INDUSTRIAL REDISTRIBUTION. 297 



lation and controls our governmental policy, Loth do- 

 mestic and foreign. All other interests and persons 

 are compelled to yield to the apparently paramount 

 importance of trade and the trader. 



The present competition practically teaches that 

 society exists and is organized for the sole purpose 

 of buying and selling, and that the most successful 

 trader he who can buy the cheapest and sell the 

 dearest is the person most to be honored. The 

 tendency of present feudo-economic teachings and 

 practices is not to the advancement, but to the de- 

 moralization, of society in general. 



But at the time when the most liberal compensa- 

 tion was paid to workingmen for the product pro- 

 duced, or service rendered, society was in its most 

 prosperous condition and all enterprises nourished. 

 Then it was that the merchant or trader really made 

 his greatest gains ; because, being dependent upon the 

 masses for the sale and use of his goods and wares, 

 they were then in condition to buy and consume most 

 liberally. More than this : the workman who receives 

 two dollars per day can better afford to pay to his mer- 

 chant ten per cent, profit upon the goods bought and 

 consumed, than can he who receives but one dollar a 

 day pay five per cent. ; for the reason that in the one 

 case, after paying the merchant's ten per cent, profit 

 on the subsistence purchased, there yet remains one 

 dollar and eighty cents for the workman's support ; 

 but in the other, after paying the five per cent, of 

 profit, there remains to him but ninety-five cents for 

 his sustenance. Thus it is seen that the well paid 

 workiugman not only greatly adds to the volume of 



