Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/669

 POP ULA TION A ND WAGES 653

mortality of the two classes is still more striking: in Paris, between 18 1 7 and 1836, the annual number of deaths in some districts inhabited by wealthy families was i to every 65 persons ; in those parts where the po'or dwelt it was i to every 1 5 persons ; that is to say, for every dead rich there were over four dead poor."

It is tnus evident that, although the reproductive power is not exerted to its full capacity, it is exerted to such extent as to produce more individuals than can, in the present state of society, command the means of full existence. For, obviously, it is to the want of these means that the high mortality among the lower classes is due ; and it is also obvious that the want of these means ultimately reduces itself to insufficient wages — insuffi- cient not only for the complete satisfaction of the wants of every wage-earner, but also, and more especially, for the proper rearing and protection of his children. It can, I think, be stated as a general principle that low wages is the check that in civilized countries keeps population within the means of existence ; and that, as wages rise, if the habits of the people remain unchanged, mortality decreases, and population increases more rapidly ; always, however, being kept within certain limits by one check or another.

It may sound paradoxical and contradictory to speak of a rise in wages, at the same time that it is held that population constantly presses on the means of existence, and that the supply of it tends to be greater than the demand for it (I say tends, for in reality the supply is kept nearly within the demand by pre- mature death). But the apparent contradiction is susceptible of a very adequate explanation. Here the law of supply and demand operates in an indirect manner. When a new industry is undertaken, the capitalist does not have his men made to order, as he has his machinery : he pays certain wages, propor- tionable to the demand for the kind of work he requires. On such wages the well-being of his employes, their facilities for supporting a wife and children, and for keeping them in a more or less comfortable and healthy condition, depend ; in short, the

•]. Garnier, Du Principe de population (2"= Edition, Paris, 1885), chap, iii, p. 5^