rOLITICAL ECONOMY AS A MORAL SCIENCE. 



327 



the condition of tbe working-classes." There are 

 probably some who use this phrase, to whom it 

 does not seem a truism — who would feel it almost 

 a quibble — to say that we cannot better their con- 

 dition unless we first better them. The common 

 belief is precisely the reverse, that we must have 

 better houses, shorter hours, etc., and that then 

 we shall have more opportunity for self-improve- 

 ment; that better conditions are the first step to 

 better men. It may be so, but unless the self- 

 improvement comes quickly the improved condi- 

 tion cannot be retained ; it is only by self-better- 

 ment that the better condition can be secured 

 permanently. 



For, after all, there cannot be a greater share 

 of goods for each, unless there is a larger stock to 

 be divided : it is, as we have seen, by the increase 

 of skill that human labor is for the most part im- 

 proved in its powers ; and, other things being 

 equal, there is no better source to which we can 

 look for the satisfaction of human wants than in- 

 creased skill ; it is by this means that a greater 

 permanent supply can be obtained, and a larger 

 share given to each. It may indeed be said that 

 there is another way of enlarging the gains of 

 the laborers — not by increasing the wealth of the 

 world, but by altering the proportions in which 

 it is divided, and that by aiming at this we may 

 better the condition of the laborer without wait- 

 ing for the more tedious process of bettering 

 himself. Yet, after all, the bargain between the 

 capitalist and the laborer — however we interpret 

 it — is a case of exchange, and must come under 

 the general delineation of exchange which we 

 have given above. The better man, either he 

 who has most skill, or he who has most inde- 

 pendence and ability to wait, will be in the best 

 position for making terms with his employer. In 

 so far as unions have succeeded in raising wages, 

 it may be said that they have done so because 

 their members have been made self-reliant men : 

 in so far as they can retain these advantages, 

 it must be because their members are more skill- 

 ful than they were — because having what is more 

 valuable to dispose of, they can afford to drive 

 better terms in the bargain. The strength of a 

 union depends on the skill of those united, as 

 well as on the strength of the bond between them : 

 mere union may overcome divided employers, but 

 only skilled union can hold its own against fed- 

 erated ones. Mere reliance on each other must 

 be in the long-run as futile as isolation has 

 proved, unless there is skill in each other on 

 which they can rely : this and this only can 

 serve as a vantage-ground from which to dictate 



better terms. How far this is recognized by 

 working-class leaders does not concern us at 

 present, though there have been signs recently 

 that some of them are more keenly alive to it 

 than is generally supposed. 



Capital. — A whole network of confusion runs 

 through the recent discussions on capital. There 

 are those who speak of all capitalists as usurers, 

 that " exploit " the labor of their fellow-men 

 while performing no service themselves ; but 

 those who regard the right of a man to keep 

 what he has worked for as " the corner-stone of 

 all economy " J should not deny the right of a 

 man to keep what he has waited for. Take the 

 first dozen men who pass Temple Bar and offer 

 them their choice of a sovereign to-day or a 

 guinea this day six months, and if any man un- 

 dertook the risk and privation of waiting he 

 would have fairly earned his reward. The new 

 materialistic economy tells us that the capitalist 

 merely supplies money, that it is labor which im- 

 parts value to the objects, not dead money, which 

 has only a conventional not intrinsic worth. To 

 which we may reply, it is patience which the 

 capitalist exercises ; what he supplies is the abil- 

 ity to wait for the results of labor : for this ca- 

 pacity of waiting he claims his gains, and it is 

 according to the anxiety involved that he is re- 

 warded. If any movement render this reward 

 doubtful, the capitalist must have a greater in- 

 ducement to make him wait in troublous times: 

 a crusade against the " tyranny of capital " would 

 frighten capitalists for a time at least, and com- 

 pel them to seek better terms from the self-de- 

 stroyed laborer : this would be no mere attempt 

 at a better division of goods, but an attack on 

 one of the fundamental requisites of production 

 —the capacity for waiting. 



Other writers see a danger, not in the great- 

 ness, but in the smallness of the capitalist's re- 

 ward. They affirm that the rate of profits is 

 diminishing, and assert that the time is at hand 

 when no one will longer undertake the risk of 

 waiting for such a small reward. The former 

 part of this statement is undoubtedly true : so 

 far as labor is expended on the soil, the rate of 

 return for increased exertion is not proportion- 

 ately greater: even in the marufacturing districts 

 there is a reflection of the rural difficulties, in the 

 greater price of coal and material, and only a 

 diminished surplus can be appropriated as the 

 reward of waiting. But there is an error in look- 

 ing solely to the rate of profit obtainable, and 

 not to other sides of the question as well. The 

 1 Mr. Buskin. 



