THE RIVALR Y OF EMPL O YERS 1 49 



by the successful hotel-keeper of a fortune double Book n 

 that with which he started has not involved any 

 diminution in the wages of his staff. It will, on the The staff of 



. r -i . the unsuccess- 



contrary, it we are to take the case now in question fui hotel-keeper 

 as typical of the survival of the fittest employers by'being'em- 6 ' 

 generally, have not only not diminished their j the 

 wages, but very largely increased them. For here 

 there is one further truth which naturally introduces 

 itself to our observation. Whatever allowance it 

 may be necessary to make for the lowest class or 

 residuum of our modern populations, it is the most 

 clearly proved and prominent fact in modern indus- 

 trial history and one which even socialists are now 

 ceasing to deny that along with the vast increase 

 in wealth which the ablest employers have, by their 

 struggle with rivals, secured for their own enjoy- 

 ment, there has been not a corresponding diminu- 

 tion, but a corresponding increase in the means 

 of subsistence that have gone to the population 

 generally. The average income per head in this 

 country of that class composed mainly of wage- 

 earners which does not pay income tax has, in 

 terms of money, nearly trebled itself during the 

 present century ; its purchasing power has increased 

 in a yet larger ratio, and its increase will be found to 

 have been most rapid and striking at periods when 

 the struggle amongst the employing class has been 

 keenest. 



It will thus be seen that the struggle which pro- Historical pro- 

 gress, then, 

 duces economic progress and progress of every results from a 



kind is produced in the same way is not a general st 



