"Well, I'll give you the key to it in a sentence I've read somewhere. 'Labour is dear when it is scarce, and cheap when it is plentiful.' Other things have their bearing on the question, I won't deny; but you'll always have to work back to this. When trade's prosperous, and the demand for labour grows, and the masters compete one against another for hands, then wages rise. But when the market is overstocked, and the demand for labour gets less, and the men compete one against another for work, instead of the masters competing for men, there's a change. Natural enough, those in need of work will take it at a lower rate, rather than go without; and down the wages run. It isn't a surer law that water finds its own level, than that wages do the same."
"But suppose now you won't let men take lower wages. Suppose, by the power of combination, you force the wages to keep at a higher level than they'd do naturally? That's possible sometimes, I don't deny; just as you can bank up a stream of water, and hinder it from flowing down."
"I'm not talking about the right or the wrong of such action, nor whether you've a right to restrain the freedom of others. That's for you and them to consider. But I'll tell you what must be the result of such action."
"By forcing up the wages, you make the fruits of your work more dear than elsewhere. Then other towns or other countries will compete against you, producing the same things more cheaply. Then the public will leave you, and buy elsewhere. Stands to reason, don't it, that folks turn to the cheapest market for their goods? If you men can buy a serviceable coat for a low price at one shop, you won't choose to pay a high price for the same at another shop. So, by getting higher wages than are really your due, you'll have driven away the trade from your neighbourhood, perhaps from your country; and masters and men will suffer alike."
"Maybe you'll say that if all working-men over the world joined into one great league, they could force up the wages everywhere alike. Well, I don't know as that's altogether an impossible state of things for a time. But mind you, it would be only for a time. It couldn't go on always. The produce of higher wages being too expensive for the condition of the times, people would buy less; or they'd find something else cheaper to use instead. I don't know as I'm making myself clear; but it's clear to myself what I mean."
"I can't tell what 'll be the outcome of the present strike. Maybe, if you go on long enough, the masters will give in, and you'll get your higher wage. Well, and if so be the state of the market allows it, all will go right. But if your doing so forces the masters to put a higher price on the produce of your work than is paid for it elsewhere, we shall be losers in the end. For trade will flow away from our town. Customers will go elsewhere."
"You'll tell me now that I'm arguing on the masters' side. But I'm not. It's the men's side I'm considering; and the trouble you'll all be in, if a time of slack trade comes."
"I want you all, as I've said before, to take a common-sense view of the matter. That's what some of your fine speechifiers don't help you to do. I dare say you'd like it better if I was to talk a lot about tyranny and oppression, and iron heels trampling you down, and such trash, and then was to butter you up for a set of noble chaps, the like of which never trod this earth before."
"You're used to that sort of thing, ain't you, now? But it's not in my line, nor never will be. You may be noble if you choose—all and any of you. I don't say you all are; any more than I'd go for to say that all the aristocracy or all the capitalists of the country are noble. Nobody's noble who lives to himself, and who's a slave to any manner of wrong-doing. But there's many a noble fellow among them; and I hope there's many a noble fellow among us too. Any way, I've a notion that your iron-heeled aristocracy would be the last to deny the fact. Only, whether you're noble or no, I do say you let your eyes be too easy blinded by a handful of dust."
"Now you just think quiet for a minute or two, about this notion of cheap and dear labour depending on whether it's plentiful or scarce."