capital to invest in paying enterprises, and by enabling every laborer to find such work as he can do best.

What are the chief wastes to be prevented?

1. From fire. The loss by fire each year now exceeds $100,000,000, of which the $50,000,000 paid back by insurance companies is none the less loss. The expenses of insurance companies are $35,000,000 in addition, and for fire departments, $25,000,000 more.

2. From drink. The "liquor bill " of this country, at the price paid dram-shops, is estimated at from $474,000,ooo up, of which a large part is worse than waste.

3. From crime and pauperism. The census reported 59,255 criminals in jail, and 67,067 paupers in poorhouses. These are by no means all. Their support costs over $12,500,000 per year, but the full loss by crime runs probably toward fifty millions.

4. From waste of food. We consume now about $500,000,000 worth of food, of which probably 10 per cent is wasted by extravagance, bad cooking, etc., or $50,000,000.

5. From strikes and lack of employment. There were in one year (1880) 762 strikes recorded, of which 226 are known to have resulted in a loss of $3,700,000 unearned wages. Still greater is the loss by lack of employment for men willing to work.

CAPITAL AND LABOR.

What is capital?

Capital is goods and money saved out of production. Aside from land, the capital of this country is less than three years' product.

What is the use of capital?

To make labor more productive, by furnishing it with

food, material, tools, means of transportation (such as railroads), etc.

Out of what are capital and labor paid?

Out of product only, unless a country is getting poorer by using up its saved earnings. The more product, the more pay.

How is product shared?

Out of $10,000 annual product, it may be reckoned roughly, that about $1,000 goes for rent, $1,000, return to capital, $1,000 to brain-workers or administrative work, $7,000 to hand-workers, or laborers, usually so called.

What is the difference between possible and actual wages?

If there were no rent, profit, or extra pay for brains, each worker could not get more than his exact share of annual product, $450. Most wage-earners get under $400, some less than $300. But if there were no inducements to improve land, save capital, and use brains, product would be lessened, and the possible wage decreased. The average increase under communistic distribution would be less than $50 per year.

Does this difference tend to increase?

No; it tends to decrease. The law of competition is that "in any given product, profits diminish; wages increase." On cotton goods manufactured at a New England mill, priced at 9 cents per yard in 1840, and 7 cents in 1883 (cost of cotton being reckoned the same), 1.82 cents per yard went for wages and 1.18 cents for profit in 1840, to 1.08 cents for wages and only .43 cents for profit in 1883, while machinery had so increased the product of each worker, that his earnings of $175 per year in 1840, had increased in 1883 to $290 per year.

Has not machinery made workers worse off?

No, it has improved their condition. Machines increase product, and there is more to divide. New inventions have hurt particular laborers for a time, by making their work unnecessary, but they have benefited laborers in general, and presently the men thrown out find new work.

What are the earnings of workingmen?

They vary in different countries, periods, and occupations. They are highest in the United States, next highest in England, lower in the continental countries as France, Germany, and Italy, lowest in the semi-civilized countries, as India and China. They are highest in a new country, with abundant land, which takes the surplus labor off the market. Next under a high industrial organization, such as England has.

Have they advanced or declined from year to year? They have as a rule advanced, both in money, and still more in what a week's wages will buy, which is the real test. Giffen shows that the English workman has gained 50 to 100 per cent. in money for 20 per cent. less

work in 50 years. The United States census reported our average wages in 1850 at $247; in 1860, $290; in 1870, $377 currency or $302 gold; in 1880, $346. But there are always ups and downs from time to time.

What are strikes and lockouts?

A strike is when workmen refuse to work for the wages offered; a lockout is when employers shut down their works, so as not to employ laborers. The purpose of a strike is to force employers to come to terms with their laborers.

Are strikes useful and right? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. They are always costly; out of 762 strikes recorded in the United States in 1880, more than half failed, and the loss in 226 of them,

involving over 67,000 people, was nearly 2,000,000 days labor or over $3,700,000 in money wages. Men have a perfect right to strike when they think they are not rightly treated, provided they do not interfere with others' right to work and do no violence to person or property.

What is the better way of settling labor differences?

Arbitration--selecting representatives of both employers and employed, who, if they cannot agree, select a third party or arbiter, by whose decision they both agree to stand. This has been very successful in preventing labor troubles in some trades in England, especially where there have been permanent boards holding stated meetings and so settling wages and other questions in advance.

What are trades-unions?

Associations of the men of any trade in any place to act together in matters affecting their trade. They have been very useful in upholding the interests of workingmen, but have also done some harm in restricting apprenticeships and promoting unwise strikes, also in persecuting "rats or "scabs," that is, workmen who do not join the unions.

What is coöperation?

An association of workmen to become their own employers, bankers, or shopkeepers. In England there are many coöperative stores, where the profits are regularly divided among the shareholders who buy there, and in France, many establishments have a sort of industrial partnership with their workmen, by which a share of profits is added to the wages. So far, there are few cooperative societies in this country, except mutual loan associations.

NATIONAL DEBT.

What is debt?

An obligation to pay out of earnings or property.
What is the national debt?

It consists of promises-to-pay, chiefly made to cover the cost of the war. At its highest (Aug. 31, 1865), it was $2,844,649,626; July 1, 1885, the outstanding principal was $1,863,964,873 gross, or, less cash in Treasury, $1,375,352,444, about $24 per head or $72 per worker. The country has paid off a thousand millions in twenty years, besides interest (now reduced to $47,000,000 yearly) and current government expenses.

Is this all the debt of the country?

No, the State, city, and local debts come to over $1,055,000,000 (net debt, 1880) more, at about $60,000,000 interest yearly. Of the city debts, over 20 per cent. was for water-works, 12 for streets, 10 for aiding railroads, etc., 6 for parks and public places.

Is national and other debt a burden or a "blessing"? It is a burden, because a part of each year's product must go to pay it, leaving so much less to enjoy.

TAXATION AND REVENUE.

Aside from borrowing, how is government paid for? By revenue raised chiefly by taxes. The annual taxation of this country is between $600,000,000 and $700,000,000, or from 7 to 10 per cent. of the total product. Of this about half is for the national government, the other half, by direct taxation, for State and local purposes. What is direct taxation?

A tax levied directly on persons or property, as a poll tax, or a tax on land and buildings, so that it is paid to the government by the person taxed.

What is indirect taxation ?