660 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which has improved in quality is itself only so remunerated as to 

 make it doubtful whether the remuneration is adequate, whether 

 the game is worth the candle, and is, in fact, at the point of mini- 

 mum, so as to enable the work to be done at all, out of what fund 

 is the remuneration of the work that has not improved in quality 

 to come ? In the midst of plenty, apparently, such workmen, by 

 comparison, must starve, because, notwithstanding all the plenty, 

 those who really do the hard work of modern society are only 

 just paid, and no more. It is easy for such workmen and their 

 so-called friends to point to the capitalists as living on their 

 labor ; and no doubt, if it were possible to divide the earnings of 

 capitalists among society generally, according to numbers, these 

 particular workmen might be much better off. But it is not from 

 the labor of such workmen that capitalists mainly derive their 

 income, while those who do work, as we have seen, have so large 

 a remuneration that they can have no quarrel with the capitalist. 

 The suggested division would therefore only be for the benefit of 

 a special class whose existence is itself a danger to society, and 

 which should rather be discouraged than encouraged, the whole 

 efforts of society being rather directed to their transformation 

 by education and similar agencies into a higher class, than to 

 securing an increased payment for their work under present con- 

 ditions. The curse of the very poor, in more senses than one, is 

 their poverty poverty in strength, in mental capacity, in moral 

 qualities. They are poor because they can not earn more. If 

 they were stronger they would have the earnings, and would have 

 no quarrel with the capitalists. To improve their condition they 

 must be made stronger, and not merely given more to spend, 

 which would be a curse to them instead of a blessing, as it is to 

 the merely idle capitalist whose luxury they envy, whose exist- 

 ence is a danger to society also, and whose obliteration, or rather 

 transformation into a different class, is equally to be sought for. 



The next head of complaint is that a workman has more ex- 

 penses now, in consequence of the rise in the scale of living. Not 

 only himself, but his family, must live better. They must have 

 better and more food, be better clothed and sheltered, be better 

 educated, and so on. The workman himself, on whom the burden 

 falls, has no more surplus than before. He is not a freer man. 



This head of complaint, however, demands very little remark. 

 The statement of the complaint is, in truth, one of the best evi- 

 dences of progress. Of course, there has been a rise in the scale 

 of living. Such a rise was quite certain to come with an improve- 

 ment in the earnings of workmen. The fact that it has come is 

 itself one of the proofs of improvement. No doubt there is a con- 

 tinued absence of a free surplus. I suspect, however, that at no 

 time have many people, in this country at least, had philosophy 



