THE PRESS. 695 



classes, so far from being arrayed against each other, are 

 supplementary to each other and mutually dependent upon 

 each other. Neither can get along without the other. 

 There is no just occasion for any war between them any 

 more than between the buyers and sellers of commodities. 

 Their interests are not conflicting, but coincident and mu- 

 tually contributory. 



4 * What is the rate of compensation that capital ought 

 to pay to labor? How much shall the seller of labor 

 receive from the employer for the service rendered by the 

 former to the latter ? There is only one practical answer 

 to this question; and that answer, in the long run and as a 

 general rule, will be more equitable than any other which 

 it is possible to* give, where buyers and sellers are left 

 free to make their own bargains. The law of supply and 

 demand, under free competition, will fix the price of labor 

 as between buyers and sellers of labor, just as it fixes the 

 price of all commodities that come into the market to be 

 bought and sold. When the demand exceeds the supply 

 of labor, wages will rise; and when the supply exceeds the 

 demand, wages will just as naturally fall to a lower mark. 

 When buyers compete with each other, prices necessarily 

 advance; and when sellers compete with each other they 

 as necessarily go down. This has been the history of the 

 world ever since men began to buy and sell; and it will 

 continue to be its history through all time. The result is 

 an average market price, which the buyer must' pay and 

 the seller must accept 



"All the labor organizations that were ever gotten up 

 by men, cannot repeal this law, or put in its place any 

 other law that would, on the whole, work better for the 

 interests of human society, including all classes. Such 

 organizations may, for a short period, force prices out of 

 their natural course; but in the end they will come back 

 again under the general law of supply and demand. Such 



