Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/831

 "Very well; and now how much for yours?"

"One and eightpence are enough for me; I am single."

"Then you shall have the work."

It is done; the bargain is struck. And what are the other two workmen to do? It is to be hoped they will die quietly of hunger. But what if they take to thieving? Never fear; we have the police. To murder? We have the hangman. As for the lucky one, his triumph is only temporary. Let a fourth workman make his appearance, strong enough to fast every other day, and his price will run down still lower; there will be a new outcast, perhaps a new recruit for the prison.

The Wastes of Capitalism

(From "The Laws of Social Evolution")

(An Austrian economist, one of the few in the world who have dealt with the real problem of economic science, the elimination of waste and the rationalizing of the system of production. In the following passage he investigates the question what proportion of human labor is lost through our competitive methods of industry. The passage has been frequently quoted, in a mistranslation which obscures its real significance. The following is not so much a translation as a summary of the essential statements)

We are to investigate what labor-power is required, under circumstances now existing in Austria (1886), to produce the most essential food-stuffs, and suitable housing and clothing. For every family has been allowed a separate, five-roomed house, about forty feet square, and calculated to last fifty years. I have reckoned all men