WAGES 53 



as there will no longer be need to cultivate inferior 

 land low wages will altogether cease. 



In the case above referred to where the workman 

 does not receive the whole of the value of his production 

 the difference goes as rent, and hence it is common to 

 blame rent for the lowness of wages. But rent is itself 

 one of the symptoms, not the cause of the descent of 

 agricultural and low wages. If good land was to be had 

 free no one would pay rent for land. B3' providing 

 plenty of land the disease, which is the descent of 

 cultivation, will be cured and rent for the unimproved 

 value of land automatically abolished. 



There are but two ways of improving the condition 

 of wage-earners in Europe : one is to provide them with 

 more land, or, if this is not possible, then the other is to 

 attempt to bring about the greatest advance of science. 

 The theories that are placed before the European work- 

 men for the purpose of raising their wages and that take 

 no note of the shortage of land or of the influence of 

 science are for this reason misleading, and the pursuit 

 of them is misdirected and wasted effort. 



