THE WAGE-CONTRACT AND PERSONAL LIBERTY. 649 



all stand upon an equality with respect to the cost of labor. This 

 will increase the cost of production ; but, as the increase applies 

 alike to all my rivals as well as to myself, I can make myself 

 whole by raising the price of the finished product, as they will do 

 the same." 



The doctrine of the freedom of contract will never place the 

 honest and generous employer upon an equal footing with the 

 dishonest and avaricious employer in the cost of labor. Under it 

 the latter will always obtain an advantage over the former. This 

 doctrine, therefore, puts a premium upon the possession of these 

 undesirable qualities. Moreover, under the law of competition in 

 commodities, the honest and generous employer is forced to con- 

 form substantially to the rate of wages set by the dishonest and 

 avaricious. This tendency is inherent in the wage system, and 

 must increase, unless some remedy be found ; for evil and grasp- 

 ing men can not be kept out of the ranks of employers, and only 

 a few of them are required to depress wages below their fair 

 value. This operates not only to the detriment of their employe's, 

 but also to the detriment of all other employe's. Is it right that a 

 few evil characters should commit this injustice upon labor, and 

 control the vast majority of both classes ? Should the State, or 

 society in its organized form, permit them to do this wrong ? It 

 is submitted that it should not, and that some State agency should 

 be devised to prevent or to remedy it. 



About a year ago the writer published a pamphlet entitled 

 State Regulation of Wages, in which he outlined a plan to remedy 

 this difficulty. Its essential feature was the establishment of State 

 Boards of Labor or Arbitration for the settlement of disputes 

 between employers and employed, with power to fix the minimum 

 wage and the maximum hours of work, upon the request of a cer- 

 tain proportion or number of either side. In determining the 

 minimum wage, the board should not be controlled by the rate of 

 wages now prevailing under the " iron law of wages " of supply 

 and demand, but by what may be called the golden rule of wages, 

 by which labor is entitled to receive a fair and just proportion of 

 the wealth which it creates, irrespective of supply and demand. 

 The minimum annual wage should be that required to support 

 the average workman and his family in frugal comfort. The 

 adoption of this plan would place all employers upon an equality 

 in the cost of labor and relieve the generous employer from the 

 competition of the avaricious one upon this large item in the cost 

 of production. It is true that its adoption by a single State would 

 not protect the employers of that State from the competition of 

 their rivals in other States or foreign countries ; but if the plan 

 were found to work well in one State it would be speedily followed 

 in other States ; and, as to foreign competition, the tariff laws, if 



TOL. XLI. 47 



