THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK. 23 



also pertinent to this subject : That wages everywhere have not 

 fallen but advanced, as a sequence to the introduction and use 

 of cheaper and better machinery and processes, proves that labor, 

 through various causes — probably by reason mainly of increased 

 consumption — has not yet been supplanted or economized by 

 such changes to a sufficient extent to reduce wages through 

 any competition of the unemployed. The multiplicity and con- 

 tinuance of strikes, and the difficulty experienced in filling the 

 places of strikers with a desirable quality of labor, are also evi- 

 dence that the supply of skilled labor in almost every depart- 

 ment of industry is rather scarce than abundant. Again, it is 

 a matter of general experience that when, in recent years, wages, 

 by reason of a depression of prices, have been reduced in any 

 specialty of production, such reductions have been mainly tem- 

 porary, and are rarely, if ever, equal to the fall in the prices of 

 the articles produced ; which in turn signifies that the loss con- 

 tingent on such reductions has been mainly borne by capital in 

 the shape of diminished profits. Notwithstanding this, it must 

 be admitted that the immense changes in recent years in the 

 conditions of production and distribution have considerably 

 augmented — especially from the ranks of unskilled labor and 

 from agricultural occupations — the number of those who have 

 a rightful claim on the world's help and sympathy. That this 

 increase is temporary in its nature, and not permanent, and that 

 relief will ultimately come, and mainly through an adjustment 

 of affairs to the new conditions, by a process of industrial evo- 

 lution, there is much reason to believe. But, pending the in- 

 terval or necessary period for adjustment, the problem of what 

 to do to prevent a mass of adults, whose previous education has 

 not qualified them for taking advantages of the new opportuni- 

 ties which material progress offers to them, from sinking into 

 wretchedness and perhaps permanent poverty, is a serious one, 

 and one not easy to answer. ^ 



A comprehensive review of the relations of machinery to 

 wages, by those who by reason of special investigations are 

 competent to judge, has led to the following conclusions : When 

 machinery is first introduced it is imperfect, and requires a high 

 grade of workmen to successfully operate it; and these for a 

 time earn exceptionally high wages. As time goes on, and the 

 machinery is made more perfect and automatic, the previous 

 skill called for goes up to better work and even better pay. 

 Then those who could not at the outset have operated the ma- 

 chinery at all, are now called in ; and at higher wages than they 

 had earned before (although less than was paid to their prede- 

 cessors), they do the work. Capital in developing and applying 

 machinery may, therefore, be fairly regarded as in the nature of 



