V IN HUMAN SOCIETY 213 



our fortune; and, if we avoid impending fate, 

 there will be a certain ground for believing that 

 we are the right people to escape. Securus 

 judicat orbis. 



To this end, it is well to look into the necessary 

 conditions of our salvation by works. They are 

 two, one plain to all the world and hardly needing 

 insistence ; the other seemingly not so plain, 

 since too often it has been theoretically and prac 

 tically left out of sight. The obvious condition 

 is that our produce shall be better than that of 

 others. There is only one reason why our goods 

 should be preferred to those of our rivals our 

 customers must find them better at the price. 

 That means that we must use more knowledge, 

 skill, and industry in producing them, without a 

 proportionate increase in the cost of production ; 

 and, as the price of labour constitutes a large 

 element in that cost, the rate of wages must be 

 restricted within certain limits. It is perfectly 

 true that cheap production and cheap labour are 

 by no means synonymous ; but it is also true that 

 wages cannot increase beyond a certain proportion 

 without destroying cheapness. Cheapness, then, 

 with, as part and parcel of cheapness, a moderate 

 price of labour, is essential to our success as 

 competitors in the markets of the world. 



The second condition is really quite as plainly 

 indispensable as the first, if one thinks seriously 

 about the matter. It is social stability. Society 



