LITERARY NOTICES. 



501 



that link, and scientists differ on that 

 point. 



Only that portion of the early prehis- 

 toric period is known to us of which the 

 caves and the drift have furnished records ; 

 these, however, suggest an antecedent pe- 

 riod, in which man may not have attained 

 the weapon-making stage. His primeval 

 habitat and true birthplace, observes the 

 author, may have been in the more favored 

 regions of the earth where Nature spontane- 

 ous provided for his requirements. 



That a work so voluminous as this should 

 pass to a third edition is strong evidence of 

 its merit, and of the deep interest felt in the 

 subject of which it treats. The value of the 

 work is enhanced by the number of its illus- 

 trations, there being 132 in the 800 pages 

 of the volumes. It is the matured and in- 

 telligent expression of one of the early stu- 

 dents of archaeology, and will continue to 

 command the attention of the specialist and 

 of the general reader. 



The Wages Question : A Treatise on 

 Wages and the Wages-Class. By 

 Francis A. Walker, M. A., Ph. D. New 

 York: Henry Holt & Co. Pp. 428. 

 Price, $3.50. 



The question of wages is strictly eco- 

 nomical in its nature, and must be discussed 

 by the political economist without reference 

 to ethical or social considerations. Most 

 writers on the subject of wages have, how- 

 ever, given to the term " economical " too re- 

 stricted a meaning, thus excluding the action 

 of causes which, though primarily ethical or 

 social, are nevertheless secondarily potent in 

 the field of industry, as affecting either the 

 production or the distribution of wealth. 

 To such causes Prof. Walker assigns due 

 weight, and herein consists one of the dis- 

 tinctive features of his work. " Sympathy 

 for labor " is a phrase which, on first view, 

 would seem to have no place in a scientific 

 discussion of the wages question from the 

 political economist's point of view. Yet, as 

 is shown by the author, if sympathy for la- 

 bor serves in any degree to make competi- 

 tion on the side of the laboring class more 

 active and persistent ; if it takes anything 

 from the activity and persistency with which 

 the employing class use the means in their 

 power to beat down wages, or lengthen the 

 hours of work, it becomes, in j ust so far as 



it has such an effect, a strictly economical 

 cause. 



Three doctrines, which are more or less 

 current in political economy, the author ve- 

 hemently controverts, viz. : 1. That there is 

 a wage-fund irrespective of the numbers and 

 industrial quality of the laboring population, 

 constituting the sole source from which 

 wages can at any time by drawn. Wages, 

 he shows, are paid out of current produc- 

 tion, and not out of capital, as the wage- 

 fund theory assumes. 2. That competition 

 is so far perfect that the laborer, as produc- 

 er, always realizes the highest wages whicli 

 the employer can afford to pay; or else, as 

 consumer, is recompensed in the lower price 

 of commodities for any injury he may chance 

 to suffer as producer. 3. That, in the or- 

 ganization of modern industrial society, the 

 laborer and the capitalist are together suffi- 

 cient unto production, the actual employer 

 of labor being regarded as the capitalist, or 

 else as the mere stipendiary agent and creat- 

 ure of the capitalist, receiving a remunera- 

 tion which can properly be treated like the 

 wages of ordinary labor. 



In opposition to the generally-accepted 

 view that, if the wage-laborer does not seek 

 his interest, his interest will seek him, Prof. 

 Walker holds that, if the wage-laborer does 

 not pursue his interest, he loses his interest. 

 " In a state of imperfect competition," says 

 the author 



" First, wages may be reduced without any 

 enhancement of profits, the difference being, 

 not gain to the employer, but loss to mankind 

 through the industrial degradation of the labor- 

 er." This point is established by the case of 

 Spitalfields, where a large population was ruined 

 morally and socially by a great change in the 

 conditions of the silk manufacture. " Secondly," 

 continues our author, " for so much of the sums 

 taken from the laboring class by reduction of 

 wages as the employers or capitalists may at the 

 time secure in excessive profits or excessive in- 

 terest, there exists do adequate security, under 

 the operation of strictly economical forces, that 

 it will be fully returned to the wages-class in a 

 quickened demand for their labor, inasmuch as 

 luxuriousness and indolence will inevitably en- 

 ter, among the majority of employers, to waste 

 in self-indulgence a portion of the profits so ac- 

 quired, or to take something from the activity 

 and the carefulness with which future production 

 will be pursued. Thirdly, in respect to such in- 

 dustrial injuries as have just been described, 

 economical forces by themselves tend to perpetu- 

 ate and continually to deepen the injury, putting 

 the laborer at a constantly-increasing disadvan- 

 tage in the exchange of his servio es." 



