Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/809

Rh and getting in too much philosophy all at once; we mean that all laborers in all industries shall have more wages." Very well; raise their wages—and, then, with what economical result? A protective tariff raises wages, but it raises the price of products even more; and it raises wages simply because it raises prices. Any arbitrary measure which should raise wages along the whole line would so disturb the prevailing equilibrium of the economic forces as to necessitate a general readjustment which would leave the laborer no better off than before. He would find himself paying out with one hand the benefits he received with the other, and a general rise of wages, like a general rise of prices, would be no rise at all.

"We mean nothing of that sort," impatiently retorts Reformer; "how short-sighted you are! We mean that what is thus given additional to labor shall come out of interest and profit." Good again; but how will that work? We are now at the very pith of this thing. To advance wages along the whole line without increase in the price of products would transfer a part or all of what is called interest and profit from capitalists and the operators of business to the laborers. "Certainly, that is what we want in order that laborers may live with dignity and comfort worthy of human beings." Just so; no one would be more pleased than myself if this could be so. But, as I was going to say, if such an economic policy could be put in force, then the aggregate of savings for the establishment of industries and the employment of labor would be smaller than before, labor would be done in consequence at an increasing disadvantage, and the penalty would fall upon all classes, and would be most severely felt by the working-men. In this way the remedy would defeat itself, and turn out to be worse than the disease. But such an economical policy can not be put in force, because there is no element in the economical domain capable of exercising any such power.

"Then, in the name of justice and humanity, is there any relief for the working-man?" There is and there is not. There are many conditions which affect the reward of labor—such as the character of the soil, the cost of raw materials, the capital at command, the number competing for work, the facilities for exchange, and the like. With a more intelligent direction of effort, with sobriety and frugality, with restraint on the increase of numbers, working-men would certainly receive better pay, and it would do them more good. There is something more wanting than the mere increase of money wages, now so generally sought as the one thing needful. Labor is eventually paid in products which go to the support of the working-man's family, and the increased expense of his goods is often greater than the increased pay for his work. Wages and prices rise and fall nearly together, and they do so as the effect of a common cause. The actual reward of labor is thus more uniform than the money price of labor. But even here, as usual, labor is at a disadvantage, because it can not be held, as goods