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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cate with some fullness of detail the nature 

 of the modifications and additions that have 

 been made. 



On the " Wages Question," Mill's state- 

 ment of the " Wages-Fund Theory " is supple- 

 mented by the results of the thinking started 

 by Longe, Thornton, Walker, and Cairnes. 

 The conclusion is still retained that the re- 

 lation between numbers and that part of 

 capital which is necessarily devoted to wages 

 (although not absolutely fixed in amount) 

 determines the average rate of wages, sup- 

 posing that there is free competition among 

 laborers. Then the adaptation of this theo- 

 ry to the facts of practical life, in which free 

 competition does not exist between distinct 

 occupations, is arrived at by introducing Mr. 

 Cairnes's doctrine of non-competing groups 

 in the discussion of the varyiug rates of 

 wages in different employments. These ad- 

 ditions are inserted so as to naturally sup- 

 plement and closely connect with Mr. Mill's 

 system, thus introducing the results of study 

 in the generation since Mill wrote his two 

 volumes. These parts are necessarily brief 

 and condensed, but the reader is given ref- 

 erences in foot-notes to the writers them- 

 selves, which he can consult as he goes on. 



Mr. Mill included wages of superintend- 

 ence under profits, and thereby gave some 

 excuse for much of the wrong talk about a 

 conflict of labor and capital. In this edi- 

 tion it is made apparent by Mill's own show- 

 ing that wages of superintendence should be 

 classed with other wages of labor, and so 

 the high returns of managers are explained 

 as arising from the same causes which in- 

 fluence the wages of other skilled laborers — 

 the possession of a natural monopoly. This 

 is only an extension of the doctrine of non- 

 competing groups ; and profit is then con- 

 fined properly to interest for abstinence and 

 insurance for risk. 



Since Mr. Mill's day the modern form of 

 socialism, whose essential doctrine is state 

 help, has spread from France to Germany 

 through the teachings of Marx and Lasalle, 

 and pervaded our own country. A state- 

 ment of their position is incorporated into 

 the book, and Mr. Mill's later views on so- 

 cialism, as expressed in his posthumous chap- 

 ters (written in 1869), are printed in con- 

 nection with his earlier views. 



The chief weakness of Mr. Mill's book 



was undoubtedly his treatment of cost of 

 production. The admirable study of Mr. 

 Cairnes has cleared this ground, and the re- 

 sults of that work are given in this edition, 

 so that the reader can get the right concep- 

 tion of this fundamental matter in connec- 

 tion with the remainder of the economic 

 system. This in its turn then makes inter- 

 national trade, as expounded by Mr. Mill, 

 more simple and more easily understood. 



The whole lively discussion on bimetal- 

 ism arose since Mill's day, although he 

 touches somewhat on the double standard. 

 His omission is filled by a considerable 

 study on the experience of the United States 

 since 1792. The history of that experience 

 with gold and silver and the working of our 

 legislation on this subject are stated and ex- 

 plained ; and in the Appendix a bibliogra- 

 phy of two pages for the subject in general 

 is given. 



Mr. Mill's book, of course, contained 

 nothing treating of our own experiments in 

 paper money, but much on English cur- 

 rency discussions. These latter have been 

 omitted ; and the experience of the prov- 

 ince of Massachusetts, the issues of Conti- 

 nental currency, and the greenback issues 

 from 1862 to resumption of specie pay- 

 ments in 18'79, are considered with a view 

 to the lessons that may be learned from 

 this kind of currency. 



International values presented unneces- 

 sary difficulties to the reader in the form it 

 assumed under Mr. Mill's pen. This was. 

 largely omitted, and a very much simpler 

 exposition given of the laws of reciprocal 

 demand and supply, as a supplement to the 

 previous exposition of value. 



The connection of wages with prices 

 and the doctrine of comparative cost as 

 affecting foreign competition are added at 

 some length in the chapter on foreign com- 

 petition. The connection of wages with 

 foreign competition had not risen in Mill's 

 day to its present factitious importance in 

 the vulgar mind. 



Mr. Mill's (or rather Mrs. Mill's) chapter 

 on the future of the laboring-classes was 

 rambling and quite obsolete. An entirely 

 new chapter was put in its place, pointing 

 out the very considerable gain of the labor- 

 ing-classes in wages during the last fifty 

 years in England and America as disclosed 



