Page:The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/132

 "like the landlord who takes in the form of rent all above the subsistence of the labourer, so the capitalist takes all above the subsistence of the workman, above sufficient to maintain the workman in the standard of life of the class to which he belongs." How Mr. Snowden's clear and logical mind reconciles this assertion with the figures that we have quoted from him, is a puzzle that would baffle the Sphinx.

It has to be admitted that the great and steady improvement that was then shown gave way to the opposite tendency in the early years of the present century. Mr. Snowden continues on page 39: "After all, the important matter is not whether the condition of the workers' improved between 1850 and 1900, but whether it is showing a tendency to improvement now." (His book was published shortly before the war.) "About the end of the century we seemed to enter upon a new cycle of tendencies. The previous slight (sic) upward movement in the condition of the workers was arrested and eventually reversed. The permanent tendency now is for the rich to grow richer at an increasingly rapid rate, and for the workers to become not only relatively but actually poorer."