ARE BUSINESS PROFITS TOO LARGE? 101 



naturally asks why it should not be as well rewarded. The an* 

 swer always must be that it should, but this does not answer 

 the main question as to the proper proportion of profits to be 

 divided. Three things being essential, and each able to command 

 pay, the portion of pay must be governed by circumstances. In 

 the case of our village boys, one only can start in business, and 

 nine start as laborers, so that there are in the beginning nine com- 

 petitors for the rewards of labor, and but one for the rewards of 

 both capital and skill in management. On the law of competi- 

 tion, which can not be evaded in the long run, this seems to put 

 labor at a great disadvantage, but it is a disadvantage imposed 

 by Nature, and so need not be discussed. The actual fact is, that 

 there are three things equally essential and to be paid for the con- 

 duct of business. If we had thirty dollars to divide as the result 

 of an enterprise, and should say that, as all three of the things 

 were essential, each of them must have a third of the emolument, 

 we would shoot wide of the mark. In that case, one individual 

 would get twenty dollars, and nine would get only one dollar and 

 eleven cents apiece. That would be absurd. But the poor man, 

 looking to the owner of a hundred millions, imagines that the 

 division has been something very much like it. 



The poor man, however, is mistaken. There is no business of 

 recognized legitimacy that pays labor only a third. There is no 

 business that gives to capital and skill combined even ten dol- 

 lars out of thirty. Labor gets more than two thirds of the in- 

 come of most undertakings, and of many gets the whole, while 

 the entire capital not only obtains nothing, but is itself lost in the 

 venture, and its owner relegated to the ranks of labor. ISTo man, 

 employing ten hands at wages of three dollars per day each, ex- 

 pects to make five dollars per day ; but that sum would only give 

 him three dollars for his time — the same as his men get — and two 

 dollars for his skill and the use of his capital. This is a case 

 where the employer is possessed of ability to manage the ten 

 men as laborers only, and for such a man five dollars per day for 

 the necessary study, anxiety, and responsibility, can not be deemed 

 out of proportion. 



When the man of fifty looks at his boy associates and their 

 careers, probably he will find that only one in ten has reached a 

 handsome competence by his own exertions, and that one because 

 he was energetic, faithful, competent, and thorough systematically 

 from the start. If for a time he served under another, he was 

 careful to do a little more than was expected of him, and did it 

 well. This created confidence and desire on the part of his em- 

 ployer to see him prosper, and a disposition to assist him. In 

 course of time his employer lends him capital, or makes him a 

 partner in the business, and then his fortune is assured. Why 



