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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 BY 
 
 J. E. THOEOLD EOGERS, 
 
 TooKE Professor of Economic Sciesce, Universitt op Oxford. 
 
 REVISED FOR AMERICAN READERS. 
 
 NE\V YORK: 
 
 G. P. PUTI^AM'S SONS. 
 
 FouBTH Avenue and 23d Street. 
 1874.
 
 ICDDLETON i CO., STEEEOTTPEBS, 
 BEIDGEPOKT, CONN. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
 
 17\.T 
 
 FREFA CE TO THE AMEBIC AN EDITION. 
 
 In preparing this volume for Amei'ican Students, I 
 have made no changes in the original plan, and have 
 not pretended to add any thing to the clear and satisfac- 
 tory text of the author. I have merely translated his 
 references to currency, measurements, trades, etc., from 
 the English to the American terms, and changed some 
 of the more important illustrations, so as to make them 
 apply to American circumstances. I do not of course 
 suppose that the American boy who will read this vol- 
 ume, does not understand what is meant by a jraund 
 sterling, or a stone weight, but as the lesson to be taught 
 is one of principles, and not of comparative values, I 
 think the changes I have made will save him from giving 
 time to any imnecessary details. 
 
 The spirit and purpose of the book are excellent, 
 and its teachings combine to a rare degree, simplicity 
 and thoroughness. A full imderstanding of the princi- 
 ples it explains, will give to our young American stu- 
 dents the basis of the knowledge that is indispensable 
 for the clear-headed citizens and wise legislators, they 
 should aim to become. 
 
 a. H. p. 
 
 June, 1873. 

 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The object of this little book is to give instruction 
 in the rudiments of social science, and to do so in such 
 language and in such a form as will make the subject 
 clear to the youngest students. The author has stated 
 what he has to say in the shape of a series of lessons, 
 each of which should be carefully read and understood 
 before the pupil passes on to the next. It is hoped that 
 when he has read through the whole, he will have got 
 some insight into the laws which regulate social life. 
 
 It does not follow that knowledge will make the 
 person who possesses it discreet and wise ; but no person 
 will be discreet and wise without knowledge. After 
 that training which is necessary for each person in order 
 that he may earn his living, no knowledge can be more 
 usefully turned to account than that which explains the 
 circumstances under which men live together in a civil- 
 ized society, and confer benefits on each other. It is 
 this knowledge which the author hopes to have given 
 in the following pages. 
 
 Oxford, Dec. i, 1871.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 -o- 
 
 LESSON L 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Savage and CiTilized Life 11 
 
 LESSON n. 
 A Loaf of Bread 15 
 
 LESSON m 
 The Sharing of the Loaf— Eent 19 
 
 LESSON IV. 
 The Share of the Workman 33 
 
 LESSON V. 
 The Cotxrse of Lnprovement .27 
 
 LESSON VL 
 Variety of Employments ....... 31 
 
 LESSON vn. 
 
 Various Eates of Wages ,,.36 
 
 LESSON VnL 
 Unpaid Work .••«•,••• 40
 
 8 CONTENTS. 
 
 LESSON IX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Motives for Labor 44 
 
 LESSON X. 
 PartnersMps of Labor , 49 
 
 LESSON XL 
 The Eigbt of the Sellef to fix a Price 53 
 
 LESSON xn. 
 
 The Employer's "Wages 58 
 
 LESSON xm. 
 
 The Use of Gold and SHver 62 
 
 LESSON xrv. 
 
 Money 66 
 
 LESSON XV. 
 Substitutes for Money 71 
 
 LESSON XVI. 
 Ereedom and Slavery 75 
 
 LESSON xvn. 
 
 Parent and Child 80 
 
 LESSON xvni. 
 
 Public Education 84 
 
 LESSON XIX. 
 Special Learning ......■••89
 
 CONTENTS. ' 9 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 LESSON XX. 
 Inventions and Books 94 
 
 LESSON XXL 
 Restraints on Buving and Selling 99 
 
 LESSON xxn. 
 
 Public Charities 104 
 
 LESSON XXTTT. 
 Tlie Work of Government 109 
 
 LESSON xxrv. 
 
 Taxes 113 
 
 LESSON XXV. 
 What do Taxes come from ? 117 
 
 LESSON XXVI. 
 The Punishment of Crime 121 
 
 LESSON xxvn. 
 
 The Principle of Punishment 126 
 
 LESSON XXVHL 
 Restraints on Freedom 130 
 
 LESSON XXIX. 
 Restraints on Callings 134 
 
 LESSON XXX. 
 :e8 
 1* 
 
 Laws Fixing Prices 138
 
 10 CONTENTS. ''^ 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 LESSON XXXL 
 Regulations on Professions ...*.. 143 
 
 LESSON xxxn. 
 
 Eorbidden Callings 147 
 
 LESSON XXXTTT. 
 Callings wMch are under a Police # , • • 3~ • ■"•^^ 
 
 LESSON XXXIV. 
 Poor-Laws ...••••••• 156 
 
 LESSON XXXV. 
 The Protection of the Weak . . . m m . 160 
 
 XESSON XXXVI 
 Elmigration ..«•*•• 5» 1^* .-• • ^^'^
 
 % 
 
 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 LESSON I. 
 
 SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED LIFE. 
 
 Few of the readers of this book have not seen a 
 town, and most of them have probably lived in or visit- 
 ed the larger towns or cities. 
 
 But nearly all American boys and girls will knoAV 
 that a little more than two centuries ago, there were 
 not any cities or towns on this continent, and the people 
 who lived on it, the Indians, wandered about vhe coun- 
 try, chasing the wild animals, or fishing, or digging roots, 
 in order to get food. 
 
 In other countries, such as England, France, or Ger- 
 many, the time when there were no towns was a good 
 deal further back, but in them also some centuries ago, 
 people had to get their living by hunting or fishing, or 
 by pasturing such flocks and herds as they possessed 
 Avherever they could find grass for them to live upon. 
 
 In those old days the people who could get their liv- 
 ing in a country like England for instance, by the chase 
 or by pasturing cattle, were very few, not more indeed 
 than could be reckoned in a middle-sized town at the 
 present day. Few as they were, they were all that could 
 live. If the summer was very dry, or the spring very
 
 12 SOCIAL ECONOIIT. 
 
 backward, many were starved. The whole of England 
 and Wales in those ancient times did not maintain a 
 hundredth part of the number who live in it at present, 
 and did not maintain this hundredth part as securely and 
 as comfortably as every Englishman is maintained now. 
 There are parts of the world where the inhabitants live 
 just as our forefathers lived in England ages ago, such as 
 the Indian territories of the United States, the greater 
 part of Africa, and large tracts in Asia. 
 
 The inhabitants of these scantily settled and unculti- 
 vated countries are said to be savages. Those who live 
 in countries settled and civilized like our own are said 
 to be civilized. The savage is poor, ignorant, and lives 
 from day to day. The civilized man is, in compari- 
 son at least, rich, wise, and has made some provision 
 for the future. What are the causes which make so 
 great a diiFerence between the condition of the savage 
 and that of the civilized man ? 
 
 I purpose in this little book to give an account of 
 some among the causes which make this mighty diiier- 
 ence. I cannot give them all, for if I tried to do so 
 the book would not be little, and what is perhaps more 
 to the purpose, I should mix up things which had better 
 be kept separate. For example, good and just laws, 
 wise and lair government on the part of rulers, virtuous 
 and honest action on the part of subjects, are powerful 
 causes of civilization. But I am not writing a book 
 about law, or government, or moral conduct : I shall 
 only try to show what is the reason why a hundred civ- 
 ilized people can live on the space of ground which will 
 hardly keep one savage alive ; why it is civilized people 
 can live together in great towns, and are the better for 
 theu" neighbors, while a savage man is anxious to have as
 
 SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED LIFE. 13 
 
 few neighbors near him as possible. Stated in a verj'' 
 few words, the savage is obliged to do every thing for 
 himself, and the civilized man is able to get an mfinite 
 number of things done for him. 
 
 The principal necessaries of life are food, clothing, 
 lodging. If we add to these the means of moving from 
 place to place, Ave shall find that most labor is given 
 with a vicAv to satisfying those wants, either immediate- 
 ly or indirectly. For example, a farmer who sows a 
 field with wheat is immediately engaged in the supply 
 of food, while the smith who constructs a plough is in- 
 directly concerned with the same service. There is the 
 same difiierence between one M'ho shears wool, or grows 
 cotton, and another who makes the weaving machine 
 wherewith to spin either substance into cloth. 
 
 The savage man has to provide himself with food, 
 and with the implements or Aveapons necessary to obtain 
 food, to make himself clothing, and to manufacture the 
 tools needed for piecing the skins together Avhich he 
 Avears. But the civilized man gets his fellow-man to do 
 a vast number of these services for him, and does some 
 service himself, in return for which he is able to get such 
 conA^eniences as he requires. And ho gets Avhat he 
 needs more regulai-ly, more easily, more plentifully, and 
 more cheaply than he Avould if he lived a savage life. 
 
 As the civilized man gets what he Avauts more cheap- 
 ly than a savage does, so he gets it more regularly. A 
 great city like New York depends for its food, for the 
 materials of the clothes Avhich its inhabitants Avear, and 
 of the houses in Avhich they live, on other regions. 
 It is, so to speak, Avholly dependent on other places for 
 all Avhich its inhabitants need. But it fjets them re<rii- 
 larly — with the exactness and precision, as people say,
 
 14 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 of clockwork. The case is very different with those 
 who live a savage life, or even with those who are only 
 partly civilized. Such people are liable to sudden ca- 
 lamities. A famine comes, and half the people perish : 
 sickness overtakes them, and the same result ensues. 
 
 Again, you will see people going out to their work 
 — engaged in the business of their shops and counting 
 houses — occupied in a number of different industries. 
 They are eager in carrying on their callmg, and have 
 no anxiety, except as to the best way to do that which 
 lies before them. But in countries where men do not 
 understand the laws which are needful for the security 
 of society, violence breeds suspicion and fear, and men 
 are hindered in their calling by the necessity of defend- 
 ing themselves. 
 
 It is plain, *then, that there are conditions of human 
 life where men are unskilful ; where the means of life 
 are irregular ; where labor, unless the workman carries 
 arms and is suspicious and watchful, is wdiolly unsafe. 
 Now the discovery of the means by which the largest 
 number of j)ersons can live in the greatest plenty, can 
 look forward to the greatest regularity, and can do their 
 work in the greatest safety, is the object of what is called 
 " social science."
 
 LESSON n. 
 
 A LOAF OF BEEAD. 
 
 If you take a loaf of bread, and think of the persons 
 "who are set to work in order to produce or suj^ply tliat 
 loaf, you will find that the number of such persons is very 
 large. The three principal persons are the farmer, the 
 miller, and the baker. But the farmer almost always em- 
 ploys labor, both of man and beast, in order to get his crop 
 in. He also uses implements which are made by the la- 
 bor of the carpenter, the smith, and in our time by the ma- 
 chinist, for the employment of finished macMnes in hus- 
 bandry is becoming very common. The presence of the 
 smith calls into activity the work of those who raise iron 
 and coal. Another kind of skill is needed in order to 
 work iron and coal profitably — to dii'ect the labor of those 
 who are enejaofcd in those industries. 
 
 Again, the miller requires the service of those who 
 quarry to supply him with the best stones with which to 
 gi-ind his flour — that of the weaver to supply him with the 
 cloth, or of the worker in metals, who manufactures the 
 metal sieve through which the flour is sifted, and of anoth- 
 er kind of weav^" "'vho makes the sack in wliich both corn 
 and flour are stored. The mill hi which he carries on his 
 work is the product of another set of laborers — the car- 
 penter, tlie joiner, the wheelwright, the mason, the brick-
 
 IG SOCIAL EC0N03JT. 
 
 layer. If the power -u-hich lie employs is water, a special 
 kind of skill is needed in order to use the force of run- 
 ning or falling water ; if it be wind, he will want the ser- 
 vices of the weaver of such cloth as catches the wind ; 
 if it be steam, a still more numerous and more scientific 
 class of workmen must be employed. 
 
 The baker, again, needs his assistants before he can 
 carry on his calUng. If he prepares his bread in wooden 
 vessels, he calls in the help of the cooper. The brick- 
 maker or quarryman supplies the bricks or stones of which 
 his oven is built ; or in case the oven be made of iron, the 
 miner and the smith must work to get the materials and 
 fashion them. If the bread be baked in some shape or 
 moidd, other kinds of labor are needed. If it be made 
 by machinery — as the best bread is now made — another 
 set of persons is called on to exercise their industry. If 
 the baker weighs his bread before he sells it — as he is 
 bound to do — another set of persons supplies the weights 
 and scales; and so on with the materials of which those 
 implements are made. 
 
 For reasons which will be given further on, it is not 
 found possible to carry out their transactions without 
 money. Money is made of metals, which are, for the most 
 part, discovered and worked in distant and barren re- 
 gions. Here, then, is another field of labor. The miner 
 is supported by food and other necessaries, which are car- 
 ried to him in ships. The building of a ship calls into ac- 
 tivity a whole host of industries, many of which the ex- 
 perience or knowledge of my readers will remind them 
 of When the gold and silver are brought to this country, 
 other people must be set to work, in order that the met 
 als may be refined, cut into pieces, and stamped as coins ; 
 and a very nice and delicate process the work of coining is
 
 A LOAF OF BREAD. 17 
 
 Now I have only named a few of those persons who 
 are engaged in producing a very simple necessary of 
 life. 
 
 But besides those who labor mostly with their hands, 
 there is another class of men who labor mostly with their 
 heads — the class of employers or, as they are sometimes 
 called, capitalists. These men are engaged in directing 
 the labor of others, or ui studymg the market, and in 
 keeping iij) a continual supply of goods at as steady a 
 price as possible. Unless persons were found to devote 
 themselves to trade, the advantage of a steady, regular 
 supply of the necessaries and conveniences of life would 
 not be forthcoming. 
 
 I said above tliat a savage was ignorant. He is a 
 savage because he is ignorant. It would be impossible 
 to keep the advantages of civilization imless each succes- 
 sive generation were taught. If any society of men 
 were to resolve not to give any instruction to their 
 children — not to communicate to their descendants what 
 they know themselves, such a society would in a short 
 time relapse into the condition of savages. Nations are 
 civilized because they inherit the knowledge as well as 
 the property of their ancestors. Some of this knowl- 
 edge is imparted by the skilled Avorkman, either with or 
 without the formality of apprenticeship; but a great 
 deal of the knowledge is given by the schoolmaster, who 
 therefore discharges a most important duty to future so- 
 ciety. 
 
 . There are, then, a very large number of persons en- 
 gaged in producing and supplyuig a loaf of bread. 
 
 Perhaps my readers will wish to know why it is tliat 
 I have chosen a loaf of bread in order to illustrate tlie 
 great fact, that a civilized society is united by the mu-
 
 18 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 tual services which its several members render to each 
 other, 
 
 I began by stating that the same space of earth could 
 maintain a hundred times more civilized people than it 
 could savages ; in other words, it produces a hundred 
 times more food besides producing it with far greater 
 regularity. The number of people who can live in any 
 country or in any town is measured by the number of 
 loaves which this people can produce or can pui'cliase. 
 If the whole of America were as densely peopled as 
 New York is, it would not contain too many persons, 
 provided those who Hved in it could procm-e necessary 
 sustenance. There is, then, a great deal to be learnt 
 from a loaf of bread.
 
 LESSON in. 
 
 THE SHARIIS^G OF THE LOAF — REXT. 
 
 Evert one of the persons who assists in supplying a 
 loaf of bread is paid out of the price of the loaf The 
 portion which some of these persons receive is, no 
 doubt, excessively small, but still it is received. The 
 price is said to be distributed among the several persons 
 who contribute towards the loaf A portion of the 
 price, however, is paid to one person who does not con- 
 tribute any thing ; this is the person who owns the land. 
 It mixst not be supposed that he has no right to get it ; 
 it is impossible to prevent his having it. If any other 
 person — whether it be the community at large or the 
 farmer who occupies the land — were to take this por- 
 tion, it would only mean that the commmiity made 
 itself the landowner, or that the farmer was turned into 
 a landowner. 
 
 Let us see how this comes to pass. "We shall be 
 able to discover it more easily, if we take the case of 
 some country which is differently situated from our 
 own. 
 
 However valuable, useful, or even necessary a thing 
 may be, it bears no price if every person can get as much 
 as he pleases of it without any trouble. Without air we 
 could not live two minutes ; but, as under ordinary cir-
 
 20 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 cumstauces, everybody can get as mucli air as he likes, 
 he need pay nothing for it. So with water, though in 
 less degree. In the United States, and in the country 
 parts of Europe, water bears no price, because it can 
 easily be had for the getting ; but in the great towns of 
 Europe, especially in such a town as London, water does 
 bear a price, though the j)rice is so low for those who 
 want to drink it, that no one but a churl would think he 
 did you any great favor in giving you a glass of water. 
 
 Now let us take the case of the middle island in the 
 New Zealand group. The first settlers in that island 
 found a few savages there, but only a few. The climate 
 of the island is very like that of England, and the land is 
 as fit for ordinary crops as that of our own country. 
 Much, no doubt, was covered by wood, but there was 
 abundance of open groimd. 
 
 As any person who came thither could have as much 
 land as he wished, land was worth nothing ; and no bit 
 of land was more desirable than any other bit, or the 
 most desirable bits were far in excess of the wants of 
 the colonists. But in course of time a chajige occurs. 
 Some bits get to be more desii'able than others. The 
 first place in which such a change takes place is in the 
 toAvns. A road is made, and a place near the road is 
 Avorth more than a place further from it. The town is a 
 seaport, and the land near the sea is worth more than 
 that which is more distant. A market is set up, and a 
 plot near the market is more desirable than one which is 
 less convenient. Immediately on such occasions, the 
 land which is thus favored yields more advantages tlian 
 other land does, or, in other words, begins to yield a 
 rent. 
 
 In all newly-settled countries reut arises first in the
 
 THE SHAKING OF THE LOAF— EENT. 21 
 
 towns, since the canses which make rent begin here 
 fii-st. In course of time the influence of this cause is 
 rendered wider. The agricultural land near the town 
 begins to be worth more than that which is further oft". 
 It may not grow more corn, but it costs less to brhig 
 what it grows to market. It may have no greater nat- 
 ural fertility, but it is at a shorter distance from the 
 place whence it can get the means of artificial fertility. 
 The occupier of «uch land finds an easier market for his 
 produce. He is put to less cost in carrying manures to 
 his farm, and conveying machinery thither. If he tried to 
 sell his farm, he could get a price for it, which would be 
 beyond the value of what he has laid out on it ; and the 
 fact that he could get such a price shows that it is pay- 
 ing a rent. 
 
 By-and-by other farms, as the people get more nu- 
 merous, begin to share in these advantages. It does 
 not follow that farm produce gets a penny dearer; it 
 may even get cheaper. It very often happens, in coim- 
 tries such as I have described, that while land yields no 
 rent whatever, the produce of land is exceedingly 
 dear. In other words, the prices of wheat, butter, wool, 
 and a host of other things, have nothing whatever to do 
 with the rent of land. 
 
 In the end, all the land of the country which can re- 
 turn any produce to labor is occupied. It is still the 
 business of the farmer to turn his land to the best ad- 
 vantage, and as he does so, the owner of the land shares 
 in the advantage of the farmer's skill. So the shop- 
 keeper tries, in so far as the place where he carries on 
 his business will aid him, to get the greatest advantage 
 out of his shop ; and if the advantage does depend on 
 the situation of his shop, his landlord Avill sliare the
 
 22 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 gam. If his landlord did not share it, tlie occupier 
 would keep it to himself. But being better off than his 
 neighbor is, by the possession of this advantage of situa- 
 tion, he would be able to sell his advantage — that is to 
 say, he would become a landowner. 
 
 Now this is the way in which rent arises. Nor is 
 there any limit to its increase, as long as the intelligence 
 of men is devoted towards improving husbandry, and 
 the number of people who live on farm produce in- 
 creases with these improvements. In such a country as 
 England land has become exceedingly valuable, partly 
 because agriculture is practised so well in it, partly 
 because the trade of the country has so mightily in- 
 creased, and therefore people are willing to give so 
 much for the right of occupying laud which lies advan- 
 tageously for trade. 
 
 The owner of land therefore gets a share in that 
 which labor pi'oduces without having contributed to 
 that labor. But he does not get it by violence or 
 wrong ; it comes to Mm by a law of nature, since what- 
 e^■er is scarce and useful will fetch a price. Now Avhen 
 land is fully settled it begins to be scarce, and as in or- 
 der for man to live he must get food by husbandry, 
 there can be nothing more useful than that which sup- 
 plies the means of life.
 
 LESSON IV. 
 
 THE SHARE OF THE WOEKMAIS'. 
 
 I HAVE shown you how it is that the owner of land 
 gets a portion of the pi'ice at which the loaf is sold : the 
 rest of the price is divided among those who work. 
 
 To work means to nse one's bodily powers or one's 
 powers of mind. Of course no one can use his bodily 
 strength to a purpose, in any calling whatever, unless he 
 brhigs his mind to bear on his Avork ; nor can the clev- 
 erest and quickest thinker dispense with some bodily 
 effort. When, therefore, we say that one man's labor 
 is bodily and another's is mental, we merely mean that 
 the work is more of the body in the one case, and more 
 of the mind in the other. Useful qualities of mind are 
 rarer than iiseful qualities of body, and are therefore 
 more costly. The manager of a business is better paid 
 than a common workman is, because his skill is scarcer. 
 A great lawyer or a wise physician is more highly i^aid 
 than a person of ordinary abilities in either of those call- 
 ings is, because great powers in eftch of those profes- 
 sions are rare, and the service which each of those per- 
 sons renders is very much sought after. There is a sort 
 of fertility of men's minds very like the fertility of cer- 
 tain fields. In places where wine is grown, one spot of 
 land will produce wine fifty times as valuable as that
 
 24 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 which comes from another spot, which to all appearance 
 is of just the same quality; so the work of one man may 
 be paid for at lifty times the rate at which another man's 
 work is paid, simply because people find out that it is 
 worth fifty times as much. 
 
 It is common to say that such and such a person 
 has put so much Ttioney or capital into a workshop or 
 business. This only means that he has put so much 
 work into it, though the work is shown in different ways 
 and under difli'erent shapes. I will try to make this clear 
 to you. 
 
 With one exception, and I have explained this ex- 
 ception in the last lesson, every thing valuable gets its 
 worth because work is expended on it. If the work- 
 man has given his work wisely, the price of what he sells 
 agrees with the pains he has been at to produce that 
 which he sells. If he makes that which nobody wants, 
 he will have wasted his labor altogether. If he makes 
 more than is wanted, he will have wasted some of his 
 labor. If he takes more time to make it than other 
 people do, he will give more work for less price than 
 other workmen do. Now everybody wishes to get as 
 much as he can for his work, and to work as little as he 
 can for what he gets. 
 
 These are very plain facts, but they have been the 
 causes which have led to that result of which I spoke at 
 first — that in the pr^ent day a hundred persons can get 
 their living where some centuries ago hardly one person 
 could live. 
 
 The reason why a piece of gold, roughly speaking, is 
 worth fifteen times as much as a piece of silver of the 
 same weight, and tweh' e hundred times as much as a 
 piece of copper of the same weight, is that on the whole
 
 THE SHARE OF THE WORKMAN. 25 
 
 it takes fifteen and twelve liimdred times as much work 
 to get a pound of gold as it does the same weights of 
 silver and copper. 
 
 The reason why one house in a street is worth a 
 thousand dollars, and another house in the same street 
 is worth two thousand, is that the second cost twice as 
 much to build as the other did. 
 
 The reason why a himdredweight of wheat is gene- 
 rally worth half as much again as a hundredweight of 
 barley, is the fact that it generally costs half as much 
 more labor or expense to grow the former than it does 
 to grow the latter. 
 
 The reason why one kind of manual labor is worth 
 twenty-five cents a day, and another kind is worth a 
 dollar, is because it has cost so much more to prepare 
 the latter kind of workman than it has to bring up the 
 former. 
 
 In brief, the value or price of any thing, whether it 
 be work done or labor to be hired, agrees mth the cost 
 of making the thing or prepai-ing the laborer. 
 
 Nobody who wishes to get his living by any calluig 
 betakes himself to making that which nobody wants. It 
 would be waste of labor to make parlor grates in a 
 tropical climate, or sun-blinds in an arctic one. It is 
 true that many people get their living by making or sup- 
 plying things which others would be far better without ; 
 but there are many things which people wish for, and 
 sacrifice_^a great deal for, though their use is miscliievous 
 or even ruinous. 
 
 Again, if more of any article is made than is general- 
 ly wanted, some of the labor is wasted. It sometimes 
 happens that more cotton or woollen cloth is made than 
 people want to buy. But this evil soon rights itself 
 2
 
 26 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 The commonest and worst case is when too many peo- 
 l^le enter into any calling. Thus it is said that at pres- 
 ent there are more tailors and shoemakers than are 
 needed to make clothes and shoes. Unfortunately, 
 there have been for many a year too many needle- 
 women. Now when too many people are engaged in 
 any calling, they will either get low wages or irregular 
 employment. It is as plain as figures can show that if 
 there be only work for three, and six seek work, there 
 are only two courses open for them : either the six must 
 work so cheaply as to induce employers to give them 
 full work, or each must work half-time. 
 
 Lastly, the workman may take too much time at his 
 work. He may be idle, or unskilful, or weak, may have 
 bad tools, or not possess improved tools. In working 
 land a plough is better than a spade, a steam cultivator 
 better than a plough. In spinning yarn a hand- wheel is 
 better than a spindle, a spinning-jenny better than a 
 hand-wheel. An ill-fed workman is less profitable than 
 a well-fed one, often even if the latter is paid double the 
 former's wages, for low wages is very often another 
 name for dear labor.
 
 LESSON" Y. 
 
 THE COURSE OF IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 Ijf the last lesson it was stated that everybody wish- 
 es to get as much as he can for his work, and to work as 
 little as he can for what he gets. When I say that he 
 wishes to work as little as he can, I don't mean that he 
 wishes to tm-n out an inferior article, but that he wants 
 to supply an article equally good with that which his 
 neighbor supplies, but at less cost to himseLC 
 
 There is notliing which has helped the progress of 
 mankind more than this motive or impulse. It has 
 caused every kind of improvement in the manufacture 
 of useful things. It has led men, with greater or less 
 success, to devote themselves to that calling for which 
 they find themselves most fitted. In seeking their own 
 good they have done the best service to their fellow-men. 
 
 I cannot illustrate what I have said better than by 
 referring to the progress of agriculture. Two or three 
 centuries ago the art of the farmer was very rude. He 
 reaped a very scanty return for his seed; he knew 
 nothing about those roots on which cattle are maintained 
 in the winter-time, and his stock of animals was coarse 
 and lean. But he was as diligent and thrifty in his call- 
 ing as he now is. He paid rent, and got his living by 
 his work on the farm.
 
 28 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 The first discovery he made was the value of turnijjs 
 and carrots. Before he found out the use of these roots 
 he had only a little coarse hay to feed his cattle on in 
 the winter. In consequence, towards autumn it used to 
 he the custom to kill all the animals who could not be 
 kept through the winter, and the people lived on salted 
 provisions for several months. Now he is able to keep 
 his stock, and get fresh meat all the year round. But 
 the more animals that can be kept on a farm, the more 
 grain can be grown ; and the increase of live stock led to 
 an increase in the yield of corn. Next — always with the 
 same motive, to get the greatest return at the least pos- 
 sible cost — the farmer began to think what were the 
 best kinds of grass on which to feed his stock, and which 
 could be made into hay. Thus he sowed clover and 
 rye grass, and other so-called grasses. More feed and 
 more stock followed. By-and-by he began to choose 
 his stock of cattle and sheep. He found that some 
 breeds yielded more profit than others, and he selected 
 these for his farm. Then he studied the land which he 
 tilled, and found that draining would better this field, 
 and chalk would better that. Then he learned the use 
 of artificial manures, as certain substances are called. 
 Lastly — always with the same motive — he began to use 
 better and more powerful instruments for stirring the 
 ground, for reaping or mowing the produce, and for 
 threshing the seed. 
 
 The end of all this has been that the land yields five 
 times as much produce as it did in the days before these 
 discoveries were made. The motive for these discov- 
 eries was the expectation of greater profit on labor — 
 i.e., the farmer's own interest. This he furthered in the 
 first instance. But the nation at large had its advan-
 
 THE COURSE OF IMPROVEMENT. 29 
 
 tage in greater plenty, in more regular supply, and there- 
 fore in the means for maintaining a large number of per- 
 sons. The landowner got his advantage in the increase 
 of his rent, wliich kept growing, for the reasons given in 
 the last lesson but one. 
 
 The same results have occurred in manufactures. 
 The inhabitants of any country must live on its produce, 
 or be able, in case they are too numerous for the land 
 of the country to maintain them, to get the produce of 
 other coimtries in exchange for Avhat they make. Now 
 it is clear, if agriculture is so backward that everybody's 
 time is occupied in tilling the land, while the produce is 
 only just sufficient to keep alive those who are engaged 
 in tillage, that nobody can betake himself to any other 
 calling. And conversely, if the art of agriculture is so 
 advanced that a fifth part of the people can produce the 
 food which is required for all, four-fifths of the people 
 may be employed in some other calling, and many of 
 these, imder certain cu'cumstances, need do no work 
 at all. 
 
 Now the manufacturer is open to the same influence 
 which moves the farmer. He makes cloth, for example. 
 
 If he can lessen his own cost or labor he will get a 
 greater return for his labor ; so he eagerly welcomes all 
 machines which shorten labor or lessen cost. Part of 
 this extra advantage he keeps for himself, part he bestows 
 on the public by lessening the price of that which he 
 makes. At the present time it is probable that it does 
 not take a fiftieth part of the time and trouble to make 
 a yard of cloth that it did in the days when farmers be- 
 gan to improve agriculture. Meanwhile the peojile at 
 large have got better and cheaper clothing. 
 
 When we think of the conditions under which the
 
 30 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 industiy of any society of men is carried on, we slial. 
 constantly discover that while men are endeavoring, by 
 just and lawful means — that is, without violence, imfair- 
 ness, or dishonesty — to further their own interests, they 
 always further the interests of others also ; and the rea- 
 son why this always takes place is that they who are en- 
 gaged in honest industry are trying to do their neighbors 
 a service. It is true that they exj^ect some other service 
 in return ; but the exchange of these services is a mutual 
 advantage. If I have made a pair of boots, and my neigh- 
 bor has made a table, and Ave agree to exchange these two 
 useful articles, the fact of our making the exchange means 
 that I prefer the table to the boots, and he prefers the 
 boots to the table. We both gain : we should not make 
 the exchange if each did not see his own good in the 
 bargain. 
 
 Plain as this fact is, it has taken a very long time to 
 make it plain. What is true of the bootmaker and the 
 cabinet-maker is true of all the people who live together 
 and trade together in any one country; it is true of the 
 trade which is carried on between country and country. It 
 is no honest man's real interest to make his neighbors poor 
 and miserable : his best chance is in their wealth and pros- 
 perity. But nations have not yet leai'ned this truth. They 
 still put hindrances between themselves and other nations. 
 
 What should we thmk of a slioj)keeper who wished 
 to sell his own goods, and yet paid a policeman to prevent 
 the people of another village from coming to buy of him, 
 and sell to him ? Now this is just what a country does 
 which prohibits or fetters trade with other coimtiies.
 
 LESSON YI. 
 
 VAEIETT OF EMPLOTME]SrTS. 
 
 The more employment is divided, the greater is the 
 skill of those who addict themselves to a single employ- 
 ment. " Practice makes perfect," says the proverb. No 
 one can be dexterous without being diligent. By force 
 of habit, persons are able to do things so quickly and so 
 exactly, that they who do not possess the knack wonder 
 how the thing can be done at all. Biit quickness and 
 exactness mean cheapness, and contribute to what I have 
 called the greatest amount of work with the least pos- 
 sible labor. If everybody had to do every thing for 
 himself, he could not do each thing nearly so well 
 and nearly so easily as would be done if one man 
 made it his business to make one tiling, or even part of 
 one thing. It is very useful to know how to do a great 
 many things: it is wise to try to get one's living by 
 making one thing. 
 
 Nature points this out to us on a large scale. Differ- 
 ent countries have different products. One region grows 
 cotton and tea, another wheat, another rice, another 
 spices, another wine and oil. One country possesses coal, 
 another mines of metals. This division of material qual- 
 ities points to a division of industries and employments, 
 and an exchange of the benefits which those industries 
 procure.
 
 32 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 Similar facts apply to the inhabitants of any one coun- 
 try. In nearly all parts of the United States, agriculture 
 is still the prevailing industry ; but while in the Northera 
 and Western States the inhabitants have devoted them- 
 selves to the growing of wheat, oats and corn, in the 
 Southern States the farmers produce principally cotton, 
 rice, and sugar. In some parts of the country, moreover, 
 while a large portion of the territory is still devoted to 
 farms, a largo proportion of the inhabitants are engaged 
 in other employments, as in New England in manufactur- 
 ing, and in Pennsylvania and other States in mining and 
 working metals. The United States have a long Une 
 of sea-coast, containing many harbors, while the sea in 
 the neighborhood of some parts of this coast swarms 
 with fish. Hence the callings of the sailor and the fish- 
 erman. 
 
 Again, there are occupations which seem to be 
 proper to sex and age. It seems natural that men 
 should do particular kinds of work — as that of a collier, 
 a glassblower, a smith. No one would like to see 
 women engaged in these callings. Again, some occu- 
 pations seem peculiarly fitted to women — as that of 
 teaching children, sewing, and domestic labor. The 
 difference of fitness does not lie in the hardness of the 
 work. Labor in a harvest field is hard enough, but in 
 most coimtries of Europe, in the agricultural districts 
 w^omen bear a part in this. 
 
 Some kinds of work are undertaken by young per- 
 sons. It is cruel and foohsh to give children hard work. 
 It is too great a strain on their powers, and therefore 
 stimts their growth and damages their health. It inter- 
 feres with theu- school-time and learning, and therefore 
 stunts then- minds. Hence the law in England, and in
 
 VARIETY OF EMrLOTMENTS. 33 
 
 some of the United States, prohibits the employment of 
 children below a certain age — at least in certain callings 
 — and does not allow them to work more than a certain 
 number of hours any week during another time of their 
 life. It has been proved, however, that when children 
 of a certain age do light work for a time, and learn for 
 a time, their education does not suiFer. 
 
 A variety of circumstances, then, lead to a division 
 of employments. Experience shows that such a division 
 makes work easier. 
 
 The most familiar and general of such divisions is 
 that which sets a father to work, and gives the mother 
 the management of the home. The wise expenditure 
 of wages is as important and difficult as the skilful eai-u- 
 ing of wages. No man is more to be pitied than a 
 workman who, having a yoimg family, loses his wife, ex- 
 cept perhaps one who has a wife who neglects her du- 
 ties to her home and her children. 
 
 The largest example of the division of employment 
 is to be found in the government of a countrv. If no 
 arrangement were made for the public and private de- 
 fence, for doing right between persons in courts of 
 law, but everybody had to undertake the protection of 
 his own home and family from violence, and to be the 
 judge of his own rights and wrongs, the waste of such 
 a system would be vast, the /confusion would be con- 
 stant, and society coiald not hold together. The soldier, 
 the policeman, the judge, the ruler, are all appointed to 
 the offices they fill, because it is the cheapest course to 
 have such persons to do a great public service. 
 
 If you were to go into a great manufactory, you 
 would find in one place a number of persons engaged 
 2*
 
 34 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 in keeping accounts, and considering what work is to be 
 luidertaken. Then, when you go into the workshop, 
 you would find a number of persons engaged in various 
 kinds of labor. You might find some men occupied in 
 work which requires a great amount of skill, others in 
 work which needs little more than an effort of strength. 
 You may find women employed in occupations which do 
 not need much heavy labor, but which do require a cer- 
 tain amount of taste or quickness. And, lastly, you 
 may find a mmiber of children occupied in tliat which 
 does not require much strength or much skill. There 
 may be, in short, many kinds of labor engaged under the 
 same roof 
 
 Now it is plain that there may be, and is, a great 
 variety in the value of these kinds of labor. It would 
 seem that the work which needs much skill and strength 
 ought to be more costly, i. e., be better paid, than that 
 which needs only strength, or only skill, and much more 
 than that which needs neither skill nor strength in any 
 great degree. 
 
 Now imagine that one man did all the work. Sup- 
 pose that he is engaged in something that is really 
 wanted, and Avhich peoj^le will freely pay for in order to 
 possess it. It is clear that in such a case he must be 
 paid for the easiest and simplest work at the same rate 
 that he is paid for the hardest and that which needs most 
 skill, and therefore that what he makes and sells will be 
 very expensive. 
 
 The division of employment takes away part of the 
 cost of labor. Easy work is paid at cheap or low rates ; 
 liard work, and work which needs much skill, at high 
 rates. In a great factory, such as I have spoken of, one
 
 VAEIETY OF ElIPLOTMENTS. 35 
 
 ■workman may earn as many dollars a week as another 
 earns dimes. Nay, the most important workman of all, 
 the manager, has, if he is paid properly, to receive much 
 more than any of those who are put under him, and for 
 a very plain reason.
 
 LESSON YII. 
 
 VARIOUS RATES OF WAGES. 
 
 JrST as one field may grow more corn than another 
 field, without putting the farmer to any greater cost in 
 cultivating it, — just as a shop in one street may be more 
 suitable for business than an equally good shop in an- 
 other street, — just as one mine may yield more coal or 
 iron than another mine, while the cost of working both 
 is the same, and so on with a variety of other such nat- 
 urally useful objects — so one man may, with no greater 
 cost of preparation than his neighbor, earn a great deal 
 more than that neighbor. There is a superior fertility 
 of certain fields, a greater profit to be got in certain 
 places, richer veins in certain mines, and similarly there 
 is a greater natural power in certain minds. Two law- 
 yers may have the same education and be equally dili- 
 gent, but one may earn hundreds where another only 
 earns tens. Two physicians may have had the same ad- 
 vantages of study, and have equally striven to profit by 
 their opportunities, and one may make a fortime while 
 the other can barely earn a living. 
 
 Now in the case of the field, the shop, and the mine, 
 it is easy to measure the natm-al advantage which the 
 more favored possess over the less, for reasons which I
 
 VAEIOUS RATES OF WAGES. 37 
 
 o-ave before, when I told you how rent arises. It is not 
 so easy, however, to measm-e the advantage which supe- 
 rior abilities give some jiei'sons over others who work in 
 the same calling; but they are none the less real and 
 
 solid. 
 
 These advantages of superior natural powers are to 
 be noticed more frequently in mental labor than in man- 
 ual. When an ordinary manual laborer has superior 
 gifts, he seldom remains long in his first calling. He 
 contrives to raise himself to what may be called the pro- 
 fessional class, to leave off workmg with his hands, be- 
 cause he is able to work with his head. The history of 
 invention contains many instances of persons who have 
 begim their career in a very humble station, and Avho 
 have raised themselves to great eminence by their ge- 
 nius and skill. 
 
 I have mentioned this difference of capacity between 
 man and man, because it is the only fact which prevents 
 the rule which I am going to state from being universal 
 — that the wages of every kind of labor or service which 
 is offered and accepted are measured by the cost of pro- 
 ducing and maintaining the laborer. As the mass of 
 men have no remarkable gifts, the rule holds in their 
 case without exception. 
 
 I use the words " labor or service which is offered 
 and accepted," because when a thing is not wanted it 
 has no price or value. In degree, as I have said before, 
 the same fact prevails when more is offered than is 
 wanted. I put the case where the quantity offered ex- 
 actly satisfies the quantity needed, because we are able 
 to discover from such a case what follows when the 
 offer is more than the want, or the want is more than 
 the offer.
 
 38 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 From time to time every kind of labor rises and 
 falls in value because more or less of it is needed. 
 When in 1862, and for two or three years afterwards, 
 there was a very scanty quantity of cotton to be sold, 
 and therefore the price rose greatly, the services of 
 cotton-spinners in England were less needed, and in 
 consequence great distress prevailed in those English 
 counties where the chief industry is that of cotton- 
 BpinniBg. When, a few years ago, it was no longer 
 found to be worth while to build iron ships on the 
 Thames, the same kind of distress occurred among the 
 ship-builders. 
 
 Taking: these cases into accomit then, we shall find 
 that the rule given above holds good. A workman is 
 not paid wages in proportion to the importance of the 
 service he does, or to the general skill with which he 
 does it, but according to the cost of making him fit for 
 the w^ork which he has to do. 
 
 There is no workman who can do so many things 
 well as a good farm-laborer. He can plough. Now 
 this is a work which requu-es a nice eye and a steady 
 hand, for the ploughman has to drive a straight furrow 
 for a long distance, and make that furrow of a uniform 
 depth. He can reap — a task which requires no little 
 skill; mow; build up a rick, thatch it; tend horses, 
 sheep, and cattle ; milk cows ; trim hedges ; clean and 
 bank ditches, and a number of other things, any one of 
 which needs great skill : but he is generally paid very 
 low wages. 
 
 The fact is, it costs very little to fit him for his work. 
 At an early age he is made to earn the whole or part of 
 his living, by being set to work in the field. He picks 
 up his skill in other kinds of farm- work gradually.
 
 VARIOUS RATES OF WAGES. . 39 
 
 There are other callings in which it is the custom to 
 limit the right of working to those who have been ap- 
 prentices, and fm-ther to limit the nimiber of apprentices 
 which a master may take. These rules make laborers 
 scarce. The first rule makes the cost of training high, 
 by delaying the power of earning full wages ; the second 
 rule makes the number of laborers few. In callings 
 therefore where these rules prevail, the wages of the 
 workman — whose skill, maybe, is far less than that of the 
 fai-m-laborer — are far higher than those of the farm-hand. 
 But I must speak more at length on this subject here- 
 after. 
 
 A workman, in short, is just like a machuie. It costs 
 a great deal to render him competent to do work, and 
 the outlay varies from hundreds to thousands of dol- 
 lars. The workman has to be provided with food in or- 
 der that he may work at all, just as a machine has to get 
 its power of motion from fuel or some other source of 
 power; and similarly, the human machine lasts in its full 
 strength only for a time, and entirely wears out at 
 last. 
 
 If there were any plan devised by which all the 
 workmen in a particular calling were brought up and 
 taught at the public exj^ense, the wages of such work- 
 men would reach the lowest range. In so far as some 
 of such workmen were thus bred up, so far the wages 
 of all would be lowered. There is no doubt, since many 
 children of the poorest classes are brought up at the 
 public expense in workhouses and elsewhere, that the 
 general rate of wages is thereby lessened. There are 
 some gifts which are not gains; you may not be able to 
 refuse their acceptance, though you may be none the 
 better for them.
 
 LESSON VIII. 
 
 UNPAID WORK. 
 
 The hardest labor which men Tindergo in field facto- 
 ry, or mine, is not so hard as that which some undergo 
 merely to amuse themselves. There are men who hunt, 
 swim, race, row, rim, walk, in a manner which, if they 
 were forced to do these things by another's will, or for 
 their living, would be a grievous hardship — a mere cruel- 
 ty. So there are people who study. A man will gaze 
 night after night at the stars with a patience and earnest- 
 ness which few give to their common business — with far 
 more diligence than any switch-tender watches trains. 
 Another will pore over coins, and relics, and ruins, for 
 months and years together ; and not only will such peo- 
 ple work very hard, but they will get nothing for their 
 trouble. 
 
 This kind of work is generally very pleasant to the 
 man that undertakes it, and is sometimes very useful to 
 society. Unless it goes into excess, exercise is of great 
 service to the man who takes it. It makes him healthy, 
 clear-headed, and strong; it gives, or ought to give, a 
 lesson of temperance, for no person can excel in those 
 exercises unless his habits are regular and sober. The 
 change also from one kind of exertion to another is ex- 
 ceedingly good for boys and men. A boy who mopes
 
 UNPAID WORK. 41 
 
 in the playground seklom makes much figure in his 
 class. 
 
 These exercises are a good thing for society at large. 
 It is everybody's interest that the men and women of 
 the nation to which he belongs should be healthy and 
 vigorous. A plant is healthy by reason of its leaves as 
 well as its root ; a man is healthy when his mind and his 
 body grow together. Now a race of stunted, sickly 
 people may be said to be like a groAvth of stunted and 
 sickly plants. Happily, however, it is almost always 
 possible to put health into young people. It has some- 
 times happened, though, that a race has been ruined. 
 
 Again, when an astronomer watches the skies night 
 after night — a geologist studies the manner in which the 
 earth is constructed — a naturalist busies himself with 
 the different habits and powers of animals — a botanist 
 inquires into the structure of plants — these people are 
 engaged in occupations which give them the keenest 
 pleasure. The study of nature is one of the best and 
 most gratifying of pursuits. . You can follow it out in a 
 great town as eagerly, though not perhaps as fully, as in 
 a country village. It will give a relish to all occupa- 
 tions, and add new powers to one's eyes, and sometimes 
 to one's other senses. 
 
 These pursuits give a great many advantages to him 
 who follows them. It would be sufficient if they affoi'd- 
 ed him a rational amusement, and lifted him above 
 merely sensual pleasures ; but they very often do much 
 more. Observing eyes have frequently found out some- 
 thing which have set many heads and hands to work. 
 The prizes of human life are rare, and many may miss 
 them who deserve them as much as those who find them , 
 but nobody ever foimd them who kept his eyes shut.
 
 42 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 But I am more concerned at present with the effect 
 of these kmds of study on society at large. They have 
 constantly been the reason why mankind has made a 
 great and lasting advance from weakness to power ; and 
 there is no doubt that they will constantly produce the 
 same results. It is easy to prove what I have said. 
 
 Some student finds out that a little piece of stone 
 gives a power to a little piece of steel of always point- 
 ing in one direction. His discovery enables sailors to 
 improve the art of navigation, and to find out a new 
 world. 
 
 Still, this discovery only tells the sailor which way 
 he is going. Another person finds out that he can make, 
 by reason of the qualities of certain metals, an instru- 
 ment which will measure time with almost complete ac- 
 curacy, and thus enable the sailor to find out where 
 he is. 
 
 The ship is, however, a very rough affair. Another 
 person studies the properties of water, air, and wood, 
 and defines, as accurately as a reckoning in figures will 
 define any thing, what are the rules by which a ship 
 should be built. 
 
 Now let us take another subject. A student busies 
 himself with the ground on which he walks, the quarries 
 of stone which are dug out in it, and the shells and 
 other relics which he finds in it. He is struck with the 
 fact that the shells are exactly the same as those which 
 are found near such coal-mines as are or have been 
 worked. He argues, and he is right too, that though no 
 coal is to be seen in the place which he has examined, 
 the coal will be found on digging. He does the same 
 with mines of metals. 
 
 A chemist is engaged in trying, for the pure love of
 
 UNPAID WORK. 43 
 
 knowledge, to find out what ai'e the properties possessed 
 by gas-tar. Kothmg, it wouUl seem, but a love of sci- 
 ence would lead him to trouble himself with it.- But he 
 knows that Nature is full of pleasant surprises, and that 
 the more you learn about it, the more you enjoy it. By- 
 and-by he finds out that this black, ill-smelling stuff con- 
 tains the material for the most brilliant colors which can 
 be given to cotton, wool, and silk. 
 
 Hardest of all, a man busies liimself with consider 
 ing how the life of man can be spent most profitably to 
 his neighbor and himself — how tlie world can go on with 
 the least possible waste and disappointment. If he hits 
 on the truth, he has done the rarest work of all, chiefly 
 because the fruit of his discovery is to teach the way in 
 which each man can make the best use of his powers. 
 His work is of a very anxious kind, partly because it is 
 so serious a matter if he makes a mistake, and persuades 
 people that his mistake is a truth, partly because it is so 
 difficult to discover the truth after which he is seeking. 
 
 Perhaps not one of these persons is ever paid for his 
 
 trouble. Many of them do not care to be paid, and if 
 
 .their work were ever so much slighted, would jiersevere 
 
 as steadily as though it were reckoned at its true value. 
 
 I have spoken of these cases because it must not be 
 supposed that all useful work is paid for. Had it not 
 been for such persons as these, who have studied what 
 is to be seen and known for truth's sake, there would 
 have been very little real progress made by mankind. 
 Social science takes note of those services esi)ecially 
 which are valued and exchanged ; but it would be a 
 great mistake to forget that some of the best services 
 are beyond value, and cannot be priced, because no knovvu 
 price equals their worth.
 
 LESSON IX. 
 
 MOTIVES FOR LABOR. 
 
 It does not follow because a man works for that 
 which will give him wages or profit, that he does not 
 feel a pleasv;re in his work. Men may have a keen eye 
 for the advantages which their calling affords them, and 
 yet have as keen a love for the calling itself A great 
 painter, like Tm-ner, may be quite devoted to his art, 
 and yet be quite alive to the gain he makes by it. A 
 great musician may be excessively fond of the wonder- 
 ful subject on which his genius is exercised, as Beet- 
 hoven was, and yet drive a good bargain with those who 
 prize his compositions. It is a great mistake to think 
 that the toil by which a man earns his bread must needs 
 be unpleasant. On the contrary, he is a very silly fellow 
 who does not make it agteeable^ if it be possible to do 
 so. But there is no doubt that every man who works 
 for his living wishes to shorten his labor as much as he 
 can. So also does he who works for his pleasure. Pro- 
 vided it be only well done, no sensible person likes to 
 linger over his work longer than he can help. 
 
 Now, what is it that sets most men and women to 
 work ? It is necessity. A man must work in order to 
 live. A few people can live without working in any so- 
 ciety, but only a few. Nay, it is remarkable that of
 
 MOTIVES rOR LABOR. 45 
 
 these few a great many work veiy hard, some for profit, 
 some for glory, some for what they beUeve to be the 
 good of their fellow-men. In our country there are 
 many rich but very few idle persons. Some of the rich- 
 est are the most active, and if you remember what was 
 said in the last lesson, some of them are the most 
 useful. 
 
 A man, however, may be very willing to work, and 
 yet find nothing to do, because he has not found anybody 
 who Avants that which his work produces. Makers of 
 carpets and fire-irons would find no employment in Bra- 
 zil, for in a hot climate nobody uses a carpet or keeps a 
 fire in his sitting-room. 
 
 Somebody wants a man's work before he betakes 
 himself to such an industry as he carries on. Somebody 
 is ready to pay for it — that is, to give money for it, or 
 to exchange something else for it — that is, to make 
 something which he will give histead of it. For reasons 
 which I shall show in another lesson, to buy and to bar- 
 ter are really the same things. 
 
 Two or more people work, then, because somebody 
 .wants what they work at. There are, of course, many 
 kinds of wants, which are more or less pressing. Every- 
 body wants food, clothing, and shelter. But there are 
 many other wants when these are satisfied, which many 
 or few people desire. If they do desire them, and they 
 can be supplied, they get them satisfied. 
 
 You will see, then, that the force which sets people 
 to work is twofold : their own needs and the needs of 
 others. If men wanted nothing, they would not work; 
 and if other men would give nothing which they want, 
 it would be no good for them to work. 
 
 NoAV if any man who works could easily and instant-
 
 46 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 ly find a customer or customers who would keep him in 
 constant employment, and would give him in exchange 
 for his work what he wants himself, the circle would be 
 complete. Such a state of things occurs to a greater or 
 less extent in country villages. A tailor or shoemaker 
 constantly gets work from the villagers who live in the 
 same place with him, finding his customers without any 
 difiiculty, and living entirely on their wants. In India the 
 system is carried out much more exactly. In the vil- 
 lages of that country there are always a certain number 
 of artificers who live out of the common funds of the 
 village, in return for the labors they give. 
 
 Remembering, then, that the sole force which moves 
 a man, whose needs compel him to work, is the willing- 
 ness of others to buy the proceeds of his work from 
 him, you will see that our social life, especially with 
 those who dwell in large towns, is very difierent from 
 that which belongs to our country villages, and still fur- 
 ther removed from that which is found in India. The 
 city workman seldom deals directly with the man who 
 uses that which he makes ; he is generally employed by 
 a person who is called master. 
 
 This master or employer is really a middleman or 
 o-o-between. His business is to find out customers for 
 the workman's labor, and so to save him the trouble of 
 seeking the customers himself Now such an agent is a 
 great saving to the workman. Though he does not say 
 so in so many words, he does say in elFect, " I will find 
 you jjersons who will buy yoin* labor, if there are any 
 persons who will buy it." 
 
 Next, his experience in finding customers not only 
 stands the workman in good stead, but the same experi- 
 ence enables him to guess with fair certainty what the
 
 MOTH'ES FOR LABOR. 47 
 
 number of such customera will be, and to take the risk 
 of finding them out. Hence he is able to fix in a rough 
 way how much of the labor for which he finds customers 
 is wanted, and in a much closer way, is able to find reg- 
 ular work for as many laborers as are needed for this 
 Avork. 
 
 There is nothing which a workman desires more than 
 steady work at a fair price. This is what the middle- 
 man or employer does for him, or at least ofiers to do 
 for him. He buys his labor and sells it agahi. The 
 laborer sells him his labor as really as the merchant sells 
 the employer the leather, wood, cotton, or cloth on 
 which the workman tries his skill. Nay, the workman 
 actually lends his labor, unless he is paid from hour to 
 hour, or the employer advances his wages, as certauily 
 as the man lends money Avho makes an advance to the 
 employer, in order to enable him to buy the materials 
 which I named just now. 
 
 Why, then, is this employer or master paid, and what 
 is he paid ? He is paid because he does a service to the 
 laborer, and for the matter of that, to the man who buys 
 the laborer's work in the end. He is paid because he 
 works; and he is paid well whenever his skill is no 
 common power. The employer will and can no more 
 work for nothing than any other laborer can or will. 
 How much he will be paid depends on several things. 
 It depends partly on the bargain which he can make 
 with the laborer, partly on the bargain which he can 
 make with the customer, partly on the shrewdness and 
 skill with which he can guess at what the customers 
 want. 
 
 He does not, however, except in a very narrow 
 flense, set labor in motion. He does not find Avages, ex-
 
 48 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 cept for a short time. He is a middleman, or go-be- 
 tween, or dealer, who does a very useful service to cer- 
 tain persons, a service which very often is quite neces- 
 saiy. But many laborers do Avithout him, many more 
 could do without him ; some are doing without him on 
 a very great scale. But social life can never wholly get 
 rid of him, for he is sometim.es a real necessity for la- 
 borer and customer.
 
 LESSON X. 
 
 PAKTJfERSHIPS OF LABOR. 
 
 The reasons which give a price to the master's or 
 employer's labor, enable the shopkeeper to get a profit 
 on what he does. The shopkeeper is the last link be- 
 tween the laborer or producer, and the customer or 
 consumer. If he were got rid of, or not in existence, 
 the man who makes any useful article would have to hunt 
 out the man who wants the article. This would be a 
 waste of time, and therefore it is better to employ a 
 go-between. 
 
 The reason why there are such persons as merchants, 
 agents, bankers, contractors, and so forth, is just the 
 same. These are middlemen, who cheapen, or, what is 
 the same thing, render more convenient the course of 
 trade. Of course, if there are more of them than are 
 needed, they are a liindrance and a loss. When there 
 are too many of them they cause dearness, for they gen- 
 erally unite together to fix the price of what they sell, 
 and then look out for customers. They haA^e a perfect 
 right to do this, for everybody has a right to put his 
 own price on his own goods and his own labor, and if 
 need be, to xmite with other persons for a common end ; 
 but then, other people have a right to do without them 
 if they choose to do so. 
 3
 
 50 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 Xo one, it is clear, has a right to demand of any 
 other person that he should find him employment. A 
 man who wants something may make it himself if he 
 pleases, and if he can. A man who needs a service may 
 do it for himself, if he is able, and nobody is wronged. 
 So if a body of workmen or a body of customers can 
 get rid of these middlemen, they are perfectly justified 
 in doing so. 
 
 This is sometimes done under what is called co-oper- 
 ation. The word is rather an unlucky one, because 
 there can be no human society at all without co-opera- 
 tion; but the word is commonly used to express a par- 
 ticular kind of partnership, in which the service of the 
 middleman is got rid of. Of this partnership there are 
 two kinds. 
 
 One, the easiest and the simplest, is that which seeks 
 to get rid of the shopkeeper, and therefore to sell the 
 articles either at the ordinary price, and divide the profits 
 among the customers of the shop or store, or at the 
 loAvest cost possible, after the exj)enses of the . shop are 
 paid. Such a scheme has been adopted in some settle- 
 ments in the United States and in many towns through 
 the North of England. The princii^le of the plan is 
 that the shop gives no credit, and therefore runs no 
 risk. 
 
 The other kind of partnership is where the work- 
 men find building, machines, tools, and materials them- 
 selves, and so get rid of the master or employer. This 
 is a much more serious business. If it succeeds, the 
 workmen, in addition to their own wages, get the em- 
 ployer's wages also. 
 
 In order that such a plan should succeed, three things 
 are necessary : good management, promj t obedience
 
 PARTNERSHIPS OF LABOR. 51 
 
 to the necessary discipline of the workshop, and thrift. 
 It is not difficult to secure the thrift, for when all the 
 workmen, or a vast number of the workmen, are also 
 owners, there is every wish to avoid waste. In this 
 particular, an association or partnership of workmen has 
 a great advantage over an employer. I am told that 
 where this plan has been adopted the saving of waste 
 is often very great. I am afraid it is true, and will be 
 true for a long time to come, that people take more 
 care of their own than they do of their neighbor's 
 property. 
 
 It is not always easy, however, to secure prompt 
 obedience. Men who possess their own property don't 
 like to be dictated to sometimes as to how they should 
 use it, and English-American j^eople, we are told, least 
 of all. They make a great mistake when they show 
 this self-will, even though no person's interest but their 
 own is concerned. For, unluckily, the notion that a 
 man will always save and spare what belongs to him, is a 
 great error. Passion, and the habit of thinking only of 
 the present day, instead of the future, make many men 
 waste their substance, their powers, and their char- 
 acter. 
 
 But when another man's interest is bound up in one's 
 own, the folly of negligence to duty, or order, or need- 
 ful obedience, becomes a crime. You may see this best 
 in an army. The safety of all lies in the obedience of 
 all. If there be such a thing as natural rights, to go to 
 sleep when you are tired is one of those rights ; but if 
 a sentinel does so, he is shot. Another natural right is 
 that of avoiding danger ; but a man who runs away in a 
 battle is treated with the same justice as is given to a 
 sleeping sentinel. It is quite fair that a man should
 
 52 • SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 choose those with whom he cares to have friendship ; 
 but in war the choice is restricted, under the same pen- 
 alties. 
 
 Such, or something Hke it, is the case with a business 
 in which many persons are interested. If onejman ne- 
 glects his work, another refrises to obey orders, a third 
 undertakes that which does not belong to him, every 
 thing is thrown out of gear. You can see the same 
 thing in a school. The first rule of a school is order. 
 Out of school the more liberty without wrong-doing 
 the better: in school hours no liberty and full obedience 
 is the way to work well. In some of these workmen 
 j)artnerships of which I know, obedience is as strictly 
 maintained as it is in an army ; in consequence, the whole 
 of the workmen prosper. 
 
 The hardest of all the needs is good management ; 
 but the better and wiser the workman is, the easier is the 
 management. If there were no wilful, foolish, and 
 vicious people in the world, there would be no great 
 trouble in ruling men. If there were no naughty and 
 idle boys, the government of a school would be very 
 easy. Perhaps, too, it is not so difficult to find people 
 who will trust the ruler, as it is to find rulers who can be 
 trusted. 
 
 Now these partnerships of workmen have been en- 
 tered upon in England and in the United States. They 
 have been very successful where the jilan has been cai'- 
 ried out as I have described it ; but they have been still 
 more successful in Northern Germany.
 
 LESSOX XL 
 
 THE EIGHT OF A SELLER TO FIX A PRICE. 
 
 Ls" my last lesson I said that everybody has a right 
 to fix the price at which he will sell that which he pos- 
 sesses. This statement is a general rule, to which there 
 may be excej)tions. 
 
 For example, if a to"\vn was besieged, or in other way 
 reduced to great straits, and a few men possessed all 
 the food in the town, it is clear that, reasonable compen- 
 sation being made, such persons may be constrained to 
 bring the food they have into a common stock. And 
 the ground of such an interference with trade is, that 
 the siege being endured for the common safety of all, 
 or the calamity, whatever it may be, affecting all, the full 
 rights of jjroperty must be suspended for a time. 
 
 In the same way, if it were necessary suddenly to 
 undertake some work of public defence — as building 
 forts against an enemy, or joining together to put down 
 a riot, or laboring to check an immdation — it would 
 never do to submit to the highest terms which those who 
 might do the work could extort, but all might be justly 
 called on to aid in what would be a common duty and a 
 common Interest. 
 
 Again, it must be supposed that the person who fixes 
 his price for his work or labor should be free to choose.
 
 54 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 The law properly interferes to protect the weak agahist 
 the strong. Hence it is held that the labor of children 
 should be regulated by law ; that certahi callings should 
 not be followed by womeu; and sometimes that the 
 hours of labor in the case of young j^ersons should be 
 put under some limit. 
 
 But, with such exceptions as these, the general prin- 
 ciple is that everybody has a right to fix what price he 
 pleases for that which he has to sell, whether it be labor 
 or goods. In the case of goods, very few people doubt 
 that this right should be fully given ; in the case of labor, 
 people are not so much of one miud, though they are 
 much more agreed than they once were. 
 
 If a man has the right of fixing the price of his own 
 labor, he has a right to join with others in order to fix 
 the price of all the labor which they may all be willing 
 to sell. If ten, twenty, or two himdred persons can 
 join in a trade partnership (and in some such j^artner- 
 ships the number is reckoned by thousands — as, for ex- 
 ample, in a railway), any number of j)ersons can as rightly 
 engage in a labor partnership, and thereupon agree to- 
 gether as to the terms on which they will sell their labor. 
 
 And on the other hand, persons who buy labor, or 
 the produce of labor, have an equal right to decide with 
 whom they will deal. If the workman has a choice as 
 to the rate at which he will work, the customer has a 
 choice as to whether he will accept the workman's terms. 
 In the long run, the interests of the two parties to a 
 bargain are so clearly understood that these things right 
 themselves. 
 
 When the workmen join together to fix the price at 
 which they will work, the partnership is called a trades- 
 union. I have called it a partnershij), for it is just as
 
 EIGHT OF A SELLER TO FIX A PRICE. 55 
 
 much such an agreement as is the union of n number of 
 persons to start a bank or make a railway, or work a 
 mine. To refuse this right of partnership to workmen, 
 and to give it to those who sell goods, is to do an ui- 
 justice. 
 
 There is a very plain reason why workmen unite to- 
 gether in such a partnership. The employer of labor, 
 as I said in my last lesson, finds out the market price for 
 that which he buys from the men whom he employs. 
 Now he wants, of course, to get the best price he can, 
 or as I said before, to get the greatest amount of wages 
 for the least possible work. The employer of labor is 
 the manager of a business. Management means work ; 
 and work is, as I have shown you, to be paid for. The 
 manager of a business, then, is just as much a ■workman 
 as the people from whom he buys labor are. 
 
 The price which he gets for that which he sells cov- 
 ers the wages which he has paid the w^orkman, the cost 
 of his own materials, which are only labor stored up in 
 useful objects and his own wages. If the price did not 
 cover these items, it is clear that he would be working 
 at a loss, and would not therefore continue his work. In 
 one shape or the other, then, he gets wages for the work 
 he does. 
 
 Now it is possible to conceive that the workmen 
 whose labor he buys may say to themselves, and then to 
 each other : " This employer of ours gets too much 
 wages for his work, and we get too little. We must try 
 to put this right, and see whether we cannot get a larger 
 share. How shall we set about this ? " 
 
 There are three ways of arriving at such a result. 
 One is, that the laborers should cease to work until they 
 are paid more of the price at which the article which
 
 56 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 they make sells. Then they are said to strike — i. e., to 
 leave oflf working till their claims are met. Unluckily 
 for the workmen, they are not generally so well in- 
 formed as the master or emj^loyer is as to the price which 
 their labor will fetch, and as to the needs of those who 
 buy from their employer. Hence it has very often hap- 
 pened that when they strike for higher wages they waste 
 their own means, and do not gain the end they strive 
 for. They are as much justified in trying to better the 
 price of their labor, as a tradesman or merchant is who 
 says he will rather not sell at all, than not get what he 
 thinks his goods are worth. 
 
 Another way of meeting the difiiculty is to submit 
 the whole case to some umpire. People seldom judge 
 of their own rights wisely, and are frequently the better 
 for takings counsel about them. You see this in the 
 games which you play, and when you get older you will 
 see the same fact in a hundred different things. There 
 is a proverb, that " a man who is his own lawyer has a 
 fool for his client." But a man who makes himself the 
 judge of his own rights is even more certain to commit 
 errors. Since this appeal to an umpire began to be prac- 
 ticed in disputes between workmen and employers, a 
 great many difficulties have been settled in a friendly 
 manner. 
 
 There is yet a third course ; this is to get rid of the 
 employer altogether, and to enter into a complete part- 
 nership, in which the manager of the business has the 
 ordering of the labor, and in which the wages of the 
 employer, after paying the manager, are divided among 
 those who work with their hands. But this, as you will 
 see, is what I spoke about in my last lesson, when I told 
 you of labor partnerships. It is not perhaps possible to
 
 EIGHT OF A SELLER TO FIX A PRICE. 57 
 
 make this change m all oases, but where the plan tas 
 been tried it has often succeeded, and as time goes on it 
 is likely to succeed more and more. Meanwhile the 
 trial points out to workingmen what is the real position 
 iu wb-cli the employer stands to them. 
 3*
 
 LESSON xn. 
 
 THE employer's WAGES. 
 
 Of course^ if workmen had the means wherewith to 
 build the factories in which they work, ajid to buy the 
 machines, if any, which shorten their labor, the materi- 
 als on which to work, and could also bide their time till 
 they can sell that which they make to the best advan- 
 tage, they would be doing what the employer does for 
 them when he uses his property for these ends. If, more- 
 over, having these advantages in their possession, they 
 could find a proper and fit person to direct their work, 
 were content to follow orders, and to use thrift, their 
 own interests would lead them to enter into the j^art- 
 nership, and so save themselves the cost of using the 
 employer's property and services. 
 
 They are seldom able to do so. Workmen are rare- 
 ly worth more than their week's wages in advance, and . 
 sometimes not even so much, but have to run in debt 
 until they are paid their week's wages at the end of the 
 week's work. Evei if they have saved something, they 
 seldom know how to set about creating such a partner- 
 ship as I have referred to. They do not see how to 
 begin. 
 
 Besides, in a great many kinds of industry a very 
 great outlay has to be made before any returns come in
 
 THE EMPLOYEE'S WAGES. 59 
 
 For examjile, a railway may be many years in making, 
 before those who have made it can get a profit or reward 
 for their expense. In other words, the property is sunk 
 in the undertaking. 
 
 Of course, it is possible for workingmen to find this 
 outlay if they could join together to do so. The sum 
 of money which has been put into the savings banks in 
 this country is far in excess of the capital of the biggest 
 railway. There are now working, and at a very good 
 jirofit, two cotton mills at Oldham, in England, the larg- 
 est capital of which has been subscribed in small sums by 
 workingmen. 
 
 In by far the largest number of cases, however, some 
 one, two, or more persons called employers, capitalists, 
 or masters, find all the property -necessary to make the 
 workshop, buy the machines and materials, and hold the 
 goods. This is what they do. They do not really pay 
 the workman, for at the end of the week they are in 
 debt to him for work he has trusted them with. They 
 merely buy his labor, as much as they buy whatever else 
 they want ; and they sell Avhat they have bought to the 
 customer. 
 
 Xow you will see that the property with Avhich the 
 employer gets together buildings, machines, materials, 
 and on which he can live till he sees proper to sell what 
 he has bought, is only so much labor previously spent. 
 We saw before that, with one exception, nothing has 
 any value except by reason of the work which has been 
 laid out on it. Property is value put into material ob- 
 jects by means of labor. 
 
 Some motive, however, must be put before the per- 
 son who owns this property in order to induce him, in- 
 Btead of using it for his own enjoyment or amusement,
 
 60 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 to save it first, and then to employ it in assisting others 
 to work. It is true that the owner of such property 
 would not use it in this manner, unless he exjDected 
 to get it back again in its full value ; and get some- 
 thing elfie as a reward, so to speak, for employmg it 
 to the g( od of others, instead of devoting it to his own 
 pleasure. 
 
 This reward or inducement is called interest. A man 
 lends, 80 to speak, seed to the groxmd, and he expects 
 not onl}' to get back his seed at harvest-time, but a great 
 deal mere than he lent. In the same way, if a man puts 
 i:)roi)eily into the groimd — for example, builds a house, 
 drain'i a marsh, buys cattle and sheep to fatten, he ex 
 pects to get his cost price back again, sooner or later, 
 and something more. In just the same way if he lends 
 proj^erty to another, he expects to get repaid with some 
 thing into the bargain. 
 
 There is no doubt that the services of what is called 
 capital, and for the use of which interest is paid, are 
 very imjiortant ; but we must take care against two mis- 
 takes. We must not use the word in too narrow a 
 sense ; we must not overrate the imjDortance of that 
 sense in which the word is commonly used. 
 
 In the first place, as I have told you before several 
 times, there is no value in any thing which does not cost 
 labor. Now any thing on which labor has been bestowed, 
 and which people are desirous of using or buying, is cap- 
 ital. A grown workman whose work is worth any thing 
 at all, is as much capital as a machine, or a useful ani- 
 mal, or any other kind of property whatever. If a 
 thousand workmen are employed by a builder, each one 
 of these men brings capital into the business as much as 
 the employer does who brings bricks, stone, lime, timber
 
 THE EMPLOYEE'S WAGES. Ql 
 
 m 
 
 ladders, and the like. All useful things which can be 
 sold are wealth, and all wealth that can be used is capi- 
 tal. In the wages Avhich are paid to workmen for their 
 work, part is interest on the charge laid out in making 
 the workman fit for his calling ; part is the cost of find- 
 ing him food and other necessaries ; part is what is re- 
 quired in order to bring up other workmen (his chil- 
 dren), to fill his place when he is gone ; part is, or ought 
 to be, a fund for him when he is sick or aged, and una- 
 ble to work. 
 
 Xext in the common meaning given to " capital " — 
 i.e., the property employed to keep work going on stead- 
 ily — it must not be supposed that the capital sets the la- 
 borer to work. What sets him to work is the needs of 
 those who will use his work. There is a sense in which 
 the steam-ensrine and the water-wheel set a flour-mill to 
 w^ork. In such a sense the capital of the employer may 
 be said to set labor to work ; but every child will see 
 that the real cause which sets such a mill to work is the 
 willingness or wish of people to buy flour. Sometimes 
 people talk as though the workman were under an obliga- 
 tion to his employer, or as if the former depended en- 
 tirely on the latter. Each depends on the other, just as 
 the blades of a pair of scissors do, before they will cut 
 any thing, and the advantage is mutual. 
 
 The employer, therefore, gets wages for the work he 
 does just as the workman does ; but he also gets an inter- 
 est on the property he lays out. So does the workman ; 
 but the interest which the workman gets is mixed up 
 with his wages, and in order that it may be found out, 
 such an examination as I have given you is needed.
 
 LESSON XIII. 
 
 IHE USE OF GOLD AND SILVEK. 
 
 I HAVE said, several times, that men are led to work 
 by their wants, and that the work which one man does 
 is exchanged against the work which another man does. 
 The agents for bringing aboiit this exchange are those 
 middlemen who are called employers, merchants, or 
 shopkeepers, as the way in which they do this service 
 diflers or varies. 
 
 But it is very rare to see goods bartered against 
 goods ; it is never the case that they are valued against 
 each other. Generally people take bits of metal instead 
 of goods, and they always reckon the value of what 
 they bny in these bits of metal. In common language, 
 they give ^ price to what they sell or buy. 
 
 Now why should people do this ? Bits of gold, sil- 
 ver, and coj^per do not seem to have any real uSe ; they 
 do not satisfy any of the great needs of life. The ut- 
 most use one can put them to is to fasten them to one's 
 clothes, in order to make one's self look smart. Some 
 people do this. And yet everybody is willing — nay, 
 anxious — to take these pieces of metal. 
 
 The fact is these pieces of metal save a vast deal of 
 trouble. If it were not for them, the workman who has 
 made a chair, and -wants to buy bread, would have to
 
 THE USE OF GOLD AND SILVER. 63 
 
 find a baker who wants a cliair, before he could get his 
 Avants supplied ; and this, I need hardly say, would cause 
 a terrible waste of time. Clearly there is only one thing 
 to do. It is necessary to discover something which ev- 
 erybody is willing to take. If this be once found out, 
 there will be no difficulty in the chairmaker getting 
 bread, provided some one is found who will buy his 
 chair. 
 
 Now I have said that everybody is willing to take 
 money, and because everybody is willing to take it, it is 
 the easiest thing to get rid of, the most convenient 
 means with which to supply one's wants. There is 
 nothing which is generally so easy to sell as money — at 
 least under ordinary circumstances. During the late 
 siege of Paris it was not so easy to sell it, because food 
 and similar necessaries were so scarce ; but when noth- 
 ing out of the Avay happens, there is no object which 
 gives its possessor so'much power over property. 
 
 The man who takes it does not mean to keep it. It 
 does not increase in value because he keeps it. The 
 only way in which it can be turned to account is to got 
 rid of it. A person who hoards or saves it does not do 
 80 merely in order to keep it, for a bag of stones would 
 in such a case, as the old fable says, be as good as a bag 
 of money is, but because he knows he can get rid of it 
 Avhen he pleases with advantage or pleasure to himself. 
 They who save to the most purpose get rid of tlieir 
 money the quickest, either by buying articles to trade 
 with, or materials to work on, or by hiring labor, in 
 the making railroads, building houses, and tlic like, or 
 in lending it to those who do those things. 
 
 Tlie sooner the money, tlien, passes from hand to 
 hand, the better does it serve the purpose for which it
 
 64 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 was discovered and adapted. It is intended to circulate. 
 It is called currency, from a Latin word which means to 
 run j because the more speedy is its action, and the 
 more numerous are the bargains for which it is used, 
 the more useful do people find it. For the same reason 
 those countries which are the busiest, and which there- 
 fore use their money to the most purpose, are able to do 
 with fewer pieces of money than other countries where 
 the same speed of circulation is not attained^ 
 
 How useful money is, may be easily reckoned if one 
 thinks what would be the consequence if all the money 
 of a country were suddenly to vanish. Such an event 
 would cause the greatest confusion and distress. In 
 time, no doubt, matters would right themselves, either 
 by the fresh introduction of more money, or by the dis- 
 covery of something else which would serve to measure 
 the value of things, or T3y some standard or measure 
 which should express the market worth of whatever is 
 wanted. For though there is no race of men, possess 
 ing the least ciA'ilization, Avhich does not measure the 
 worth of the things which the people produce and ex- 
 change, yet some have no use of metals, emj)loying other 
 articles instead. 
 
 Apart from the convenience which money affords 
 buyers and sellers on a small scale, it has a further ser- 
 vice, as a measure or means of calculating value. 
 
 Trade on a large scale is always in goods. Thus, 
 for example, if this country trades with France, it buys 
 French goods with American goods, or with goods 
 which have been bought with American goods. Unless 
 It is found convenient to do so, one country does not 
 pay the other money ; and when it is found convenient, 
 the money paid is not really money, but metal, since
 
 THE USE OE GOLD AND SILVER. Q^ 
 
 French money is not current in the United States, nor is 
 American money in France. 
 
 But though no money passes between the two coitn- 
 tries, the American merchant makes out his bill in dol- 
 lars and cents ; the French merchant his in francs and 
 centimes. These diiierent kinds of money are com 
 pared at a certain rate — i. e., five francs and a fractior 
 are reckoned to be worth an American dollar. 'Nor 
 would it be possible to carry on the trade between the 
 two countries, except on the basis of some such reckon- 
 ing. There are diiierent qualities of goods — say of wine 
 and cloth — and these qualities must be expressed iu 
 some form, standard, or measure. 
 
 Children who read this little book, no doubt, have 
 learned a little of what are called vulgar fractions. Now 
 you cannot add fractions, or subtract fractions, without 
 finding out the common denominator, as it is called, of 
 the two quantities which are to be treated. So it is with 
 exchanges. You cannot strike a bargain until you have 
 agreed upon some measure which shall give the worth 
 or the price of these objects which are to be exchanged. 
 
 Money then, or a measure of value, is not only a con- 
 venience but a necessity ; and a strange thing about it is, 
 that it is most necessary, even when it is not actually 
 used.
 
 LESSON XIV. 
 
 MONEY. 
 
 It is not so -very difficult to see why people must 
 take something by which they may measure the value of 
 every thing else, and how inconvenient it would be Avere 
 no such standard or measure to be found. But why 
 have they chosen bits of two metals to be the means for 
 this measurement ? It seems as though it were impos- 
 sible for any society of men to make any way in civiliza- 
 tion, unless.they have some such means of bargaining. 
 But why take gold and silver as the general and ready 
 reckoners of all values ? 
 
 Now my readers may perhaps remember that I have 
 said, more than once, that the value of all objects, ser- 
 vices, articles, etc., is measured by the cost of getting 
 them. It wnll be clear also that in taking something 
 which shall measure any other thing, it is of importance 
 that the measure itself should change as little as possi- 
 ble. Apart from their use as money, gold and silver 
 have other and very important uses, and therefore are lia- 
 ble to vary in value as Avell as other things do. 
 
 But within a limited period — such a time I mean as 
 a person would keep gold and silver by him — these 
 articles change less in value than any other thing be- 
 sides Over a long period they are subject to changes
 
 MONEY. ' G7 
 
 in value. Thus, a pound weight of silver, five hundred 
 years ago, would have boiight four times as much of the 
 necessaries of life as it now would. But from day to 
 day, week to week, year to year, money Aaries in value 
 less than any thing else. There are two reasons for this. 
 First, gold and silver are generally obtained in nearly 
 equal quantities at nearly equal cost. You hear some- 
 times of some lucky miner who has found a great lump 
 of gold, or has come across some very rich vein of sil- 
 ver; but these things are rare. The great majority of 
 those who seek for either give a great deal of labor for 
 every ounce or pound they get ; so much labor that noth- 
 ing but the very high price they obtain for these metals 
 would induce them to work for them at all. The la- 
 bor which gets gold out of rocks is very costly. It 
 exists, as a rule, in such small quantities in very hard 
 rocks, that it cannot be seen, but can be gathered only 
 by crushing the rock to powder, and then mixing it 
 with another metal, which has the property of melt- 
 ing out the gold, in just the same way that water dis- 
 solves salt. 
 
 There have been times in history when gold and sil- 
 ver have been obtained at greatly diminished cost. This 
 was the case in the sixteenth century, when the Spanish 
 conquerors of the 'New World became the possessors 
 of great quantities of silver, and by their means the rest 
 of the civilized world procured it. This wealth was 
 obtained by the enforced labor of the native people, and 
 was therefore, as far as the Spaniards were concerned, 
 cheaply Avon. But such occurrences are very rare, and 
 for the sake of humanity we will hope that they will 
 never recur. 
 
 Next, the stocks of the precious metals — as gold and
 
 6*8 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 silver are called — are so large, that any notable increase 
 to their quantity in any one year will have little eifect 
 in diminishing the value of that which has already been 
 collected. If the crojjs in any one year are greatly in 
 excess of those which are generally garnered, the prices 
 of farm-produce will greatly fall, since most of that 
 which is produced in any year is consumed in the same 
 year, or before the next harvest. And on the other 
 hand, when there are very scanty croj)s, there is a great 
 rise in the price of such produce. But the stock of gold 
 and silver already existing is very large, and therefore a 
 great increase obtained in any one year is lost m the far 
 greater quantity which society possesses. If a storm 
 occurs in the mountains, the little brooks swell speedily 
 into great torrents ; but if there be a vast lake into 
 which these torrents fall, very little eftect will be pro- 
 duced upon it by the quantity of water wliich has fallen 
 in any storm, however heavy may be the fall of water 
 during the time the rain lasts. 
 
 Next, gold and silver represent great value in small 
 compass. To get them requires great labor. They are 
 generally found in regions where there is little else, 
 whither the food of the miner has to be carried at e^reat 
 expense ; and they are obtained by expensive processes. 
 Were these metals cheaply got, their use would be seri- 
 ously lessened, as it would take so much of each in or- 
 der to exchange for goods. 
 
 Next, they are almost incaj^able of being destroyed. 
 Gold is not tarnished by any natural substance, silver by 
 hardly iny ; hence they sufier no waste by being kept 
 and used, beyond wear. A man who takes gold and 
 silver expects that hereafter he Avill be able to get rid of 
 them, on as good terms as he could have obtained when
 
 MONEY. 69 
 
 he received them ; but he would not be sure of this if 
 they wasted, or underwent any change. 
 
 Again, they may be cut up into small pieces, and put 
 together again with ease. A weight of gold and silver 
 is of the same value whether it be La small or large 
 pieces. In many objects small pieces are of little or no 
 value, while large pieces are of great value. This is 
 the case with precious stones, for the large are scarce, 
 and the small by comparison common. Little and great 
 however, would be of equal value, if the stones could 
 be melted into a mass as easily as pieces of metal can. 
 
 Lastly, they are capable of being marked in such a 
 manner as that even a child can understand their value. 
 This marking or coining pieces of money is always the 
 business of Government, because it is of great conse- 
 quence that the fineness of the money, and also the weight 
 of the piece, should be certified, though the former is the 
 most important. To issue base money is a great offence, 
 not only because it is a particularly mean kind of steal- 
 ing, but because it is one which puts the greatest hard- 
 ship on those who can bear it the least — namely, the 
 poor and inexperienced. 
 
 The above are the qualities which, being possessed 
 by gold and silver, and being shared by no other objects 
 whatever, have caused those metals to be chosen by 
 almost universal consent, as the measure of value and 
 the means of exchange. When they are supplied, and 
 can be used, they are always acceyited by races which 
 ai"e capable of being civilized; while such races as will 
 not or cannot use them always melt away before more 
 robust and vigorous nations, since their ignorance and 
 incapacity puts tlfem to so serious a disadvantage beside 
 their neighbors and rivals.
 
 70 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 These metals may be compared to the oil which 
 makes machinery go smoothly. The force of the ma- 
 chine is given it when it is completed and moved ; but 
 unless oil is sujjplied to the joints, valves, or axles, the 
 machine cannot continue in motion, but is speedilj 
 clogged and stopped.
 
 lesso:n" XV. 
 
 SUBSTITUTES FOR MOi^EY. 
 
 AiioifG the reasons which have mduced men to adopt 
 gold and silvei" as a means for carrying on trade is, as I 
 have said before, that these metals represent great value 
 in small compass. But this very reason induces the 
 people who use them to use as little as they can of them. 
 They cost very much, and therefore men strive to lay 
 out as little cost as possible on them. Now there are 
 two ways in which the use of these metals is narrowed. 
 One is to make each piece da for as many acts of trade 
 as possible, or in other words, to change hands as often 
 as may be. 
 
 Unless men trust each other, they are obliged to 
 take every possible care against risk. In a country 
 where there is little confidence between man and man, 
 where trust is warily and scantily given, there is need 
 for far more money than in a country where confidence 
 and mutual trust are the rule. Everybody w^ho is not 
 living from hand to mouth keeps some small stock of 
 money in his possession, in order to meet his every-day 
 wants ; but when distrust is general, j^rudence requires 
 persons to keep a larger stock of this kind of property, 
 and consequently to use more money. The civilization 
 of a coimtry is not measured by the amount of gold and
 
 72 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 silver which it has, but by the integi'ity, mutual trust, 
 and intelligence of its inhabitants. It is possible that the 
 people of a half-barbarous country like Turkey may have 
 more money than a thriving and busy country like our 
 own ; but the money is not turned to so good an ac- 
 count. 
 
 The other way in which the use of money is saved, 
 is to discover some substitute for its use. Now, long 
 ago, persons have found out that bits of paper, having no 
 value in themselves, but giving the possessor of them a 
 right to claim a sum of money, would, in many particu- 
 lars, serve the purpose of the real money, and in some 
 cases would be more convenient. This substitute for the 
 use of money is called a bank-note. 
 
 Now it is not to be expected, in a little work like 
 this, intended for beginners in social science, that I can 
 enter into all the peculiarities belonging to such a use of 
 printed pieces of paper; the subject would be too long, 
 and the exj)lanation in detail would be too difficult. But 
 in order to understand this part of the social system un- 
 der which we live, it is almost necessary to know a little 
 about the use of these pieces of paper, since they play 
 so important a part in trade and exchange. 
 
 It is no use to try to circulate these pieces of paper, 
 unless the person who takes them is quite certain that 
 he will get the sum of money which they profess to be 
 worth, whenever he wishes it. Men take money itself 
 because it is the most convenient and ready way of sup- 
 plying their wants. A man with five dollars has a much 
 greater command over what he needs, than a man has 
 with five dollars' worth of goods — as of shoes, bread, or 
 furniture. 
 
 So if men take any thing which pretends to represent
 
 SUBSTITUTES FOR MONEY. 73 
 
 money, it is no use to offer them something instead of 
 money, however vahiable that may be which is offered. 
 If the piece of paper promises to pay them five dollars, 
 it will not satisfy them if the person who pledges to pay 
 this money offers to pay them five dollars' worth of 
 something. If they suspect that the person who prom- 
 ises money intends to pay them something else, they 
 will not talce and use his bits of paper, or will not use 
 them very long. 
 
 Plain as this may seem to us, it has taken a very long 
 time to make the rule miderstood. At different times, 
 governments have tried to circulate such pieces of paper, 
 and in place of giving money, have oftered laud, or other 
 property. The attempt has always been a failure — a 
 loss, and occasionally a great public misfortune. 
 
 Now if the pieces of paper thus put out were ex- 
 actly equal in value to the money for which they are 
 used, and exactly that sum of money were kept by the 
 person who promised to pay the quantity of money 
 which each of these papers represent, no gain or advan- 
 tage would be made by the persons who circulate the 
 paper ; but a certain loss would be incurred in the labor 
 of preparing these pieces of paper, and in that of keep- 
 ing an account of them. They who use the paper 
 would have some advantages. The gold and silvei 
 would not wear at all, and the loss of the piece of paper 
 need — with proper care taken — be no real loss to the 
 person who possessed it, because if he could give an ac- 
 count of the paper, he might, in time, be repaid its value. 
 
 But the persons who put this paper into circulation find 
 
 out, after a time, that they can send a great deal more 
 
 of these papers out than they have money at any moment 
 
 to pay with, provided always that people will trust to 
 
 4
 
 74 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 them. The rest they can employ in other objectg, tak- 
 ing care to have their property m such a shape that if 
 there be some sudden need for more money, they sliall 
 be able to get it together in a very short time. In other 
 words, the promise to pay will be taken as readily as 
 real money will, and for a time do everything that real 
 money does. 
 
 The sending out these bits of printed paper is part 
 of the business which a banker carries on. It is not in- 
 deed his only business, for he does other things which 
 are, as I have said, too difficult for beginners in this sub- 
 ject to understand. This, however, I hope they will 
 understand — that a bank-note is something which may 
 be used instead of money ; that its use saves some of 
 that very expensive article, and that it therefore enables 
 trade to be carried on with some lessening of cost. 
 
 I have now pointed out to you what are the general 
 rules which belong to labor and trade, why it is men la- 
 bor, and why they exchange with each other the pro- 
 duce of their several kinds of industry. This is, from 
 one point of view, an account of the way in which soci- 
 ety grows, and is held together. Men live together in 
 order to do each other benefit, to supply each other's 
 wants ; and they are able to do this best when each man 
 betakes himself to that kind of work for which he is fit- 
 test, and for which his neighbor has some need. Social 
 life is like a vast machine composed of a great number 
 of parts ; each of these parts, however, assists the other 
 parts — is necessary or convenient to the working of the 
 whole.
 
 LESSON XVI. 
 
 FREEDOM AND SLAVERY. 
 
 If everybody were wise and just; if no wrong 
 were done by man to man, and no injury inflicted on na- 
 tion by nation ; if every man were sure to get the fruit 
 of his labor, to pass his life without suffering mjustice — 
 if, in short, there were no bad and cruel people in the 
 world, the sketch which I have given you of social life 
 might be completed in the pages which you have already 
 studied. 
 
 Unfortunately, we are far removed from so pleasant 
 a state of things. It is necessary that persons should bt 
 protected in the peaceful exercise of their labor, and ir 
 the i^eaceful enjoyment of that which they have earned 
 by their labor. They who have wealth require to be 
 checked, lest they oppress those who are more or less in 
 their power. Those who are poor sometimes need an- 
 other kind of check, lest they try to violently seize that 
 which they do not possess, but which they see others 
 possess. In brief, the most civilized nation needs law 
 and government, in order that it may be kept together. 
 
 Law professes to declare what are rights and what 
 are wrongs, and proposes to defend rights and correal 
 wrongs — to secure each man in the possession of that 
 which really belongs to him, and to protect him from any
 
 76 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 attempt on the part of others to interrupt his enjoyment 
 of that which does belong to him. These rights, again, 
 either belong to a man's person or to his property — by 
 property being meant whatever a man has lawfully ob- 
 taiuecl, and which, within certain limits, he can enjoy. 
 
 Now one of the most important rights which a per- 
 son can be held to possess is that over his own labor. 
 Nearly every civilized nation has agreed that no person 
 can acquire a right to the perpetual labor of another person 
 — or, in other words, make him a slave. At diflPerent 
 periods of their history all civilized nations have allowed 
 the right of a master over a slave ; now nearly every 
 nation refuses to allow it, and in case any person claims 
 such a right, will decline to enforce it, and will give a 
 remedy against aU such as pretend to keep persons in 
 slavery. 
 
 Now how comes it to pass that so great a change as 
 this has come over the spirit of civilized life ? Slavery 
 prevailed in ancient Greece and Rome — two societies as 
 much civilized in many particulars as we are. 
 
 I believe that the first motive which led men to raise 
 the question whether slavery was not always a wrong, 
 which never could be justified, was the feeling that 
 every man has certain natural rights, and that if he has 
 any, personal freedom must surely be the first of these 
 rights, seeing that, if it be absent, no other right can be- 
 long to him. 
 
 When persons began to hold this opinion, they found 
 0l^t speedily other reasons against holding men in per- 
 petual bondage. It was seen that while slavery degrades 
 *the slave, it does nearly as much mischief to the owner 
 of the slave. " It is impossible to quench the wish for 
 freedom, at least" if any chance of escape appears to the
 
 FEEEDOM AND SLAVERY. 77 
 
 slave ; aud thus it became, or seemed to become, the in- 
 terest of the slavemaster to make his slave ignorant and 
 wretched, to reduce him as much as possible to the con- 
 dition of a beast. Now no one can treat his fellow-man 
 ia this way without becoming brutal himself 
 
 Again, it was seen that if a man were to be kept in 
 slavery, the law must put very little control on the acts 
 of his owner. ISTow men become civihzed, not by in- 
 dulging passion, but by checking it ; not by ruling over 
 others, but by ruling over themselves. The custom of 
 slavery was therefore an aid to barbarism, no assistance 
 to civilization. It produced grave moral evils in society, 
 and was a lasting hindrance to good influences. 
 
 Again, it was gradually discovered that where slavery 
 prevails very little progress is ever made in the useful 
 arts. The minds of the ancient Greeks and Romans 
 were very much cultivated. These two nations made 
 remarkable progress in what are called the fine arts. 
 Their architecture and sculpture are even now models, 
 for they have hardly been equalled in the one, and by no 
 means equalled in the other. In the same way they 
 were eminent in poetry and oratory, and they made great 
 advances in many kinds of science. But they knew very 
 little of the useful arts. They had hardly invented a 
 sinofle machine which should save labor — had discovered 
 none of those forces which are so familiar to us. In con- 
 sequence, despite their great culture, the knowledge they 
 possessed, and the perfection to which they carried such 
 civilization as they had, their whole social system 
 crumbled away against the attacks of certain savage 
 tribes. 
 
 The fact is, the motive for saving labor by means of 
 mechanical inventions never came home to them. In
 
 78 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 the ancient world the labor of the hands was held to dis- 
 honor a man, to be fit only for slaves. Now the princi- 
 pal cause which has led men to invent labor-saving ma- 
 chines is the impulse which I have stated before — that, 
 namely, of getting the greatest possible recompense for 
 one's labor, with the least possible outlay of labor. 
 While a man is a slave, since all his labor, and all the 
 fruits of his labor, belong to his owner, there can be no 
 motive to save labor — no motive to the slave, for he will 
 get nothing by it ; no motive to the owner, for he dis- 
 dains to lighten the slave's toil. Where slavery lives, 
 invention is dead. 
 
 Whenever free labor competes against slave labor, 
 the former is sure to win the day, the latter to be found 
 expensive and uncertain. I do not mean to say that 
 slave labor has not sometimes been profitable to the 
 owner, but that whenever the two exist together the free 
 man will work more cheaply — that is, to greater purpose 
 than the slave. For it will be seen that the owner has 
 to purchase or rear the slave, and therefore has to set 
 down this article of cost. Then no man who works for 
 another ever works with so much heart as when he is 
 working for himself A free man may be trusted; a 
 slave always wants an overlooker. You can trust a free 
 man to handle machinery or to manage such work as re- 
 quires care and attention. But the slave has no motive 
 to take care of that which is trusted to him, and hence 
 he can only be put to the simplest kind of work with the 
 commonest possible tools. 
 
 Civilized nations, then, have refused to allow any one 
 man a perpetual right to the labor of another, because 
 freedom of labor is a natural right. But a man who com- 
 mits crime forfeits to a greater or less extent his natural
 
 FREEDOil AND SLAVERY. 79 
 
 rights, and among them his natural rights of liberty. 
 Hence all communities have their public slaves — i. e., 
 men condemned for a period, more or less prolonged, to 
 compulsory labor on behalf of the State. To protect its 
 subjects, a Government is obliged to restrain criminals. 
 But it is not right that such persons should subsist in 
 idleness ; hence it exacts labor from them, and for reasons 
 conceived to be sufficient, reduces them to the slavery 
 which they have merited.
 
 LESSON" XVII. 
 
 PAEEKT AKD CHILD. 
 
 There are certain kinds of property — as that of a 
 master over a slave — which civilized laAV will 'not recog- 
 nize. There is another kind of property — as that of a 
 parent over a child — which the law recognizes to a lim- 
 ited extent. There have been comitries in which a fath- 
 er had the same rights over a child which some laws have 
 given an owner over a slave. In ancient Rome the risrht 
 was even larger and more enduring. 
 
 A child owes his nm-ture and education to his pa- 
 rents. He has received from them benefits of the high- 
 est kind, which, though the duty of the parents renders 
 them, are not the less grave to the child. But as law 
 cannot allow the constant submission of one man's lib- 
 erty to another, so it cannot permit the child to be con- 
 stantly subject to the parents' will. There is a period 
 when a parent's authority is no longer absolute, however 
 much it should always be respected. 
 
 During those years when the child is, in the eye of 
 the law, unable to exercise his own discretion in his oc- 
 cupation, the child is in a sense his parents' 2)i"operty. 
 Custom may shorten or lengthen this time, but there al- 
 ways is a period during which no one interferes with the 
 parents' discretion, certain conditions being fulfilled.
 
 PARENT AND CHILD. 81 
 
 But civilized commimities will uot allow a parent to 
 injiu-e his chikVs health or to dwarf his mind by setting 
 him to work too early or too long, and in our time, at 
 last, by denying him education. In many countries edu- 
 cation is compulsory — that^is, the child must be taught 
 under penalties. It is seen that to deny a child teach- 
 ing, is to deny him a necessary of civilized life, which 
 is inferior to what are called the common needs of 
 life, only because these must be bestowed whatever else 
 is given. 
 
 There are laws which forbid the employment of chil- 
 dren in certain kinds of work altogether, which only al- 
 low a short time every day or week for employment in 
 others, and which compel work and education to go on 
 together, or at stated intervals. It is plain that by early 
 working or overworkmg a child, a lifelong injury may be 
 inflicted on them. 
 
 It is the business of law to protect the weak against 
 the strong. The greater part of the action of law 
 has this object. To take a man's property from him 
 unlawfully, to give him bodily pain, or inflict on him 
 bodily hurt, to injure his character by false statements, 
 is to lay a strong hand on one who is, in some direction 
 or other, weaker than the wi*ong-doer. If such violence 
 be permitted, the law fails to do its work. 
 
 It is clear, then, why law protects children even 
 agamst their j^arents. It does not follow that men will 
 always make a right use of that wliich is their own, even 
 when afiection, duty, or interest might prompt them to 
 do so. And as the good of one person may be made 
 subject to the passion or caprice of another, it is neces- 
 sary for law to protect the weaker person against wrong. 
 It is seldom the case that parents lose their natural att'ec- 
 i*
 
 82 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 tion for their children, but they do so often enough to 
 justify the law in interfering. 
 
 Besides, there are some instances in which the judg- 
 ment of the law is better than that of the individual 
 man ; there are some in which it is worse. Generally 
 a man can tell better than any law can inform him, what 
 is the calling in which he is most likely to prosper. A 
 law therefore which should pretend to dictate to any one' 
 which calling or business he should follow, is a mischiev- 
 ous law. There are some countries where the law con- 
 strains a son to follow his father's business. Now in 
 such coimtries very little progress is made. 
 
 The judgment of the law is better, however, than 
 that of a man on most matters of general interest, par- 
 ticularly when the object for which the thing is done is 
 neither very near nor very plain. For instance, there 
 are many kinds of work which no man would ever pay 
 for, because he is unable to see his own advantage in the 
 purchase, or because he is not able to keep the advantage 
 of the piu'chase to himself Suppose, for example, that 
 some man of science were able to prove that there is 
 coal in the Gulf States, at a depth which might be 
 worked. Everybody who had land in which this coal 
 might be found would gain a benefit by the discovery, 
 but no one person could keep the knowledge to himself 
 If, therefore, such a discovery could be made, the law 
 should reward such a person. Very many examples 
 could be given of such kinds of work or service. 
 
 But the case is still stronger in the matter of general 
 education. The best result of a good education is that 
 it enables the man who has it, to do what he has to do 
 in a far shorter time than he could without it, or to do 
 that which he could not have done at all without it.
 
 PARENT AND CHILD. 83 
 
 For instance, a savage can seldom count more than ten, 
 and can do nothing beyond this very beginning of aritli- 
 metic. A child who has been taught a few rules can 
 rapidly do that by which the cleverest savage would be 
 foUed. A man who has learnt to read and write will 
 learn a soldier's drill in half the time that a wholly igno- 
 rant recruit will need for the same result. Education, 
 in short, is to know the best way how to do any thing. 
 It is said that the Northern Germans, who are all edu- 
 cated, are the handiest men in the world, because their 
 minds are trained, and are therefore always alert. 
 
 It is not, however, wonderful that ignorant people 
 cannot understand the value of education, any more 
 than deaf men can the beauty of a piece of good music. 
 Sometimes, to be sure, parents who are themselves 
 ignorant can see the advantage which learning gives to 
 him who has it, and are therefore, from natural affection, 
 willing or anxious that their children should gain 
 advantages which they themselves do not possess. But 
 there is no little risk that they will not notice this 
 benefit. 
 
 Here, then, the law steps in. It takes as it were the 
 survey of the whole landscape. If your eyes wander 
 over a distant view, such as that which you get from a 
 high hill, or a lofty building, you can gain a general idea 
 of the scene which is spread out before you, though you 
 may not be able to see the faces of those who are in 
 the streets below, or tell what the trees are which rise 
 in the distant fields. So it is with the State. It can- 
 not tell what each man should do for his own particular 
 work, but it can direct, and that with cei-tainty, what 
 must be obtained by all, in order that each may do his 
 own work in the best way.
 
 LESSON xvm. 
 
 PUBLIC EDTCATIOIS". 
 
 The law may insist on the education of the people. 
 There are two reasons why it should do so. One of 
 them is that the educated person is of more use to his 
 fellow-men than an untaught person, or as may he said 
 in other words, is less dangerous to others. The other 
 is that the educated person is more useful to himself 
 Now if it can be shown that the same process makes 
 a man more serviceable to his neighbor, and more pros- 
 perous in his own fortunes, it needs very little argument 
 to prove that the process is a very wholesome one. 
 
 I have abeady said that a man who has been taught 
 one thing, learns other things more quickly than a person 
 who is wholly imtaught. A man who has learnt to be 
 a carpenter, and requires to be instructed in the art of a 
 smith, will learn to be a smith sooner than he wol^ld if 
 he had been taught no other handicraft. A man who has 
 learned French, or Latin, or Greek thoroughly, will master 
 German more easily than one who has never known any 
 other language than his mother-tongue. He who has 
 learnt only one language, says the proverb, has learnt 
 none. A man who has learned to ride, or to swim, will 
 learn to skate more rapidly than one who has never sat 
 a horse, or kept himself afloat in water.
 
 \ 
 
 PUBLIC EDUCATION. 85 
 
 Of course there are some kinds of teaching which 
 make the mind more easily active than others do — that 
 is, Avhich are better instruments of education. They 
 •who have given their attention to the discovery of the 
 best instruments of education always propose to them- 
 selves to settle what is the best means for making the 
 mind generally active. Experience has proved that if 
 a person has been taught certain things, he will learu 
 every thing more easily than if he had been taught other 
 things. For example, though a person will not readily 
 learn language, because he has been taught to ride, he 
 will learn to ride more easily when he has been taught 
 langiiage. 
 
 The kind of learning which makes a man apt to learn 
 other things is that which gives a man the habit of 
 thinkins: without seeing — which enables him to follow 
 out in his mind something which may be thought of, 
 without the need of seeing any thing which should 
 remind him of it. Thus mathematics are a great aid to 
 education, because they assist this power. In arith- 
 metic Ave think of numbers without considering the 
 objects which those numbers represent. In a still more 
 marked manner is this the case with higher mathe- 
 matics — with algebra, geometry, trigonometry. So 
 language, particularly a language which, having been 
 highly cultivated, has been rendered unchangeable 
 because it has ceased to be spoken, is a very powerful 
 means of mental culture. The study of mathematics 
 and of language gives men the power of exact and rapid 
 thought, and enables them to be quick and intelligent. 
 
 When a man learns rapidly, he is plainly able to do 
 his fellow-man a service, sooner and more completely, 
 than he does if he is slow. I am, of course, speaking
 
 86 SOCIAL ECOXOJVIY. 
 
 of those services which, being useful, are understood 
 and valued. A boy is taken as an apprentice to learn 
 some skilful trade. The boy who learns the trade La 
 half the time that another takes, is by far the more 
 valuable apj^rentice of the two. He begins to earn his 
 cost much earlier. The wisest and the most useful 
 men in the Avorld have taken the pains to learn their 
 work thoroughly, and to do their work well. Now such 
 persons have always been taught some thhigs which 
 have aided them in gaining the special knowledge which 
 they want. In short, there are some kinds of knowl- 
 edge which are uniformly useful for every other kind'of 
 knowledge, and to understand and impai-t this knowl- 
 edge is to educate people ; to get the knowledge is to 
 be educated, in greater or less degree according as this 
 master knowledge is imparted. 
 
 It is still a question as to which is the best kind of 
 master knowledge. It is likely that the question would 
 never have been asked, if there had not been several 
 kinds of training ; every one of which is very useful for 
 the end which all education has in view. It is probable 
 that no one will ever be able to answer the question, be- 
 caiise there are several kinds of this master knowledge, 
 and so many varieties of mind that one kind of knowl- 
 edge suits this mind best, another that. The real ques- 
 tion is, whether the mind of each person is really trained 
 by what he has learned. Some people grow strong on 
 a meat diet ; some on a bread or vegetable diet. The 
 most imijortant thing to those who wish to be strong is, 
 not what kind of food is most suitable generally, but 
 what suits each the best. 
 
 Next, education is — as indeed, you will have guessed 
 from what I liave already said — a great service to the
 
 PUBLIC EDUCATION. 87 
 
 man who has it. If you have ever noticed a chxmsy per- 
 son trying to do a thing -\vhicli wholly puzzles him, and 
 a handy person doing the same thing with great ease, 
 you will see how it is a service. You may have seen a 
 person who is unable to do something, and have watched 
 him while he is being taught the way to do it by some 
 one who is experienced. Then as you see the person 
 who is taught brighten up when he learns the way, you 
 will understand how useful knowledge is. 
 
 Of course, if a few persons know how to do a thing 
 well, they will have a great advantage over their neigh- 
 bors. That which to others is a toil, is to them a 
 pleasure. See how painful is the eifort by. which a boy 
 who is beginning to learn reading, cons over his task, 
 and spells the words. Now look at the same boy Avhen 
 he has got a mastery over that which he has been en- 
 gaged on, and compare his looks as he reads a pleasant 
 book, with the same looks, if you can remember them, 
 when he began to read. In this way you can understand 
 the advantage which a really able man, who has thor- 
 oughly cultivated his mind, has over those who do not 
 possess his gifts. 
 
 But suppose everybody were well taught, would 
 any one have an advantage then ? It is hard to conceive 
 everybody equally Avell tauglit, and therefore a imiform 
 level in all minds. Such a thing Avill never happen if we 
 can judge of the future by the past; but it is easy to 
 imaarine the case of a whole nation which is well edu- 
 cated ; there are such nations. 
 
 Now such a nation will be vastly better off thaii 
 other nations which are not so benefited. But it might, 
 indeed, it would be the case, that the education not giv- 
 ing them a special advantage at home, not one of tlicra
 
 88 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 would have any advantage over his fellovr-conntrymen. 
 Is their education, then, of no value ? It is of the great- 
 est. It has made them handy ; it has made them work 
 easier. If they have used what they possess wisely, 
 they can do the same things with half the toil and labor 
 that they must have given before they were trained. A 
 skilled person goes straight to the mark, while an un- 
 skilled one wastes time in finding out what the mark is, 
 and what is the way to it.
 
 LESSON XIX. 
 
 S?ECIAL LEARNING. 
 
 There is a certain kind of education which every- 
 body ought to have ; but it is not very easy to decide 
 what its extent should be. We know where it begins, 
 but we cannot say where it should end. All allow that 
 everybody should be taught to read, to write, and to 
 reckon ; and that he should do these things easily. The 
 fact is, these three kinds of learning must be got before 
 any other kind of learning can be. After they are ob- 
 tained, they are used for getting further knowledge ; but 
 where or when this knowledge should stop is not easy to 
 say. In a sense, whenever these three needful portions 
 of knowledge are possessed, people who use their pow- 
 ers never cease learning. 
 
 On the other hand, it is certain that there are many 
 kinds of knowledge, all of which no man can get, for 
 the reason that no man's life is long enough to collect 
 them. The most learned man in the world knows only 
 a portion — probably a very small portion — of that which 
 can be known. Besides, the rule which I laid down 
 before, that the greatest results are obtained by a divis- 
 ion of employments, holds good in learning as it does 
 in manual industry. The sum of human knowledge is 
 BO vast, that to know any one branch of it properly re-
 
 go SOCLA.L ECONOMY. 
 
 quires constant attention. Thus one man learns law, 
 another physic; one man studies chemistry, another 
 mechanics, another geology, and so on. As the gath- 
 ered knowledge of mankind gets to be greater, the study 
 of all kinds of knowledge is more and more divided or 
 distributed. 
 
 Now, when that which people know is saleable, there 
 is no need that anybody should interfere in order that 
 this knowledge should be acqiiired. This is plainly the 
 case in what may be called the common callings of life. 
 There is no need that people should be instructed in 
 different kinds of industry at the public expense ; if 
 they were, they who obtain this knowledge would in the 
 end be none the better for bemg taught, since as I have 
 already shown, the wages of every calling stand in close 
 proportion to the cost at which the laborer has been 
 prepared for his calling. 
 
 There are, however, as I have shown, certain kinds 
 of knowledge which are very valuable, but which are 
 not very saleable. The most serviceable man whom 
 any society can possess is a really great statesman — i.e., 
 a man who can deal wisely and justly with all interests, 
 and can take care that no force or power m society is 
 able to oppress or wrong any other, or take that to itself 
 to which it is not entitled. If the service which such a 
 man does could be reckoned at its true worth, there is 
 hardly any price which is too high for so useful and so 
 rare a service. But nobody ever thinks of paying a real 
 statesman for his services ; perhaps because it is so very 
 rare that they do occur, are given, and are accepted. 
 Generally a statesman is paid in honor, though some- 
 times he does not get that before it is too late. 
 
 Other persons, too, engage themselves in pursuits
 
 SPECIAL LEARNING. 91 
 
 •which are of very great use to mankind ; but they often 
 do not find their services saleable, either because nobody 
 sees their useftilness, or because everybody sees the use- 
 folness, and everybody is able, after being shown the 
 way, to do what these people have ft)und out. It is very 
 often the case that something which it is very hard to 
 find out at first, is very easy to copy afterwards. A 
 man may give the labor of half a life to that which 
 another may imitate in five minutes. The very greatest 
 discoveries are often so very simple that people often 
 wonder why they were not found out long before. 
 Some man by his patience and shrewdness has put them 
 so completely into the hands of others, that they can 
 never be forgotten. Take, for example, the arts of 
 printing and of paper-making, and the invention of 
 steam-power. 
 
 Now there are several ways in which these persons 
 may be paid. The State — that is, the whole people of 
 any country, acting through its Government — may give 
 a reward to the inventor for the benefit he has conferred 
 on mankind. Thus a sum of money was given to Jen- 
 ner, the physician who discovered vaccination. This per- 
 son found out by patient and diligent inquiry that there 
 was a simple and safe means of preventmg a hideous 
 and dangerous disease. It is said that small-pox is a dis- 
 order which man originally caught from an animal — 
 namely, the camel ; and it was fomid that when the same 
 disease occurred in another animal, the cow, they who 
 caught it from the cow had a very mild or slight com- 
 plaint, and were afterwards safe. 
 
 After Jenner found this out, had proved the truth of 
 his discovery, and told it to others, there was nothing 
 to prevent anybody from using the remedy. Honest
 
 92 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 physicians never have secrets, always looking on those 
 who pretend to medical secrets as impostors, or as they 
 call them, quacks. They are, most probably, in the 
 right, when they hold this opinion. So of course Jen- 
 ner published his discovery. In order to reward him 
 for his services, in some degree at least, the English na- 
 tion through its Parliament voted liim a sum of money. 
 I imagine that if he could have kept it a secret, he might 
 have made a large fortune, such as is made by many who 
 discover something, make it a mystery, and are praised 
 afterwards by their' admirers, because they have grown 
 rich. 
 
 Let us take another example. Thirty years ago, or 
 rather more, a person who was employed in the English 
 Post Office thought out a new notion about the carriage 
 and delivery of letters. He argued that the carriage 
 of a letter was a small business, and that all the work 
 lay in the delivery of it. Hence he suggested that there 
 should be a uniform rate of charge for delivering letters, 
 because, the old rule that letters should be charged ac- 
 cording to distance, was founded on a mistake. Noth- 
 ing can be more simple and more clear. It is so plain 
 a principle that one wonders why it was not seen and 
 allowed long before Rowland Hill found it out. What 
 the benefit was to the people, is matter of knowledge to 
 those who are old enough to remember the old system, 
 and how they who were separated from their friends 
 had to pay a penalty for the right of sending a letter to 
 them. 
 
 Now in this case Hill could not keep his discovery a 
 prgfitable secret, since by a kind of chance wisdom, 
 letters in this and in all civilized countries besides, 
 are carried by the Government. So he made his plan
 
 SPECIAL LE ARISING. 93 
 
 known. It was not received with gi'eat favor, and for 
 some time after it had been received and acted on, Hill 
 was made to feel that it is not always well to be wiser 
 than other people. At last, however, it was allowed 
 that the plan was really a good one. There was only 
 one way in which the inventor could be rewarded, and 
 this was by a gift of public money. It is very seldom that 
 pubUc money has been so well bestowed.
 
 LESSON XX. 
 
 Uq-VENTIONS AXD BOOKS. 
 
 I HAVE told you of one way in which a great public 
 service, when it cannot be otherwise paid for, is some- 
 times rewarded. There is another and a far commoner 
 way. The ingenuity of man has been directed into the 
 finding out the art of making all sorts of things prop- 
 erty — that is, of putting a limit on the use which may be 
 made of such things. Sometimes this artificial limita- 
 tion has taken the form of compelling the public at large 
 to buy nothing except what has been made in the coun- 
 try, or at least of putthig an extra price in the shape of 
 a tax on that which has been produced in other coun- 
 tries. In the history of this country, a man or a com- 
 pany of men has sometimes conquered a territory, and 
 has been permitted in return to have the sole right of 
 selling certain articles in or from that country. Some- 
 times none but those who have gone through a certain 
 course of education, and have been duly certified as 
 knowing a particular art or craft, are allowed to practise 
 the art. Sometimes persons have this privilege because 
 they have been for a certain number of times in a dining- 
 room. Sometimes the person who has written a book, 
 or invented some useful thing, is permitted, on cona .aon
 
 IN^*ENTIOXS AND BOOKS. 95 
 
 of his publishing the book, or giving an exact descrip- 
 tion of what he has invented, and how he makes it, to 
 have the sole rig-ht of selling book or invention for a 
 fixed niunber of years. 
 
 There is a defence given for these privileges. It is 
 said — and perhaps in past times it might have been said 
 with truth — that unless persons had this protection or 
 assistance for special industry or intelligence, the world 
 would never have made any progress whatever in art or 
 science. Be this true or not, it is certain that whenever 
 any check is put on any man, so that he cannot exercise 
 his own judgment or choice in Avhat he wants to make, 
 to sell, or to buy, reason should be shown why the re- 
 straint is good for the people at large. 
 
 In this lesson I shall speak of the last two kinds of 
 property created by law. There are the right which 
 an author has to print his own books, and the right which 
 an inventor has to the profit of his own inventions. 
 Both these rights are secured by law — could not indeed 
 be secured in any other way ; for it is plain that when 
 an author prints a book, there is nothing in nature to 
 prevent another person from jjrinting it anew ; or when 
 a machinist sells a machine, or other invention, from 
 another person copying what he has made. Now it is 
 manifest that in either case the second person, supposing 
 that he is able to sell the book or the machine as easily 
 and as readily as the author and inventor can, would be 
 using the labor of either to his own advantage, and at 
 no cost to himself This seems like robbery, for rob- 
 bery is getting property for which a man has never 
 worked, and to which he has no right. 
 
 If it can be sho^vn that the right to exercise one's 
 own judgment in the choice of one's own industry may
 
 96 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 lead a man into taking another person's work without 
 paying for it, and therefore may seriously hinder very 
 valuable labor, the case in favor of giving an author or 
 an inventor a legal property in his book, or in his inven- 
 tion, is quite made out. There are, indeed, some persons 
 who ai'gue that an author is very considerably protected 
 by the fact of his being the first to sell the woi'k he 
 writes, and that he would be perfectly protected if no- 
 body were able to reprint his book with his name. So 
 it is said, on the other hand, that no invention is ever the 
 produce of one man's mind, but of several, and that the 
 legal right of sole sale only confers on one person a prop- 
 erty which is just as much the right of several other 
 persons. 
 
 There is a difference between a book and an inven- 
 tion. The author of a book uses a material which is 
 common to any man — namely, the words of a particulat 
 language, and sometimes facts which are every one's 
 right ; as, for example, when he compiles a history. But 
 the rest of the labor is wholly his own. He chooses the 
 words he uses, and he originates, or supplies from his 
 own mind, the arguments or comments which he con- 
 structs or makes. Sometimes he has only taken the 
 language, as when he is a poet. Now it will be clear 
 that no two persons could by any probability have thought 
 of using the same words in the same way. If, for ex- 
 ample, a man were to publish a drama word for word 
 the same as one of Shakspeare's, and say that he never 
 read Shakspeare's works, but that by some strange 
 chance he had thought exactly and written exactly as 
 Shakspeare did, we should know what to think of him. 
 Nay, if there were sentences in the drama resembling 
 those of Shakspeare, we should not believe him if he
 
 ESrVENTIONS AND BOOKS. 97 
 
 asserted ever so stronfjly that thpy were his own com 
 position. 
 
 But it is quite possible for two persons, or more than 
 two, to have made at the same time the same invention. 
 There are those who say that there never has been any 
 great discovery made in art or science, except by more 
 than one person ; that the difference between a book and 
 an invention is total on this point. It is also said that 
 while it is very easy to reprint a book, it is not so easy 
 to copy a machine, and that therefore there is more necil 
 of protection in the former than in the latter. 
 
 However this may be, the law creates a right of prop- 
 erty in books and inventions, calling the one copyright, 
 the other patent-right. The first of these belongs to the 
 book directly it is published, and after the fulfilment of cer- 
 tain conditions. The latter belongs to an invention only 
 after a legal form is gone through, which is attended 
 with no little expense. In general, the duration of the 
 property in an invention is much shorter than that in a 
 book; and it may be added the right which the law 
 creates is generally more valuable in the foi'mer than in 
 the latter case. 
 
 The law also ci*eates a property in a name or a sym- 
 bol. If, for example, an author or a publisher starts a 
 magazine or newspaper imder a certain name, the law 
 will not allow another person to take that name. In the 
 same way the law will not permit the imitation of a 
 trade maik. Xow the reason for this is twofold. In 
 part, the adoption of a* name or symbol which another 
 person has made his own, and which he will of course 
 take care to make distinctive or peculiar, is an invasion 
 of that which may be called his property. In part, it is 
 a fraud which nearly resembles forgerv — that is. the irai- 
 5
 
 98 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 latiou of a person's signature ©n an order to pay money 
 The offence is not so serious, because a successful for- 
 gery is a total fraud, against which no pains would se- 
 cure any one 5 while an imitation of a trade mark mere- 
 ly substitutes one man's goods for another's.
 
 LESSON XXI. 
 
 EESTEAINTS OJST BUYING AND SELLING. 
 
 I MENTIONED that there were various ways in which 
 the Government or the laws of a country give special 
 assistance to certain industries, and that these privileges 
 are accorded on the j^lea that the public good is served 
 by that restraint on the freedom of others which the 
 grant of a privilege always implies. It is probably for 
 the good of the people at large that the right of prac- 
 ticing medicine is confined to those who have obtained 
 a certificate of proficiency, and that the rule which holds 
 good in physic might be extended with advantage to 
 other callings. At present, however, these restrictions 
 on freedom of industry are rather lessened than increased 
 in number. 
 
 A hundred years ago, there was hardly a single call- 
 ing, with the exception of farm labor, which any person 
 could enter on without having been an apprentice, and 
 sometimes Avithout becoming the member of a trade 
 com])anj. There are parts of Europe — as for example 
 in Southwestern Grcrmany — wiiere such a rule holds to 
 the present day. It appears that the custom is not a 
 good one, and that such privileged labor is apt to become 
 very incompetent, and lacking in enterprise. 
 
 Similarly, there is no country in the world, except
 
 100 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 England, where other people have the right of buying 
 and selling to the best advantage, that is, without any- 
 artificial restrictions. If an Englishman wishes to buy 
 a coat or a pair of shoes, he has the right to purchase 
 either a London, or a country, or a foreign article at his 
 pleasure. In other countries, however, it is the general 
 rule that either the people are wholly forbidden to buy 
 from foreigners, or are obliged to pay a heavy tax if 
 they still have so good an opinion of foreign goods that 
 they will have them, even at the increased price.* 
 
 Now it is quite clear that when such a hindrance is 
 put on the person who wishes to supply himself with 
 what he wants, a loss is put on him. If the customer's 
 
 * It must be said, however, in regard to this view, that a good 
 many people in America and Europe, believe that it is of consid- 
 erable advantage to the community to oblige buyers to get their 
 goods from their immediate neighbors, rather than from tlie for- 
 eign manufacturers. 
 
 They claim that while the buyer for the moment pays more 
 for the goods, the community to which he belongs is benefited by 
 having the articles manufactured and used at home, and that the 
 general welfare must be considered, rather than that of the indi- 
 vidual buyer. 
 
 The question is a very complicated one, and cannot be dis- 
 cussed here. Those who believe that buying and selling should be 
 unrestricted by the Government, are called Free-traders. Those 
 who claim that foreign goods should be taxed, so that as many ar- 
 ticles as possible should be manufactured at home, are called Pro- 
 tectionists. The writer of this book is a Free-trader. At the 
 present date, 1872, England is the only country whose Government 
 has adopted in full what are called Free-trade principles. Holland 
 and Belgium have adopted them in part, while France, Germany, 
 Spain, Italy, and the United States have, by placing greater or 
 smaller taxes upon foreign goods, followed the theories of the pro- 
 tectionists. — ^Editor.
 
 IlESTRAINTS ON BUYING AND SELLING. 101 
 
 own country could sell him articles as cheap and good as 
 the foreign coimtry can, there would be no need to put 
 the restraint on him, and the restraint would not be put 
 on him. No one in France Avould think of putting a 
 tax on English wine, because England makes no wine 
 which is as good as that which France makes. No 
 Chinese would think of taxing English tea, no Austra- 
 lian of taxing English meat. Any restramt, then, which 
 is put on a customer is a certain loss. 
 
 Again, it is clear that when the tax is first put on, it 
 is a gain to the man who makes or, at least, to the man 
 who has a stock of the articles. If any man could com- 
 pel everybody in his neighborhood to deal at his shop, 
 he would make a large profit, as long as there was no 
 other shop to compete with him. For a time at least, 
 then, this restraint is a* gain to the dealer. But Avhen 
 people find out that great profits can be made out of any 
 trade, they are eager to engage in it, and thus it con- 
 stantly happens that the poorest and the least prosper- 
 ous business is that which the law favors, by compelling 
 the people to trade only in a narrow market. 
 
 The loss, then, always falls on the buyer, and after a 
 time the 2;ain does not remain with the seller. Some 
 one always loses, and in the end no person gains. Why, 
 then, should such a system be undertaken at all, and why 
 should it be carried on, when its effects are found out ? 
 
 Of course I do not take into account such cases as 
 those in which men, having influence in a Government, 
 knowingly put a loss on others in order to get a gain 
 tliemselves. Such things have happened, and Avill hap- 
 pen again, as long as strong men are dishonest, and other 
 men are weak or ignorant. Except for the fact that 
 such acts have the form of law on their side, they are 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
 
 102 SOCLiL ECONOMY. 
 
 just as much robbery as though a man picked one's 
 pocket in the street, or stole one's money from one's 
 house. 
 
 But these laws or customs are defended on the 
 ground that it is desirable to have all kinds of industry 
 planted in a country. Now if the industry is necessary 
 to the defence of a country, there is great force in this 
 reasoning. But then, we may depend on it that, unless 
 the Government is very much to blame, they will be un- 
 dertaken. If they are not, it is just as absurd for the 
 law to order the work of the nation, as it is for it to or- 
 der the work of a particular person, or as it Avould be 
 for any person to try to do every thing for himself — grow 
 his own food, make his own clothes, build his o'mi house, 
 and fashion his own tools — because he does not like to 
 depend on others for the better and cheaper supply of 
 these articles. In short, it is to prefer savage to civil- 
 ized life. 
 
 An industry which will pay on its own merits always 
 springs up in a country as soon as the advantage of fol- 
 lowing it is found out, and this is quite soon enough. 
 Further, any country has a great advantage over every 
 other country in two ways. It can supply the same 
 goods without the cost of carriage. The home laborer 
 knows better than the foreigner does how much of the 
 article, and what quality of the article, is wanted. Now 
 to take to the industry before it can be supplied cheaper 
 and better at home than it can be from abroad, is to 
 Avaste one's industry. 
 
 When, however, the tax is laid on, and the industry 
 has been forced to grow, just as tropical plants may be 
 made to grow in an English hothouse, it may be the case 
 that an alteration in the law will do mischief to those
 
 RESTEAmTS ON BUYING AND SELLING. 103 
 
 who have been induced to trust to the law. It is a very 
 hard thing to get rid of a law which creates such inter- 
 ests as would not naturally exist. It is like stripping 
 oil* the roof of a hothouse, and leaving the plants within 
 it to struggle, if they can, against a climate to which 
 they are unsuited. Fortunately, indeed, man is more 
 able to accommodate himself to hardship than a hothouse 
 plant is to frost ; and moreover, no one industry is so 
 wholly unlike others as to render it impossible for the 
 Avorkman to betake himself to another calling when the 
 assistance the law gave his old labor is withdrawn.. 
 
 Two great countries have latterly passed through 
 terrible wars. In the one, the nation was victorious — if, 
 indeed, there can be said to be a victory in a civil war. 
 In the other, it Avas vanquished. Both incurred great 
 debts, Avhich it is necessary to pay. The one, m order 
 to find money, put heavy taxes on foreign goods, believ- 
 ing that it Avould greatly assist home industry. The 
 hope has been disappointed, for the home industry has 
 been far from flourishing, and the foreign trade of the 
 country, except in those articles which are not assisted, 
 has been ruined. 
 
 The other country has incurred a debt almost as vast 
 as that of the United States. It has borrowed money in 
 order to pay the debt, and has therefore to pay interest 
 on its loans. Its statesmen, though they have the exam- 
 jile of the American Republic before them, seem bent 
 on following a disastrous example. The consequence of 
 such a plan is as certain as that of any natural law can 
 be. It will ruin foreign trade. Mill inflict great losses 
 on the people, and in the end be a gain to no one.
 
 LESSON xxn. 
 
 PUBLIC CHARITIES. 
 
 There is yet another kind of industry to which 
 society or the State grants assistance, or to which it al- 
 lows the grant of assistance on the part of j^rivate bene- 
 factors. I have already told you of the aid which the 
 State gives directly to those who are able to do a public 
 service which is of great value, but which is not saleable. 
 I am now about to tell you of that aid which the State 
 allows other people to give, under the name of endow- 
 ments or public charities. These endowments are por- 
 tions of property, the income of which is devoted for- 
 ever to certain public purposes. 
 
 Now there are two objections which can always be 
 made to such gifts, One is, that it is not expedient to 
 allow any kind of proj)erty to be taken always out of 
 the mai'ket, jjarticularly if such property is one which is 
 by nature limited in quantity, such as land. There al- 
 ways should be strong proof shown that the end of such 
 permission is very good, before any person is allowed, 
 however excellent his motives may be, to bind all men 
 afterwards not to bring a particular quantity of property 
 into the market. Any intei-ference with selling or buy- 
 ing needs a defence. But if a charity is to be perpetual, 
 it is necessary to grant this restraint over some kinds of 
 property.
 
 PUBLIC CHARITIES. 105 
 
 Kext, the gift of these charities, in case they are 
 bestowed on those Avho earn money by teaching, or get 
 money for learninii that which they will turn to iirofit- 
 able account afterwards, always lowers the earnings of 
 others who do not share in the charity. The same fact 
 holds good in the case of ordinary wages, if any public 
 charity gives aid to ordinary laborers. 
 
 The reason is the following : The payment of labor 
 depends generally on the cost of rendering the laborer 
 fit for his employment, and on the number of persons 
 who seek for the employment. Now if some aid is 
 given to a particular employment, the advantage of fol- 
 lowing it is greater than it is in others, and more per- 
 sons press mto it. If, moreover, the endowment is of 
 such a character as to contain such prizes as give a show 
 of chance or luck to it, the employment to which it is 
 tied is always more attractive than one the rewards of 
 which are merely uniform or every-day. 
 
 Now just this sort of result happens in the case of 
 those endowments which are given in aid of teachers. 
 Those who get them are esteemed fortimate, however 
 deserving they may be. Hence there are many persons 
 willing to undertake the calling of a teacher. Still the 
 income of the charity is to be reckoned up with all the 
 wages which teachers earn. But the recompense is very 
 unequally divided. Some have their earnings increased 
 by the aid of the charity ; but others have their earnings 
 diminished — that is, do not get so much as they avouM 
 have got had there been no charity at all. If no person 
 got any thing from the charity, the earnings of all who 
 are not assisted would rise, and the earnings of all would 
 be equal in the case of all who have the same power and 
 skill. 
 
 5*
 
 106 SOCIAL ECOisroMir. 
 
 So it is with charities given in aid of other wages 
 What a man eai'ns must be sufficient to maintain him in 
 heahh, to enable him to bring up children, to provide 
 against tlie risk of sickness, and the certainty of old age. 
 If the law informs him that in case he is unable to do 
 so, it will maintain his children, will keep and cure him 
 when sick, and provide him a home in old age, his 
 wages will fall, even though he never takes advantage 
 of the offer. From one point of view, poor-rates are 
 really paid by those laborers who come within the class 
 to whom poor-law relief is a help, because their wages 
 are lowered by the pledge of assistance. 
 
 If, again, children are educated at the cost of a charity, 
 the other rule which I have so often laid down comes 
 into operation. The cost of rearing and teaching labor 
 is lowered, and with it the wages are lowered. It is 
 true that the person who has gained the benefit of the 
 charity gets far more than he would get, if no persons 
 but such as are reared by the charity entered into the 
 employment. But those who are reared at private cost 
 got less than they would if the whole of those who enter 
 the employment were reared at private cost. You will, 
 of course, remember that when I am speaking in this 
 manner, I am thinking of such knowledge or skill as 
 commonly gets employment in consideration of its use- 
 fulness. 
 
 If, therefore, the consequence of a charity is that it 
 interferes to some extent with the market of property, 
 if it tends to lower wages, and is certain to make the 
 payment of those who are not assisted lower than would 
 have been the case had no assistance been given to any 
 one, what good are these charities at all ? 
 
 There was, no doubt, a time in which the value of
 
 PUBLIC CHARITIES. 107 
 
 education and learning was scarcely admitted at all. 
 Had they been left to those who could afford to pursue 
 them for their own sake, they would, perhaps, have 
 never been cultivated at all, or probably would have 
 been cultivated A^ery rarely. In those days, an endow- 
 ment in aid of learning was a real public good; it 
 afforded leisure and the means of life to those who 
 busied' themselves with something which was very useful, 
 but for which there was no market. Whatever may be 
 said for these charities now, there was a time in which 
 they had a great value. 
 
 But at all times there are special branches of learning 
 which have a great value, and yet are not marketable. 
 The endowment which is 2;iven to such kinds of learning: 
 is now doing that which, in old days, these charities did 
 for every kind of learning. You can see what the 
 benefit to society would be if a man could discover some 
 new force or process Avhith would greatly savo human 
 labor. If it were possible to find a man who could give 
 labor to such a discovery, it would be money well laid 
 out to give him the leisure for the purpose. 
 
 Much more can be said for those endowments which 
 are ccivcn in aid of those who are taucrht. It is more 
 easy to show how riches can be and are gathered, than 
 to show how they can be fairly divided or distributed. 
 Now it very often liappens that young people have 
 great gifts of natural power, great force of character, 
 and great willingness to learn. Poverty, however, and 
 the lack of means by which they can be trained till such 
 time as their powers can be made mature, are great. 
 liind ranees to the progress of those whom everybody 
 would wish to see prospering. 
 
 Now these charitiesf are or could be made a \ cry
 
 108 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 powerful means for selecting and training such young 
 people. A good system of education, and a wise man- 
 ao-ement of these charities, would make the road easy 
 to many a dihgent child ; nor will a system of educa- 
 tion be perfect till such a scheme is worked out. Men 
 of science do not grudge the spending of money on 
 searching into all forms of Nature. But no discovery 
 is more pleasing than that of good gifts of abUity and 
 character in children, and no money is better laid out 
 than in forwarding such deserving persons. 
 
 >i»'.
 
 LESSON xm. 
 
 THE WOEK OF GOVERXMEN'T. 
 
 B r this time, I suppose, my readers will have foimd 
 out that it is an error to imagine that work can be got 
 ■without paying for it. There are, no doubt, some great 
 services which are done to mankind, but for which no 
 wages are ever paid. There are some persons, again, 
 who devote themselves to works of charity and well- 
 doing, who neither exj^ect reward nor would accept it 
 if it were offered them ; and there are, moreover, many 
 ways in which persons may be paid for their services, 
 apart from the common mode in which men are re- 
 warded for Avork. But the rule holds good, that in some 
 way or another most of those who work earn wages. 
 
 Now some of the most important work which can be 
 done is performed by the Government of a country. It 
 undertakes the defence of the whole people, either by 
 police and courts of justice against those who break the 
 peace or commit frauds at home, or by an army and navy 
 against the passion of conquest in which States are 
 sometimes apt to indulge. It controls education, gives 
 relief to the destitute, and sits in judgment upon cases 
 where people are likely to have a mistaken vicAV of their 
 own interests. Whether it always does what is best is 
 a question ; but it always does that which those who 
 have the gi*eatest power and influence think is best.
 
 110 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 Again, it sometimes undertakes the management of 
 a kind 'of work itself. Thus it always regulates the 
 coins of the country, and frequently takes ujDon itself 
 the business of issuing those pieces of paper which, as I 
 mentioned in a former lesson, can, imder certain cir- 
 cumstances and under certain rules, be made to act as 
 money. So, again, in every civilized country, the Gov- 
 ernment undertakes the collection and distribution of 
 letters. In many countries it does the same thing by 
 the conveyance of persons and goods, for it takes rail- 
 ways in hand. Sometimes, as in England, it establishes 
 bajnks for the poor. At times it lends money to per- 
 sons who wish to improve property, or even to acquire 
 property. 
 
 Now it is very easy to see why a Government undei*- 
 takes some of these duties. We have already found 
 out that human labor is always best bestowed when per- 
 sons occupy themselves with some one business, and tliat 
 to try a dozen things, unless under necessity, is to do 
 the whole dozen ill. If, therefore, it would be a waste 
 and an inconvenience for a man to undertake the defence 
 of his own home, property, and person against domestic 
 and foreign enemies, it is expedient to commit this office 
 to some one else. But to whom could it be committed 
 except to a Government which has the power to compel 
 the strictest discipline, and if it be so disj^osed, can do 
 the work in the best and the cheapest manner ? 
 
 In short, a whole society may be compared to a vast 
 factory, eveiy one of the workmen in which is occupied 
 in some industry for the general good. But it is neces- 
 sary that over the whole of this huge partnership some 
 management should be established, the officers of which 
 should see that each man is allowed to do his work with
 
 THE WORK OF GOVERNMENT. HI 
 
 the least possible hindrance and loss, that the whole of 
 those who exercise their industry, should do so with the 
 greatest possible safety ; and that each person should feel 
 that right will be done him, in case he thinks that wrong 
 has been put upon him. The managers of this great 
 partnership engage to maintain peace and order in the 
 interests of all, and to check and control all whose con- 
 duct would throw the safe and constant working of the 
 partnership out of gear. 
 
 It is not easy to say when a Government should take 
 upon itself to hire laborers in order to perform indus- 
 tries which priA'ate persons or private partnerships can 
 undertake. Three causes, however, may induce this 
 kind of action. A Government may hire labor, and 
 manufacture or perform a public service, either because 
 it cannot trust ordmary traders ; or because the work 
 can be done at a cheaper rate by Government than it can 
 by private enterprise ; or because the necessary spirit of 
 enterprise is wanting. 
 
 Unluckily, honesty bears a price. Peoj^le are obliged 
 to pay for that which only exists in limited quantity, and 
 which it is at the same time very necessary to get. Now 
 the habits of some persons, owing to the negligence of 
 law, are so dishonest, that it is difficult to say whether 
 you can trust their word at all when they pretend to sell 
 genuine goods. Frauds and adulterations are part of 
 the stock-in-trade of some men. But it is not difficult 
 to see that a Government may be put to serious incon- 
 venience, and a nation to great danger by the roguery 
 of such tradesmen. Suppose this nation were forced to 
 go to war, and found that the powder which it had 
 bought was bad, because the manufacturer had cheated 
 the nation, or that the preserved meat was unwholesome,
 
 112 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 or the bread made of bad flour, tlie country might be 
 brought to the verge of ruin Cases of this kind have 
 often happened, and in view of this danger, it may be. 
 and it has often been, necessary for the Government to 
 do this kind of work for itself 
 
 In the second place, a Government dealing with a 
 public service on the largest possible scale, may do the 
 work more cheaply and efiectually than any private com- 
 pany can. A trade partnership could undertake the 
 business of the Post Office, but it is very doubtful 
 whether it would distribute letters with such cheapness, 
 accuracy, and disj^atch, as the Government does. 
 
 In the third place, the spirit of enterprise may be 
 weak in a society. The subscription of private capital 
 has constx-ucted English and American railways ; but in 
 every other cotmtry such works have been undertaken 
 by Government, either in whole or in part. And even 
 in the United States, the great Pacific Railroad, com- 
 pletmg the line across the Continent, was largely assist- 
 ed by the Government. So Government has made and 
 maintained roads, erected public buildings, undertaken 
 irrigation on a large scale, reclaimed waste land. Among 
 an active and enterprising people such work would be 
 superfluous or even mischievous, but when an important 
 object has to be attained, it is not always wise for the 
 State to wait till private persons take it in hand.
 
 LESSON XXIV. 
 
 TAXES. 
 
 If a GoYernment does a service, it must, like eveiy 
 one else, be paid for doing it. It may possess an estate, 
 the rents of which may be sufficient for meeting the 
 charges to which it is put for performing the service 
 which it undertakes. Sometimes this happens to a lim- 
 ited extent in this country. There are many ancient 
 towns which possess large estates, the value of which 
 has been greatly increased by the demand for building 
 sites. But no general Government has ever had an es- 
 tate sufficiently large to meet the expenses which are 
 thought necessary for carrying on the various duties 
 which a Government fulfils. 
 
 Recourse must therefore be had to some other 
 source of income. The several persons who live in a 
 community are called upon to contribute something out. 
 of their means towards the cost of a service which is a 
 benefit to everybody : in other words, they pay taxes. 
 
 You will see at once why some taxes are put upon 
 the inhabitants of certain places, and not on the whole 
 nation. For example : suppose the land in any district 
 of New Jersey were being washed away by the sea, as 
 it is occasionally on the coast, and that by some outlay
 
 114 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 the waste of land might be stopped. In this case the 
 people who live in Chicago should not be called on to 
 pay towards saving the property of the people who pos- 
 sess land in those maritime counties : the necessary ex- 
 penses should be met by a local rate. 
 
 Again, it is no doubt desirable in the minds of all 
 who have any idea of what is the public good, that pau- 
 perism should be checked, and that crime should be de- 
 tected and punished. To a certain extent both these so- 
 cial evils affect everybody : but they ought to affect the 
 place where they occur most of all — pauperism almost en- 
 tirely, crime to a great extent. It is the wise and just 
 rule of our law that such a system should be adopted. 
 The State aids the cost of pauperism a little, the cost of 
 crime a great deal. The locality pays the greater part 
 of the charges incurred for the first, and a considerable 
 amount of the cost incurred for the second. 
 
 But, on the other hand, if the tax is devoted to pur- 
 poses which benefit everybody, the tax should be col- 
 lected from everybody, in so far as each person can pay 
 it. The public defence is a matter of universal benefit. 
 The invasion of an enemy may destroy the property of 
 the wealthy, it is sure to stop the industry of the poor, 
 who suffer even more than the rich by the miseries of 
 war. Let us suppose, again, that part of the work of 
 Government consists in rewarding those who have done 
 some special benefit to their fellow-countrymen. Here 
 also the whole nation should pay for that by which the 
 whole nation is benefited. 
 
 There is then, apart from another consideration, which 
 I shall refer to presently, a great propriety in distinguish- 
 ing between taxes which are paid by the inhabitants of 
 particular regions, and which ^re called local, and taxes
 
 TAXES. 115 
 
 •which are paid by the whole community, because they 
 are employed for piirposes which are called imperial, or 
 national. The distinction is founded on the fact, that 
 people pay taxes in order to obtain some real or sup- 
 posed benefit. 
 
 The other consideration, which could not, except for 
 the last-named reason, be of very great weight, but 
 which, taken with that reason, is of great value, is that 
 the local collection and expenditure of taxes promotes 
 saving and educates jieople to carry on the government 
 under Avhich they live, and to understand its working. 
 If all the taxes needed for public purposes in the United 
 States were paid into one vast treasury, and spent by 
 some board or boards situated in "Washington, there 
 would certainly be great waste, and everybody but those 
 who managed matters in these boards would be un- 
 trained in public business. Now no country has ever 
 yet succeeded in obtaining real freedom where there has 
 been no local Government, but where every thing has 
 been done by the central Government. 
 
 The benefit of protection is general, and the cost 
 ought as far as possible to be met by payments from all. 
 At first sight it would seem as though women and chil- 
 dren were more protected than strong men are. In a 
 sense, perhaps, they are. But a little inquiry will show 
 that everybody is so much protected by a good and 
 wise Government, that the diiference between the help 
 given to one and to another is not worth reckoning. 
 The eflEect of insecurity is to take away strength from 
 all industry, enjoyment from all property. If society 
 were at the mercy of violence, the strongest man would 
 be only a little more helpful than a child. 
 
 Of course, it is the business of a Government to
 
 116 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 make the cost as light as possible. Every tax that a 
 person pays is so much taken away from his power of 
 enjoyment, and every man has a natural right to enjoy 
 the fruits of his labor. At any rate, it is clear that if 
 the right of such an enjoyment were denied him, he 
 would be in the condition of a slave, and as we have al- 
 ready seen, a slave has only the lowest motives for ex- 
 ertion, and no motives for improvement. 
 
 All cost is so much taken away from enjoyment. It 
 cost far more labor to our forefathers to get the neces- 
 saries and comforts of life than it costs us, and as a con- 
 sequence their enjoyments were fewer. It is impossible 
 for labor to be carried on without cost, but the inge- 
 nuity of man is always directed towards making the 
 cost as light as can be. So it is impossible for Govern- 
 ment to be carried on without taxes, but it is the duty 
 of Government to make the taxes as few as possible, 
 and such as distress the peojDle who pay them, as little 
 as possible. 
 
 I have compared society to a great partnership in 
 which the government are the managers. You will see 
 from what I have already said in this lesson, that the 
 comparison is made more clear by the way in which taxes 
 are collected, and by the principle which ought to guide 
 those who put taxes on the people. To take a tax for 
 some purpose which does not benefit all who are in the 
 partnership, would be a wrong; to lay more taxes on 
 the people than are sufficient to manage the great part- 
 nership, would be a waste — would be to pay one kind of 
 labor more than its due. But it is plainly out of the 
 question to imagine that the management could be car- 
 i-ied on without cost or expense. All good service 
 must be paid for, and wise government is the best of 
 service.
 
 LESSON XXV. 
 
 WHAT DO TAXES COME FROM? 
 
 Everybody who gets the aid of Government should 
 bear a portion of its expenses. But it is plain that those 
 who have nothing cannot pay. A person who is main- 
 tained at the public charge, Avithout being able to do any 
 work in return for his maintenance, can pay nothing 
 except in so far as those who maintain him pay taxes on 
 his behalf So those who can earn nothing, but are 
 maintained from private sources, pay to the needs of the 
 State only through their relatives and friends, 
 
 Now this very plain fact leads us to a very important 
 rule. The only source from which a person can pay a 
 tax, is from that portion of his earnings which is over 
 and above the cost qf his own subsistence, and the cost 
 of those whom he must maintain by his labor. In our 
 country it is seldom the case that the earnings of people 
 leave them nothing whatever to pay in taxes. Some 
 people allow themselves to pay a great deal more than 
 they ought to pay, if they considered the true needs of 
 themselves and their children. But it is rarely th6 case 
 that a man's income is wholly consumed in bare neces- 
 saries, and that he has nothing left for enjoyment. Such 
 men, then, can and do pay taxes ; it may be very little, 
 but they generally pay something.
 
 118 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 Some taxes are paid of a man's own free will — /.c, 
 he can avoid paymg them if he chooses. No man need 
 drink beer, wine, or spirits, or smoke tobacco against 
 his will ; and it is certain that he can contrive to live 
 without the use of any of these. In the same way, tea 
 and coffee are not absolute necessaries of life, though 
 they have become such very familiar comforts that they 
 may be almost called necessaries. Sugar, on the other 
 hand, is a necessary of life ; it is a kind of food, and a 
 very important kmd of food too. Now these articles 
 are nearly the only objects on the use of which the 
 Government of tliis country lays any taxes. 
 
 Some taxes, however, are paid whether a man wills 
 or not. Most local taxes, poor-rates, house-tax, and the 
 like are of this kind. So is a tax on a man's earnings, 
 or his prof)erty, taken from the annual income of the 
 former, or on the value of the latter. Such also are taxes 
 levied on business, as on buying and selling. It is im- 
 l^ossible to carry on the affairs of life without buying 
 and selling. 
 
 Generally, however, small houses, low earnings, and 
 little business dealings are not taxed. Perhaps the rea- 
 son is that it would cost too much to collect them ; per- 
 haps it is seen that they would tend to cripple business , 
 perhaps it is allowed that there is a class of persons who 
 should not be made liable to pay taxes which they can- 
 not avoid, because they have little more than enough to 
 live on. 
 
 It' will be clear, then, that if all taxes were put upon 
 the earnings of people, and none on their spendings, the 
 tax would be much heavier in the case of a man Avho 
 has a family of children to keep, than it would be on 
 one who has none ; and would be much heavier also in
 
 ^TIAT DO TAXES COME FROM? 119 
 
 the case of a man who cannot earn his income without 
 great outgoings, than in that of a man whose income 
 comes to him without any outlay whatever. A man 
 who can choose his own expenses, and who is constrained 
 to meet certain regular demands on him, may keep 
 within compass. But if his expenses are fixed by some 
 other will than his own, as would be the case if the 
 taxes he j^ays were laid on his earnings and not on his 
 spendings, it may very well happen that the tax he pays 
 may press severely on his means. 
 
 Again, it will be clear that the tax which is paid by 
 a man of small earnings, is felt to be harder than a far 
 larger tax paid by a man of large earnings or large in 
 come, if it be the case that the jjoorer man is imable to 
 avoid the tax. The sacrifice which poverty makes is fai 
 greater than that Avhich wealth makes, just as the charity 
 of the poor is greater self-denial than the gifts of the 
 rich. A tax of fifty cents a week out of five dollars 
 earnings, is a much more serious affair than taxes of five 
 dollars a week out of an income of five thousand dollars 
 a year. And when the wealth of the taxpayer is still 
 greater, the sacrifice is still less. 
 
 Men M^hose incomes are very little may, however, 
 pay a veiy large part of the taxes of a country; foi 
 though the earnings of each may be small, they become 
 when added up a vast sum. The same rule holds good 
 in their spendings. It has been reckoned that half tlie 
 taxes of England are paid by people ^\'hose earnings are 
 under ten dollars a Aveek. They would, no doubt, be 
 vastly better off if they saved a portion of that which 
 they spend ; but the amount which they do spend in tax- 
 paying articles of their own free choice, is so great, that 
 if it were saved, it would keep half the work of the
 
 120 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 country going on. So vast is this amount, that it is hard 
 to say Avhat would be done, if the money received by 
 the Government from this quarter were to cease pour- 
 ing in. But it is certain that more than half the misery, 
 poverty and crime which disgrace this country — and a 
 good many other countries too — would be arrested, if 
 people forbore to spend on those articles from which 
 the Government gets so much by taxation. 
 
 Sometimes a country does not take all that it needs 
 by taxes, but borrows money, and pays interest on that 
 which it has borrowed. The reason why this is done — 
 if the true reason is given — is that when a time of great 
 difficulty arises, it would be next to impossible to get 
 what is needed by ordinary taxation. It would be bet- 
 ter to do so, but as long as the art of putting taxes on 
 is in so imperfect a state, a great increase in the expenses 
 of the Government would j^ress with the greatest sever- 
 ity on the poorer classes — that is, on those whose earn- 
 mgs very little exceed their expenses. 
 
 Most countries have borrowed great sums of money, 
 and require a great income in annual taxes to pay the 
 charge for these loans. These sums have not always 
 been borrowed for the wisest purposes. Perhaps as 
 time goes on, and nations get to be wiser, and rulers get 
 wiser also, the disposition to enter upon projects which 
 require wasteful borrowing will be a great deal checked. 
 It is to be hoped that it will be ; for there is no doubt 
 that in the long run, a country which has no debts, and 
 therefore comparatively slight taxes, will win in the race 
 against others which have incurred debts, and have 
 therefore put on heavy taxes.
 
 LESSON XXVI. 
 
 THE PUNISHMENT OF CEIME. 
 
 Why do men pxinisli crime ? Why are some offences 
 chastised by law, while others which are often very mis- 
 chievous in their consequences, are either visited by light 
 punishments, or not punished at all? 
 
 A crime is an offence agamst one individual or more, 
 or against all individuals — i.e., against the community at 
 large. To the former class belong acts of violence or 
 fraud committed on any person or persons ; to the latter, 
 acts which offend against society itself Now there is a 
 constant tendency to treat offences against persons as 
 being offences against society, and to neglect to com- 
 pensate the person who has undergone harm and loss, in 
 the anxiety to chastise an offence wliich may be said to 
 injure all men who live in the same community. Nay, 
 the usages of modern law go further still ; and Govern- 
 ments engage by treaty to give up persons who have 
 committed crimes in their own country, and have fled to 
 a foreign country in order to escape detection and pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 In early times the law took notice only of the in- 
 jured person, and made it its business to assist or re- 
 compense him against a wrong-doer. In the oldest sys- 
 tems of European law, wrongs done to persons were 
 6
 
 122 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 looked on as debts incurred, and when the injury was 
 proved, the judge directed the wrong-doer to pay a sum 
 of money to the wronged person ; or in case lie could 
 not pay, adjudged him to be the slave of such a person. 
 Even murder was punished with a heavy fine only. And 
 to carry this notion out most fully, the quantity of the 
 fine vaiied with the rank of the person against whom the 
 crime was committed. 
 
 In course of time, however, another opinion began 
 to prevail. It was seen that an oifence, committed mali- 
 ciously, was not only a wrong on the person injured, but 
 a wrong to society itself So important is the mainte- 
 nance of order, and so serious are the consequences of 
 disorder, that it was plainly the duty of Government to 
 save society from these outrages. Thus if a man com- 
 mits a forgery, though this is really an attempt to cheat 
 some individual only, it was felt that this offence was so 
 mischievous to credit and good faith — which are the bonds 
 of society — that the punishment of the offence must be 
 referred to Government only. Again, no grosser wrong 
 can be conceived than wilful murder. But for many a 
 year the law has ceased to trouble itself with the injury 
 done to the family and friends of the murdered person, 
 in its anxiety to avenge the wrong done to the order and 
 security of society. 
 
 As nations become more civilized, this tendency to 
 look on offences from a social, rather than from a per- 
 sonal point of view, grows stronger, and offences are 
 constantly treated as crimes rather than as wrongs. Of 
 course there are and always will be a number of cases 
 in which the injury done to the individual is the only 
 thing to be considered, and the only thing to be righted. 
 Thus the carelessness which makes men suffer by a rail-
 
 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 123 
 
 way accident, is treated as a wrong which requires com- 
 pensation. A theft of projierty is treated as a wrong 
 against society ; but a damage done to property is gen- 
 erally looked on solely as an injury to the person whose 
 property has been diminished in value. 
 
 Some offences may be treated either as wrongs or 
 crimes. If a man libels another — that is, says something 
 of him which, being false and malicious, will injure hiui 
 in his character or his calling — the person who is wronged 
 may either try to get what are called damages for the in- 
 jury, or may treat the person as a criminal, and try to 
 get him punished. Violence done to a man's body may 
 be chastised similarly in either way. The law has not 
 yet declared, in these cases, that the mischief doiie to 
 society is greater than that done to the person Avho has 
 been the subject of the violence. 
 
 So much for the person injured. The offender, as 
 soon as it has been decided that the deed is to be treated 
 as a crime against society, is always visited with a heav- 
 ier penalty than his offence could have possibly brought 
 him gain. The reason is clear. It is the business ot 
 law, not only to right wrongs, but to frighten offenders. 
 Now the wrong is not merely loss of property, even 
 when the individual mjured is alone considered. If a 
 man robs his fellow-man of five dollars, it will not be a 
 sufficient penalty to make him pay back the five dollars, 
 for this is not the extent of the injury. He has abused 
 trust, or put another in fear, or to pain. Besides, to mere- 
 ly give back the precise amount of the loss, would be to 
 treat the wrong-doer as though he were only a debtor. 
 Now an involuntary creditor — one who has been made a 
 creditor against his will — may fairly claim more recom-
 
 124 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 pense than one who entered into an engagement with 
 another of his fi*ee choice. 
 
 But, as we have seen, he has not only put the injured 
 l^erson to a loss, but all society. He has rendered ne- 
 cessary the maintenance of a police, of courts of justice, 
 and prisons. Were there not such persons as he, all 
 these costly arrangements need not be made. His con- 
 duct is not only a loss to society, but is a disgi-ace. It 
 is to be regretted that no way has been found out by 
 which those who commit crimes on the greatest scale — 
 those who sacrifice people to warlike ambition — can be 
 punished according to their deserts. Unfortunately, 
 however, these great offences go impunished. 
 
 Under these circumstances, then, those offenders 
 whom the law does reach, are liable to pay what I may 
 call a multiplied or a double penalty. The penalty is 
 multiplied, because the offence is not to be reckoned only 
 by the direct loss which the wrong has caused to the in- 
 jured person. It is doubled, because not only the man 
 who is the object of the offence is to be considered, but 
 the security of society has to be taken into account too, 
 and the costs to which society is put for the prosecution, 
 correction, and pimishment of crime. 
 
 But there is even another reason why society should 
 seek to deter offenders. When a man is wronged by no 
 fault of his own, he is not protected as he should be by 
 that Government which guarantees his protection, and for 
 whose guarantee he pays his part towards the expenses 
 of state. To be obliged to defend a right, is to assert 
 that wi'ong has been done. If it be proved that wrong 
 has been done, it is the duty of the State to make the 
 wrong good, if possible, or least to prevent its occurring 
 again. From these motives, it sometimes happens that
 
 THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME. 125 
 
 w'Len certain crimes are committed, the law not only 
 strives to seek out and pimish the guilty persons, but 
 puts a fine on the region where the crime was committed, 
 in order that the injured person may be righted, and the 
 criminal be discovered.
 
 LESSON xxvn. 
 
 THE PEIKCIPLE OF PUiTISHMENT. 
 
 As regards the offender, then, the first motive 
 which influences the law in chastising him, is vengeance 
 and security. To avenge a wrong is a natural impulse ; 
 to commit the duty of exercising this vengeance to the 
 law, is to put it into the hands of a judge who can give 
 sentence without passion, in accordance with a rule 
 which has been laid down before the ofience was com 
 mitted. Nowadays, no one thiuks of passing a law m 
 order to punish an offence committed before the law 
 existed. And it is moreover clear that the law intends 
 by its punishments to afford security. It may, indeed, 
 err in its anxiety to obtain this security, and its punish- 
 ments may have, and have had, exactly the opposite 
 result that was intended, for excessive severity defeats 
 its own purpose. 
 
 But it has been held that the duty of the law is of a 
 higher kind, and that along with the punishment, it 
 ought to try to reform the criminal. Now there is no 
 doubt that if it can do this, it may sometimes effect a 
 great saving. Of all wasteful persons, there is none 
 more wasteful than one who is constantly leading a life 
 of crime. He is most wasteful if he is not detected and 
 punished ; but he is only a little less wastefol if he is.
 
 THE PRINCIPLE OF PUNISHMENT. 127 
 
 Still there are limits to the benevolence which seeks to 
 reform bad people at the expense of the State — that is, 
 of those who pay taxes. 
 
 Most people, perhaps nearly all people, are agreed 
 that we should try to reform youug criminals. There 
 are two reasons for this. In the first place, it may be 
 fairly said that when very yovmg peojile take to bad 
 ways, it is not quite then- own fault that they do so. In 
 ninety-nine cases out of a hundred they have had care- 
 less or bad parents. Now it is not just to punish a child 
 for his parents' fault. It used to be thought just to do 
 so, in barbarous times, but we have arrived at exactly 
 opposite views on the subject in our days, and have 
 even, perhaps, gone a little beyond what might be de- 
 manded, in order to avoid the older and barbarous rule. 
 In the next j^lace, there is sure to be a terrible loss in- 
 curred when a habit of crime begins in childhood. 
 
 It is more doubtful whether the same kind of care 
 should be shown in the case of older culprits, especially 
 when they happen to be persons who, having had a 
 chance given them, have rej^eatedly ofiended. It seems 
 hard, when there is a great amount of undeserved suffer- 
 ing in the world, that the resources of society should be 
 turned to the benefit of those who have brought upon 
 themselves whatever inconvenience they sufier. If any- 
 body is to be helped, it surely seems that help is due to 
 the deserving rather than to the undeserving. 
 
 There is yet another reason for the prevention and 
 correction of ofiences. It is a better motive than that 
 of vengeance, and even than that of afibrding security 
 to good order. The crimes of bad men are a loss to 
 society. But they are also a disgrace to it. Now there 
 IS nothing done by man which cannot be prevented by
 
 128 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 man, if it be only possible to find out the way in which 
 the prevention may take effect. Probably there are 
 many persons who never commit an offence against law 
 in their whole lives, but who owe their freedom from 
 bad actions to the fact that they are checked by a healthy 
 fear of losing their character or reputation. Now it may 
 be that there is not much hoj)e for those whose charac- 
 ter is lost already, and it may be the fact that very few 
 of those who take to dishonest courses ever mend their 
 ways. But it would be a great thing done if the evil 
 were bounded by the present generation. 
 
 The good or ill conduct of a man is a matter of srreat 
 interest to their fellow-men. It is a great mistake for 
 anybody to think that he should be merely busied with 
 his own conduct, and that he need be under no concern 
 for that of others. It is true that he may not discover 
 the exact amount of social mischief which crime and 
 vice cause, but he may be certain that mischief is caused, 
 and that his business is to check it. 
 
 It is easy to see the fact on a small scale in the man- 
 agement of a school. Perhaps order, obedience to law- 
 ful commands, regularity, good manners, mutual kindli- 
 ness, care not to wantonly hurt each other's feelings, 
 truthfulness, and similar acts of good conduct, are quite 
 as important matters of education as the school learn- 
 ing which a boy picks up from his master and in his 
 class. Every boy in school can imderstand the mischief 
 which idle, disorderly, rude, and ill-mannered boys do to 
 its discipline and success. Now no less mischief is done 
 to society at large by these and similar vices, than is 
 done to a school. They are not the less real, because 
 they are not seen so plainly. 
 
 And this leads me to the last question which I raised
 
 THE rRmCIPLE OF PUNISHMENT. 129 
 
 when I referred to the fact that many serious offences 
 are visited with light penalties, or are not punished at 
 all. 
 
 If a man tells a lie in a court of justice, when giving 
 evidence, he commits an offence* which is severely pun- 
 ished. If he tells a he when he is selling something in 
 his shop — as, for example, if he says that a particular ar- 
 ticle is genuine, when it is really adulterated, or that he 
 gives a certain measure of any thing when the quantity 
 is much below the measure — he is not pvmished at all, or 
 punished very lightly- But he may do as much mischief 
 to society by the trade lie as he does by false swearing. 
 
 So, again, if a man attacks another savagely in the 
 street, or starves his children in order to gratify a base 
 liking for drink, he very often gets off easily, or is not 
 corrected at all ; whereas, if he caused a riot, in whicli 
 far less real mischief is done than in the other cases, he 
 is treated — and justly treated — with great severity. 
 
 Now there is no doubt that the reason Avhy this neg- 
 ligence occurs is frequently due to the fact, that the law 
 does not take notice of many offences which it could and 
 should chastise. But it is still more due to the fact, that 
 it is desirable to hmit the operation of law as much as is 
 possible, due regard being had to the security and order 
 of society, and to trust as much as possible to the judg- 
 ment of what may be called jjublic consciencx) or pub- 
 lic opinion. If the disgrace which should attach to those 
 who commit offences against what society knows to be 
 right, were strong enough to deter all from evil prac- 
 tices, there would be no need for law or justice. As it 
 is, law trusts much to this influence, and in time may 
 perhaps trust more. 
 6*
 
 LESSON xxvin. 
 
 KESTKAINTS ON PREEDOM. 
 
 If a man has any right, it is that of a free control 
 over his own words, acts, and property. All that has 
 been done for mankind, either in assisting it in getting 
 its work done more easily, or in making life more safe 
 and happy, has been done by the activity of free minds. 
 Slavery makes no progress, as I have said before. Nor 
 has there ever been any thing done for the moral good 
 of man, except by those who, of their own free will, 
 have considered their neighbors' good in the first place, 
 and have thought very little of their own profit or ad- 
 vantage. They who have made men wiser and better 
 have always made great sacrifices in order to do so : for 
 there is no exercise of one's own will or freedom, which 
 is more marked than that of the man who chooses what 
 is right for its own sake, and cares nothing for the con- 
 sequences. 
 
 But it cannot be denied that freedom is of necessity 
 limited in a variety of ways. In the first place, no per 
 son can claim that his freedom should extend to allow 
 ins: him to interfere with the freedom of others. There 
 ought not to be — and properly speaking there cannot be 
 — any right in another man's wrong. If it can be shown 
 that what a man says is his, cannot be his without caus-
 
 EESTEAIXTS OX FREEDOM. 131 
 
 ing loss or misery to his neighbor, it shoukl not be liis 
 for a moment after such a loss or misery is proved to 
 come from the possession of a miscalled right. One of 
 the most manifest of rights is that of property in that 
 which is the result of one's own labor, or which has been 
 purchased by one's own labor. But if there were a 
 man in a besieged city, or to take a better instance still, 
 on a desert island, who possessed by right of property 
 all the food in the city, or all the food which had been 
 saved from the wreck of the ship, and he would not al- 
 low any of them who were with him to share in any of 
 that which is his, it is plain that in neither case would his 
 companions allow him to exercise his full rights of prop- 
 erty. In other words, they would not permit him to 
 maintain a right, the full exercise of which would cause 
 the direst misery to his neighbors. 
 
 What is true in the case I have quoted, holds good 
 in other cases. Strict right is very often grievous wrong, 
 "and cannot be endured. This maybe shoAvn m many 
 ways. It would seem to be a right that a man should 
 be able to carry on what industry he pleases on his own 
 premises. But if he carries on some trade which injures 
 the health or destroys the comfort of others, his rights 
 will be restrained. If a man possessing a vast estate 
 were to pull down every house on it, forbid its cultiva- 
 tion, and seek to make it a desert, his claim to do what 
 he wills with his own should be, and probably would be, 
 resisted, even if he were not proved to be mad. 
 
 It is true that there is generally little necessity for 
 checking the undue use of such a right as that which lias 
 been referred to just now, for no one, Ave should lliiuk, 
 but a madman, would destroy his own property. But 
 acts may be done on a small scale which society woukl
 
 132 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 not permit on a large scale. It is a difficulty to decide 
 when they are done on so large a scale as to call for the 
 interference of law. When they are so done, the Legis- 
 lature sometimes deals with the difficulty. 
 
 Again, the rights of a parent over a child are neces- 
 sary, in order that a home should be well governed. 
 But the law will not allow a father to ill-use his children, 
 to deny them the necessaries of life, and to refuse them 
 proper education. The freedom or discretion of the 
 parent may be granted, but this freedom must have its 
 limits. The same rules apply to other relations — as of 
 husband and wife, master and servant, teacher and 
 pujiil. 
 
 The best state of society is that in Avhich the greatest 
 possible liberty is given consistently with no wrong 
 beincr done to others. In so far as this result can be 
 secured by law, the statesman makes it his business to 
 decide where liberty can be allowed, and where order 
 must be maintained. He is, as it were, a judge between • 
 those who claim a right, and those who assert thai the 
 exercise of the right is a wrong. 
 
 But there are a number of instances in which the 
 liberty of the individual is in a manner restrained, 
 though no harm could accrue to society at large if he 
 used his liberty. Thus, for example, there are certain 
 demands w^hich fashion, or custom, or manners make upon 
 every person. Most Americans wear the same fashion of 
 clothes, adopt the same customs, and accept or obey 
 certain rules of politeness or good manners. No real 
 harm would happen if some persons thoiight proper to 
 wear their clothes inside out, or adopt a dress which 
 would be quite diiferent from what is usual, or followed 
 out-of-the-way customs, or practised manners different
 
 EESTRALNTS ON FEEEDOM. I33 
 
 from what most people think proper behavior. Nations 
 vary much in these particulars, and what would be 
 right conduct in some countries, would be considered 
 very strange and, perhaps, improper in this. Why- 
 should such restraints be put on the freedom of people ? 
 
 The fact is that the usages and customs of life are 
 part of that training by which people get the most diffi- 
 cult of all accomplishments — the habit of self-restraint 
 or self-control. It does not follow that this habit is 
 peculiar to civilized people only. There are savage or 
 half-savage races who are most carefully polite and self- 
 restrained. This is i^eculiarly the character of the Red 
 Indian tribes of North America, who are nevertheless 
 so uncivilized, in the full sense of the word, that they 
 seem to be incapable of adopting a settled life. 
 
 That man or boy is not very likely to be worth much 
 to the society in which he lives, who has no respect for 
 the good opinion of others, or who is indiiferent to their 
 just censure. A proper sense of shame at misconduct 
 or any breach of good manners, is the means by which 
 men arrive at the best social gift they can obtain — a nice 
 and careful sense of honor. The self-respect Avhich 
 every one ought to feel, and which is the foundation of 
 true manliness in men and true giace in women, comes 
 from the feeling that one has done nothing to forfeit the 
 respect of those about one. But to get the respect of 
 others, one must show respect to them — and give as well 
 as take. Now, though this is giving up part of one's 
 own will or liberty, it sacrifices a little m order to gain 
 much more
 
 LESSON XXIX. 
 
 EESTEAINTS ON CALLINGS. 
 
 There are certain callings which any man may enter 
 on, if he is able to take them in hand, and can get liis 
 living by them. There are some which can be entered 
 on only when the law allows the man to follow the occu- 
 pation. There are some which every man is allowed to 
 follow, b Lit in the exercise of which the law puts a man 
 under control. There are some in which the law only 
 allows a limited number of persons to be engaged. 
 
 Now at the present time, whatever may have hap- 
 pened in time past, it is always supposed that any 
 restraint put on those who have to choose the means by 
 which to get their living, is put for the general good of 
 the whole community, and that reason should be shown 
 that this good is intended. In other words, freedom of 
 occupation in the rule, restraint is the exception. But 
 at different times in the history of all countries, the 
 various kinds of restraint mentioned at the head of this 
 lesson have applied to very different caUings. Rulers 
 have had very different views as to what is the public 
 good. But some occuj^ations have always been put 
 imder restraint, or the rule of a police. 
 
 The great majority of callings can be followed at 
 pleasure. Any man may become a tradesman in the 
 ordinary meaning of the word, or a common laborer, 
 or a farmer. There never was, and mdeed never could
 
 RESTEAINTS ON CALLINGS. I35 
 
 be a time, wh<n men were prevented from occupying 
 and tilling lai.d, for the very good reason, that the 
 means by which everybody lives must be obtained by 
 agriculture and similar callings. There have been times 
 indeed when persons who were engaged in tilling the 
 soil were forbidden to go into any other calling, partly 
 that the land might be tilled, partly, I fear, in order that 
 laborers might be plentiful, and therefore labor be cheap. 
 
 But in old days a man could very seldom open a 
 shop, at least in a town, whenever he pleased. In the 
 old English towns, as in the towns of other countries, 
 the right to keep a shop was granted only on application, 
 generally after a payment, and after the person had been 
 entered into the books of some trading company. This 
 rule, for example, used to be universal in London. You 
 may see many handsome buildings in the city of Lon- 
 don, M^hich are called the halls of certain companies. In 
 those buildmgs, now generally devoted to feasts, the 
 several members of these comjjanies used to meet, and 
 admit persons to the principal privilege which the com- 
 pany possessed, which was that of being the only 
 persons who -were allowed to deal in the several ai'ticlcs 
 from which the company took its name or title. 
 
 This rule has long passed away among Englishmen, 
 and never was in force in the United States. Anybody 
 may now set up any ordinary shojj wherever he pleases, 
 either in town or country, and no one can hinder him ; 
 but the liberty of trade which the English and Ameri- 
 can people possess is not granted in many other coun- 
 tries. In certain German towns, for exami)le, a journey- 
 man is obliged to wait lor years before he can get the 
 license to open a shoj), set up a manufacture, or follow a 
 trade.
 
 136 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 After he has got the license, he is often tied down by a 
 host of regulations, which are found very inconvenient 
 and 023pressive. There can be no doubt that much of 
 the activity and industry which belong to this country 
 are due to the general freedom which people enjoy in 
 the choice of their calling or occupation. 
 
 There are some kinds of industry among ourselves 
 which, although they are free to anybody to choose, 
 cannot be entered on without some previous apprentice- 
 ship. At present there is no law which forbids any 
 man from undertaking any kind of manual labor, though 
 in old times no joerson could follow any trade or art 
 withou^t having been apprenticed to it ; but this law has 
 been disused or abandoned. There are, indeed, trades 
 or callings in which some persons are always appren- 
 ticed before they are able to follow them. The rule is 
 not, as I have said, a law, but a custom of the trade, 
 enforced by some by-law or regulation which the work- 
 men in that trade have made for themselves. It may 
 be doubted whether such a restraint is hkely to last 
 much longer. When the law does not speak, custom 
 is pretty sure to give way to liberty. » 
 
 As you have learned already, the wages which peo- 
 ple receive in any calling are regulated partly by the 
 need which there is for the service which such persons 
 can render, partly by the cost of making the workman 
 fit for his calling, partly by the number of persons 
 willing to be employed. When there is a little need 
 for the service, and the cost for supplying the service is 
 small, and the number of workmen is great, wages will 
 be low. When diiferent circumstances arise, wages are 
 high. Now the desire to obtain what the workman 
 makes hes in the mind of the man who needs his service,
 
 RESTRAnsTS ON CALLINGS. 137 
 
 and the workman can, by himself, exercise no control or 
 influence over such a desire or demand. 
 
 He can, however, bring his influence to bear on the 
 other two factors — as arithmeticians say — in the calcula- 
 tion. He may make labor dear and scarce, by making 
 the preparation of the laborer costly, or by limiting the 
 number of people seeking employment. Now an ap- 
 prenticeship eflects both these ends. It is possible that 
 the apprentice may learn the art in wliich he is to be 
 instructed in a quarter of the time duruig which his 
 apprenticeship lasts. If the time be prolonged, the 
 effect is that his power of earnmg wages on his own 
 accomit is put off". But this is just the same as making 
 his preparation more costly than it would naturally be. 
 
 The same process makes the number of laborers 
 fewer. In some of those callings where it is the custom 
 that workmen should have been apprenticed, there is 
 often another custom, that no master can take more 
 than a limited number of apprentices. Here the quan- 
 tity of labor is directly limited. But it is also limited 
 whenever more time than is necessary is given towards 
 making the workman fit for his calling, since whatever 
 makes some kinds of labor costly, makes some kinds of 
 laborers scarce.
 
 LESSOK XXX. 
 
 LAWS FIXING PRICES. 
 
 Ii has often been thought to be good for the public 
 at large that there should be a rule which might fix the 
 number of persons engaged in, or, at least, restrain an 
 excessive number of persons from entering into, any 
 one calling. But the difficulty is to fix the number 
 which should be employed or could be employed, and 
 to decide on the callings which should be put under 
 regulation. Even if the number could be settled, and 
 the callings could be decided on, it is to be feared that a 
 great many abuses would occur. It might be an advan- 
 tage to enter on such an occupation, and they who would 
 be appohated to manage the system, as well as those 
 who might profit by it, might enter into some dishonest 
 bargain. 
 
 There is no way to avoid the risk of such dishonesty, 
 except by fixing the price at which the service or work 
 should be sold. But there are very few objects which 
 can be treated in tliis manner. In those which are so 
 treated, it is only possible to take a rough or general 
 rule by which to fix the price. This rule may be made 
 much more exact in some cases than it can be in others. 
 But in every case, the person who is subjected to the
 
 LAWS rES:iNG PRICES. 139 
 
 rule niust be liberally dealt with, that the price which is 
 fixed may cover the risk of his business. 
 
 In the days of our forefathers, it was the custom to 
 fix the price of bread by law. One of the earliest laws 
 among the English statutes is that which fixed the price 
 of bread. . Of course, no one could fix the price of corn, 
 for the value of food depends on its plenty or scarcity, 
 and plenty or scarcity — at least in those countries which 
 cannot or will not buy in other countries when food is 
 scarce at home — depends wholly on the seasons. Hence 
 in England, which depended entirely on itself for all the 
 supplies of food which its people needed, there were 
 great variations in the price of bread. In cheap years 
 it was excessively plentiful, in dear years it sometimes 
 mounted three or even four times above the usual price. 
 Now we need hardly be told that if in our time a loaf, 
 which usually in England costs sixpence, were to be 
 worth two shillings, many peoj^le would starve. 
 
 Our forefathers, of course, could find no means by 
 which to prevent these sudden changes. They tried 
 •one or two plans, but they only made matters worse by 
 their efibrts. But they could — or thought they could — 
 fix the price at which the baker's service should be paid. 
 So they made a law which declared that the price of a 
 certain weight of bread should always follow the price 
 of a certain measure of wheat. In the same spirit, and 
 with the same intention, they ruled that a certain measure 
 of beer should follow the price of a certain measure 
 of malt. The regulations have been given up, because, 
 in course of time, it was argued that all the real advan- 
 tage wliich the law attempted to secure for the public, 
 could be obtained by competition among bakers and 
 "brewers. It is not, however, perfectly clear that com-
 
 140 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 petition does always make the cheapest price, or that 
 competition acts at all in certain callings. 
 
 They among my readers who live m towns are prob- 
 ably aAvare that the price at Avhich public carriages can 
 be used is fixed by law. A London cabman, who is 
 licensed to carry persons in the carriage which he di'i ves, 
 is obliged, unless he have some reasonable excuse to the 
 contrary, to carry any person who claims his services, and 
 to carry him at a fixed price. The reason why this price 
 has been fixed is, that the driver may not demand an ex- 
 cessive charge from those who are in his carriage. It is 
 plain, however, that the price at which he may be con- 
 strained to carry them ought to cover his own mainten- 
 ance and other wages — the cost of keeping his horse 
 or horses, or repairing his carriage — of some return 
 for the original cost of both horses and carriage — oi 
 the risks which he runs that he may not be employed, 
 and of any change which may be expected to take 
 place in the price of the food on which his horse or 
 horses live. 
 
 But there is a difference between fixing a price at 
 which a man shall work, and obliging him to fix the 
 price at which he will work, and giving public notice of 
 it. It seems that the latter is the fairer course, and it 
 has been adoi^ted in the case which I have given. It is 
 clearly just to the man who does the labor, and it is even 
 better for those who use the service or convenience. If 
 the law fixes the price, the person who is controlled by 
 the law may be, and constantly is, induced to say that 
 the law puts the price too low, arid may ajjpeal to the 
 public for more than the law allows him. But if he 
 fixes his own price, and is obliged to publish and keep 
 to it, he cannot complain of unfairness, since it is his
 
 LAWS FlXma PRICES. 141 
 
 own wiL whether he chooses to work at the rate at 
 ar which he fixes his own labor. 
 
 There are certain kinds of services in which the law 
 is bound to fix the price. If it gives or permits a sole 
 right of doing a necessary service, its duty is to regulate 
 the rate at which the service is to be done. For in order 
 that men should be free to fix the rate of that which 
 they ofier for sale, they who may need to use what is 
 sold ought to have the power of dealing where they 
 like. There is no freedom of trade in a bargain where 
 one is obliged to buy, and another, being the only person 
 who is able to sell, is perfectly able to exact whatever 
 price he likes. 
 
 Hence the law (or those to whom the law gives 
 powers) fixes the highest price at which a railway shall 
 carry passengers and goods. In reality, everybody must 
 use the services of a railway, if he wishes to be carried 
 conveniently from place to place, or to procure goods 
 which have to be conveyed from a distance. It is true 
 that if the railway directors fixed too high a price, they 
 might check the use of that convenience which they sup- 
 ply. But they would only check that use which people 
 can make if they please, not the use which must be 
 made. They might put an end to journeys taken for 
 pleasure, but those which must be undertaken for busi- 
 ness would go on. Hence the law does not allow them 
 the privilege of fixing and publishing whatever price 
 they please to set, but decides what is the highest price 
 which they can claim. For the reason which I have 
 given before, this is no wrong — no interference with free 
 exchange. Wherever one dealer has such an advantage 
 over the other dealer as to be able to charge what may 
 be called a famine price, the law may fairly interfere.
 
 LESSON XXXI. 
 
 KEGULATIONS OJST PROFESSIOiirS. 
 
 It was stated in a former lesson that, as a rule, people 
 are allowed by the laws nnder which they live, to choose 
 the calling in which they may get their living; and that 
 the laws which grant this liberty, while in force in the 
 United States from almost the beginning of its history, 
 have only been very gradually passed in England, and 
 do not hold good in many other countries. Even in 
 England and with us there are certain callings in which 
 the law does not allow persons to engage, whenever and 
 however they like, but still maintains restrictions which 
 were once general. 
 
 They who engage, for example, in the two profes- 
 sions of law and physio, are obliged under penalties — or 
 disabilities which come to the same thing as penalties — 
 to go through a course of training which in eifect is just 
 the same as that of apprenticeship to a trade or craft. 
 A lawyer has to go through a regular course of study 
 for his profession, and pass an examination before a com- 
 mittee of la^^ers appointed for the purpose, before he 
 can be admitted to what is called the Bar, or the associ 
 ation of lawyers of his State. And so a doctor or sur- 
 geon is obliged to get experience in some other doctor's
 
 EEGULATIONS ON PROFESSIONS. 143 
 
 oi* surgeon's business, to study at some public hospital, 
 and also to pass an examination, before he is allowed to 
 carry on business on his own accoimt. 
 
 Again, there are certain persons whom the Govern- 
 ment employs, and whom it pays, either in wnole or 
 in part, and from whom it exacts a proof that they are 
 competent to do what they undertake. Schoolmasters 
 appointed in schools which are brought imder the con- 
 trol of Government are required to satisfy certain officers 
 of Government that they arc fit to undertake the busi- 
 ness of education, at least as far as their own knowledge 
 is concei'ned. So persons who are employed to navigai e 
 the ships which belong to the nation are supposed to be 
 put to the test'of whether they know their business, and 
 are able to prevent the ship from being lost. 
 
 Xow it is easy to account for these last-named cases. 
 If the nation emj^loys labor, it has a right to know 
 whether those who offer themselves for employment are 
 fit to undertake that which they profess to do. In 
 ordinary business, where the master's eye is everywhere, 
 or ought to be everywhere, evidence supplied by others 
 as to the fitness of those whom he hires may be useful, 
 but is not necessary ; for the master or employer may be 
 able to exercise his own judgment, not only to decide 
 whether the person who wishes to work for him is fit, 
 in point of knowledge, but also whether he is fit in point 
 of power to use the knowledge which he possesses. 
 
 The eye of the Govennncnt is not everywhere. 
 Hence it is necessary to do the best which can be done 
 — to find out as far as mere knowledge goes on the part 
 of those who aspire to public employment, whether they 
 are equal to the duties Avhich they profess to be able to 
 fulfil. Of course this is not every thing. It is one tiling
 
 144 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 to know, another to use that whicli is known, and to turn 
 it to the best account. There are some people who can 
 manage to lay out the goods they have for sale in so 
 clever a maimer as to make, so to speak, five dollars 
 worth of their own look as well as twenty-five dollars' 
 worth of another man's. And in just the same way 
 people with very inferior powers and accomplishments 
 may make a far more skilful and showy use of them 
 than others who are possessed of far greater learning or 
 information. 
 
 But why should law interfere in order to supply 
 l^roof that a lawyer or physician is able to do that 
 Avliich he i^rofesses to do ? Why is it more the duty of 
 tlie State to prove that the one sells good advice about 
 such rights as people possess in property, and the other 
 good advice about their health, than to proAe that a 
 shoemaker knows how to make good shoes and a tailor 
 good clothes ? Why undertake this duty, and not 
 another duty, of providing that a grocer should know 
 how to buy his sugar and cheese, a butcher buy good 
 animals for meat ? 
 
 In some shape or other, the law does provide a means 
 for preventing the abuse of any trade or occupation. 
 It supplies a police in case of fraud or adulteration — 
 that is, of passing oif articles as genuine or sound, 
 when they are not so, of i:)unishing those who sell bad 
 or unwholesome provisions. It is the business of Gov- 
 ernment to protect, as far as possible, all those whom 
 it is bound to care for against force or fraud, and it does 
 so with more or less success, and more or less zeal. 
 
 There must be some special reason or reasons why 
 the law exacts proof of skill in the case of the two 
 professions which I have named. One of these refers
 
 REGULATIONS ON PROFESSIONS. 145 
 
 directly to the public good, the other assists the same 
 object in a less direct manner. 
 
 Most people are fair enough judges of what they 
 buy. There are certain goods, the quality of which 
 every one of any experience knows. Such goods are 
 provisions. So, again, it is no very difficult matter to 
 find out whether a pair of shoes is worth what has been 
 paid for them, or whether a suit of clothes has been 
 properly made of such materials as the price will 
 warrant. If the pm-chaser has been deceived by the 
 tradesman, he has been wronged, and ought to be 
 righted ; but after all, the loss or inconvenience is not 
 so serious as to require that the trader should be 
 prohibited from carrying on his calling; or to justify 
 the law in exacting proof that he ought to show his 
 fitness before he is allowed to pursue the calling. 
 
 But in the case of the lawyer or physician, ignorance 
 might cause ruin or death. It is not enough that the 
 persons who use the services of those who are em- 
 ployed in these professions may have a means provided 
 them for being righted, in case their advisers have been 
 6o unskilful as to do them a great wrong; it seems 
 proper that precautions should be adopted in order to 
 prevent, as far as possible, unskilfulness itself 
 
 The other reason is that there are callings in which 
 it is expedient to strengthen the intelligence of those 
 who practise them by appealing to their mutual honor. 
 Schoolboys know that there are many acts which it 
 would be almost impossible for a master to find cut, 
 but which would disgrace, or ought to disgrace, the 
 whole school if they were committed. Now such acts, 
 when the boys are worth anything, are prevented by 
 the good sense, or honor of the boys themselves. 
 7
 
 146 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 But a profession is tlius far like a school. It can act 
 together, and have a character of its own. There are 
 many people who feel that if they disgrace their school 
 or their profession, they are in the highest degree dis- 
 gracing themselves.
 
 LESSON XXXII. 
 
 FOKBIDDEN C A L L I >h G S . 
 
 Some kinds of callings are absolutely forbidden. 
 They are treated as in themselves illegal or unlawful; 
 illegal, when the necessities of the State forbid persons 
 to engage in an occupation which is not in itself dis- 
 honest or vicious, unlawful when the calling cannot be 
 entered on or practiced without doing some injury to 
 society at large. I will try to illustrate what I have 
 said. 
 
 It has been stated several times that no reasonable 
 law will proliibit or even control those persons who 
 choose to devote their labor to agriculture. The more 
 wheat or other grain is grown in any country, the more 
 cattle, sheep, and pigs are reared, the better is it for the 
 people at large. If the labor of the husbandman is 
 devoted toward producing luxuries, or comforts, such 
 a person is adding to the enjoyments of the people. 
 
 Still there is one plant which the farmer in England 
 and some other countries is forbidden to grow. This 
 is tobacco. There is no reason in nature why a farmer 
 should not cultivate tobacco, as well as turnips. But 
 the English government collects a tax on tobacco, and 
 this tax is so considerable, and adds so much to the
 
 148 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 price of the article, that a variety of restrictions or 
 regulations must be put on its importation into the 
 country. Now in order to save the revenue from a loss 
 which might arise in case private persons grew this 
 plant for their own use, or for sale, the cultivation ol 
 tobacco is forbidden by law, except under such circum- 
 stances as could not j^ossibly diminish the amoimt of 
 the tax which is collected. 
 
 I will take another case. There is no natural reason 
 why private persons should not coin money. In ancient 
 times they did so, though always after having obtained 
 a license. There is not much more difficulty m stamp- 
 ing gold, silver, or copper coins, than there is in stamp- 
 ing metal buttons. If the money which such private 
 persons issued were as good or as fine as that which the 
 Government issues from the Mint, the public would be 
 none the worse oif, and some persons think it would be 
 even better oif. 
 
 The restraint which is laid on the practice of coining 
 — ^by which I do not mean putting bad money into cir- 
 culation, which is one of the basest and meanest crimes 
 which can be committed, but by which I mean the 
 manufacture of as good money as comes out of the 
 Mint — is partly imj)osed for the sake of the Mint itself, 
 partly for the sake of the public. 
 
 The price of everything in this coimtry is measured 
 by gold. We speak of dimes and cents, because these 
 words are short or convenient ways of expressing frac- 
 tious of a dollar. But a person who buys or sells any 
 article for a dime, or a cent, really buys and sells for the 
 tenth, or the one himdreth part of a dollar. Now if it 
 be inconvenient to reckon in such fractions, it would be 
 impossible to use such little bits of gold as would be
 
 rOHBIDDEN CALLINGS. 149 
 
 worth what a cent represents, or even what a dime does. 
 Some of such pieces would be so small as to be almost 
 invisible, most of them would be constantly lost, and 
 would very rapidly wear out. It is therefore the prac- 
 tice of this country, and of other coimtries, to use pieces 
 of silver and bronze or copper to denote those fractions 
 of a sovereign, or whatever else may be the measure of 
 price. 
 
 If the Government issues these pieces of silver and 
 copper, and pledges itself to take them back at the rate 
 of ten dimes, or one hundred cents to a dollar, these 
 coins will be worth what they profess to be, even though 
 the amount of silver or copper contained in them may 
 not be actually worth the tenth and one hundredth part 
 of the piece of gold we call a dollar. Now during the 
 time that such pieces are in circulation, the Government 
 is making a profit on the dilference between the real and 
 the nominal value of the silver and copper coins. Tliis 
 profit is devoted to two objects. It covers, in the first 
 place, the cost of coming gold, the Mint being enabled 
 to do this at no charge whatever. It covers the cost 
 of the wear of silver and copper coins; for however 
 much worn silver coins are, the Government will ex- 
 change these coins for new coins of full weight. The 
 action of the Mint, therefore, is that of doing a great 
 public service at no cost to the public.'' 
 
 * 
 
 *At the date when this is \\Titton (June, 1872) gold and silver 
 coins are not in use in the United States. They were used until 
 the breaking out of the war in 1861, when paper currency, which 
 had before been used for nothing smaller than a dollar, was intro- 
 duced for dimes, quarter dollars and half dollars. The credit of 
 the Government having been depreciated by the risks and losses 
 of the war, its paper " promises to pay" are not yet worth as much
 
 150 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 If private persons were allowed to coin silver and 
 copper at their own will, part of the advantage which 
 the Mint gets and gives to the public would become a 
 matter of private profit. Were private coining carried 
 out on a large scale, the Mint would be obliged to j^ut 
 a tax on the people in order to cover its expenses, or to 
 charge the public for coining its gold. 
 
 But tliere is a stronger reason for keeping the right 
 of coining money in the hands of the Government. It 
 is A-ery difficult for any person to find out when gold 
 and silver are mixed with inferior metals, unless the lat- 
 ter is mixed to a large amount. Unfortunately, when 
 frauds cannot be found out, many people are ready to 
 practise them, and there is good reason to believe that 
 if freedom in coining were allowed, it would very soon 
 become freedom for swindling. 
 
 There are certain occupations which are not only 
 illegal but unlawful — ^.e., are so bad in themselves that 
 they are not allowed at all. Thus, for example, English 
 law forbids the establishment of gambling-houses. Now, 
 in one sense, there is a kind of gambling which nobody 
 can prevent. If a man engages to buy any goods on 
 what is called speculation — that is, in the hope that he 
 will hereafter get a better price for what he buys than 
 could be got at present — he may be said to gamble, for 
 he is risking his property on an uncertainty. But no 
 
 as gold and silver. Each year since tlie close of the war they 
 have come a little nearer to the value of specie ; and doubtless in 
 the course of a year or two, they will again be taken equally with 
 specie for the full amount of their nominal value. When this 
 comes about, gold and silver coins now hoarded iip, or withdrawn 
 from the country, will reappear, and be used as far as is found 
 conveikient. — EDITOR.
 
 FOUBIDDEN CALLINGS. 151 
 
 law should ever interfere with this kind of speculation, 
 partly because it is a necessary part of trade, partly be- 
 cause the practice does a real good, by bringing about a 
 thrifty use of articles when they are dear, and a prudent 
 use of them when they are cheap. 
 
 But the law interferes with gambling when no possi- 
 ble good can come to the public by the practice, and 
 when it is probable or certain that clever persons will 
 cheat less shrewd people by apparent fairness. No pos- 
 sible good can come to society by betting on the success 
 of a particular horse in a race, while a great many worth- 
 less people live, and a great deal of dishonesty is prac- 
 tised in connection with such wagers. It is doubtful, 
 indeed, whether it be wagering or drimkenness which is 
 the most pov^-erful cause of ruin or crime. Still there 
 is a certain amount of openness in this kind of specula- 
 tion. The case is far worse when certain parties set up 
 a gaming-booth, the players at which must certainly lose, 
 however fau' the game may seem ; or when some wager 
 is laid on a conjuring trick, which the inexperienced 
 cannot see through. On such practices as these the law 
 lays penalties, not only because the public ought to be 
 protected against cheats, but because ivt is a crime to 
 cheat, and those who are cheated are tempted to dis- 
 honesty by their losses.
 
 LESSON xxxm. 
 
 CALLDTaS WHICH AEE UNDER A POLICE. 
 
 There are certain occupations, again, entrance into 
 which is free, or nearly fi-ee to anybody who chooses to 
 engage in them, but in which the persons who follow 
 the calling are brought under stricter regulation than 
 those who are engaged in ordinary trades or professions, 
 and are rendered liable to police regulations. Some of 
 these restraints are imposed in the interests of the reve- 
 nue, some in the interests of the public. Of those which 
 are imposed in the interests of the public, some respect 
 its safety or comfort, some its morals or conduct. 
 
 Of these occupations, the most notable instance or 
 example is that of the persons who are engaged in the 
 sale of fermented or intoxicating drinks. Such persons, 
 before they can follow this calling, are obliged to get 
 some evidence of their character. They are called on 
 to pay a sum of money for permission to keep their shop 
 open at all. They are compelled to close the place in 
 which they carry on their business at certain hours of 
 the night, and on Sundays during certain hours of 
 the day. They are at all times liable to the visits of the 
 police. If they break the rules under which they are 
 allowed to carry on their trade, they may be disabled 
 from carrying on their business at all, or in other words
 
 CALLINGS ^'HICH ARE UNDER A POLICE. 153 
 
 be refused their license. It will be seen, therefore, that 
 such persons are restrained or controlled in a great manjr 
 directions m which ordinary traders are free. 
 
 These restraints are imposed partly in order to assist 
 the morals and health of the people ; partly in order to 
 prevent breaches of public order and crime. The police 
 authority which is exercised over public-houses, was first 
 established because it was thought to be a duty to keep 
 people from some temptations to drunkenness But it 
 is upheld quite as much because drunken people are apt 
 to be violent, and becaue public-houses may be, and in- 
 deed often are, places where crimes are hatched. Of 
 course, such a use of them applies only to a very limited 
 number, but unless the same regulation were extended 
 to all, it would be impossible to deal with the cases in 
 which the abuse might occur. Similarly, as the vendors 
 of unwholesome drinks do a great mischief, it seems 
 natural that the public should be protected against frauds, 
 the effects of which might be very baneful. 
 
 Again, there is another class of traders which is put 
 under restraints nearly as strict as those laid on the 
 keepers of public-houses. This trade is that of a pawn- 
 broker. This sort of calling is, unfortunately, a very 
 necessary one for the poor, whose fortunes are frequently 
 so much depressed, that they are obliged to borrow 
 small sums on the security of such property as they 
 have. Hence it has been said that the pawnbroker 
 may be called the poor man's banker. But the circum- 
 stances which make such a person useful to those whose 
 means are very narrow, render the shop of a pawn- 
 broker a very convenient place for the sale of stolen 
 goods. The pledge which is deposited must not bo 
 sold for a given time, and hence il" the article has been
 
 154 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 Stolen, and the pawnbroker is unsuspicious, still more 
 if he is tacitly in league with the thief, all trace of the 
 article may be lost for so long a time as, in a great many 
 cases, to defy detection. For this reason this calling is 
 one which is brought considerably within police control, 
 the public good curtailing the freedom which trade 
 should generally enjoy. 
 
 Again, it is believed to be a necessary protection to 
 public morals that theatres and places of public amuse- 
 ment should be controlled. What mio-ht be amusinor 
 may easily become vicious, and may consequently do a 
 great deal of mischief There are a great many things 
 which had better not be talked about, and many more 
 which had better not be seen. It may therefore be 
 right and proper that they who wish to talk about and 
 exhibit such things should be checked from doing so. 
 
 Some callings are regulated with a view to the public 
 safety. No Government, unless it were wholly careless, 
 would allow a manufactory of gimpowder to be set up 
 in a crowded town, or indeed in any place but that in 
 Avhich the least possible injury could be done by any 
 accident. So with manufacturers of fireworks and of 
 similarly explosive ai'ticles. Even the storing of gun- 
 powder in a town is — or ought to be — forbidden, or at 
 least watched with great care. They who are familiar 
 with danger get careless in taking proper precautions 
 against it. It is said that half the terrible accidents in 
 coal-mines are the direct consequence of carelessness, 
 and that they would never have occurred if miners and 
 owi::ers of collieries were only commonly prudent. 
 
 Lastly, there are certain callings on the jiroduct of 
 which the Government collects a tax. It does so on all 
 fermented Uquors which are manufactured for sale.
 
 CALLIXaS WHICH ARE UNDER A POLICE. I55 
 
 Such, for example, are the trades of the brewer, the 
 maltster, and the distiller. If there were no (superin- 
 tendence exercised over these callings, and they who 
 engaged in them were allowed to return to the proper 
 officers what they said they had produced, without any 
 inquiry or scrutiny into the truth of their statements, it 
 is very likely that some persons would state what was 
 false. In such a case two wrSngs are done. One of 
 these is to the public at large, which has, by proper 
 authority, imposed a tax on such and such articles, with 
 a view to meet pubUc expenses. The other is to the 
 fair dealer, who having paid what is due on his own 
 part, is trading against and along with a man who has 
 taken an unfair advantage. 
 
 In countries in which a great number of foreign 
 articles are taxed, the business of the unfair shipper — ■ 
 or, as he is called, the smuggler — ^is followed by many 
 persons. As to many there seems to be no justice in 
 the laws which Governments impose for the sake of 
 preventing the use of foreign-made goods, very many 
 people encourage the smuggler in his calling. Now 
 that, however, a wiser notion of trade commences to 
 prevail, the smuggler is considered but a vulgar cheat, 
 who not only defrauds the Government, but will most 
 likely defraud those who are foolish enough to have 
 dealings with him.
 
 LESSON XXXIV. 
 
 POOK-LAWS. 
 
 They who will not work for themselves have no 
 right to live on the labor of others. To claim that they 
 should so live, either wholly or partly, is to demand 
 that the laws which govern society, and by which it 
 subsists, should be suspended in their favor. 
 
 But that which they have no right to claim, society 
 may be generous enough to grant, and that for very 
 good reasons. In most countries the law allows no one 
 to perish for want of the necessaries of life, if the 
 destitute person make application to those who are 
 appointed to the duty of relieving this distress; in 
 other words, the relief of the poor, by means of a great 
 public charity, is established by law. Of course .the law 
 intends that this charity should not be abused; that 
 persons should not have the assistance unless they are 
 really destitute ; that it should be only of the neces- 
 saries of life, and that the relief should not be of such 
 a character as to make people careless or improvident. 
 
 The laws of most civilized countries then, acknowl- 
 edge that every living person has a right to the means 
 of life. It is probable that the origin of this rule of our 
 law was a sense of religious duty. But the custom is 
 defended for other reasons. To see human misery, and
 
 POOE-LAWS. 157 
 
 to aWovr it to be unrelieved, is apt to harden the heart, 
 to make men cruel. Now it is better that this relief 
 should be given on system, rather than by the hand of 
 private charity, which is often indiscreet, and must be 
 partial. Besides, even where the relief of distress is 
 very sparingly allowed by law, it is found necessary to 
 check begging. Again, since the mass of those who 
 obtain relief have passed or are passing a life of toil, 
 and as it often happens that the wages received are not 
 in proportion to the work which has been done, and its 
 value, it is thought that they who have worked for others 
 should live, partly at least, on the labor of others. 
 Again, there are many misfortunes which no human fore- 
 sight can prevent, and these, it is said, common humanity 
 should constrain iis to succor. It is moreover asserted 
 that society is saved from risks of a very serious kind 
 as long as destitute persons are not made desperate and 
 therefore dangerous. 
 
 There is much force in these arguments. It is wor- 
 thy of note that in those countries where distress is not 
 relieved by law, another claim is set up — the right to 
 work or employment. There are many who say that as 
 long as people are willing to work, society or the State 
 'ought to find them occupation. But there is a great 
 deal of difference between these two demands — every- 
 body has a right to subsist : everybody has a right to 
 work. 
 
 If you have read this little book to any advantage, 
 you will have seen that by far the largest number of 
 people in every country do work ; that they work best 
 when they choose for themselves that kind of labor for 
 which they find themselves most fit, and that any attempt 
 on the part of Government to parcel out work for each
 
 158 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 person is no very wise act. A man with a great estate, 
 or a great business, often works very hard indeed — per- 
 haps harder by far than any who labor for ordinary 
 wages. 
 
 Now if this right to labor were maintained, every- 
 body who is Avilling and able to work should be pro- 
 vided with his own special kind of industry. It is not 
 sufficient only that that the carpenter, the mason, the 
 compositor, the tailor, the shoemaker, the baker, and 
 others who are occupied in manual employments, should 
 be fomid work ; but other persons must be equally cared 
 for — the doctor ought to be supplied with patients, the 
 lawyer with clients, the shopkeeper with customers, the 
 teacher with pupils, the author with readers of his books. 
 I do not think it will be difficult for you to see that such 
 an undertaking would induce utter confusion — is, indeed, 
 a manifest absurdity. It will be plain also, that under 
 such circumstances, most of the motives which induce 
 men to improve their work would be taken away. 
 
 If it be answered that they who make this proposal 
 do not intend their rule to apply to any but certain kinds 
 of labor, then it is plain that they are asking that cer- 
 tain workmen should live on the labor of other work- 
 men, and that they are attempting to draw a line which 
 cannot be drawn with fairness. For unless some prin- 
 ciple be laid down which shall decide what kind of 
 laborers must be provided with emplojTnent, all that 
 the proposal means is that certain persons should be 
 treated with favor at the expense of other persons. 
 
 There is one dano-er attendina; the law which relieves 
 the destitute. I have already spoken of it, when I said 
 that it may make j^eople careless or improvident. To 
 take away the motives to foresight and thrift is a serious
 
 POOR-LAWS. 159 
 
 evil, and there is no doubt that there have been times 
 when assistance has been given so indiscreetly that work- 
 ing men have been degraded by it. 
 
 The only way in M'hich this danger can be avoided 
 is by making the acceptance of relief very irksome to 
 those who receive it, while they are able to work, by 
 raising up a wholesome feeling that it is disgraceful for 
 strong men and women to get their living at the expense 
 of other people, and only a little less disgraceful for 
 persons not to provide, when they are strong and in full 
 work, against the risks of sickness and want of employ- 
 ment. If working men had only common prudence and 
 forethought, there would be very little real poverty in 
 this country. Distress does not often come because 
 there are too many workmen for the employment that 
 miirht be got, but because the workman lives from hand 
 to mouth. 
 
 Those poor persons are most to be pitied, and have 
 the best title to public charity, who are not themselves 
 to blame for the poverty in which they are placed. Such 
 are the destitute and orphan cliildren of the poor. Such 
 are also a great many women, employment for whom is 
 scanty and ill-paid. Perhaps in such cases the law might 
 incline a little towards finding a field for labor. Now it 
 is not always easy to find such labor at home ; but there 
 are many colonies and territories where women's labor 
 is very scarce, and where children, who are just begin- 
 nino- to be able to work, would be taken and well cared 
 for. It is not proper to send vicious or idle people to 
 a newly-settled country, but such a country is just the 
 place for those who are willing to work, and find little 
 room for themselves at home.
 
 LESSON XXXV. 
 
 THE PROTECTIOlf OF THE WEAK. 
 
 We are told that the existing races of animals have 
 BTirvived, or have been changed from ancient forms oi 
 life, because they have had certain advantages of form 
 or structure, by which they have been enabled to live 
 while other kinds have perished. This may be a very 
 good account of the way in which most animals have 
 successfully struggled for existence, but it does not cor- 
 respond with the history of human civilization. 
 
 There have been times in which the strong habit- 
 ually oppressed the weak; in which inferior races of 
 men — that is, those nations which had less strength, or 
 skill in war — have been enslaved and destroyed by su- 
 perior or more powerful tribes, in which therefore the 
 might of the strongest formed the rule of human life. 
 But these practices prevailed in barbarous ages, and 
 are justly condemned by good sense as well as by hu- 
 manity. 
 
 As regards man, there is just so much truth in the 
 theory, that certain races grow weaker or disappear 
 before others. Thus the red man in America seems to 
 be slowly perishing before the white. So does the 
 black in Australia and the Maori in New Zealand. But 
 there are other peoples which are able to exist and
 
 POOR-LAWS. IGl 
 
 thrive, even when they are brought into contact Avitb 
 the most highly-civilized races, or are placed in the 
 most unfavorable circumstances. Thus, the negro does 
 not fail before the white man in Africa, his own home, 
 or in those parts of the American continent to which he 
 has been forcibly carried. Nor has there ever been any 
 race which has been, one would have thought, so con- 
 stantly within the risk of being destroyed by violence 
 as the Jewish ; but the Jews present one of the highest 
 types of civilization and strength. 
 
 The more thoroughly men act on the principles of 
 social science, and on the laws which govern society, the 
 more tender are they of those who are weak and help- 
 less. The reason is plain. The spirit of civilization is 
 that of law, and the first business of law is to protect the 
 weak against the strong — that is, to resist the operation 
 of that tendency which has been said to have selected in 
 course of time the races of animals which exist in the 
 world. For the strength of social life consists in the 
 helplessness of each man apart from his fellow-men. An 
 individual in a civilized society strives, as I told you at 
 first, to do one thing only in the best possible way. A 
 savage is obliged to do every thing for himself In 
 order that the first may live in comfort, he should be 
 surrounded by as many persons as can also live in com- 
 fort. > In order that the savage may thrive and live in 
 plenty, there should be as few persons as possible to 
 share existence with him. 
 
 The willingness to protect the weak is no doubt, 
 then, derived from a sense of self-interest. Insecurity 
 affects everybody more or less, the mass of men most 
 of all. Hence it is often necessary in a civilized country 
 for those wbo are well-to-do to seek how they may bet-
 
 162 SOCIAL ECONOMY. 
 
 ter the condition of those who are badly off, because the 
 neglect of svich a course of action brings inconvenience 
 or loss or evil to those who might be supposed to have 
 no connection with the fortunes of others. 
 
 For example, if society were governed only by the 
 interest of the strongest, and if it did not signify what 
 became of the weak, provided that interest was served, 
 there would be no necessity for the proper administra- 
 tion of justice. But the wealthiest i:)erson in a civilized 
 community needs the protection of the law as much as, 
 perhaps more than, an ordinary workman. His proper- 
 ty, if it were not for the equal protection which the law 
 affords, might be exposed to injury, rapine, or robbery 
 from a thousand quarters. Unguarded by law, he is 
 helpless in the extreme. Hence it has always happened 
 in the history of the various steps by which we have 
 gained our social and civil liberties, that the richest men 
 have had to make common cause with the people. 
 
 Let us take another example. In times bygone no- 
 body troubled himself, except so far as he was himself 
 concerned, with the laws of health. Two centuries ago 
 London was wasted by the plague, year after year. The 
 cause was the great filthiness of the j^eople. Since that 
 time England has been visited with several diseases, 
 which have been more or less deadly. In time peo- 
 ple began to notice that the worst ravages of these dis- 
 orders occurred in places where no attention was paid 
 to cleanliness. At last it has been distinctly understood 
 that there are very few complaints of an infectious kind 
 which cannot be prevented by attention to certain rules, 
 and that if persons would abide by these rules many 
 plagues would disappear. 
 
 It is not enough, however, that this or that man
 
 POOR-LATH'S. 1C3 
 
 should regularly wash himself, wear clean linen, or other 
 clothing, take care to live in a house which is kept pure, 
 and provide himself "with wholesome food and water ; it 
 is found to be of importance that his neighbor should do 
 too. Hence the public health has come to be a matter 
 of great consideration, and although much remains to 
 be done before cleanliness is imiversal, there is a great 
 diflerence between the j^resent and the past. We have 
 found oiit at last that the best way to keep one's self in 
 safety is to better the condition of one's neighbor. 
 
 There is not a single law of nature which is contrary 
 to or inconsistent with any other law. Take, if you 
 choose, society, and consider the members of it as pur- 
 suing only their private interest, and you will find that 
 they Avill pursue it best, if they follow exactly the course 
 of action which duty would bid them adopt ; that vice 
 and loss are the same things ; that virtue and gain cor- 
 respond in the long run. In the same way it will be 
 discovered that the laws of health are only another form 
 of the laws of prudence and good sense ; that what is 
 foolish is wrong, and that what is wise is right. 
 
 But if this be the case, how is it that the world is so 
 full of vice, crime, misery, poverty ? It is because people 
 are always jireferring the present to the future, neglect- 
 ing what conscience prompts and experience affirms, for 
 the sake of some immediate temptation or pleasure. It 
 is the faculty of man to remember in order that he may 
 foresee. Kor can people begin the practice of foresight 
 too young. At first they use the wise and atiectionate 
 experience of their elders. In time they find out that 
 what was at first without meaning or reason to them ia 
 full of truth and order ; and that if they please they can 
 gee and work with the truth and wisdom which they 
 have learned.
 
 LESSON XXXVI 
 
 EMIGKATION". 
 
 Let it be supposed that too many persons are living 
 m any country to be comfortable, or even to subsist 
 decently, either because some sudden scarcity has oc- 
 curred, or because some dearth of employment has 
 arisen. How far can such persons be put into a position 
 to better themselves by emigrating to colonies or new 
 settlements ? 
 
 There is one way in which a country may b.e relievea 
 of lan excess of inhabitants. A whole slice, so to speak, 
 of the community may be taken — from the highest and 
 richest personages down to the poorest and lowest — and 
 this may be transplanted bodily to the new country. In 
 such a scheme there must be some persons of all ranks, 
 conditions and callings. • But this means of relieving 
 any community of an excess of persons has never been 
 adopted in modern times ; it used to be done anciently. 
 
 Now it is quite clear that society would be all the 
 better if it could get rid of its worst people. At one 
 time the Government of England used to carry out such 
 a plan ; but it has now abandoned it. It is plainly wrong 
 to take or transport such persons to a place where other 
 and honest people live. It is the same sort of thing as 
 putting all one's refuse into another person's house. 
 And even if no honest people lived in the settlement, it
 
 EMIGRATION. 1(35 
 
 is a very serious or dangerous act to try to make a 
 colony of the worst kind of people. 
 
 Xext, it would be a good thing if all the idle people 
 could go ; but it would not be right to, force them, and 
 it is perfectly clear that they will not do so of their own 
 accord. There is no room for idle people in a new set- 
 tlement. They would find it difficult to get such enjoy- 
 ments as are to be got in a country where there is a 
 crowd, and where any one M'ho spends is welcome. But 
 it is clear that idle people, and those who follow callings 
 which add nothing to wealth, or who exercise no profit- 
 able labor, are the plainest examples of an excess of 
 persons. They do no real work, and they compete 
 asrainst others for the means of life. But it is also clear 
 that the colonists would not care to have them. 
 
 Nor would those go who cannot work for their own 
 living. This is another class of persons who are in 
 excess. If there were no inmates of workhouses, it is 
 plain that the country would be the better off; but no 
 society would be better off by gaining those who are 
 obliged to be inmates of workhouses, because they can- 
 not get their own living. It is not easy to get rid of 
 thieves, idlers, and paupers. 
 
 A colony is anxious to take those only who are wil- 
 ling to work, and able to work with advantage. Many 
 people are willing to work, but unluckily their work is 
 not wanted. 
 
 It will always, for instance, take agricultural laborers. 
 The reason is clear : the natural industry of a colony is 
 asrriculture. A laborer who can do agricultural work in 
 all its branches is always serviceable, but in a colony he 
 is wo)-th any pains to get. It is unfortunate for such 
 laborers that they are usually so poor that they cannot
 
 166 SOCIAL ECONOMY 
 
 get away ; generally so ignorant of any thing but the 
 work which they do so well, that they do not know how 
 to better themselves. But there is no doubt that if they 
 did leave this country it would be a gain to them. It 
 would be no advantage to the country which they leave. 
 
 A handy artisan, like a carpenter or mason, and 
 especially such an artisan as can do a number of things, 
 is, after the agricultural laborer, the best sort of person 
 to get on in a new settlement. His work is always 
 wanted, he can get regular employment ; and if, in addi- 
 tion to what he actually knows, he is also drilled so well 
 in what I called in a former lesson the master-knowledge, 
 that he can easily learn how to do other things, he is 
 still more sure to succeed. 
 
 A jack-of-all-trades in a thickly-peopled country is 
 not very likely to prosper ; but a jack-of-all-trades in a 
 new country, provided he be industrious and honest, has 
 every chance of success. 
 
 Again, a person who is able to get his living in a 
 thickly-peopled country, will very often find that there is 
 no place for him in a new settlement. He may be 
 honest, industrious, intelligent ; but he may find no room 
 for his work, his character, or his abilities. The reason 
 for this is as follows : — 
 
 You have learned in former lessons how it is that in 
 a country like our own, the division of employments is 
 carried out to the fullest extent. It is discovered that 
 the greatest quickness and power is attained, when each 
 .person does one thing, or a part of one thing. Now the 
 greater the quickness and power, the greater is the 
 cheapness; or, in other words, the more fully is the 
 article on which the workman is employed, supj)lied for 
 the wants of those who need it.
 
 EMIGEATION. 1(37 
 
 But in a new country no such rule holds. In course 
 of time, no doubt, the same cause which brings about 
 this division of employment will work in such countries. 
 They will then become like such places as those which 
 supply new-comers to new settlements ; but till such a 
 state of things takes place, the most useful persons are 
 not those who can do a part of one thing, but those who 
 can do the whole of a great many things ; and thus the 
 more completely persons are trained to do one thing, or 
 the part of one thing only, the less fitted are they to 
 become colonists in a new settlement. 
 
 Now what is the result of these facts ? It is that old 
 and fully-settled countries will be found to stand to these 
 new coimtries in much the same position that the inhab- 
 itants of a town do to those of the country. Each does 
 the other a great service. The town makes the comforts 
 of life easier of attainment ; the country supplies the 
 necessaries of life more regularly and certainly. If men 
 really imderstood their own interest and their own good, 
 ihey would look on the whole civilized Avorld as one 
 country, the inhabitants of which are obliged to discover 
 that they can gain their own ends best when they do 
 most for the service and good of others. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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