Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/870

850 It thus appears that in the cotton business the share of the capitalist is only one eighth of the product, while labor gets the other seven eighths; and, according to Mr. Atkinson, there is no other industry in which the capital is so large in proportion to the product as in this.

The author then proceeds to show that the great improvements in the production that have been made in recent times with the consequent increase of capital, though benefiting the capitalist largely, have benefited the laborer still more. He remarks that in his judgment "there has never been a period in the history of the world in which there have been so many important new inventions or so many applications of previous inventions, all tending to human welfare, as in the last twenty-five years" (p. 109). He adds that during this period, "while prices of the necessaries of life have diminished and while the cost of production has been reduced, the wages or earnings of labor, subject to temporary fluctuations, have been steadily increased." And he concludes that "we are not far away from a period when, either with or without legislation, but, as I myself believe, in spite of meddlesome legislation, the arduous struggle for life will be greatly relieved, both in the time which it will be necessary to give and in the intensity of the work which it will be necessary to apply thereto" (pp. 110, 111). In evidence of these statements he cites a number of statistics showing how great has been the fall in prices in many branches of industry since 1860, while the wages of labor have largely increased.

Mr. Atkinson is strongly opposed to the eight-hour law, holding that the hours of labor can not be permanently reduced except by improvements in production; and this is one of the principal points at issue between himself and Mr. Chamberlin. The latter gentleman, however, in his reply to Mr. Atkinson, takes the ground which many other labor-champions do, that capital and labor are natural enemies; that labor, meaning manual labor, is the sole creator of wealth; with other views of like character and as little foundation, his argument for the laborer's cause is, indeed, far from being a strong one, and his opponent has little difficulty in answering it.

Mr. Atkinson's views are given in a plain colloquial style, but often very apt and expressive. He quotes from Emerson the saying that "mankind is as lazy as it dares to be," and tells his hearers and readers that efficiency in work and economy in expenditure are the only means of acquiring wealth and improving one's condition. He estimates that the American people waste on an average five cents a day for each person, which amounts to a thousand million dollars a year for the whole nation. He affirms that the capitalist is the laborer's friend, not his enemy; and that the prosperity of each is necessary to that of the other. He declares it to be "a great blunder to say that, while the rich are growing richer, the poor are growing poorer; it is only the poor who can't work well or who won't work well, who grow poor while the rich are growing rich in this country." And he adds that "there are two things very much needed in these days: first, for rich men to find out how poor men live; second, for poor men to know how rich men work" (p. 47). Mr. Atkinson's work, if read by those to whom it is specially addressed, can not fail to be useful; and it is to be wished that we had more books of a similar character.

this paper, which is a part of the transactions of the American Public Health Association, is given one of the most temperate, candid, and useful estimates of the effects of alcoholic drinks on the system that we remember to have seen. A brief review of the history of the use of spirituous liquors satisfies the author that we have no reason to be discouraged respecting the progress of temperance principles and practice; for it "renders it obvious that for many centuries our forefathers have imbued their descendants with faith in the health-giving virtues of alcoholic indulgence. Who can expect the results of such long-continued convictions and customs to be eradicated easily or promptly, and what wonder is it that men continue to credit alcoholics with many virtues that they do not possess?" With regard to the physiological action of alcohol—"Repeated experiments on robust,