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



201 





Socialists, whose present share of the satisfactions of life 

 would certainly have to be lowered, not raised, if their 

 visionary schemes could be carried into effect. 



In conclusion it seems only too true, as asserted by Mr. 

 Grunton, " That nothing can improve the social condition of 

 the masses, whether it raises nominal wages or not, which 

 does not increase the general rate of real wages, the degree 

 of which may be universally taken as the accurate measure of 

 social progress;" and, "there are no economic means by 

 which the material condition of the masses can be per- 

 manently improved which do not tend to increase the 

 aggregate production of wealth per capita." Invention, 

 increasing command over the forces of nature, thrift, and 

 industry can alone accomplish this. Schemes of Distribution 

 and Strikes for higher nominal wages must end in failure 

 and disappointment, so far as the great masses of men are 

 concerned. 



It would be well for capitalist and wage-earner, employer 

 and employed' — whose interests as producers and consumers 

 are almost identical — that when matters requiring adjust- 

 ment are proposed, there should be greater facilities afforded 

 m the Councils of both interests for securing a friendly 

 settlement. So long as high-handed action on either part bars 

 the way to the friendly conference of acknowledged represen- 

 tatives (except after the bitterness and friction of an indus- 

 trial war), so long will the unsatisfied claims, the suspicions 

 and misunderstandings of both parties, result in injury to 

 both ; and to the absence of these facilities, mainly, may be 

 attributed the most disastrous of all such evils, viz. 

 Strikes. 



