2. This progress is mainly due to the opening up of rich natural resources and to the development of industrial processes. Recognized in some measure by every one, this progress is attributed by different observers to different causes: in America, by many to the protective tariff; in England, by many to the freer trade introduced about 1840; throughout the continent of Europe, to the spread of constitutional government and free institutions; by trade-unions everywhere, to the organization of labor. There is, doubtless, under certain conditions, some portion of truth in each of these claims. But, either separately or altogether, they fall short of a broad, reasonable, and sufficient explanation. The two-fold proposition just presented, the justification for which has been given in preceding chapters, points to a general and adequate cause.
The gloomy view as to the wage system was mistaken
Seventy-five years ago it was thought that, with the increase of machinery, of factories, of the concentrated control of wealth, and especially with the wage system, there must go a steady depression in the welfare of the workingman. This idea was connected with the iron law of wages. It was believed by some that, whatever the causes of advancing social income might be, the wage system would rob the wage-earners of all share in progress. In view of the facts, if it cannot now be asserted positively that the wage system is the cause of all the gain, it can be asserted negatively that it is not inconsistent with great progress on the part of the laboring classes. It might be possible to go further and to maintain that the organization of industry, under the wage system and competitive conditions, by its encouragement of enterprise, energy, and economy, has been an indispensable condition in the industrial progress which has in turn made possible the rising wages of labor.
More workers now in better-paid callings
3. The increased proportion of workers in the higher occupations means a further rise in the average condition of the masses. A smaller proportion of workers is now engaged in the low-paid industries than fifty years ago, and a correspondingly larger proportion is in the better, or highly paid, industries. Decade by decade the proportion shifts toward the upper part of the scale. Both in America and in England (doubtless also in other countries) more men are now engaged in the higher professions and skilled occupations, a smaller proportion in the lower occupations. This would raise the average of wages even if the wages of particular occupations had not risen.
The masses gain by general social advance
4. The diffused advantages of progress mean relatively more to the masses than to the rich. In the olden days the poor man was bound to the spot where he lived, the rich man had his carriage; to-day poor and rich ride side by side in the trolley car. The introduction of these cheap methods of enjoyment means relatively more to the poor. Better medical care, better sanitation, more abundant food, clothing, comfort, free schools, and libraries have all a part in this movement. The enormous possibilities in these lines are just beginning to be realized. The achievements of the last twenty years read like a story from fairy-land. It tells the leveling up of the conditions enjoyed by the common man.
Better social conditions must grow out of the wage system
Improvement in the wage system
5. Any sound method of improving social conditions must grow out of experience, not break with it. Even if things were on the downward instead of the upward road there would be no excuse for wild speculation. The only rational way is to find what is good in what is, and build upon it. There can be no excuse for suggesting a method from imagination. Projects of social change must be tried by successful experiment, and gradually fitted to present needs. It is in this way that the higher forms of life have developed; it is in this way that social and political institutions have come into being. Things that work successfully first in a small way are worthy of trial on a larger scale. The wage system is a favorite object of attack for radical social reformers. It has many unlovely features and there are many individual cases of hardship. It may well be asked, What method shall be pursued to reform it? Its retention, however, is not inconsistent with very great changes in the present political and economic arrangements. The impersonal economic forces are working for improvement; but further, there is a growth of sentiment, an increase in sympathy, a feeling among men that the "cash nexus" is not the only bond that should unite different classes, and this sympathy is becoming an economic force, softening and improving many of the most unlovely features of the modern wage system.