66z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



men engaged about machines may appear to get comparatively 

 little of the increased production for themselves, but the reason is 

 that the improvement in machines is for the benefit of society as 

 a whole, and not specially for that of the particular workmen 

 engaged upon them, who only participate in the improvement as 

 consumers, and not as producers. Substantially, however, there 

 is more severe toil all round, and whether the additional remuner- 

 ation is adequate or not, the change in the quality of the labor is 

 necessary to the production, the laborer gets all the possible re- 

 muneration, and the labor itself could not be carried on without 

 the remuneration obtained. It is the same with the complaint as 

 to the rise in the scale of living. The rise in the scale is at once 

 a proof of the improvement in the workman's condition, and of 

 the necessity for an improvement in his living to enable him to 

 do the new work. The two things are inextricably connected. 

 On the whole, the complaint of workmen as to the difference be- 

 tween gross and net is not unjustified, but it points to changes in 

 their condition of a remarkable kind, which are in every way de- 

 serving of further study. To show fully what these changes are, 

 statistics would be needed, but the necessary conditions of the prob- 

 lem are apparent without statistics. The complaints here dealt with 

 could not exist without that improvement in society and the con- 

 dition of the masses which the complaints seem to call in question. 

 A further conclusion may be drawn. The conditions of life 

 thus indicated seem favorable, on the whole, to a continuous im- 

 provement in society, so long as science and art make progress, 

 and heavier and heavier calls are made on the intelligence and 

 energy of workmen, along with an increase of their capacities on 

 the one side and their wants on the other. The whole structure 

 of modern society is such as to require greater and greater knowl- 

 edge, greater and greater energy and moral power, greater and 

 greater capacity of every kind, so as to make sure that machines 

 and inventions are maintained and improved, and that artistic 

 capacities and the arts of living are developed to correspond. 

 The continuous improvement implies a continuous improvement, 

 on the average, of the human being who really belongs to the new 

 society. So long as society, therefore, continues to progress that 

 is, for our present purpose, so long as the average workman con- 

 tinues to produce more quantity or better quality there must be 

 continuous improvement and progress in the quality of workmen 

 themselves and the conditions of their existence, although we 

 should not expect that complaints would cease as to the greater 

 severity of toil and as to particular classes of workmen not getting 

 for themselves the full benefit of the increased production. Still, 

 the improvement is there, and the complaints, when analyzed, are, 

 in truth, signs of the improvement. 



