208 



GENEEAL INCEEASE OF WAGES EALLS UPOIS 

 CONSUMEES OP PEODTJCTS, AND IN NO WAT 

 ENCEOACHES UPON EENT OE PEOPITS OP 

 CAPITALISTS. 



By E. M. Johnston, P.L.S. 



Different observers standing at different points of view in 

 the midst of many complex problems are hardly ever likely 

 to concur in each others conclusions if their respective views 

 are limited to a few isolated facts, belonging to but still 

 forming an insignificant part of the whole series of facts 

 upon which the true solution of the complex problem depends. 

 Each observer under such conditions may arrive at opposite 

 conclusions, which may be perfectly consistent with the 

 fragmentary data upon which they respectively rest, and 

 yet be altogether wrong and inconsistent when correlated with 

 the more important series of co-efficients which were over- 

 looked or ignored. 



The conclusions of even the most extended observations 

 may also be consistent with the data upon which they are 

 based, and yet be altogether inconsistent with the truth, if 

 the data themselves be inaccurate. Further, there are 

 always some points so difficult of solution that only the 

 powerful restraint of a particular habit of mind or training can 

 prevent ones sympathetic leanings from leaping the gap to 

 the goal desired in preference to the wiser course of making 

 further exploration or waiting for further gleams of light. 



These observations are necessary when called upon to 

 review the arguments of Mr. Ogilvy, in so far as they are 

 supposed to touch upon my former paper on Strikes and 

 their Influence upon Wages. It affords me great pleasure 

 to find myself in agreement on so many points with one 

 like Mr. Ogilvy, whose well-known generous sympathies for 

 the amelioration of the condition of the masses of the people 

 must command the respect of all right thinking persons. 

 We are substantially in agreement in the view stated by me 

 in my former paper, that " A strike may be the means of suc- 

 cessfully raising the status of some branches of labour that 

 are comparatively under-paid or over-worked ; it may raise 

 the real wages of a particular country or locality which for- 

 merly laboured under the average remuneration of other 

 countries ; it may be the means of forcing the capitalist or 

 employer to give a fairer or larger share of the profits of capital 

 and labour— i.e., machinery, plant, skill, and labour— but from 

 the very nature of the common source of all profit and wages, 

 viz., the current products created by the combined services 



