52 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



great combinations of capital," in wliicli case, of course, the 

 broken beads and boycotts are the fault of the great combina- 

 tions. (Query : What- " great combination of capital " was at 

 fault in the case of the poor widow whose bakery business was 

 broken up in this city recently because she kept a journeyman 

 baker who did not happen to be a member of a particular boy- 

 cotters' union which was " competing for labor " in the vicinity 

 of her bake-shop ?) A few other simple negations are necessary 

 in disposing of the above sentence — namely : There is no such 

 thing as " the rate of interest " that is " fixed by free competition." 

 The rates of interest are fixed by the laws of demand and supply 

 in the mercantile world, and by statute so far as courts and legal 

 proceedings are concerned. Labor does not, even when wicked 

 capital combines, compete for wages. It appears to be oftener 

 the rule, nowadays, that wages compete for labor ; and finally, 

 the combination or centralizing of capital is not an infraction 

 of economic law at all ; nor are any one of the above statements 

 we have been at the pains to contradict ever offered as a " plea " 

 or as " i^leas " for such an infraction. As to what the " competi- 

 tion of labor for wages " is at the present date, we may illustrate 

 by a single example. Last summer the workmen in a sugar-refin- 

 ery in Brooklyn struck for an advance in wages. The proprietor 

 called them together, showed them his books, explained to them 

 his expenses, and demonstrated to them that if he paid them the 

 wages demanded, his sugar would cost him more than the 

 market price at which imported sugars were that moment 

 selling in New York city, and that, therefore, he not only could 

 not compete with the imported sugar, but must close his re- 

 finery. The " walking delegate," however, had his orders : the 

 strike could not be " off." The rates must be paid ; and so the 

 refinery was closed. But, in this Mr. Hudson perceives nothing 

 but justice. Having declined to see that the laws of supply and 

 demand have anything to do with prices, why should they 

 stand in the way of a capitalist paying what wages his " com- 

 l^eting workmen " demand ? The owner of the Brooklyn re- 

 finery was one of the " favored class of capital," who, " by means 

 of the control of the highways of commerce " (the refinery in 

 question stands on the dock, and ocean-going vessels load and 

 discharge at its hatches), " establish an exemption from the force 

 which fixes the reward of human effort." But in this case 

 some force (whether that of the " walking delegate " or of the 

 laws of commerce, or of the New York market) closed his re- 

 finery, nevertheless. The workmen who refused to keep their 

 contracts of employment with the sugar-refiner — nay (for such 

 the facts were), threatened to break his machinery and burn 

 and pillage his establishment — and who, by force and arms, kept 



