BY E. M. JOHNSTON, F.L.S. 173 



the effective force of man's labour and tiuae, that the supplies 

 were multiplied at a greater rate, and relatively at a much 

 smaller expenditure of man's labour. 



Abolish the Middleman and the Monopoliser op 

 Natueal Wealth. 



Many are of opinion that the consumer of wants would be 

 greatly benefited if he were brought more immediately into 

 contact with the producer without the intervention of the 

 middleman. No doubt some of the latter, where circumstances 

 favour them, succeed in monopolising a larger share of profits 

 than he is entitled by his services, but the evil may well be 

 left, in the long run, to be remedied by the action of rival 

 competitors for custom. True the Co-operation of consumers 

 may successfully employ salaried agents for performing the 

 same services, but this is not abolishing the middleman, but 

 rather controlling his charges by conveiting him from an 

 independent dealer or agent into a salaried servant. It is 

 not always possible, however, for consumers to secure wise 

 and trustworthy agents, and there are many advantages 

 valued by many consumers profitably risked by energetic, 

 independent middlemen which would not be safe to commit 

 to a hired servant, and hence it seems improbable that 

 association, often necessary and successful, will entirely occupy 

 that division of the social exchanges of services. 



Not a little of the objection to middlemen, however, arises 

 from the misconception that the wealth earned by middlemen, 

 professional men, and the rich, is equivalent to wealth 

 individually consumed by them. 



This naturally leads on to 



Disteibittion and Consumption of Wealth, 



There are many fallacies current with respect to the dis- 

 tribution of wealth. If all the enormous wealth year by year 

 created by stored fruits of previous labour (capital), current 

 labour, and the gratuitous forces of Nature, were directly 

 devoted to consumption or enjoyment, no doubt the pro- 

 portion per head allotted to the industrial labourer would be 

 small indeed in comparison with the rich. Indeed, it is urged 

 by Lange ^ that it might be better for society generally, 

 as well as for the rich industrial chiefs, that if all those who 

 have acquired a more than moderate income were to retire 

 from business life, and henceforth devote their leisure to 

 public affairs, to art and literature, and in fine to a cultured 

 enjoyment of life upon moderate means*, "not only would 

 those people lead a more beautiful and worthier existence, but 

 there would also be secured an adequate material basis to 

 maintain permanently a nobler culture with all its require- 



1. * Lange's " History of Materialism." E.G. Thomas' translation. Vol. iii., pp. 

 237, 238, 239, 241. 



