effects here as in Europe. Under the spell of this
optimistic blindness, we have accepted England's
economic doctrine, and ignored her industrial reforms.
The consequence is, that the same industrial and social
evils which we have vainly endeavored to believe were
peculiar to Old World monarchies have become a per-
manent feature of our social life under democratic in-
stitutions.
Industrial depressions and enforced idleness, with
all their evil consequences, are now as frequent
INDUSTRIAL DEPRESSIONS.
345
here as in Europe, as the following table clearly
shows :
Great Britain.
France.
United States.
Germany.
Belgium.
1803
1804
I8IO
l8lO
I8I5
I8I3
1814
I8l8
I8l8
I8l8
1826
1826
1826
1830
1830
1837
1837
1837
1837
1837
1847
1847
1847
1847
1848
1857
1856
1857
1855
1855
1866
1866
1867
1S64
1873
1873
1873
1873
1873
1883
1882
1882
1882
1882
1885
1885
1885
1885
1885
The pernicious industrial policy pursued in this coun-
try, which recognizes the laborer only as a physical
factor in production, while ignoring him as a social
factor in consumption, forcing him to accept long hours
of exhaustive labor, with its socially degrading belong-
ings, has greatly neutralized the social advantage of
our republican institutions. As a consequence, we
are to-day brought face to face with the startling
fact, which every American statesman and citizen may
well take seriously to heart, that during the last
thirty- five years the laboring classes in this country
have actually made less progress in social well-being
than those of monarchical England.
We must not be understood as saying the laborer in
England is better off to-day than the laborer in this
country, nor as saying that the economic condition of
the American laborer is now worse than it was in 1850.
What we affirm, and what the facts prove, is that
the progress in the social well-being of the masses since
346 WEALTH AND PROGRESS.
that date has been less in this country than it has
been in England.
If we compare the real wages ā the amount of
wealth obtainable for a day's labor ā in this country and
England in 1850 and at the present time, we shall
find not merely that wages have risen a greater per
cent, but that the absolute increase has been greater
in England than here.
In the last chapter (page 246), it will be remembered
we found that the rate of wages in England (exclu-
sive of agriculture) from 1850 to 1880-83, taking the
most moderate estimates, has risen two dollars and ten
cents per week, and that during the same period the
general price level has fallen ā the purchasing capacity
of the dollar has increased ā about fourteen per cent,
making a net increase in real wages of sixty-five
per cent, or two dollars and forty cents a week. Ac-
cording to the returns given in the general census for
1850, i860, 1870, and 1880, the average wages in this
country rose during that period about twenty-nine per
cent, or one dollar and ninety-nine cents a week.*
Mulhall estimates that at two dollars and four cents a
week. If we examine the elaborate returns given in
the twentieth volume of the United States Census for
1880, which is specially devoted to wages and prices
in this country from 1 850 to i88o,f and in which five
* This is based upon the returns for three hundred and thirty-two
industries or branches of industries, exclusive of agriculture. See vol-
ume on Manufactures of United States, Census for 1880 ; Table I. on
Manufactures, pp. 5-8, and general remarks on manufactures, pp.
12-20.
f Speaking of the tables contained in the above volume of the Cen-
sus Reports, Professor Francis A. Walker says : " The tables which
are embraced in the following report of Special Agent Weeks consti-
tute, it is believed, the largest magazine of statistics relating to the
PRICES IN THE UNITED STA TES. 347
hundred and sixty-three pages are devoted to tables
of wages, embracing every occupation (outside of agri-
culture) in all the States, we find the average wages in
those industries which existed at both dates have in-
creased two dollars and twenty-four cents a week.
But in order to understand the amount of social
well-being represented in this rise of wages, we must
ascertain the movement of prices during the same
period. From the price tables given by Mulhall * for
each decade from 1825-30 to 1881-83, the average
price of a given quantity of sixteen principal articles,
including flour, meat, groceries, dairy products, cot-
ton, wool, leather, coal, iron, etc., rose from 1841-50
to 1881-83 twenty-nine per cent, while that of cloth-
ing and furniture fell nearly thirty per cent. Assum-
ing this to constitute ten per cent of the laborer's ex-
penditure (which is a very liberal estimate f), it would
make a rise in the general price level of twenty-six per
cent during that period. According to the very ex-
tensive investigation of prices in Massachusetts made
by the Bureau of Statistics of Labor, the general price
level in that State, from 1830 to i860, rose 12.70 per
cent,:]: and from i860 to 1878 it rose 14. 50 per cent, Ā§
wages of labor to be found in any single publication. . . . While no
large body of statistics can be assumed to be free from error, the fol-
lowing collection of statistical data relating to the wages of labor in
the United States is believed to have been as thoroughly tested and
as carefully purged as it is reasonable to expect in the case of any
statistical work whatsoever. All the virtue there is in frequent re-
vision has been imparted to these tables."
* " History of Prices," pp. 183, 184.
f See Report of Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1879, p. 89 ; also
Engel's " Law of Consumption," ibid., 1885, p. 152.
\ Report of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor (Massachusetts), 1885,
p. 466.
Ā§ Ibid., 1S79. Tables VII., VIII. , IX., and X., pp. 87-89.
348 WEALTH AND PROGRESS.
making a rise for the whole period of 27.20 per cent.
And from the returns of the Census Bureau, given in
the report already referred to,* the price of a given
quantity of forty articles of food, clothes, and fuel in
the leading cities and States of the Union from 1850
to 1880 rose a little over twenty per cent.
Thus it will be seen that Mulhall's investigations,
covering the forty-three years from 1840 to 1883, show
a rise of prices of twenty-six per cent ; that of
Colonel Wright, embracing the forty-eight years from
1830 to 1878, shows a rise of 27.20 per cent in the
price level ; and that of the United States Census
Bureau for the thirty years from 1850 to 1880 shows a
rise of 20.17 per cent.
Now, assuming that half the rise which Colonel
Wright found to have taken place between 1830 and
i860 to have occurred before 1850 (which is about
what is indicated by Mulhall's tables for 1825-30 and
1841-50), and allowing the same ratio for the ten years
covered by Mulhall prior to 1850, the result of these
three distinct investigations of the movement of the
general price level in this country from 1850 to 1880
will stand as follows :
Percentage
of Increase.
Mulhall (1850-1883) 23.00
Colonel Wright (1850-1878) 20.85
United States Census (1850-1880) 20.17
While none of these results may be literally true,
their close similarity affords indisputable evidence of
their approximate correctness.
Taking the most favorable estimate (which is prob-
ably the nearest correct), the price level has risen ā
* Twentieth volume of United States Census, 1SS0, special report
on wages and prices.
MISLEADING AGGREGATES. 349
the purchasing capacity of the dollar has fallen ā since
1850 in this country, twenty per cent. If we deduct
this from the rise of two dollars and twenty-four cents
in nominal wages, it leaves a net increase of real wages
in this country since 1850 of one dollar and seventy-
nine cents a week, as compared with two dollars and
forty cents a week in England."* In other words,
notwithstanding our political and natural advantages,
the material well-being of the average artisan in mo-
narchical England has actually increased sixty-four
cents a week more since 1S50 than that of the laborer
in republican America.
If we consider the social well-being of the people
as indicated by the national income, either inclusive
or exclusive of taxation, instead of by wages, we shall
find the facts all point to the same result ā viz., that
the increase in wealth in proportion to the population
has been greater in England than in this country.
There are few questions of fact upon which the general
public are more misled by our public men than upon
this. The advocates of high tariff, both of the press
and the forum, are never tired of citing almost be-
wildering statistics showing the enormous increase
of wealth in this country, which they ascribe to tariff
legislation.
They may show us ā as Mr. Blaine frequently did
during the presidential canvass in 1884 ā that from
1870 to 1880 the annual income of the people of the
United States rose in round numbers from five billion
and ninety-eight million to six billion seven hundred
* The change in house rent in the two countries has been about the
same. In England in 1880 house rent took the earnings of twenty-
nine days a year, and in this country it required about thirty.
350 WEALTH AND PROGRESS.
and forty-nine million dollars, an actual increase of
one billion six hundred and fifty-one million dollars a
year ; while in England, where the income is the next
greatest in the world, it only rose during the same
period from four billion six hundred and thirteen mill-
ion to five billion five hundred and forty-nine million
dollars, or nine hundred and thirty-six million dollars
a year. Thus showing that the actual increase in the
annual earnings of the people of Great Britain during
the decade from 1870 to 1880 was seventy-six percent
less than that of those in the United States.
These facts are presented to prove, and are gener-
ally accepted as proving, that the well-being of the
masses in this country had increased during that decade
seventy-six per cent more than that of those in Eng-
land. This conclusion, however, as we shall soon see,
is as false as the figures are correct. The error is not
in the facts, but in the half use made of them. As a
measure of the progress in the material well-being of
the masses, the increase in the aggregate national in-
come, taken alone, is even more misleading than is
the percentage of increase in wages before referred to.
Any percentage of increase, however small, in the real
wages of the laborer indicates some progress in his
material well-being, but the aggregate income of a
nation may double without any improvement ; nay,
even with a deterioration in the well-being of the peo-
ple. The wealth or poverty of the people in any com-
munity does not depend upon the actual amount of
the aggregate income of the nation, but upon the ratio
between that income and the population. For ex-
ample, the aggregate income of Russia is four times
that of Holland, but the population is more than
twenty times that of Holland. Consequently, the in-
INCREASED EARNINGS PER CAPITA: 351
come per capita (real well-being) in the latter is nearly
three times as great as that of the former, being one
hundred and twenty-four dollars and eighty-six cents in
Holland as against forty-eight dollars and forty-eight
cents in Russia. If we consider the increase in the
annual income of England and this country from 1870
to 1880 in this light, which is the only sense in which
it can be taken, as indicating the economic well-being
of the people, we find the charm of these seemingly
optimistic aggregates is greatly modified. For while it
is true that the annual income during that decade in-
creased one billion six hundred and fifty-one million
dollars in this country as against nine hundred and
thirty-six million dollars in Great Britain, the increase
in our population was more than three times as great
as that of England. The consequence is that the large
aggregate in this country only 3/ields an actual increase
of about two dollars and sixteen cents per capita of the
population, while that of England gave an increase of
about fourteen dollars and thirty-six cents per capita.
There is one circumstance, however, which will be
commonly regarded as greatly modifying the above
result in favor of the United States. It is the fact
that taxation in this country during the period referred
to has been reduced five dollars and twenty-eight
cents per capita, while that of Great Britain has
been increased one dollar and forty-four cents per
capita. If we assume that the whole amount taken
in taxes is wasted, and recognize only that por-
tion of the income as representing real well-being
which is over and above taxation,"" the facts would
* This would be a mistake, however, for while, perhaps, a larger per
cent of the wealth taken by taxation is unwisely spent, a considerable
352 WEALTH AND PROGRESS.
still show that the net increase was greatly in favor
of England.
By adding the five dollars and twenty-eight cents
per capita saved by reduced taxation to the one dol-
lar and sixty cents gross increase in this country,
and deducting the one dollar and forty-four cents per
capita of increased taxation from the fourteen dollars
and thirty-six cents increase in the gross income in
England, the net increase in the annual income per
capita of the population (free of taxes) in the two
countries stand : United States, six dollars and eighty-
eight cents ; Great Britain, twelve dollars and ninety-
two cents.
It will thus be seen that, viewing the facts from the
most favorable standpoint possible for this country
(even unfairly so), we find that instead of the progress
in the well-being of the masses having been seventy-
six per cent greater here than in England (as indicated
by the aggregate national income), the actual increase
per capita has been over eighty per cent greater in
England than in the United States.
If we compare the progress in the general intelli-
gence, morality, and freedom in the two countries, we
shall find the facts are equally in favor of England.
The number of children attending school, as compared
to population, since 1850, has increased forty-two per
cent in England, and less than twenty-five per cent in
the United States.* The same fact is further indi-
portion of all taxes are used for purposes which really represent social
well-being. For example, all wealth devoted to public improvements,
education, administration of justice, protection of life and property,
etc., tend to increase the value of wealth and the social safety and
comfort of the community.
* Not that the attendance in proportion to the population is actually
greater in England than in this country, but that the increase during
CRIME IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 353
cated by the proportion of the population who write
letters. According to the post-office returns for the
two countries, we find that the number of letters sent
through the mails per head of the population from
1867 to 1877 increased eight in England as against
four in the United States.
The criminal calendar shows that the number of
convictions are (1878) as 1 in 900 of the population in
this country, as against I in every 1880 of the popula-
tion in Great Britain. In 1885* they had fallen to I
in 3272 in England, while in this country they have
remained practically unchanged, being in 1887 f still
1 in every 930 of the population.
It is a notorious fact that during the last quarter
of a century the social and political institutions in Eng-
land have constantly tended toward greater democracy
for the masses, while in this country, as elsewhere
shown, \ the tendency has been increasingly in the di-
rection of contracting the democratic principle in our
government. This movement to limit instead of to
extend the social influence and political power of the
masses has become strikingly pronounced in municipal
and state governments, and is now beginning to
show itself in our national institutions. All this does
not mean that the laborer in England to-day is eco-
nomically better off or politically freer than the laborer
the last thirty-five years has been greater there than here. In 1830 it
was forty per cent less there than here, and in 1880 it was only ten
per cent less. To-day it is probably about the same.
* First Report of the United States Commissioner of Labor, 1886,
p. 431 ; also Sir John Lubbock's " Digest of Statistical Repoit for
1885."
f Second Report of the United States Commissioner of Labor ā ā
" Convict Labor," 1887, p. 288.
% See next chapter.
354 WEALTH AND PROGRESS.
in this country, but it does most emphatically mean
that he is making greater progress in that country.
Therefore, despite the depressive influence of an
odious land system, a privileged aristocracy, a state
church, an obstructive House of Lords, and an opulent
and obdurate monarchy, it is manifest that the eco-
nomic, social, and political progress of the masses under
the short-hour and half-time regime in England has
not only been greater than that of any other country
in Europe, but even greater than that of this re-
public during the same period.
CHAPTER IX.
THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL NECESSITY OF AN
EIGHT-HOUR AND HALF-TIME SYSTEM.
It is now clear that the proposition for a general
reduction of the hours of labor and the adoption of
half-time schools for working children is not only the-
oretically sound and practically feasible, but as an
effectual means for increasing the social opportunities
and promoting industrial progress, it is more potent
than are ideal political institutions.
This is shown by the fact that during the last thir-
ty-five years the laboring classes have made more
real progress with short hours under a monarchy in
England than with long hours under a republic in
America. Nor is this due to our political insti-
tutions, but, on the contrary, it affords a striking
confirmation of the principle we have so frequently
affirmed, that political institutions are not the cause
but the consequence of the industrial conditions and
social character of the masses. Hence, instead of
regarding our social evils as the result of our political
institutions, it is only by improving the industrial con-
ditions and elevating the social character of the masses
that we can maintain the integrity of our democratic
institutions.
The fact that the general adoption of an eight-hour
and half-time system would be an economic advantage,
as we have seen, to all classes of the community ā to
356 WEALTH AND PROGRESS.
say nothing of the humane and moral effects ā is
sufficient to warrant the demand for its immediate
adoption. But its social and political necessity is
more imperative than its most sanguine friends have
hitherto appeared to realize, or its opponents have
ever been able to understand. As we have so often
remarked ā and it can hardly be repeated too often ; at
least, until it is much better understood ā the true
barometer of human progress is the social character
of the people. That is the dial upon which the true
state of civilization, in all ages and countries, and
under all conditions, is most correctly registered.
While it is futile to endeavor to promote intellectual
and moral development and social and political free-
dom without industrial prosperity, it is equally impos-
sible to permanently accelerate industrial progress by
any means which are inimical to the social and politi-
cal development of the masses. Yet this is what the
modern industrial policy of long hours of exhausting,
unwholesome labor would seem to be specially de-
signed to undertake.
As the complexity of productive methods has in-
creased and the factory system has extended, an in-
dustrial policy has gradually come into vogue, the evil
social effects of which the employing class have no
adequate conception. Nor is this a necessary feat-
ure of the present industrial system, as is generally
assumed. There is no economic or social reason why
the use of improved methods of production should be
inimical to social progress. Indeed, from the very
nature of things, it should be the reverse. There is
nothing in the division and concentration of labor and
the use of machinery that necessarily involves the
physical deterioration or moral and social degradation
THE WAGES SYSTEM. 357
of the laborer. Nor do we think it would be just
to assert that conditions which lead to these results are
due to special meanness on the part of the employing
class. Employers, as a rule, would gladly do anything
in their power to improve the condition of the labor-
ing classes, if they only knew what to do without in-
jury to themselves. If the present social evils were a
necessary part of the wages system or of the natural
depravity of the employing class, reform would be
possible only by the entire overthrow of existing insti-
tutions, and a radical change in human nature, which
might fairly be regarded as a hopeless task.
But, fortunately for civilization, such is not the
case. The mere fact of working for wages does not
necessarily involve either industrial hardship or social
disadvantage. The laborer is not rich or poor by vir-
tue of the particular means by which he obtains his
wealth, but according to the amount of wealth he re-
ceives. Wages, as already explained,* are simply
stipulated, as distinguished from contingent incomes.
When the laborer worked for himself, his income was
contingent upon the immediate results of his labor.
When he works for another, it is stipulated in advance.
And there is nothing inherent in this economic relation
to make the stipulated income less than the contin-
gent. Indeed, it is under the regime of stipulated in-
comes (wages) that the laboring classes ā and all other
classes ā ā have made their greatest progress. The
stipulated income of the laborer to-day is many times
greater than it was when it was contingent ā i.e., when
he worked for himself and owned all the product, f
* See Chapter II., Part II., pp. 73, 74.
f See Chapter I., Part I., pp. 19-21.
358 WEALTH AND PROGRESS.
Indeed, all industrial differentiation tends to the
specialization of labor, and all specialization of labor
tends to the stipulation of incomes. Accordingly,
in the most civilized countries we find the largest per
cent of wage and salary receivers, and uniformly the
highest incomes. In short, there is nothing in the
wages or stipulated income system, per se, to prevent
wages from rising from five hundred to five thousand
or to ten thousand dollars a year, any more than there
was to prevent them from rising from fifty dollars a
year in the fourteenth century to five hundred dollars
at the present time.
No ; the trouble is not due to any inherent principle
in the existing industrial system or in human nature,
but to mistaken conceptions of the law of economic re-
lations. The employing classes have been taught to be-
lieve that profit is the centre around which all economic
and social interests revolve ; that the prosperity of the
community depends upon that of the employing class ;
" that profits rise as wages fall ;" * and therefore that
the interests of the employing class ā and hence of
the whole community ā are best promoted by keeping
down wages.
These inverted notions of economic movement, due
mainly to a misconception of the law of wages, have
naturally led to a mistaken and most uneconomic in-
dustrial policy. Viewing the laborer simply as so
much productive force ā failing entirely to recognize
his importance as a consumer ā how to make labor
cheap has been the important object. Accordingly,
everything which tended to promote this object has
* See Ricardo's Works, pp. 63-75 ; a l so Mill's " Political Econ-
omy," Vol. II., p. 512.
MISTAKEN INDUSTRIAL POLICY. 359
been uniformly encouraged, and whatever seemed in-
imical to it has been vigorously opposed by the em-
ploying class.
In pursuing this policy they have constantly endea-
vored not only to give the laborer the minimum
amount of wages, but also to procure the maximum
amount of labor for it. To accomplish this, the work-
ing day has invariably been made as long as possible,
being in many cases twelve and thirteen, and in the
Southern States and in many countries in Europe