56 ECONOMIC THEORY 



a quick increase of numbers, will lose the increments of wages which 

 any cause may bring to them. Whether they will do this or not is 

 a question of fact, and the decision will involve a further and pro- 

 found study of population. 



What we need to know is whether the assumed theoretical case, 

 in which a rise in wages induces a further rise by means of the check 

 which it imposes on the growth of population, is or is not an actual 

 case. This will tell us whether any real increase in workmen's 

 pay tends to induce a condition in which a further rise may be 

 counted on. On this point we may confidently appeal to statistics, 

 past and future. It will be found that laboring humanity holds 

 firmly such gains as it makes and is in a position, by reason of these 

 enlargements of pay, to make further and greater ones. Civiliza- 

 tion does not debar labor from the benefits it confers. 



