life and taking away the incomes of many of the workingmen, among whom the rich man expends his wealth. Liquor and tobacco are computed to cost consumers $75,000 to $100,000 a year in each average community of 6,000 persons. But if each producer or distributer of these articles averages the same income as in the other occupationsto wit, $600 each-then 125 to 167 men supporting 375 to 500 in each average community of 6,000 people, or 1,250,000 to 1,650,000 men supporting 3,500,000 to 5,000,000 men, women, and children in the whole country, now depend on the production and sale of liquor and tobacco for the means with which to buy their own food, fuel, clothing, and shelter. If the production and sale of liquor should be stopped they must find other work. Under the present distribution of occupations and of products, does any one actually suffer because a sufficient quantity of the necessaries of life is not produced? So long as no one suffers for lack of land or for want of opportunity to work for a living in consequence of the accumulation of wealth, may not the true remedy for want consist in the ignorant rich learning how to spend or direct the material force which comes within their control in a better way; and in the ignorant poor learning either how to spend or to save the force which comes within their control in a way that will give them better results? The waste of the many poor costs the community in the aggregate far more than the waste of the few rich. True progress may consist not in taking away from any, but in adding to the production of all, especially of the means for shelter.

It may well be remembered that the science of distribution is as yet but little comprehended, while production in ample measure is absolutely assured. It is less than a century since even the English-speaking people began to learn the very alphabet of commerce; has that part of the English-speaking people who occupy this country yet learned how to spell words of more than one syllable in putting together the letters of this alphabet? They have learned that trade among themselves has become profitable to all just so far as it is free from obstruction; have they yet to learn that trade with other nations may be as profitable when free from obstruction? Have they not yet to learn that the nation in which the wages or earnings of workmen are the highest, because they make their products under the best conditions and therefore at the lowest cost, can also gain the largest profits and earn the highest wages from the widest international commerce?

We sell to China coarse cotton goods made by weavers who earn a dollar a day; yet four fifths at least of the people of China are clothed in coarse cotton goods woven on hand-looms on which the weavers cannot earn more than ten cents a day. They pay us in tea produced and prepared at wages of ten cents a day, which we could not afford to grow at wages of one dollar a day, even if it would grow in this coun

try, because we cannot spare the time for that kind of hand-work. We sell flour produced at wages four times as high as they are in Belgium, in competition with the tillers of small fields in that country, to which machinery cannot well be applied. We take our pay in part in highpriced Brussels lace, made by women who work for the lowest wages and under the worst conditions of almost any people in Europe. If we want the lace we could ill afford to make it under such conditions. In the community of 6,000 people which I have taken as an example there may be a few paupers, mostly foreign-born; but no one in this community is allowed to suffer for want of the absolute necessaries of life, except through oversight or accident.

I have given the probable average product of each person occupied for gain at $600 worth per year. This yields, disregarding fractions, what fifty-five cents a day will buy in the form of food, fuel, shelter, clothing, and sundries for each man, woman, and child; so close does want tread upon the heels of plenty. This is in fact a large estimate. There are a great many more people whose product is less than fifty cents' worth a day each for themselves and those dependent upon them, than of those who earn more; yet this is the richest, most productive, and most prosperous country in the world.

A

VIII.

REFORMS THAT DO NOT REFORM.'

SSUMING the conditions of an average community of 6,000 people to be substantially as stated in the last number, we find but three ways of improving them, namely: First, by increasing the quantity of the product, and finding a market for the increase, in order that it may be converted into money and distributed. Secondly, by changing the present methods of distribution of that which is now produced, without increasing the quantity; that is, by finding a way by which those who have not quite enough for comfort and welfare may rightfully secure a share of that which is wastefully consumed by those who have too much or who spend unwisely. Thirdly, by improving

the mode of using what is now produced, without increasing the quantity or materially altering the present method of distribution, so that it will yield a better subsistence to all.

What is now somewhat indefinitely called the "labor question must of necessity consist in solving one or all of these three problems. What other way is there to improve the conditions of the community? If all that is produced by each average community of 6,oco people comes within the limit of what will sell for $1,200,000, or what that sum will buy at present prices, surely that fund constitutes the source of all earnings, wages, rents, profits, and taxes. We can consume no more unless we can re-convert into food, fuel, and clothing a part or all of the capital of the country which has been saved in our two hundred years or more of existence, amounting to less than three years' product, the whole of which, if consumed, would save us only two or three years' work and serve us only until it was exhausted. What should we do then? We cannot have more than all there is; therefore the limit of all that is produced must be regarded in all plans of social reform by all alike. This fact must be considered by the anarchist, the socialist, he communist, the advocate of the single tax on land, the representative of the Anti-Poverty Society, the wage-earner, the cooperator, the knight of labor, the profit-sharer, the free-trader, the protectionist, the eight-hour advocate, the advocate of fiat money, the 1 Reprinted from the Forum.

mono-metallist, and the bi-metallist. The theories of all these doctors of social philosophy-quacks, or regular practitioners-must deal either with what is now produced or else with plans and methods by which the gross product can be increased and more equitably distributed. The question in plain prose is, How much can you add to fifty cents' worth a day? .

If, then, the average product at retail prices is what I have estimated, to wit, not exceeding fifty cents' worth per day for each person, from which sum all profits, wages, earnings, and taxes must of necessity be derived; or even if I have made an error of five or ten cents a day, which would come to one thousand million or two thousand million a year in computing the gross value of the product of the United States -not a probable error; then fifty-five to sixty cents a day is the limit, and even that limit is a very narrow one; it leaves little margin for saving either time or work.

This special community of 6,000 persons would have furnished itself, according to the average of the whole country, with fifteen miles of railway; but being a more prosperous community than the average, it has perhaps twenty, thirty, or possibly forty miles. Of the 2,000 persons occupied for gain, 140 may be engaged either in operating or in constructing railways, 36 as engineers and firemen or other employés, the rest as mechanics and laborers. Of the nineteen to twenty million men, women, and children now carrying on the work of this country, probably more than twelve hundred thousand men are occupied either in operating or in constructing railways. This railway force is our standing army; while other nations prepare for war we prepare for peace and plenty by opening the ways for commerce.

It is curious to observe that the only relics of the great Roman empire which now have any actual utility among men are the Roman road and the Roman law. The one, which was constructed to open the way for conquest, remains an open way for commerce; the other remains at the foundation of our civil organization; all else has vanished except Roman literature and art. Of all the forms of capital which at the present day are springing into existence, perhaps less will remain even a century hence than now remains of the capital or products of the Roman empire, if we except the opening of the ways. The term "fixed capital" is sometimes used to distinguish the less perishable forms of capital from those which are useful only for the day; but there is nothing fixed except the law of change. There are factories in existence which purport to be fifty years old; but within that time the motive power and all the machinery has been changed once, twice, or thrice. Where land can be had, true economy may now consist in taking down the high building of five or six stories piled one upon another, and in reconstructing the mill only one or two stories above the

ground; such changes are now being made.

Who can tell when the next inventor will appear who will destroy all the rolling-stock of the railways? Who can tell how long people will be satisfied with the present crude and unscientific methods of constructing dwellinghouses? What useful factor or form of capital exists in a material form to-day that is more than a few years old? What permanent improvement have we made on the face of the land even in this country, except in leveling the hills, piercing the mountains, filling up the valleys, and laying down the ways of commerce? All that we can do is to move something; we can make nothing. And when we have opened the way, laid the rail, and brought the line to the seaboard, why do we obstruct the distribution of our own products? Why do we construct legal barriers to commerce with Canada and Mexico, for instance, more difficult and costly to surmount than any of the heavy grades over the mountains.

This community of 6,000 people would have furnished itself, at the average of the whole country, with $150,000 in lawful money, consisting of gold or silver coin, legal-tender notes receivable for taxes, convertible bank-notes, and certificates based on silver or gold. The more dense the population, the greater will be the proportion of checks substituted for actual money; and the more widely scattered the population, the more actual money must be carried in the pockets of the people. All we have to do is to keep the quality of the money good and the quantity will take care of itself.

It is admitted that there may be a small margin of error in each and all of these computations. The proportion of people engaged in the different arts varies materially in different States, but it is not necessary that the proportions assumed should exactly correspond with those of any particular State. These small figures represent very nearly the proportions of the work and of the product of the whole community. In taking the United States Census returns of the occupations of the people, the margin for error is small, and the errors would alter the proportions assigned to each occupation in this small community only by a fraction.

We have become so accustomed to treat income in terms of money that a person is apt to stop at the figures without giving thought to what the money will buy. Now the money measure of the income is but an evidence that productive work has been done from which the income has been derived. The work itself varies in quantity and quality; the income of each person depends more upon the quality than upon the quantity of his work. Therefore the apparent paradox comes within easy comprehension, to wit, that in determining the cost of any given service the rate of wages in money is no sure standard, but if the quality of the work from which the wages or earnings arc