ioo THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



terms, lie seems to have had no further trouble with his people. 

 The business went on quietly with a steady increase. New work- 

 men were employed every year ; and in 1398 seventeen men were 

 employed there, with three women to sort rags, and a book- 

 keeper. These were all sworn in as solemnly as the first work- 

 men. Among the later hands were three carpenters, each of 

 whom received fifteen pennies a day. A comparison of these 

 wages with the price at which paper was then sold — about forty 

 groschen a ream for writing-paper in 1426 — suggests that Stro- 

 mer's profits were exceedingly large. There was no competition 

 so long as he lived, and his mill continued to be the only one in 

 Germany, a fact which may be ascribed to his careful proceed- 

 ings in hiring workmen. The year of his death, 1407, was also 

 the year of the beginning of the second authenticated paper-mill, 

 at Ravensburg, which is then first mentioned in the records of 

 the city. A paper-mill went into operation the next year at 

 Strasburg, and others at Liegnitz in 1420, Basle in 1440, Bautzen 

 in 1443, and Augsburg in 1468 ; after which, the art of printing 

 having been introduced, the demand that arose for paper caused 

 factories to increase very rapidly. There are now in operation in 

 Germany about nine hundred and twenty-five paper-mills, which 

 produce more than 400,000,000 kilogrammes of paper a year. — 

 Translated for The Popular Science Monthly from Daheim. 



ARE BUSINESS PROFITS TOO LARGE? 



By J. B. MANN. 



THERE are four essentials to any successful business — viz., 

 capital, labor, skill, and opportunity. The first three of 

 these must be paid, and our question relates to the proportion of 

 compensation to be awarded. 



We must start by considering the circumstances of the case. 

 If we take an ordinary country village, we will find several boys 

 with the capacity to labor, but without capital and skill to conduct 

 a large business, and from necessity they become laborers. Then 

 we find two or three perhaps with business ability, but no capital, 

 and if they can not borrow capital — and most of them can not at 

 first — they become laborers also. Occasionally one is found like 

 W. H. Vanderbilt, having both capital and skill, and he steps to 

 the front and does business enough, or more than enough, for 

 several villages. His wealth increases rapidly, and his power to 

 accumulate gains all the time. 



Now the laborer looks at Vanderbilt as a capitalist chiefly, and 

 knowing that labor is just as essential to business as capital, 



