mpt>r, great injury may hv ayerted : injury which onoe wrought m.ay becinne peruunuMit. Tliere is, surely, ni>thing mtreasomtble in this i-laim. Let lis, therefoiH?, \vithout prejudice }>roceeil to consider the ag"eneios by \yhich, under this ]>lan, it is propi>.scd to meet thi^ infirmities i>f the Kabm-ing classes. The issiu' is not wlu>ther joint actioi\ is superior ti> the individual action ef persons eitlightened as lo their indus- tiial inti>rests, but whether joint action n\ay not Ih> better STRIKES AND THE WAOE^FUND. 387 than the tumultuous action of a mass, each pursuing liis individual interest with more or less of ignorance, feai-, and passion. The question of strikes has generally been disposed of by economists with a summary reference to the doctrine of the wage-fund. Strikes could not increase the wage-fund, therefore they could not enhance wages. If they should ap- pear to raise the rate in any trade, this must be due either to a corresponding loss in the regularity of employment or to an equivalent loss, in regularity or in rate, by some other ti'ade or trades occupying a position of econo- mical disadv'antage. Hence, strikes could not benefit the wages class. But we have rid ourselves of the incubus of the wage-fund; and the Cjuestion of strikes is, therefore, with us an open question as yet. We have seen' that the amount of wages received by the laborer may be insuffi- cient to furnish the food necessary to his maximum effi- ciency, and that an increase of wages might, by increasino- his laboring power, increase the product not only propor- tionally, but even more than proportionally, under-feeding, whether of men or cattle, being admittedly false economy. If a strike should enable a body of laborers to secure such an advance against the reluctance of their employers, it might easily turn out that the masters would not only not be injured, but would be benefited in the result. The same would be true of an advance of wages which allow- ed the workmen to obtain more light and warmth and bet- ter air in more commodious dwellings. The same miirht prove to be the case with an advance of wages which merely stimulated the social ambition of the workmen, the wages of labor being, in the language of Adam Smith, " the encouragement of industry, which, like every other human quality, improves in proportion to the encourage- ment it receives." The same would probably be the re- sult, though after some delay, of an advance of wages ^ Pp. 53-58. 388 TUE WAGES QUESTION. wliich enabled workmen to send tlieir children to school, thus bringing them into the mill or shop, a few years later, far more intelligent and physically more capable than if they had been put at work at seven or eight years of age. It might easily prove, according to the principles which have been laid down respecting the efficiency of labor, that such expenditures would be found to be the best invest- ment which the employer ever made of the same amount of money, giving him industrial recruits of a much higher order. I might multiply illustrations showing how an advance of wages which masters were unwilling to concede, and which workmen through their isolated and mutually jea- lous and suspicious action would be unable to command, if effected through united action might prove to be for the interest of both masters and men. By others, again, the question of strikes is dismissed with the assertion that they generally fail of their objects. "Never, in any case," says Mr. E.. W. Hopper, "has an extensive strike resulted in an advance of wages.'" To a request to act in a mediation between masters and men, Lord Cranworth replied, " In the game, so to say, of com- bination the workmen eventually fail."" M. Theodore Fix, in his work Les Classes Ouvrieresj^ vrrites: "After ' Fortnightly Review, August, 1865. " Statistical Journal, xxx. 5. ' P. 194. Doubtless a much larger proportion of the earlier than of the later strikes in England were attended by immediate success. The reason may be presumed to be that, after the repeal of the Combinations Ads in 1824, the workmen struck simply for bread enough to eat. They had been held down by law and ground by an unequal competi- tion till they were reduced below the economical point of subsistence. As to this the testimony of all reports is unanimous. Strikes made for such a palpable cause are more likely to succeed than those which are made, as many of the later ones have been, for doubtful reasons, on ill-chosen occasions, or for the enforcement of trades-unions rules ABE STRIKES SUCCESSFUL? 389 making vast sacrifices, the workmen almost invariably succumb." Granting that this is so in the sense in which the terms are used — that is, that in the great majority of cases work- men making a demand and seeking to enforce it by a strike, are beaten, and, after the exhaustion of their resources, have to go to work again on their master's terms ^ — is this quite conclusive of the whole question ? The argument used against strikes is, it will be observed, much the same as that which was formerly employed by reactionary essayists, and even admitted with reluctance by many liberal writers, in proof of the failure of the French Revolution. The States- General had been succeeded by the Assembly ; the Assembly by the Convention ; the Convention by the Directory ; the Directory had been turned out by the First Consul ; the First Consul had been made Consul for life ; the Consul had become Emperor ; the Emperor had been driven from France ; and after an interval of insolent foreign domina- tion, a legitimate prince, unrestrained by a single constitu- tional check, untrammelled by a single pledge, led back priest and noble, unforgiving and unforgetting, to resume their interrupted license. There had been revolution after revolution ; constitution after constitution ; there had been proscriptions, confiscations, and massacres ; there had been untold loss of blood and treasure; and in the end a king had returned who did not accept a constitution, but con- ferred a charter. It is not an inspiring thought that arguments like these were for a whole human generation held sufficient to prove that the French Kevolution was a mistake and a failure; wliicli must appear to any disinterested person as void of sense and against common justice. ' Prof. Fawcett, in his Political Economy, lias collected a number of in- stances of strikes immediately successful. The best succinct account of the strike-movement in England which we have met is contained in Ward's Workmen and Wages. The same work also contains much infor- mation respecting strikes and trades-unions on the Continent of Europe. 300 THE WAGES QUESTION. for we know now tliat the Bourbons were restored onlj in sesming ; that the restoration of the old regime was for- ever impossible. The king and the princes had indeed returned, the same race besotted with the vain conceit of div^ine right ; they led back, indeed, the same train of priests and nobles, untauglit and incapable of learning ; but they came back, not to the same, but to another France. Is it not conceivable that those who look on the submission of a body of laborers after a strike as a proof that their entire effort has been fruitless, may commit the sama mistake as those who looked on the return of Louis XVIII. as the restoi-ation of the Bourbons? But perhaps another insurrection, political in form but indus- trial in origin, Jiiay even better illustrate this point. I refer to the rising of the peasantry of England in the reign of Richard II. " The rehelUon,''' says Prof. Rogers,' " was put d. ; the weekly payment Is. The several benefits are as follows: "Donation benefit for 12 weeks, 10s. per week ; for another 12 weeks, 6s. per week ; for leaving engagement satisfactory to branch and executive council, 15s. ; tool benefit, to any amount of loss (or when a man has been a member for only six months, £5) ; sick benefit for 23 weeks, 12s. per week, and then 6s. per week so long as his illness continues ; funeral benefit, £12 (or £3 10s. when a six-months' member dies) ; acci- dent benefit, £100; superaimuatlon benefit for life : if a member 25 years, 8s. per week ; if a member 18 years, 7s. ; if a member 12 years, 5s. The emigration benefit is £6, and there are benevolent grants, ac- cording to circumstances, in cases of distress." The following is the exhibit of the liabilities and assets of the "Man- chester Unity," an association numbering 426,663 members, and hav- ing 3488 places of business : LIABILITIES. Present value of Sick Benefits £8,548 592 " " Funeral Benefits to members 1,775 162 '♦ to wives 444 086 £10,707 840 ASSETS. Present value of contributions £6,473 531 " of additional resources 392 127 Capital 2,558 735 £9,424 893 Deficiency ; £1,843 447 FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. 401 Finlaison, to have been for twelve years doing qnite as foolish a thing in the sale of its annuities." The friendly societies have, so far as appears, shown every disposition to correct an error which it has taken the actuaries of Eng- land some time to discover. Of the advantages of making the trade the unit of life and health insurance, much could be said. Only two points need be mentioned : first, it affords the very per- fection of advertisement and agency. This is the weak point of life insurance as it exists outside of natural associ- ations, like trades and professions. The report of the In- surance Commissioners of Massachusetts for 1870 shows that, of the companies doing business in that State, seven- teen per cent of the gross receipts Avent to expenses ; and of this, ten and a half per cent went in commissions to agents. But this is not all. Even agencies sustained at such an expense fail to give the system of life insurance any thing like the extension which its economical advantages deserve, while among the working classes who especially need insurance, since calamities with them cut so deep into the quick and work such lasting injury, the ordi- nary sort of life insurance performs scarcely an appreciable office. But a friendly society, confined to a particular trade, having a natural constituency more or less bound together by personal acquaintance and common interests, and actually managed by its contributors, furnishes, as has been said, the very perfection of advertisement and agency. Secondly, to make the trade the unit of life and health insurance, affords the most equitable rule of contri- bution. Wide differences exist as to the healthfulness and longevity of occupations, as has been shown by some in- stances previously cited." In the friendly society men * The loss to tlie government was estimated hj Mr. Finlaison at £95,000 a year. ^ Pp. 36-38. Speculators in Britisli annnities nnder tlie bill of 1808 liad a, penchcmt for Scotcli gardeners, these appearing to constitute the longest -lived class recognized in the statistical tables. 402 THE WAGES QUESTION. wlio belong to long-lived and healthy trades, and whoso money wages are perhaps considerably reduced in conse- quence thereof, are not obliged to pay for the sickness and the premature mortality of members of other trades, who are perhaps paid much higher rate.?, in compensation for the dangers and hardships of their work. But of trades-unions as friendly societies it is enough here to say that these humane and useful provisions can be better accomplished by associations which do not assume or attempt to legislate on the methods of industry, or to dictate terms to employers, than by societies which are lia- able at any time to be dragged into protracted and ex- hausting contests, and compelled to expend in industrial warfare the funds long and painfully gathered against the providential necessities of labor. The trade-clubs of Den- mark and the l^etherlands and the " artels" of Russia are examples of friendly societies which avoid this dangerous confusion of functions. The distinction between trade-so- cieties and benefit-societies is also very strongly marked in Prussia. In 1860 the relief -societies amounted to 3044, with an aggregate membership of 427,190 and an annual income of nearly one million dollars.* In France these societies are, under the decree of 1852, classified as " approved " or " authorized." The total number in 1867 was 5829, of which 4127 were approved .and 1702 authorized. Those which are approved conform to the requirements of the statutes, and enjoy certain privi- leges in consequence. The funds of the societies at the close of 1867 amounted to forty-six millions of francs, the- annual receipts rising to fourteen millions. Members had received sick-allowances during that year to the extent of 3,998,216 days. The total membership of both classes of societies reached 750,590, of whom 120,387 were women.^ lu Denmark, Mr. Strachey reports not more than one ^ Ward's Workmen and Wages, p. 209. * Report on the Condition of the Industrial Classes, 1870, pp. 479-482. FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. 403 workman in fifteen, or at the outside one in ten, as sub- scribing to sick-clubs.' In Italy, Mr. Ilerries reports about 600 friendly societies, witli a inembersliip not ascertained.^ In Russia the only species of friendly societies existing is the " artel," a small club rarely of more than thirty or forty members, more often of but ten to twenty.^ It is in Great Britain that we find friendly societies most widely spread and taking deepest root among the working classes. The Commissioners in their Fourth Re- port (1874) estimate that in England and Wales there are 32,000 such societies, with an aggregate of four million members and an accumulation of funds in hand in excess of fifty-five millions of dollars. They add an estimate that these societies save to the poor-rates ten million dollars a year.^ But, secondly, besides the offices already indicated, trades-unions effect the object, whether desirable or not, of sequestering^ their respective trades, reducing the ac- cessions by apprenticeship) to the minimum, and practical- ly prohibiting all accessions to their number, after the first general muster, except through the door of appren- ticeship, thereby strictly limiting the number of workmen in each occupation and keeping the price of their ser\'ices artificially high. By what means the constant warfare upon non-society men is carried on ; by what arguments and appliances able workmen are convinced that it would be for their interest to enter these close labor-corporations; to what shifts the excluded are put for employment in the pres- ence of powerful societies, proscribing them and all who ' Report on the Condition of the Industrial Classes, 1870, p. 509. « Report for 1871, p. 290 = Mr. Egerton's Report of 1873. * Report, pp. xvi, xvii. " This appears to be the sole office of the associations of artisans ("esnaf") in European Turkey. Mutual succor is an object which scarcely appears in their organizations. 404 THE WAGES QUESTION. shall employ tliein, or on what terms of humiliation they are at times tolerated, it is not mj join-pose to speak in de- tail here. To the objection that, by the organization of such close industrial corporations, the great body of labor- ers are, in a degree, shut out from the benefits of employ- ment, while the enhanced prices of labor, thus protected from competition, are in a great measure paid by the un- protected wage-laborers, whose condition is rendered only the more miserable, the advocates of trades-unions make in substance these answers: First, that without such restrictions the increase of nn- instructed and unprovided labor would cause every trade to be overrun in turn, the wages in each being slowly but surely brought down, and the whole body of workmen de- graded to the lowest level of mere animal subsistence ; that nearly all the trades in England were in that condition when the unions undertook the work of restriction ; that for those trades which are now happily rescued from such a condition and lifted to a position of industrial independ- ence, to remove their barriers out of sympathy with the general mass of labor and admit all freely into competi- tion, would afford but the briefest relief, inasmuch as the improvidence of the ignorant, weak, and vicious would soon fill the space thus opened with just as hungry and wretched a crowd as now surges outside the barriers, and the sole eflect would thus be to ruin the privileged trades without hel]>ing their less fortunate brethren, as a drown- ing man catches and drags down one wlio might SM'im and save himself. Secondly, that instead of the associated trades throwing themselves thus away in a delusive Quixotism, they do in effect accomplish a much better result for the less skilled laborers by maintaining a high standard of work and wages, and by acting, in their strong estate, as a bulwark against the invasions of " capital," affording example and opportunity to all inferior bodies of labor to associate and govern themselves by similar methods. TRADE -UNION EXCLUSIVENESS. 405 Thirdly (what has been intimated above), that tliero is really no limit to the principle of association among wage-laborers, and no reason, in the nature of the case, why every branch of industry, even to the day-laboring class, should not be protected by similar organizations and regulations. The recent extension of agricultural unions among the scattered farm-laborers of England is pointed to with not a little force as proving the adaptation of the system of industrial federation to conditions the least favorable. When, then, it is said all industries are thus organized and established, none will be at advantage or disadvantage relatively to another, but all will be at an advantage with respect to the employing class. Mean- while the result of universal federation would not be hastened but retarded by our relaxing our restrictions and abandoning the good principle. It is wholesome rigor which we exercise ; our measures seem seliish, and indeed they are taken with consideration only of our own interests, but the results are sure to favor the whole cause of labor. In each and all these claims there is enough of truth to entitle them to somewhat more respectful treatment than has been accorded them. The student of history recognizes that the ancient guilds of which the trades- unions are the indirect successors performed a high office in their time.* Selfish as were the aims and prescriptive as were the methods of the guild, it had yet its part to play in the strife of the people against king and priest and noble ; and it played that part, on the whole, well. Selfish and prescriptive as the modern trade-union has ' " Althougli it is undoubtedly true that in a normal condition of society the system of protection and monopoly, of which the corpora- tions were the very ideal, is extremely unfavorable to production, in the anarchy of the Middle Ages it was of very grea^ use in giving the trading classes a union which protected them from plunder and en- abled them to incline legislation in their favor." — Lecky's History of Rationalism, ii. 240. 406 THE WAGES QUESTION. been, it lias curbed the autlioi-ity of the employing- chiss which sought to domineer not in their own proper strength, but through a cruel advantage given them by class legislation, by sanitary maladministration, and by laws debarring the ])eople in effect from access to the soil. My difference with such defenders of trades-nnions as Mr. Thornton is merely as to the time when these should be put away as an outgrown thing. I find no ground for expecting any benefit to the wages class as a whole, from restricting the access to professions and trades in any country M'liere education is general, where trade is free, where there is a popular tenure of the soil, and where full civil rights, with some measure of political franchises, are accorded to workingmen. But it is as associations for legislating respecting the methods and courses of industry, that trades-unions acquire their highest importance. Strong as the passion of meddling is in all political connnunities, it appears nowhere so strong as in organiza- tions of M'orkingmen ; mischievous as have been the re- strictions upon trade and industry, imposed in the past by governments, it would be difficult to match some of the latest trades-union edicts out of the statutes of Edward III. and Richard II. The Reports of the British Commissioners (Sir William Erie, chairman) of 1867 show that there were in force among trades-unions rules like the following, to be enforced, wherever the unions should find themselves strong oiiongh, by fines levied on the masters, or by strikes : Prohibiting a man from employing his own brother or son, or even from laboring with his own hands at his own work, unless duly admitted to membership of the proper trade society. Prohibiting a workman to work out of his trade, so that a mason may not, for the shortest time, do the least part of TBABE -UNION BULE8, 407 the woi'k of a bricklayer, or a bricklayer undertake the smallest casual patch of plastering or of stone -laying, or a carpenter finish a remnant of bricklayer's or mason's work, and if called in to fit a door or set a post, he may not, if he find the space accidentally left too small, remove so much as one loose brick, but must wait for the appro- priate artisan to be summoned. Prohibiting a workman, where an assistant is usually re- quired, to be his own assistant, for never so small a job or short a time, so that a plasterer, called to a piece of work where an assistant would not be actively employed for one eighth of the time, must still come attended by his " homo," who, if he can not be kept usefully busy, will, for the good of the craft, remain dignifiedly lazy during the whole operation. Prohibiting any one to be known as an exceptionally good workman in his trade ; against walking fast to the place of work when in the employer's time ; against carry- ing more than a certain load, as eight brick at a time in Leeds, ten brick in London, or twelve brick in Liverpool. Prohibiting use to be made or advantage taken of na- tural agents, of improved machinery, or of special local facilities. Thus we have regulations against brick being wheeled in a barrow instead of being carried in a hod, for no other reason alleged than that brick can be wheeled more easily than carried ; against brick being made by ma- chinery or stone dressed by machinery, so that inventions of vast capability remain almost unused in England ; against stone being dressed, even by hand, at the quarry where it is soft and can be easily worked. Prohibiting with more than Chinese intolerance the use within small districts, arbitrarily circumscribed, of material produced outside, so that brick can not be carried into Manchester from brickyards distant only four miles without the certainty of a strike ; prohibiting an employer from taking a job outside the place of his own residence, un- less he shall take with him at least one half the workmen to 408 THE WAGES QUESTIOJV. be employed ; proliibiting members to " work for any gen- tleman, at any job whatever, wlio finds his own materials or does not employ a regular master in the trade to find the same ;" and, finally, making war at every stage upon " piece-work.'' It is not to be understood that any one society has adopted all these rules, or that all societies have adopted any one of them ; but, to a very great extent, rules like tliose recited, and many others quite as minutely restric- tive, are enforced by the whole striking-power of the trade. All such regulations and restrictions must clearly be judged by the pnnciple wliicli has been applied to State legislation on similar subjects. If they can be shown, be- yond any reasonable doubt, to be correspondent to human infirmities in such a way that labor, on the whole and in the long run, has actually a freer resort to its best market by reason of them, then they stand justified on economical grounds. But if they are not thus required to correct lia- bilities which threaten the mobility of labor, they must be pronounced as mischievous as they are irritating and insult- ing. And this liability and strong proclivity of associa- tions of workingmen to intermeddle and dictate concern- ing the methods and courses of industry must be accepted as a valid, practical argument from human nature against trades-unions. CONCLUDING EEMAEKS. Theoitghout the foregoing discussions I have written un- der a constant sense of my accountability as a teacher of political economy. I have adduced no causes, recognized no objects, but such as 1 deemed to be strictly economical. No ethical or social considerations have moved me con- sciously in the composition of this work. Causes have, it is true, been here adduced which are not commonly recog- nized as economical, but it has only been where reasons could be shown sufficient, in my judgment, for attributing to these causes, which are perhaps primarily ethical or so- cial, a clear potency within the field of industry, affecting either the production or tlie distribution of wealth ; for I hold that it can not be cpiestioned that whatever affects either of these is, in just so far, an economical cause. Thus, sympathy for labor (pp. 362-372), if it serves in any degree to make competition on the side of the laboring class more active and persistent ; if it takes any thing from the activity and persistency with wdiich the employing class use the means in their power to beat down wages, or lengthen the hours of work, or introduce J^oung children into painful and protracted labor, becomes, in just so far as it has such an effect, a strictly economical cause, to be recognized, and, so far as may be, its force measured, by the writer on the distribution of wealth. The economist recognizes indolence (pp. 174, 175), the indisposition to labor, as an economical cause, holding men back from the acquisition of wealth which they might obtain but for the force of this principle. Why is not public opinion, re- straining men, as it so largely does, from the acquisition of wealth by means held to be dishonorable or oppressive to the weaker classes of the community, also and equally to be recognized as an economical cause ? 410 THE WAGES QUESTION. I regret that this treatise should be so strongly contro- versial in form ; but tlie fact is, certain doctrines Avhicli I deem to be wholly unfounded have become so widely spread that one can make no progress, by so much as a step, towards a philosophy of wages Avithout encounter- ing them. These doctrines are : 1st (pp. 136-140). That there is a wage-fund irrespec- tive of the numbers and industrial quality of the laboring population, constituting the sole source from which wages can at any time be drawn. 2d (pp. 161-105). That competition is so far perfect that the laborer, as producer, always realizes the highest wages which the employer can afford to pay, or else, as consum- er, is recompensed in the lower price of commodities for any injury he may chance to suifer as producer. 3d (pp. 243-21:6). That, in the organization of modern industrial society, the laborer and the capitalist are toge- ther sufficient unto production, the actual employer of labor being regarded as the capitalist, or else as the mere stipendiary agent and creature of tlie caj^italist, receiving a remuneration Avhich can properly be treated like the wages of ordinary labor. These doctrines I have found it necessary' to contro- vei-t ; and in so doing have not cared to mince matters or pick phrases. For any excess of controversial zeal I shall easily be justified, if I have substantiated the positions I have taken ; on the other hand, if I have been unduly presumptuous in assailing doctrines sanctioned by such high authority, a little too much harshness in argument will not add appreciably to my offence. It may, perhaps, be Avell to guaixl against misconstruc- tion on a single point. In getting rid of the wage-fund, we have not reached the result that wages can be in- creased at any time or to any amount Avhatever. AVe have merely cast aside a false measure of wages. Wages still have their measure and their limits, and no increase can take place without a strictly economical cause. CONCLUDING REMARKS. 411 Wages can not be larger than tlie product except by force of pre-existing contract. Wages ninst, in the long run, be less than the product by enough to give the capitalist his due returns, and the employer his living-profits. What then has been effected by doing avt^ay with the wage-fund? We have shown (Chapter YIII.) that the remuneration of hired labor finds its measure not in a past whose accumulations have been plundered by class legislation and wasted by dyuastic Avars, but in the pre- sent and the future, always larger, freer, and more fortu- nate. If capital furnishes the measure of wages, then that measure is derived from the past, such as it has been, and no iucrease of energy, intelligence, and enterjjrise on the part of the laboring class can add to, as no failure on their part can take from, their present remuneration, which is determined wholly by the ratio existing between capital and population. If production furnishes the measure ofw^ages, as is here maintained, then the w^ages class are entitled to the immediate benefit of eveiy im- provement in science and art, every discovery of re- sources in nature, every advance in their own industrial character (Chapter IX.). Surely it is not a small matter that the laborer should find the measure of his wages in the present and the future, rather than in the past ! But that portion of this treatise on which I should be disposed most strongly to insist, as of extended conse- quence in the philosophy of wages, is the doctrine that -if the wage laborer does not pnrszie Ms interest, he loses his interest (Chapter X.) in opposition to the view so generally maintained by economists, that if the wage laborer does not seek his interest, his interest will seek him ; that economical forces are continually operating to relieve and repair the injuries of labor ; and, specifically, that all sums taken in excessive profits, or for the exces- sive remuneration of capital, whether through combina- 413 THE WAGES QUESTION. tioiis of einployci's or capitalists or tliroug'h the disabili- ties of the Avorking class, are sure to be restored to wages. To the contrary, I have sought to show that, in a state of imperfect competition : First, wages may be reduced Avithout any enhancement of profits, the difference being, not gain to the employer, but loss to mankind through the industrial degradation of the laborer (Chapter IV.) Secondly, for so much of the sums taken from the laboring class by reduction of wages as the employers or capitalists may at the time secure in excessive profits or excessive interest, there exists no adequate security, under the operation of strictly economi- cal forces, that it will be fully returned to the Avages class in a quickened dcnuind for their labor, inasnnich as hixuriousness and indolence (pp. 2.">7— 10, 251) will in- evitably enter, among the majority of employers, to waste in self-indulgence a portion of the profits so acquired, or to take something from the activity and the carefulness with which future production will be pursued. Tiiirdly, in respect to such industrial injuries as have just been de- scribed, economical forces by themselves tend (pp. In5, 160) to perpetuate and continually to deepen the injury, put- ting the laborer at a constantly increasing disadvantage in the exchange of his services. If these three ])ropositions have been substantiated, it follows with absolute certainty that the doctrine of the schools, that in a state of imperfect competition the em- ployer and the capitalist are the guardians of the laborer's interests and the trustees of his wages, is most fallacious, those interests being, in truth, only secured when placed in his own keeping (pp. 211, 212), those wages being only his own when paid into his hands, and that, to enable him thus to maintain his rights in the distribution of the product of industry, he must be qualified by an education which is wholly extra-economical, for which the community, through either its social or its political agencies, must make provision. CONCLUDING BEMARKS. 413 This biings us face to face with tlie doctrine of Laissez f'aire, which teaches that the spontaneous action of in- dividuals, each seeking his own interest on his own in- stance, guided and helped at most by the purely social forces of the community, will achieve the best possible industrial results; and that the interference of govern- ment, operating by constraint and compulsion, under the sanction of law, caii only be mischievous. Reasons have been shown for believing that Laissez faire, so long and loudly proclaimed a principle of universal ai^plication, is nothing- but a rule of conduct (pp. 162-4) applicable in certain conditions ; a rule very useful, indeed, when duly subordinated to higher considerations, but mischievous when allowed to bar the way to clear, practical oppor- tunities for advancing the industrial condition of man- kind ; a rule, in short, which, like fire or water, is a good servant but a bad master. Yet, in reducing Laissez faire from the rank assigned it in most economical treatises, to its true grade of a prac- tical rule, good in certain conditions only, we have not reached the result that State interference is therefore desi- rable at any and every point where the spontaneous action of individuals shall be seen to be inadequate to achieve the highest good of all classes. We have merely put the objection to paternal government on grounds which will bear examination. State interference, however well in- tended, however clear the occasion, is certain in some degree to miss its mark, and to Avork more or less of posi- tive mischief in any attemj)t to remove the evils incident to individual action. Legislation is always more or less un- wise ; administration always falls in some degree short of its intent (pj). 112, 173). Certainly no one can entertain a stronger sense of the evils of the. regulation by law of the industrial concerns of the people than the writer of this treatise. State interference with industry is only justi- fied where the admitted mischiefs of restriction are heavily overborne by an urgent occasion for preventing the per- V 414 THE WAGES QUESTION. manent degradation of the lal)oring classes through tlic operation of economical forces which the individual is powerless to resist. Admitting, then, that it is eminently desirable to reduce the action of the organized public force to the minimum consistent with the above object, shall m'c not say that govei'nment can not relieve itself from the necessity of frecpient and minute interferences with industry in any other way to so great an extent as by, 1st, insisting on the thorough primary education of the whole population ; 2d, providing a strict system of sanitary administration ; 3d, securing by special precautious the integrity of banks of savings for the encouragement of the instincts of frugality, sobriety, and industry ? Each of these things is contrary to tlie doctrine of Laissez faire ; yet I, for one, can not find room to doubt that, on purely economical grounds, the action of the State herein is not only justifiable but a matter of elementary duty. A little interference witli the freedom of individual action here will save the necessity of a great deal of interference elsewhei e. If the State will sec to it that the wliole body of the people can read and write and cipher ; that the common air and common water, which no individual vigi- lance can protect, yet on which depends, in a degree which few even of intelligent })ersons comprehend, the public health and the laboring-power of a population, are kept pure; and that the first feeble efi'orts of the poor at better- ing their condition and saving "for a rainy day" are guarded against olficiul frauds and speculative risks, it may take its hands off at a hundred other j^oints, and trust its citizens, in the main, to do and care for them- selves. These things therefore are demanded by the true economy of State action. But, even so, I find to my own satisfaction at least a present necessity for legislation and administration in the interest of health, in the case of all industries where large numbers of laborers of differiuc; sexes, ao-es, and de^i'ees CONCLUDmG REMARKS. 415 are aggregated, especially where other than manual power is employed. Factory ai'ts prohibiting labor lor all classes beyond the term which physiological science ac- cepts as consistent with soundness and vigor; restricting within limits carefully adapted to the average capability of effort and endurance tlie employment of children and of women also, so long at least as women are denied suffrage on the ground either of mental inferiority or sexual un- iitness for contact with what is rough and vile ; and pro- viding a full and frequent sanitary inspection of air and watei", from garret to cellar, in all bnildings thus occupied: acts like these eeem, at least in the present, to be justified and demanded, not more by social and moral than by economical considerations (pp. 35T-9). For it must ever be borne in mind, in such discussions, ihat those things are economically justified which can reasonably be shown to contribute, on the whole and in the long i-un, to a larger production, or, ])roduction remaining the same, to a more equable disti-ibution of wealth. IISIDEX. Adams, John, the paper money of the American Revohition, 16. Agricultural wages paid largely in kind, ^0-4; agricultural laborers in England crippled early by rheuma- tism, 08 ; agricultural truck not for- bidden in England, o27. Agriculture, great irregularity of em- ployment in, 27, 28, 32, 'i'S ; law of "Dim. nishing Returns" in, chap. v. ; difficulty of ajjplying co-operation to, 280, 381. Air, purity of the, affecting the effi- ciency of labor, 60-4. Alison, Sir Archibald, Hhtonj of Europe, 54, "^nn., 118/;., 1 :>])/,, 180//., 268«., 317, 318, 3», 3y7y/,. ; (Report on the Payment of Wages Bill, 18.')4), testimony respecting truck, 331-333. Allotment system, the, 25. Ames, Dr., Sex in Tnd/istry, 373. Annuities, mistake of the British Government respecting sale of, 400, 401. Applegarth, William, objects and methods of the Amalgamated Soci- ety of Carpenters, 399. Apprentices, statute of (England), 306, 307. Apprenticeship made the condition of entrance to many trades by union regulations, 403-5. Arbitration, 394. Argyle, Duke of, famine in India, 118//. ; necessity for restrictions upon labor, 357. Arithmetical increase of subsist3nce, 102. Ash worth, Mr., comparative cist of clothing from cotton, wool, and flax, 122)1. Austria, co-operation in, 288 ; restric- tions upon industry, 309, 310 ; marriage statistics, 356 ; factory legislation, 360 ; strikes, 395. Avarice, in masters and employers, opposes true self-interest, 59, 164. Babbage, Charles, Economy of Man- nfaetiires, 98, 257, 379n., 280»., 282«. Bagehot, Walter, varying efficiency of labor, 47 ; Lombard Street, 230. Baines, Mr., improvidence of' the ccttage population of Leeds, 350m. Baker, R. Smith, false economy of the labor of married women in fac- tories, 382 '. Bastlat, Fred'k. , Harmonies of Folit- eal Kconoriv.i, 159;/. Batbie, M., Xonveau Conrs de V Econ- omie, 44m., 49/*., 54, 65. Baxter, R. Dudley. National Income, 3il?i., 31, S3, ii8, tlfyn. ; Local Taxa- tion, 'i2'i. Bazley, Sir Thomas, accidents in mining in England, 36//. Beaulieu, M., Les Fopnlcdlons Ouv- rieres, 78. Belgium, statistics of height and weight, 50, 51 ; intemperance in, 78//.; ratio of bread-winners to de- pendents, 136//.. ; proportion of for- eigners in the population, 1 84 ; co-op- eration in, 287; marriage statistics of, 356 ; no factory legislation in, 361 ; laws against strikes and com- binations in, 395. Beverley,Mr., marriages early in India, 356/1. Biggs, Wm., testimony respecting frame rents, 334. Birth-rate, within different occupa- t'ons, 191 ; effect of injudicious poor laws upon, 322, 323. ''Black Death," the, industrial conse- quences of, 304. Blanqui, M., Cours d''Economie In- dus.rielle, 59/j. 37474. 418 mi>EX. Board, to agriciiUnral laborers, 30, 21. Ikulio, Louis, Citsufili A'UpttntiiOy iiol). Bonar, Mr., ri'lution of enij)loyers and laborers in Switzerland, :JCil)«. Boot and shoe niaimt'acturo, irregu- liiritv of employment in, '60 ; iiitro- diietiou ot" maelunerv into, IS'X Brabazt)ii, Lonl, payment of agricul- tural wages in France, 20ii. ; food of the laboring population, ;">()«., 78; town and country rents, li8«. ; wages of women and men in ajjrioul- tnre, Sl-i''., oSO?;, Brassey, Tliomas, Work ami Wa(fes, efficiency of labor among varjor.s nationalities, 45, 40, 72 ; diet of East Indians, ll.s//.; payment of wages to French laborers, 3")ti». ; women in railway eo'istructiou, !i74//. ; Achlnss at Ilalij'a.i\ :i77-."^78. Bread winners, ratio to dependents, VMn., iVil. Brewster, Messrs. , co-operative enter- prise, ;i83/(. Briggs, Messrs., co-operative enter- prise", ~8-. Briekinaking, irregularity of emploj-- nu'iit in, ;.'8 ; employment of women iiud childron in, -yl, 'iC'^. Brittany, low stature of peasantry of, 50 ; language of, 175/i. Britton, J. W., co-operative enterprise, ~8o«. Cairnes, J. E., Exxai/s in I'olitirul /Croiioniy, ett'ects ot the gold dis- coveries on prices, 14«. ; the doc- trineof lfiis\czj'tiir<\ U't'iii, 108, 17o; insufficiency of the employers' sense of sell -interest, 1(54 ; Tfic Slave I'oiv- ci\ inefficiency of slave labor, 12 ; The jAXjieal Metho'l of J'oiitiriil Eeoiioii4tj, (Ed. 1875) the law of dim- inishing returns in agriculture, KHii. 1 00m ; ratio between po) lulation and sub.'^istenee, 1 U' ; the office of econo- mic detinition, 218; Some Leadinx] J'fimvples of Politind Eeonovuj, c'tr., l!)7«. , 184; theory of "non- competing groups," l'.'5-7; profits the reward of abstiucnco, 2HI ; jiro^'.ts at or near the minimum, ~o'i ; excessive prolits restored to wages, 237, 238, 2.)3 ; co-operation, 2(>4-2()5 ; are strikes saiccessf ul V 2'.)S//.; excessive friction of retail trade, 314, 315. Caird. James, dwellings in Scotland, 01 ; Pniirie Ftiriniiifi^ illw.; Canada, efficiency of labor in, 45. Cantillon, M., ratio of breadwinners to dependents, \2i'»i. Capital, often supplied by the persons who perform labor in production, 8 ; does not furnish the measure of 18* Avages, ; 130, 131 ; yet wages aro largely advanced out of c.pital; does c:ii)ital mcl.ido land ? 'ii-i-b ; are the rotarns of capit.il at tne minimuni or not? '•',><'■>, :.37 ; does it make any diiL-renoe to thj wages class whether the i-eturns of capital are at the nutiitnum or not 't ;.37-41. Capitalist class, the, chap. xiii. ; not eoinc.dent with employing class, 2.'1>, 244. 2-15; de])endent ecpially with the laboring class, ou the eni- jdoying class, :.',)ii, 2H1. Caiey, H. C, Esmvj on Wtiges, 141, 3S.«. Carpentering trade, irregularity of ein|)loyment in, 28, 32. Carpeutcr-'i, the Amalgamated Socie- ty of, oOD. Catholic countries, holidays in, 29 ; priesthood, influence in favor of early marriages, 350>t. Census, Un.ted States, 1S70, OC), 180, 375; Ireland, 1851, HI ; Scotland, 1871, 175//., liil, 377. Chadwick, Edwin, cost of rearing a child, 33/«. ; employers [irefer high- jjiiced labor, 41 «.; eiiei'ts of drill upon laborers; 72; difficulty of re- moving laborers, 18."), 257; effects of education upon the condition of the laboring class, 353. Chalmers, Tnomas, Polilieal Eeono- iiiy, 322 ■. Chaiiiberlain, E. M., Sovereigiif! of Tn- (liistri/, 2S8/«. "Channel Islands," the, tenure of land in, 2J8. Charles 11. (England), industrial legis- lation of his reign, 308. Chateaubriand, M. , wages a later form of slavery, 205. Ciierbuliez, A. E., Precis dc la Science Econoii(i(ji/e^ 131. Cheerfulness in labor, 72-77. , Chevalier, M., Lectures, 00, I05h. 1.56, 170; Traiieh in tlw United Statex, 18b,. Children, irregularity of their employ- ment in agriculture, 33 ; employed on woik unsuited to their strength, 52, .53, 107, 108, 201-3; legislation respecting the employment of, 350- 02. China, food habits of the i)eople, 118 ; immobility of the pojjulation, 176. China scourers, excessive mortality among, 37. Cider truck, 23, 337. Cleanliness of pi-rson, affecting efficien- cy of labor, 00, 61. Clerical profession, duration of life in, 37. Cliflbrd, Frederick, The Agricultural Lock-out of IST-i, 47/t. , 117, 118w. INDEX. 419 Clipperton, Consul, Bpecch diffdrencos among population of France, I'iOh. Clofcbing, its importance to the effi- ciency ol; the laborer, 5S ; relative expeuditiD'e of diderent classes for, . 117'.; is cheap clothing desirable ? V.i,l\ comparative cost of clothing from cotton, wool, and flax, V.Cin. Coinage, changes in, affecting nominal wages, VA Cobden, R., English peasantry di- vorced from the soil, 2p8n. Colweli, Stephen, Ways and Means of I'ayiw.tU, 1 'Ml. Competition, when perfect, secures an absolutely right distribution of wealth, ioT ; imperfect or unequal competition may depress and de- grade the laljorlng class, 105, ICfJ, 2:20, 2r21.s:i'.)-41, ;^(;8»,, 885, Zm ; Prof. Cainies' theory of " Non-competing Group.s," 11)5, 'Mi, 221, 222; compe- tition opi3osed by the force of cus- tom, :j]l. Communal property in Switzerland, 351. Consumption of wealth defined, 4. Consumptive co-operation, 283-8. Co-operation, defined, 247 ; erroneous characterization of, by Prof. Cairnes, 2(j.'i-5j its real oljject is to get rid of the employing class, 205-S ; antici- pated advantages of, 208-72 ; its lim- ited success, 272-75 ; its difficulties, 275-80; applied to agriculture, 281; partial co-operation, 282-3; consump- tive co-operation subject to fewer difficulties, 283-4 ; anticipated ad- vantages of, 284-6 ; statistics of, 287-8. Continuity of employment, the em- ployer's interest in, 300-3 Continuity of production, the employ- er's interest in, ;iy8-'.). Corn Lius, repeal of, efiect on English agriculture, 258. Corsica, annual migration into, from France, 187?i!,. Cotter tenancy, 9, 212. Cotton manufacture, irregulaiity of employment in, 30. Cotton goods, co.st of, compared with woollens, Vila. Courcellc-SmeuU, M., OperaUo7is de JiaiKfiit', 252. Co well, Mr., effect of English poor laws on female chastity, 322. . Cow-land, concession of, 23 ; profits estimated, 24. Coxe,Wm., Trnveh, the bearing of the Swiss peasantry, 2(iO. Cranwortli, Lord, strikes always futile, 388. Crowe, H. B. M. Consul - General, strikes in Norway, 3'JQ. Currency, fictitious, effects upon wage labor, 310-3. Custom, its office in protecting the weaker classes against unequal com- petition, 311. Darwin, Charles, The Orvjln of tiiin- cics, 101. Del>tB, small: shall they be protect- ed by law y y50«,. Definitions in political economy, 218. Degradation of labor, the, chaxj. I v. Denmark, proportion of foreigners in the population, 184; co-operation in, 287, 288; restrictions ujjon industry removed, 300; savings-banks sta- tistics, 350>t. ; strikes, 390 ; trade clubs, 402. Dependents, ratio to breadwinners, 120/t. 191. Devon, Lord, his commission on the condition of Ireland, 370. Diffusion theory of taxation, 100, 310-8. " Diminishing Returns" in agriculture, law of, chap. v. : does not apply to mechanical industry, 98 ; affecting wages, 150. Distribution of wealth defined, 4 ; il- lustrated, 5, ; in treatii;g the ques- tions of distribution we liavc to do with industrial classes, not func- tions, 7 ; the problem of di.stribution, chap. X. ; deemed by Chevalier less important and difficult than the problem of production, 150. Distributed exchanged for undistri- buted wealth, the eft'ect on wages, 210-223. Division of lab'r always a source of mechanical advantage, '.,0, 05 ; up to a certain point tends to increase agri- cultural wages, 147-9. Ducarre, M., i^aloires et Rapports eriire Ouvrlers et Patroits (187.5), 87, 187n., 274, 309«., 34 la., 304m. Dupin, M., his researches into French industrj', 47. "Dusty Trades," mortality of, '■.&. Dwellings, laborers', oft'-n unfit for habitation, 01-4; efi'ects of unsani- tary and inadequate habitation on the moral elements of indi stry, 80 ; proportional expenditure of difierent cla.sses on lodging, 117. Earnings, extra, in trades, 24, 25 ; harvest, in agricvdture, '.'J'lU. Eden, Sir F. M., Misloryf thn Poor, Education, influence on efficiency of labor, 1)5-7 ; relative expenditure of different classts, for, 117?4.; loss of wages involved in, l;i3. Edward III., industrial legislation of his reign, 304, 305, 307, 379. 420 INDEX. Edward W., law against truck, 326. Edward VI., pauper legislation, 307, Egjrton, H. B. M. Consul, inefficiency of Uissian labor, 44 ; irregularity of factory attend.mjo, 48 ; reubleness of the industrial desires of ths Rus- sian paasantry, 127/i. ; no factory leg'.slation in Russia, y(52 ; strikes in Riissia, oHO ; "artsls," 403. Elizabeth, Q ;e3n, industrial legislation of \\;x reign, oUti, 31/7, 330. Emigration of artisans from Great Bri- tain forbidden by law prior to lS:i4, 307. Employers of labor sometimes working at their trades, or personally super- vising the laborers, 10 ; the sense of their silt-interest not always suffi- cient, 50, GO, 1(54 ; i^rofits their ob- jec't in produciion, 12. >, 130; em- ployers a distinct industrial class, 2;7, 2,38; not nscessaril/ capitalist-^, 21% 2.1V); under imperfect competi- tion employers are not the guardians of the laborers' intrristi, 230, 240, 35S ; t'.ie employer the master of the sitaat-on, 2yj, 29L ; incapable em- ployers live at the e.vpcnse of the laboring class, 2.')4-(; ; employers stimulatad l)y increased competition on tiie side of the laboring class, 25o-8 ; imid in some degree in honor and social dist.njtion, 259 ; said by Adam Smith to be always in combi- nation to lower wages, 393. Empljying class, thi, chip. xiv. ; to bo distinguished from the c.ipltilist class, 244, 245 ; a false employing class, 247-50 ; characteristics of the true employing cl :ss, 251, 252 ; this class in Swit'.erland, 25,), 200 ; it is the object of CG-opsration to get rid of the employing class, 2(52-8; has either tlie emjiloyed or employing class an economical advantage over the other 'i chap. xvi. Employe I, tlie, none others belong to til J wages class, 200, 207 ; the dis- tinction betwe3n the employe I and the non-employed the greatest struc- tural fact ot industrial society, 221. Employment, the question of, is the true wagt s question, 2(i9, 270, 290, 201 ; regularity of, affecting real wages, 2()-33 ; continuity of, tne em- I)loyors' interest in, 3JU-2. England, payment of agricultural wages, 2) ; duration of laboring power, 34, 35; efficiency of labor compared with that of India, 42 ; of various European countries, 43-*i ; norta an 1 south o; England, relative cffiuienc/ of labor of, 47; statistics of heigiit and weight, 50, 51 ; food of laborers, 54 ; degradation of the laboring population, how effected, 82-4 ; food liabits of the people, 118, 120, 124//.; ratio of breadwin- ners to depemleuts, 12(5«. ; rise of the wages-fund do;jtrine, 140 ; tlie peasantry divorced from the soil, 208, 211/t.; e.fect on agriculture of the repeal of the corn laws, ^58 ; co-operation in l^ingland, 272, 273, 282, 28y, 287 ; laws iu restraint of la- bor, 304-0; poor laws, 310-24 ; mar- riage statistics, 35), 381?*.; factory laws, 359, .oOJ ; rents intiuenced by public opinion, 3o7 ; lagislatiou against str.hes and combinations, 302, 30 ) ; fr.e idly societies, 403. Eugel, Dr., relative expenditure of families on food, clothing, etc., 116, 117. Entrepre:ieur, t'.ie, (see Employing Class). Erie, Sir Win., the Tiw of strikes, 393 ; report of liis commission on Trade Unions, 390, 4i)G. Excuange of Wealtti dehned, 4; illus- ti'ated, 5, 0. Exoi.ange of distributed for undis- tributed wealta, its effect on wages, (J, 2L9, 22.>. Factory legislation in England op- posed by political economists, 1(52 ; its economical justihcatiou, 167, 17o; its history in Eiropo, 350-61 Fa.thf nil, M. ss, public opinion un- friendly to female labor, 384. Famine, restricting poioulation. 111, 112; periodical iu Ind.a, ll8/i. ; Irish famine of 1846-7, 121. Farmer, the Aiuericun, 5, 9, 227. Fashion, changes m, \vorking import- ant effects o.i industry, l(-5-17y. Fawoett, Henry, J'ntUiral Econoniij (jjciliilau, 1803), the Allotment sys- tem, 25/;.; food of the laborers of the West of England, r;6 ; wages are to be increased at the expense of Ijrohts, 57?t., 233, 234; equivalency of subsistence and wages, l.,3//. ; ili/l'erences m local wages in England, 1 .s <" ; transfer of labor from agii jul- ture to manufactures, 204; co-opara- tionina.griculture, 281; strikes some- times snccessiul, 380. The JCcoiioiii.- ic Position of the JJrUish Laborer, laboring class insufficiently clothed, 58 ; statement of the wage-fund doctrine, 139; Spcfchis, truclc, 336; opposition to the e.xtension of female labor, 377. 378//.; Da'dij Neuos, con- dition of agricultural laborers near Salisbury, 3-16. Ff rencu. Air. , higgling in Spanish retail trade, 315/t. WDEX. 4.21 Fellows, J., testimony respecting truck, 331«. Finlaision, A. G-., statistics of loss of time by sickness, 2i>/;.; discovers error of British Government in sale of annuities, 400, 401. Finnie, Mr., comparison of American Negro and East Indian laborer, 4'3«. Fix, Theodore, L(s Classes Ouvrieres. Mining accidents rare in France, S7n.; ill-success of strikes, 388. Food, in its relation to laboring force, 53-8 ; relative expenditure of dif- ferent classes for, 117«. ; habits in respect to, of various nations, 118-24; is cheap food desirable? l:il-4. France, payment of agricultural wages in, 2J ; of mechanical wages, 31 ; du- ration of the laboring power of the population, 34, 35 ; etiiciency of la- bor compared with other countries, 43, 44, 46; North and South of, varying efficiency of labor, 47 ; sta- tistics of height and weight, 51 ; food of the laboring jjopulation, 54 ; town and country rents, 118w.; speech-dif- ferences among popul.ition, 175«. ; proportion of foreigners, 184; peas- ant proprietorship general, 209 ; frugality of the peasantry, 235 ; co- operation in France, 274, 282, 287 ; comparative freedom of industry, 309 ; ta.xntion under the old re'gime, 817 ; marriage statistics, 356 ; factory legislation, 361), 361 ; laws against strikes and combinations, 394, 395 ; friendly societies, 402. • Francis, Sir P. , good work not appre- ciated in Turkey, 60n. Fraser, Mr. , economy of woman's labor, 381. Free- Traders, distinguished from the "Manchester" school, 161, 102. Frugality, amongst Irish in America, 124 ; proportionately greater among laborers than among employers, 235; not encouraged by large and sudden rise of wages, 236 ; encouraged by co-operation, 271, 272 ; giving the wages class an advantage in compe- tition for the product of industry 345-8 Gairdner, Prof, unsanitary condition of Glasgow, 61. Gallatin, Albert, the industrial free- dom of the United States, ISlw. Gangs, agTicultural, in England, 201. Gardeners, longevity of, 37, 401 n. Gamier, Jos., Traite d' Economie Poli- tique, 34«,. Geometrical increase of population, 1(2. George III. , industrial legislat'on of his reign, 306, 320, 33.), 393, 394. George IV., industrial legislation of his reign, 394. Germany, payment of agricultural wages in, ~!0 : industrial code re- quires payment of mechanics' wages in money, 21 ; food habits of people, 118 ; peasant proprietorship general, 209 ; co-operation in Germany, 274, 287 ; restrictions on industry, 309 ; factory legislation, 360 ; strikes, 395. Germans easily adapting themselves to the ways of other people, 187 «. Gibbon, 29w., ;i57. Gilbert's act (English Poor Law), 320, 321. Gleaning of fields, in part payment of wages, 22. Girdlestone, Canon, the agricultural laborers of England, 38 ; food of Devon peasant, 56 ; unsanitaiy con- dition of dwellings m Devonshire, 61. Goltz, Th. Frh, von der. Die Lage derLdudlicheuArbeiter iin Deutschen lieick, 20 Gould, H. B. M. Consul ; efficiency of Swiss factory labor, 44??. ; loss of wages by school attendance, 123; industrial desires of the Swiss peasantry, 127?i. ; character of Swiss employers, 259, 260 ; co-operation in Switzerland, 274, 282. Grattan, Consul, intemperance in Belgium, 78?i. Great Britain, consumption of liquors, 349 ; savings bank statistics, 350 ; frisndty societies, 403. Greece, holidays in, 29 ; efficiency of laborers, 44rt. Greek Church, holidays in, 29. Greenhow, Dr., the effects on health of dry-grinding the metals, 36 : the heat in copper mines, 38«. Greg, W. R., Social A'jiiginas, 103. Guilds, predecessors of the modern Trades Unions, 228 ; remains of, in Europe, 309 ; their benelicial influ- ence, 405. Hallam, Henry, Constitutional History of E )iglnn.d, 369;j. Haines, W. P., married women in factories, 3S3«. Harmonies, the Economic, 160, 197, 220, 221, 240, 316. Harrison, Frederick, 183, 272, 377m., 279«., 291?i. Hastings, Geo. W., facility of the poor in becoming yjaupers, 324. Head, Mr. , statistics of retail trading, 285. Hearn, Prof. Platology, 27, 67, 76, 195, 196, 246. Heath, Mr., English reasaniry^ 21w., 23, 34. 422 INDEX. Henry VI., industrial legislation of liis reign, ;)9i. Henry VIII., industrial legislation of I'lis reign, 3'30 Herries, Mr., payment of wages in It«ly, 21 ; co-operation, 2S'3 ; factory legislation, 362 ; strikes, iJ'.-G ; friendly societies, 4(3. Hindoos, los3 of time by holidays, 29 ; inefficiency of labor, \'l. Hirt, Dr., Krankheiteri, der Arbcitct\ 3i). Holidays, loss of time by, 39 ; pre- scribed by factory legislation, oGO, 361. Holmes, H. B. M. Consul, good work not ajip'reciated in Hosnla, (50w. Holyoake, George J., extent of waste in production, 48m ; co-operation, 286. Hopefulness in labor, 72-7. Hopper, R. \V., strikes never success- ful, ;!88. Horner, L., Einploytncnt of Children ill J'\irU>ricK, 167, 360. "Hours of labor, 1()7, 168, 35<)-62 Hungary, the nobles of, freeing their serfs, 74, 75 ; taxation under the old Ti'ginie, 318. Hunter, Dr., Famine Aspects of India, 111, 112. Huskisson, Mr., free trade in labor, 394. Immigrants into the United States, accidents of their location, 18l-o ; into France, Macedonia, andCorsica, 187^.. Improvements, unexhausted, in agri- culture, 281 /i. India, efficiency of labor in, 42, 46 ; ineflective machinery employed, 67 ; faniinus, 112; food habits of the peojilc, 118; immobility of the pop- xdation, 117. Industry, manufacturing, incessant movement of, 17S. Inglis, H.,24, 61, 76. Insurance, Life, is expensive and fails to reach the working classes, I 401. Intelligence, a factor of the laborer's efficiency in in'odnction, (').')-7 ; in- fluences the distribution of the pro- duct, 353-4. Intemperance lowers the efficiency of labor, 78, 87; the great foe to fru- gality, 349, 350. Interest, the term used in this treatise only of sums paid for capital actual- ly loaned, 225, 326 ; is interest at the minimum V 234. Inventions constitute an economical reason for increase of wages, 14(i, 147. Ireland, the pig formerly paying the rent, 24; duration^ of the laboring power in, 34, 35 ; inefficiency of labor before tlie famine, 43, 45, 46 ; sta- tistics of height and weight, 51) ; food of the laboring population, 55; un- sanitary conditi(.>n of dwellings, 61 ; proverbial indolence of the popula- tion accounted for, 76 ; the famine of 184(i-7, HI; food habits of the jjcopte, 118 ; tenure of the soil, 213 ; relations between landlord and ten- ant influencing rents, 3()8-7. Irish, in America, their frugality, 124 ; their accidental location, 182; in England, jealousy of, 17(i/i; their early marriages at home and abroad, 355. Italy, payment of wages in sulphur- mining, 21 ; peasant proprietorship increasing, 2li9 ; public sentiment protects the cultivatin-, 211 «.; co-opeiation, 282; factory legislation, 362 ; rents influenced by public opinion, 3()8 ; strikes, 396; friendly societies, 403. Jarvis, Edward, cost of rearing chil- dren to bo charged against their wages, 33w.., 34)«. Jetl'orson, Th. , the paper money of the American revolution, Ki. Johnson, Dr., eggs and pence in the Highlands, 17. Johnston, Prof., N'otesonNorlh Amer- ica, 92//. Jones. Richard, Poiiticnl Economy, 43, 125«., 208, 211«., 313«., 215, 217. Justices of tl;e peace (England), em- powered to fix the rates of wages, 306 ; must be landed proprietors, 366. Kane. Dr., Industrial Resources of Ireland, 43, 79, 80. Kennedy, John, manuiacturing im- piovemcnts stimulated by industrial distresses, 257. Kennedy, J. U., strikes in Belgium, 395. Labor, often performed by the person who sn])|)lies cajiital in production, 8 ; mobility of labor essential to confi- petition, 163 ; can labor be accumu- lated and saved V 292-4. Labor, co.stof, real distinguished from nominal, 40 ; efficiency of, causes of differences in the, chap. iii. ; in con- nection with natural agents deter- mines the amount that can be paid in wagi's, 131. Labor-power, its duration an element in determining wages, 33, 41 3 ; cost of rearing children to age to labor, 33, 34. INDEX. 433 Labor question, not identical with the wages question, 33lj. Laborers, the several classes of, 9 ; the statiit? of, 3 15, :!*.)3. Laing, Si'uncl, Not.en of a TravMer^ 71 ; J)i:iiiii.:irk d ,d the Buchlex, 3J9; Tour ill iSiuedoH, olO. Lai.ssen Fnire,, a i^ractical rule, not a principle of universal application, 11)2, ICiv ;,,;,p1 ,■ I to truck, aiO; to fcictory I ';;-s:.-ii.:i.;i, ;;.')7-9 ; to strikes and tra Ij.i nuiuus, :iS5, ;js(;. Lamport, Caarles,'e(lect of unsanitary conditions upon life and laboring powjr, 65«,. L md, tsnurd of, in different countries, 2 ;7-l:l Lsveleye, E. de., the orthodox political ecimomv, 155. Lecky, ITiMory of Rationalism in Eu- rope, 29;*.,' 405"-. L^g;il profession, duration of life in, y?. Legislation in aid of labor, 168-73, :j56-(i;3 ; iu restraint of labor, 303-9. Lsighton, Sir B., concession of Cow- land, 24. Leslie, T. E. Cliffe, Land Sijstem.s of Ireland and the Continent, 213«. Livi, L3on3, estimatsd number of working da.ys in the year, 31. Liquors, consumption of, in Great Britain, 349, 350. Lock-outs affecting the regularity of employment, 30. Locock, Mr., food of the laboring pop- ulation of the Netherlands, 5iJ/<.; strikes, 395. Longe, F. D., Refutation of the Wage Fand. etc., 132;/.. Lytton, Mr., cooperation in Austria, 2iJ5 ; the corporation system, 310. Macadam, Dr. S., analyses of drink- ing water, 65. Manilla V, T. B., HiHlory of Enxjland, 309, 370. Mac j.lonia, its winter population aug- mented b/ immigration, 167^1. Maho:i, Lord, Jlintory of England, 41. Majhinery, waste of, with ignorant labor, 67; disturbances introduced by macliinery into labor, 17'8, 189. Ma1ct, Mr., factory legislation in Prance, 361. Malthusianism, chap. vi. , cf. p. 357. Manchester Snhool of Political Econ- omy, 161, 162, 336. "Manchester Unity," the, its financial condition, 400. Mansfield, Lord, the incidence of taxa- tion, 316". Mavtineau, H., Tlistori/ of England, 30, 176«., 333. Marriage, procrastination of, 354, 3.55; st.it:stic.5 of age at marriage, 356; effjct.'j of recent social causes in dimJnisliing marriage, 381. Massachusetts Colony, industrial legis- lation of, 305, 3i.6, 3:37'. M.iufiee (and Tallon), Lir/Mation sur le Travail dc!^ Enfanta, 381. McCulloch, J. R. I'olUiad Eronoiny ll>.-,, 10',);, ., fjj/, ,, 1:_M,/.; (Joilljiu'r- vhd jti,'ii,,ji:inj, ;;,"",()//.. MclJounjll, .Survey of Folitlcal Econ.oniy, 282. Mi»dicr.l profession, duration of life in the, 37 . Metayer tenancy, 211, 212. Mill, James, Ptilitical Economy, 144«. Mill, John Stuart, Polltlcid Ecoti.oniy (Little & Brown, 1818), the allot- ment system, .25/^.; influence of the imagination in economics, 77;t.; the degradation of the Englis'.i laboring population, 82«., 8.jrt.; "diminish- ing returns" in agTiculture, 'M'l/i.; working-classes as ' consumers of manufactured goods, 125" , the wage fund doctrine, 143 .; tuo law of international values, T9(), 197 ; co-oparation, 282 ; the'ofiiee of cus- tom, 311, 313, 314 ; small means produce no effect in elevating a peo- ple, 345». ; effect on wages of the ownership of property ]>y the ^vagcs class, 3 l-.S ; ^vlplnc■u as ;i.rhis;i,>i>, :;7'.l; i^on,: JJusctllrd. (^/irs!J,.„s ,,f r',,IUl- cat Econoiny, the eoononiic man, 174, 175; The Fortni.ghUy Review, wage fund doctrine, l.')9, 140. Mining, accidents in, to be considered in computing the wages paid, 36«.; sulphur,inItaly,paymentol: wages,31 . Mobility of labor essential to competi- tion, 163 ; actual mobility of 1 ibor, chap, xi.; intei'ference by law with, 307-9; (see cliaps. xviii., xix. , ^)«,v- sirn); diminished in the case of wo- men by physiological causes, and by their failure to receive the support of public opinion, 377-S. Money, the purehase-]v)vver of, affect- ing nominal wages, 13. Morris, O'Connor, religious differ- ences in Ireland, 369;/-. Muggeridge, Mr., immobility of Eng- lish labor, 185 ; testinumy r.j.spect- ing frame-rents, 334, 3;!5. MulhoUand, John, comparative cost of clothing from cotton and from flax, 122/*. : Mundella, A. J., superior efficiency of North of England laborers, 47. Napier and Ettrick, Lord, intellectual relations of England and America, 142w. 434 INDEX. Nationality, affecting the efficiency of labor, 43-(5. " Necessary Wages," the doctrine of, chip. vii. Neison, Dr., statistics of mortality in various trades, :{7. Netherlands, the food of the laboring population of, 5(5 ; habits respectitij; dwellings, 118«. ; proportion of for- eigners, 184; marriage statistics, 35(5 ; absence of factory legislation, oVi'l ; strikes but little known, oUS ; trade clubs, 4(13. New England, food habits of the peo- ple, 12J, 124. Newmrfrch, Wm., factory legislation, 3.59. Newman, F. W., Lectures on PoUiical Eco/iotn;/, 15S)i. NiehoUs, Sir George, History of the Kniidxh Poor Laivs, 321. Nominal distinguished from real wages, 1 2 ; causes which produce the divergence, 13 et seq. Nominal distinguished from re.al cost of liil)or, 40; causes which produce the divergence, 41 et se>2. Norniandie, M., report on savings banks in Eiu'ope, S.'JO. Northcote, Sir Stafford, real distin- guished from nominal wiiges, 38, 3'.). Norway, marriage statistics, 35G ; strikes, S'.Mi. Norwegians in the United States, 182. Occupation, change of, frequent ne- cessity for, 1 78 ; Adam Smith's view, 192, 193; Prof. Cairnes' view, 103; his theory of " Non-Competing Groups," 19.5-202 ;chaiige of occupa- tion f orn)erly forbidden or restricted by law in Enghmd, 306, 397 ; women, by 37 Edward III., allowed to inter- change trades,379«.. ; access to trades restricted by ''union" regXdations, 493, 404. OlUvier, M., the act (France) of May 2.>, 1864, 3',>4. Opinion, p iblic, influential in deter- mining wages, 3()2-U9; in determin- ing reiits, 3t)9-72. Organization of industry conducing to efficiency, 67-72. Painting, house, irregularity of em- ployment in, 28, 32. Pakeiiham, Mr., the food of Belgian laborers, oG^.. Palgrave, Consul, good work not ap- preciated in Anatolia, 60;(, Pahnor, C. M., the removal of lalwr- ers, 316. Paper money, cha^ig'JS in circulation ali'ecting nominal way;s, 14 ; of tic Amoricin Revolution, l;!; lluji-ia- tions in paper money placing the wages class at a disadvantage, 310-3. Parsimony of employers opposed to true economy, r)8, .59, 164. Payment of wages, variety in form of, 19; payment-i in kind, 324-7. Paupers in England in 1S33 better fed than independent laborers, 57; labor- ers, once become pjiupers, seldom recover tone, 88; English laws of pauper settlement, 39!S, 309. Peasant proprietorship of land, 5, 9, 207-9, 243. Pennant, Th., Tour in ScotlniuJ. 824. Perry, A. L., Politira/ F.eonomij, 138, 139, 143 ; The Financier, 81, 82, 253. Peto, Sir M., testimony respecting truck, 329. Pet re, Mr., payment of agiicultural wages in Prussia, 20;i. ; the practice of '■ wandering" in inahnal trades in German v, 187 /(. Phipps, Mr., married women lint little employed in factories in Wiirtem- berg, 3S3/». Piece-work, how to compute the wages of, 13«. Pig, permission to keep, 23 ; formerly I'.aying the rent in Ireland, 24. Political I'jconomy, the ortliodox, 155 ; the (I priori school, 175. Poor Laws, English, 308, 309 ; effect on vi'age labor, 319-22. Population, Malthus' law of, chap. vi. Porter, G. R., 'J'/ie Proffrexs of the .XiUion, 12 ; StutiUieal Journal, 8.50. Potato, the, its use as the sole article of food, 121-4. Poverty the curse of the poor, 166. Prices and Wage.s, i:>; differences in local prices introduce great complex- ity into computations of wages, 17. Production furnish -s the measure of wages, chap, viii.; continuity of, the employer's interest in, 298, 299. Profits, certain classes of laborers paid from profits, not from revenue, 9 ; profits, the object in giving employ- ment, 128-30, 291; tlie expectation of profits the tost of wage labur, "MO-, the term niaS. Slavery, the master's interest not preventing abuse or neglect, ry.l. Slave labor, al^vays inelfective, TiJ, 74. "Sliding S.-ale," in wagoi, 270, 271. Smith, Adam, Wealth of Xatiom (Rogers' edition), iiiHlI'estive.iess of slave labor, 7o; wage; the encour- agement of industry', SO ; habits of various nations respeat.ng clothing, V2-in. ; jHoport-on of br^jad- winners to depi nd iits, 125«. ; t.ie immobility of labor, 18') ; changes of occ ipation, 192 ; the salary or stipend class, ^I'l, 21 o. Smith, Angus, carbonic acid gas in mines, 37. Smith, E. Peshine, Political Econouiy, 58, 141. Smith, George, excessive labor of chU Iren in brickyards, 52. Social Science Ti'ans.ictions, 1S'J4, 386 ; LS6"), 37, 4S; 18:;6, 23, (il ; 18(i7, 55, t)5, 122m. ; ISSS, 47; 186.5, 38, 39; 1870,52,05; 1871, 274, 321; 1872, 21, 142rt., r:85; 187i, 202. Southern States (U. S.), payment of agricultural wages in, 20. Spain, higgling in retail trade, 315» ; ab-;ence of factory legislation, 303. Spencer, Herbert, Principles of Hiol- ofj!/, 259«. Spender, Edward, cider truck in Eng- .land, 327. Spinsters, proportional number in England and Scotland, 3S1;/. Spitaltields, the condition of the pop- ulation, 85 Stanhope, Edward, laborers' cott.iges, 22u. Statistical Journal, xii., 850; xx. 184; xxii.,350; xxiii., 375; xxiv.. 2(1, 21, 30,- 178, 18{J/A, 187 , 327, 35'.); XXV., 26m., 33«. ; xxvi. 122?i. ; xxvii., 33rt., 327; xxviii., 48, 72, 178, 185, 2.57, 35-.! ; xxx., 38S. " Statute ot laborers," 305, 392. St;achey, Mr.,iiermans easily adapting themselves to the ways of other peoples, 187«. ; cooperation in Uen- mar.i, 287, 289 ; restrictions on in- dustry removed in Denmark, 309; strikes, 395 ; trade clubs, 40i. Strikes, loss of time by, 30 ; dura- tion of, 31 ; cooperation would abol- ish, 2il ; when strikes may be re- garded as unsuccessful, 298//.; strikes against the labor of women, 378«. ; the possible utility of strikss often decided against, on grounds of the wage fund, 385, 3S() ; on the ground that they always fail, 388, is this conclusive ? 389 ; stiikes are the insjrrestions of labor; may be justitied by ultimate results, 390-392 ; legislation against strikes in Eug- liind, 392 ; in Europe, 3i)5, 395. Stuart, Consul, holidays in the Eastern church, 29«. ; lack of machinery, in E])irus, 67. SubsiSteuue, tends to increase more slovvl,' tli.m poj)ulat!on, iOi-5; the condition ijrecedent of production, 132, 13 J. Sweden, duration of the labormg power in, 34, 35 ; marriage statistics o.5(), factory legislation, 352. Swele.5 in the United States, 182. Switzerland, efficiency of labor in, 45//. ; industrial desires of the peas- antry, 127;t. ; character of the em- ploying class 259, 200 ; cooperation, 274, 2t)2 ; savings banks statistics, 350 ; division of lanled property 351, factory legislation, 361. Sykes, Col., the dwellings of Lanca- shire, 51. Sympathy, public, influential in de- termining wages, 352-9 ; in deter- mining rents, 369-72 ; wanting in the case of women as laborers, 383, 384. Tallon and Maurice, Legislation sur le rravail dcs Enjants, 351. Taylor, H. B. J\I. Consul, Eastern mar- rjag3 customs, 116. Taylor, W. C, married women in factories in England, 38o)t. Taxation, under perfect competition, is dilfused equitably, 160; under im- perfejt competition the wages class may be put at disadvantage by its incidence, 315-18. INDEX. 427 Thompson, Mr., superiority of Engiisii labor, 09. Thompson, J., Perronet, food habits of tlie Irish and the English, 118/*. 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