Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/199

 SOCIAL DISCONTENT AND LABOR TROUBLES 185

of the seventy millions and concentrate their thoughts upon the seven millions, or 10 per cent.

Poverty cannot be abolished by philanthropy alone, nor by leading men to depend upon the state or some new social order ; but it may be lessened and alleviated by lifting men to a higher level of intelligence and efficiency.

Overcrowding in certain callings and professions is responsible for many of the hardships and inequalities complained of. Clerks are frequently underpaid. The man who sells shoes receives perhaps half as much as the man who makes them. The poor shop girl gets three or four dollars a week, and her sister, the cook, six or seven dollars a week and a home (equivalent to nine or ten dollars) ; while her cousin, the seamstress, with some knowledge of dressmaking, may earn twelve to eighteen dollars a week. The stable man earns a dollar a day ; and his brother, who has learned his trade well, may make five to six dollars a day, by shoeing horses at union rates. Many a lawyer has to struggle for his bread, while the abler and better-known man makes his $25,000 a year. The same may be said of the doctor, and of many other professions and callings. But is the whole social system to be indicted on such charges ? If too many come into a trade, society cannot guarantee to all the same wages as might be secured where their services were needed. Where there is a surplus of capital the rates of interest decline. If all the young men of a community were to take up the study of law or of medicine, while they might become good lawyers and physi- cians, they would probably earn less than the man employed in raising vegetables. There need be nothing to prevent these men from engaging in the cultivation of cabbage, but many of them would probably become socialists and ask the state to pare off, from the earnings of those who were engaged in supplying the world's actual wants, for their benefit, or to enact laws enjoining a wider employment of lawyers and doctors and the payment of larger fees.

The demand for labor, in this country, is generally in excess of the supply. The more skilled and efficient workmen are seldom out of employment or poorly paid. Those who