of this kind based on the circumstances of one time and place, and applying it without proper precaution to those of another time or another place.

Lastly, the disagreeableness of work seems to have very little effect in raising wages, if it is of such a and between kind that it can be done by those whose indus- industrial grades. trial abilities are of a very low order. For the progress of sanitary science has kept alive many people who are unfit for any but the lowest grade of work. They compete eagerly for the comparatively small quantity of work for which they are fitted, and in their urgent need they think almost exclusively of the wages they can earn: they cannot afford to pay much attention to incidental discomforts and indeed the influence of their surroundings has prepared many of them to regard the dirtiness of an occupation as an evil of but minor importance.

And from this arises the strange and paradoxical result that the dirtiness of some occupations is a cause

An evil paradox.

of the lowness of the wages earned in them. For employers find that this dirtiness adds much to the wages they would have to pay to get the work done by skilled men of high character working with improved appliances; and so they often adhere to old methods which require only unskilled workers of but indifferent character, and who can be hired for low (Time-) wages, because they are not worth much to any employer. There is no more urgent social need than that labour of this kind should be made scarce and dear.

CHAPTER IV.

DEMAND AND SUPPLY IN RELATION TO LABOUR,

CONTINUED.

§ 1. In the last chapter we discussed the difficulties of ascertaining the real as opposed to the nominal price

Many peculi

arities in the action of demand and supply with

regard to la

bour are cumulative in their effects.

of labour. But now we have to study some peculiarities in the action of the forces of demand and supply with regard to labour which are of a more vital character; since they affect not merely the form, but also the substance of that action. We shall find that the influence of many of these peculiarities is not at all to be measured by their first and most obvious effects. For flaws in the industrial arrangements of society may be divided into two classes according as their effects are, or are not cumulative; that is as they do or do not end with the evil by which they were caused, and do or do not have the indirect effect of lowering the character of the workers or of hindering it from becoming stronger. these last cause further weakness and further suffering, which again in their turn cause yet further weakness and further suffering, and so on cumulatively; and conversely, high earnings, and a strong character, lead to greater strength and higher earnings, which again lead to still greater strength and still higher earnings, and so on cumulatively1.

1 There is a similar distinction between the cumulative and non-cumulative effects of custom. See Principles VI. IV. 1.

arity: the

worker sells

his work, but retains pro

§ 2. The first point to which we have to direct our attention is the fact that human agents of pro- First peculiduction are not bought and sold as machinery and other material agents of production are. The worker sells his work, but he himself remains his own property: those who bear the expenses of rearing and educating him receive but very little of the price that is paid for his services in later years'.

perty in himself.

Consequently the investment

of capital in

him is limited

by the means, the fore

all thought, and

he

the unselfishness of his

Whatever deficiencies the modern methods of business may have, they have at least this virtue, that he who bears the expenses of production of material goods, receives the price that is paid for them. He who builds factories or steam-engines or houses, or rears slaves, reaps the benefit of net services which they render so long as keeps them for himself; and when he sells them parents. he gets a price which is the estimated net value of their future services. The stronger and the more efficient he makes them, the better his reward; and therefore he extends his outlay until there seems to him no good reason for thinking that the gains resulting from any further investment would compensate him. But the investment of capital in the rearing and early training of the workers of England is limited by the resources of parents in the various grades of society, by their power of forecasting the future, and by their willingness to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their children.

This evil is indeed of comparatively small importance with regard to the higher industrial grades. For in those grades most people distinctly realize the future, and "discount it at a low rate of interest." They exert themselves much to select the best careers for their sons, and the best trainings for those careers; and they are generally willing and able to incur a considerable expense for the purpose. The profes

1 In this and the next two Sections we shall be working close to the ground of Book IV. Ch. VI.

sional classes especially, while generally eager to save some capital for their children, are even more on the alert for opportunities of investing it in them. And whenever there occurs in the upper grades of industry a new opening for which an extra and special education is required, the future gains need not be very high relatively to the present outlay, in order to secure a keen competition for the post.

But in the lower ranks of society the evil is great. For Disadvantages the slender means and education of the parents,

of children

of poor parents.

and the comparative weakness of their power of distinctly realizing the future, prevent them from investing capital in the education and training of their children with the same free and bold enterprise with which capital is applied to improving the machinery of any wellmanaged factory. Many of the children of the workingclasses are imperfectly fed and clothed; they are housed in a way that promotes neither physical nor moral health; they receive a school education which, though in modern England it may not be very bad so far as it goes, yet goes only a little way; they have few opportunities of getting a broader view of life or an insight into the nature of the higher work of business, of science or of art; they meet hard and exhaustive toil early on the way, and for the greater part keep to it all their lives. At last they go to the grave carrying with them undeveloped abilities and faculties; which, if they could have borne full fruit, would have added to the material wealth of the country-to say nothing of higher considerations—many times as much as would have covered the expense of providing adequate opportunities for their development.

This evil is

But the point on which we have specially to insist now is that this evil is cumulative. The worse fed are cumulative. the children of one generation, the less will they earn when they grow up, and the less will be their power of providing adequately for the material wants of their children; and so on and again, the less fully their own faculties are

developed, the less will they realize the importance of developing the best faculties of their children, and the less will be their power of doing so. And conversely any change that awards to the workers of one generation better earnings, together with better opportunities of developing their best qualities, will increase the material and moral advantages which they have the power to offer to their children: while by increasing their own intelligence, wisdom and forethought, it will also to some extent increase their willingness to sacrifice their own pleasures for the well-being of their children; though there is much of that willingness now even among the poorest classes, so far as their means and the limits of their knowledge will allow.

Start in life.

§ 3. The advantages which those born in one of the higher grades of society have over those born in a lower, consist in a great measure of the better introductions and the better start in life which they receive from their parents. But the importance of this good start in life is nowhere seen more clearly than in a comparison of the fortunes of the sons of artisans and of unskilled labourers. There are not many skilled trades to which the son of an unskilled labourer can get easy access; and in the large majority of cases the son follows the artisans and father's calling. In the old-fashioned domestic industries this was almost a universal rule; and, even under modern conditions, the father has often great facilities for introducing his son to his own trade.

The sons of

of labourers.

But the son of the artisan has further advantages. He generally lives in a better and cleaner house, and under material surroundings that are more consistent with refinement than those with which the ordinary labourer is familiar. His parents are likely to be better educated, and to have a higher notion of their duties to their children; and, last but not least, his mother is likely to be able to give more of her time to the care of her family.