And while there was also the concentration of the employees, we know that, with the astonishing increase of the capital in favor of the supplanting trusts, the wages of these employees have fallen,[[136]] notwithstanding that their highly productive labor enormously increased the capital of the fewer employers.
As regards the fall of wages in all the manufacturing industries since 1890, it will not be out of place to state here the minimum injury thereby sustained by the employees in the seven years under our consideration.
When all the available data of the Eleventh Census were published, Dr. Spahr started to estimate the total income of the nation for the year 1890. In estimating it he found out that the total income of the manufacture and mechanical trades alone amounted to $2,790,000,000, including their net profits of $1,116,000,000 for the year. The total number of persons engaged in these trades was 5,091,000, of whom 4,650,000 were wage-earners, while the remaining 441,000 were officers, firm members and clerks. Disregarding these, the average of actual wages of the wage-earners for the year was $360. After that year these meager wages, by reduction and unemployment, “had decreased 25 per cent,” says Dr. Spahr.[[137]]
But if we regard the average reduction of these wages at 10 cents a day only, and the average labor year at 250 days, leaving thus |SPECIAL LOSSES OF THE WAGE-EARNERS.| a sufficient room for unemployment, we then find that the 4,650,000 wage-earners were losing $116,250,000 every year. And distributing the same losses over seven years, they have lost $813,750,000 worth of their energy in favor of the trusts and combinations. The losses, however, have been greater than this amount, although we consider only this minimum, which is simply an increase in the injustice brought about by the principle of dividogenesure.
But while the real producers of wealth thus constantly lose their energy in products, the net profits of the trusts of these industries for the year 1890 amounted to $1,116,000,000.[[138]] This great yearly income |NET INCOMES OF THE TRUSTS.| excludes all expenses, and excludes even the yearly waste of machinery, tools, and of the other capital used in operations. Obtaining such profits seven times in seven years, these trusts have profited themselves by about $7,812,000,000. And these enormous profits accrued to them for nothing more than the trouble of buying the machinery and other capital that the real producers of wealth operated upon, mostly under hired supervision. And while the human and mechanical forces work out these results, the real beneficiaries do nothing but speculate on the ways of concentrating the entire increase of wealth to their hands.
The speculative efficiency of these trusts and the profound injustice of it will be more apparent, if we remember that these profits do, not only imply the systematic extortion of the crystallized energy of the real producers of wealth by means of exorbitancy in dividogenesure, but they imply a similar extortion from the public at large, which consume the products of these industries for excessive payments.
The question of the “excess of selling price over the cost of production” in these industries has been well ascertained. A cost of production according to economists, implies |COST OF PRODUCTION.| cost of materials used; salaries, wages, rent, taxes, insurance, repairs paid; waste of machinery, instruments, and of other capital valued; in short, it implies all expenses, including reasonable percentage on stock and reasonable remuneration for the troubles of capitalists and entrepreneurs. And all these expenses must be collected by means of selling prices from consumers of the products. While what is unreasonable in such prices under ordinary circumstances is called an “excess of selling price over the cost of production.” This excess was raised by the trusts up to 12.95 per cent in 1890.[[139]]
If then we take the selling prices even of the total profits of $1,116,000,000 of the manufacture and mechanical trades for the year 1890,[[140]] and subtract this excess from |EXTORTION FROM THE PUBLIC.| it, we find that the excess amounted to $144,522,000 in one year. Admitting that the above percentage sustained some fluctuations, we cannot but think that, with the increasing activity in combinations of the trusts, this percentage of the excess must have increased soon after that year. So that the average of it, from 1891 to 1897 inclusive, must have been carried on by the trusts in different ways and means. If so, then they must have exacted from the consuming public fully $1,011,654,000 worth of its wealth, as an excess of selling price over the cost of production of the goods consumed. This loss of the public wealth, of course, does not exclude the losses of the families worth $5,000 and over; nor does it include any relation to exports of the products of these trades. The loss simply indicates an extortion from the public by perverted morality and profound selfishness of the combines.
The next item in the concentration of wealth has been drawn from the agricultural regions.
It has been estimated that the wages and earnings of all farmers from 1890 to 1895 have fallen over 20 per cent;[[141]] and that 8,497,000 persons engaged in agriculture |SPECIAL LOSSES OF THE FARMERS.| have suffered from the fall, according to the estimates of Dr. Spahr,[[142]] which he based upon various reports. If, however, we admit only 10 cents of this loss from every person, every labor day, in favor of the various monopolies, trusts and combinations which use the raw materials and transport the agricultural materials and products, we find that in about 266 working days in one year the above people lost $226,020,200 worth of their products. Distributing these losses equally over seven years we find that these people have lost and the monopolies, etc., have gained about $1,582,141,400 worth of their wealth for nothing. And this is only the minimum loss that was carried throughout the period of seven years, as constant drain.