THE LABOR-QUESTION. 609 



the fact that every increase of goods brings a corresponding increased 

 demand for such goods ? 



If there is one thing more than another working-men long for, it is 

 high wages. To keep up their pay they unite in trades'-unions and 

 analogous combinations. The employer wages war against this effort. 

 While the former would demand all the profit of his labor, leaving the 

 latter nothing for his pains, he in turn would like to retain it all for 

 himself. If these were the sole factors of this battle, wages would 

 steadily ascend, the balance of force ranging upward. Unfortunate- 

 ly (?) for the workman, this is not the case. His own unconscious 

 efforts to pull wages down outweigh his conscious efibrts to keep 

 them up. Can he not see that every time he deserts a dear dealer to 

 buy from a cheap one he is thoughtlessly creating a tendency to lower 

 the wages of all who take part in the manufacture of such articles? 

 This eventually, and through a variety of channels, works around to 

 his own. This move on his part likewise creates a necessity for dis- 

 honesty and adulteration, which still further reacts against him. His 

 employer, on the other hand, does more toward keeping up wages by 

 seeking dear markets for his goods than his conscious efibrts amount 

 to in pulling them down. As the heaviest strain on the produce of 

 the workman is" the downward one, since all consumers take part in 

 it, loages must fall. All the world clamors for clieap goods. Event- 

 ually a point of stable equilibrium must be reached, where very low 

 wages precede very cheap goods. As capitalists, studying the cost 

 of production, hold on to goods, refusing to sell at a sacrifice, their 

 sales descend or cease, and wages are thrown down first. Could work- 

 ing-men be made to realize the fact that high wages mean con*espond- 

 ingly high food, clothing, fuel, rent, with all else he would purchase, 

 while low wages mean the opposite, I think they would agree with me 

 in saying that the amount received per diem for their work was of 

 secondary importance. Some laborers must take the shrinkage in 

 advance of others. 



That there are more goods in the American market than is at 

 present demanded, under existing conditions, is a certainty. But if 

 over-production has glutted one market, why not seek another? Why 

 stop mills and factories ? Why turn laboring-men into the street ? 

 Is there no channel of least resistance for business to travel in ? An 

 over-production of goods is an over-production of wealth. Has the 

 nation more wealth and comfort than it can manage or knows what 

 to do with ? The thing is perfectly absurd. When railroads came 

 they brought an over-supply of accommodation for stage-coach trav- 

 elers, but this extra amount of room found a use for itself in making 

 travel cheaper and more comfortable, so that immensely more people 

 traveled. Every labor-saving machine has done the same for the 

 articles it produces. But suppose the price of travel had kept up, 

 and the comforts remained the same, while the means of carrying 

 VOL. SI. 39 



