826 report — 1884. 



methods of account established by the careful men under whose supervision the 

 mills were constructed. On this showing it is absolutely demonstrated that all 

 the improvements and inventions of the last fifty years have gone to the benefit of 

 the consumers of the goods and the operatives in the factory,— in largest measure 

 to the latter, — while the share which has fallen to capital has diminished in forty 

 years from 14 per cent, of the gross product to 6 per cent, or less. 



Now, let the principle which is sustained by these facts be applied to the general 

 subject of wages. It will be admitted by everyone that if there is any branch of 

 industry, either in agriculture, manufactures, mining, or mechanical work, which 

 offers a fair expectation of 10 per cent, on the investment, unless it be of some extra 

 hazardous or dangerous kind, into that branch of work capital will flow in ample 

 measure. Now, as a ride, in all the diverse arts and manufactures to which 

 machinery is applied, taken as a whole, the gross value of the annual product is 

 twice that of the capital invested. This is proved not only by the figures of the 

 United States census, but by the extremely close figures of the Massachusetts 

 census of 1875. Now, if capital will rush into any branch of industry in which it 

 can secure 10 per cent., and if 5 per cent, of the product will yield 10 per cent. 

 upon the capital, it follows of necessity that the other 95 per cent, of the product 

 must go to the labourers who do the work, because it cannot go anywhere else. 

 There are only two classes to whom the proceeds of sale can be devoted after the 

 taxes are paid, and those two classes are the capitalists and the labourers. If five 

 parts of the product satisfy the capitalist so fully that new capital rushes in to 

 compete for the opportunity of doing the work, then the other 95 parts must go to 

 the labourer, or to the distributor. In my treatise, however, in order to be 

 perfectly safe, I have assumed that ten parts of the annual product fall to 

 the capitalist and only ninety parts to the labourer, or to the distributor. 

 Now, it appears that in proportion to the increase of capital, the work of the 

 labourer is rendered more effective, and his wages rise continuously, because he 

 obtains a constantly increasing proportion of an increasing product. The more 

 effective the capital, the less the number of persons needed for the work, and the 

 larger the product. It therefore follows that any interference or retardation 

 in the accumulation of capital, while it hurts the capitalist, harms the labourer 

 a great deal more. It is therefore of the utmost importance to the labourer 

 that justice should be done to capital — no more, no less. If labourers receive 

 90 to 95 parts of all there is produced in one year, and cannot have any more 

 without interfering with the accumulation of capital and thereby diminishing 

 the product of next year, the}' get all they can have, whether it be much or 

 little, and their wages cannot be increased except by an increase of the general 

 product. The general product can only be increased by the co-operation of more 

 adequate capital with more skilful labour. It certainly cannot be increased by 

 legislation, because legislation produces nothing. It can check production and 

 reduce wages materially, and meddlesome legislation generally works in that way. 



Now, then, what are the facts in respect of wages in America ? The rate 

 of wages is much higher in money than in any other country, and if subsistence be 

 considered as a whole, the purchasing power of wages is greater for each dollar 

 than in any other country. According to Mr. Wright's recent most valuable in- 

 vestigations, a dollar will buy less shelter and somewhat less clothing, but more food, 

 than it will inEngland, and a dollar will buy more in England than it will any where 

 on the continent of Europe. What makes the rate of wages in this country, and why 

 are they higher here than elsewhere ? It is for this reason : by the co-operation 

 of capital and labour, intelligently applied to the greatest natural resources, the 

 result of each year's work is a larger product of grain, cotton, machinery, timber, 

 fabrics and wares, in ratio to the number of labourers employed, than can be 

 attained anywhere else, and when the 90 or 95 per cent, of this huge project is 

 converted into terms of money by sale, the resulting sum of money leaves for each 

 person employed a larger amount than can be attained by the working people in 

 any other country. One of the great reasons for this — perhaps the paramount reason 

 — is that the United States are free from the burdens of passive war since slavery 

 was abolished ; free from the blood-tax of a standing army, which takes at least ten 



