Your pay envelope

by John Richard Meader

In the United States, wages have practically doubled since 1860 and the hours of labor have decreased from 15 to 30 per cent. In Norway, Sweden, Germany, Japan, and several other countries, the increase in wages since 1860 has also been fully (where not more than) 100 per cent, while the hours of labor, especially since 1890, have shown a tendency toward improvement consistent with such progress in the United States (cf. The Common Cause, loc. cit.).

The statistics on pauperism afford quite as telling an argument against Marx’s prediction of the increasing misery. In the United States, in 1886, the ratio of paupers was 116.6 to each one hundred thousand inhabitants. In 1903 the ratio had decreased to 101.4 per each one hundred thousand inhabitants.

In England the figures are even more impressive, for the ratio of paupers fell from 62.7 per one thousand inhabitants in 1849 to 26.2 in 1905. As Mr. West says: “There were actually 200,000 fewer paupers in 1905 than in 1849, although the population of the country during these fifty-six years almost doubled, and this in the face of the Marxian predictions.”

But if Marx missed fire in his prophesy regarding the general labor situation, does not the “trustification of industry” show that he was right in the prediction that the wealth of the world was to be concentrated in the hands of the few? Not at all. The census figures of manufactures in the United States—and these figures are representative of world conditions in manufacturing—prove conclusively that the small establishments are not being crushed out of existence. It is true that there has been a steady concentration of industries through the organization of the combinations known as “trusts,” and if it could be shown that this concentration meant that the ownership of all the industries was falling into the hands of a smaller number of persons, there might be some ground for the Socialist contention that the few are absorbing the wealth of the many.

Ten years ago it looked as if this was what was happening, but, during the past decade, the ownership of these corporations has changed so completely that there can no longer be any doubt concerning the outcome. Instead of being a device to promote the cause of Socialism by concentrating the wealth of the nation in the hands of a few interests, the modern “trust” has become in reality an agency for the diffusion of wealth.

Of course, as you know, John, a corporation—even a “trust”—is owned by those who hold its stock. Every shareholder is a partner in the concern; so, when we find that, instead of being owned by fewer persons, the stock is distributed among increasing thousands of persons, it is difficult to see where there is any evidence of marked concentration of industrial wealth.

If you take, for example, the great railway systems, you will find that, whereas in 1901 nine of the leading roads were owned by 50,000 stockholders, in 1911 the stock in these companies was held by 118,000 persons. In 1901 the stock in the fifteen industrial corporations—popularly termed “trusts”—was held by 82,000 persons; in 1911 more than 247,000 individuals owned the stock in these companies.

Think for a moment what these figures mean. “Twenty years ago,” said Mr. West (The Common Cause, August, 1912), “before the movement of combinations had begun, the steel properties of this country were owned by not more than 5,000 persons.” (That might well be called “concentration of industrial wealth,” John!) “Now the Steel Corporation, which at the highest estimate does not represent more than 60 per cent of the steel production of the United States, is owned by 150,000 persons.” As another writer recently said: “If the attorney-general should succeed in destroying the value of the Steel Corporation’s securities, he would not only deprive thousands of the provision they have made against old age, but stop the wholesome movement that is making for the popular ownership of the big corporations and thus for the checking of dangerous wealth concentration.”

You see how little evidence there is in support of the Socialist “law” of concentration.

Another contention of Marx and his followers is that concentration will also show itself in the principal industry of humanity—agriculture. Do the facts support this prediction? Certainly, not in England, or in any other country in Europe. But how about the farmers of the United States? Are they being absorbed and enslaved by a few capitalists?