96 CHARLES R. FLINT 



most of them have debts, and many are mortgaged to the 

 banks for savings; but the wage earners in the United States 

 have on deposit in cash in the savings banks, subject to call, 

 $3,060,178,611. Thus through co-operation and combination 

 every interest is being benefited, but labor most of all. As 

 wage earners become more intelligent, as they become over- 

 seers of machinery, they better understand these conditions. 

 They have the intelligence to recognize that their greatest 

 comfort and happiness is in furthering the industry of which 

 they are a part. To-day one of the great advantages that 

 the United States has over Europe is that its laborers are the 

 more intelligent, are the healthier and happier. The Euro- 

 pean wage earner, instead of welcoming labor saving mac ninety, 

 as workingmen in the United States have done, has tried per- 

 sistently to retard its general use, and the result has been that 

 wages have been lower in Europe. The American workman 

 has received more because he has produced more, and this 

 is the great reason why, notwithstanding our high wages, we 

 are so rapidly extending our trade with foreign markets. The 

 best factory inevitably gets the most work. There is a con- 

 tinued struggle for existence between good factories and poor 

 factories, and the good factory invariably wins. 



The law of consolidation of capital and division of labor 

 holds as good in the field of distribution as in that of pro- 

 duction. It is inevitable, and it is profitable. The depart- 

 ment stores and the mail order stores sell for 10 per cent 

 instead of 30 per cent profit, and the consumer thus saves 20 

 per cent. The profit obtained by the distributer of staples, 

 on the way from the farmer to the consumer, is less than one 

 quarter what it was thirty years ago. The farmer secures a 

 wider market, the consumer gets his staples just so much 

 more cheaply, and the enterprising middleman avails himself 

 of improved banking and transportation facilities to do a 

 larger business. This is why he has adopted as his motto, 

 " Quick sales and small profits." The real benefits of "capi- 

 talistic production," as compared with production on a small 

 scale, are twofold. The first and greatest benefit of industrial 

 combinations goes to the whole body of the community as 

 consumers, through reduction in prices. The next benefit, 



