possessed of a territory about eleven times as extensive, besides being in many places, blessed with a better climate and richer soil. TOIL AND BE GLAD. TOIL, and be glad! let industry inspire And exercise of health. In proof of this, LESSON III. DIVISION OF EARNINGS. "The drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags." 1. HAVING explained why the people of some countries earn more for themselves collectively than their neighbours, we have now to consider how wealth when produced is divided among the classes to whose joint exertions it is due. How often do we hear complaints that the many are little benefited by the riches they are instrumental in creating by their toil, because a few contrive to monopolize so large a share in return for the capital they employ, and the services they render, that but a small portion remains to remunerate the rest for their labour. If this were true, it would be very deplorable; but we trust on examiation it will prove to be erroneous, and that it may easily be shown how trifling are the profits afforded to employers by capital, compared with its effects in augmenting wages; and that the ordinary reason why some labourers are paid so much higher than others, is simply because the services they perform are more difficult or disagreeable, or require qualities and capacities not often to be met with. 2. One of the most profitable branches of industry is the cotton trade, and if it appear that even there the profits of capital are small compared with the wages of labour, it may safely be concluded they are so everywhere. Now, from calculations made by persons highly competent to perform such a task with accuracy, we learn that for every pound paid in wages to the operatives, only from two to three shillings go as profits to the manufacturers. This teaches a useful lesson, as workmen are prone to imagine they would possess princely fortunes were they possessed of their masters' profits. In reality we see that if the men owned the capital and managed it as well as the employers, they would raise their wages only two or three shillings in the pound. How much more they could do for themselves by acquiring additional skill and industry is shown in the calculations already referred to, where we find that wages in the cotton trade vary from about thirteen shillings a-week to nearly three times that sum ; the better-class workmen being paid at the rate of from thirty shillings a-week upwards. This places under the eye, as it were, in a striking point of view, that while by appropriating their employers' income the labourers would be only two or three shillings in the pound richer than at present, it is in the power of each one, by acquiring additional skill, and becoming more industrious, to earn two or three pounds where now he makes but one; that, in fact, while by confiscating what belongs to others, he could gain but two or three shillings, he might in the same time, by improving himself instead, increase his earnings by one or two pounds. 3. The mistake a workman is most apt to fall into, is that of contrasting his wages alone with his employer's revenue, and thence concluding that a trifling deduction from the latter, which might be allowed if the master chose, without his suffering any very great inconvenience, would be sufficient to raise wages enormously. Were the master, he might think, with 5,000l. a-year to pay him, say, 1007. annually instead of 50l., he would be twice as rich as before, and the master very little poorer. This is true, and might answer very well, if there were but a single workman in the case. But there is no reason why so much should be done for one in particular; and if it were attempted to serve every one in the same manner-if the rich were to set about doubling the wages of all they employed-so far from their income sufficing to confer benefits so widely among the working-classes, the entire amount when so distributed would come to an end long before the process of doubling had been completed. For the utmost that could be done in that way, as has previously been shown, would be to increase wages a few shillings in the pound. 4. EFFECT OF CAPITAL IN RAISING WAGES.-Far the greater part of the revenue arising from the employment of capital goes as wages to workmen, and not as profits to the masters. This may be established by comparing the earnings of people among whom capital is abundant, such, for example, as those engaged in the English cotton manufacture, with those of tribes who have little or none. Perhaps, indeed, there is no place where there is absolutely nothing that can be called capital, but there are some where there is scarcely any-as, for example, a few parts of Africa, and various islands in the Pacific inhabited by savages. And we find the people so circumstanced are wretchedly poor, their labour producing little for want of capital, that is, for want of implements and machinery to make it effective, of food and other articles to support the labourer while he devotes himself to steady industry, and of materials and seeds to work up or commit to the soil. 5. A labourer in this country often thinks himself poorer than he ought to be, and is inclined to attribute it to the riches of his wealthier neighbours; or, at all events, he thinks they are not of the least benefit to him. Yet if his condition be contrasted with that even of princes among savages, it will be found he enjoys luxuries utterly beyond their reach. And if it is so when compared with princes, what must it not be as regards the mass of the people they rule? This question may be difficult to answer exactly; but probably we shall be within the mark if we state that twenty savages produce but as much as one English labourer earns for himself, independently of his master's profit; and all this because the one is assisted by capital, and the others are not. In figures this will appear clearer, and may be put as follows:-When labour unassisted by capital would produce what would be worth 1s., labour assisted by capital would produce 22s. or 23s. And of this extra produce about 19s. goes to the labourer, and the remainder only to the party who supplies the capital. 6. WHY SOME ARE PAID MUCH MORE FOR THEIR LABOUR THAN OTHERS.-A carpenter, without working any harder than a common field-labourer, earns about twice as much; and a cabinet-maker, in like manner, is far better paid than a carpenter. And if we proceed to examine the scale of remuneration throughout the different trades and professions, we shall find an almost endless variety in the amount of earnings in each. But there is nothing unfair in this, as the reason why one kind of labour is higher paid than another is because it is more difficult to find persons properly qualified to perform it. This it is which renders it scarce in proportion to the demand, and so increases the value. Sometimes the scarcity of labour results from there being few persons able to perform it efficiently, and sometimes from there being few who are willing to do so; or it may happen that both circumstances combine, which renders the labour in question more valuable than might be expected, were one of them alone taken into account. A few examples will make this clear : 7. According as the preparation is more expensive, the fewer will be able to adopt the occupation. Some may be prevented from want of means, and others, though rich enough, may fear to incur the expense of preparation, lest if the business were not properly learned, all the outlay would be thrown away. For it is scarcely necessary to mention that it is not because the training and education of one person is unusually expensive that his earnings are higher than average; but it is because the preliminary expense prevents many from entering the business. It is not uncommon for a father after bearing the cost of preparing his son for the bar, or the medical profession, to find it all thrown away, the son being unable to make anything by the business, from not having learned it sufficiently well. But when any trade or profession has been mastered, the expense of preparation produces its effect by lessening the number of competitors. It requires more time and money to become a carpenter than a field-labourer, and more to become a cabinet-maker than a carpenter; and therefore the cabinet-maker is better paid than the carpenter, and the carpenter than the field-labourer. And so on if we trace the effects of this cause throughout the different kinds of occupations, its influence will be found to be universal. 8. Again it happens occasionally that few are born with the talents necessary to attain a high degree of excellence in certain callings, and this by limiting the supply of qualified persons raises the remuneration of those who are so. One has a great genius for painting, another for acting or singing, a third for argument and oratory; and if these cultivate their talents properly, they will be enabled to earn immeasurably more, as painters, actors, singers, or advocates, than others who work just as hard and have spent quite as much in preparation, but are not blessed with equal abilities. 9. In the cases already noticed, labour is highly paid because few are able to perform it. But if an employment be unhealthy, dangerous, or otherwise disagreeable, none will be willing to undertake it unless they can get more than in those lines of business not equally exposed |