416 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



In those early times to Avhich I referred in the first 

 portion of this chapter, wages were higher, food cheaper, 

 and there were practically none unemployed. Why was 

 this ? The country was then far less rich ; there was 

 almost no labour-saving machinery; yet no one wanted 

 food, clothing, or fire. The reason simply was, that 

 immediately around most of the smaller towns there was 

 land which could be had for little or nothing ; and farther 

 off was everywhere the forest or the prairie, where any 

 one might build his log hut, grow his corn, or even hunt 

 or fish to support life. Every one could then easily 

 obtain land from which he could, by his own labour, sup- 

 port himself and his family. There was a charm in this 

 free life, and men were continually drifting away from 

 civilization to enjoy it. Therefore it was that wage- 

 labour was scarce and wages high, for no one would work 

 for low wages when he had the alternative of working for 

 himself. The labourer could then really make a " free 

 contract " with the capitalist who required his services, 

 because he had always an alternative ; or, at all events, a 

 sufficient number had this alternative and would avail 

 themselves of it, to prevent there being any surplus 

 labour vainly seeking employment. 



Now, the great majority of the unemployed have no 

 such alternative. It is either work for the capitalist or 

 starve. Hence " free contract " is a mockery ; the wages 

 of unskilled labour have sunk to the minimum that will 

 support life in a working condition — it cannot perman- 

 ently be less — and skilled labour obtains somewhat better 

 terms just in proportion as it is plentiful or scarce. If, 

 then, we really desire that labourers shall all be better 

 paid, and none be unemployed (and the two things 

 necessarily go together), we must enable a large pro- 

 portion of all wage workers to have a sufficiency of land, 

 by the cultivation of which they can obtain food for 



therefore they must either remain starx^ed and naked or be supported 

 in idleness by their fellows. It is hardly possible to imagine a more 

 complete failure of civilization than such a fact as this ; and the failure 

 is rendered more grotesque and horrible by tlie additional fact that no 

 politician or legislator has any effectual remedy to suggest, while the 

 majority maintain that no remedy is needed or is possible ! 



