“I will not waste much time in investigating all these points and ascertaining how great was the loss thus inflicted on the production of the nineteenth century”, Mr. Forest continued. “But you seem to be inclined to overestimate their effects. Unlucky speculations, for instance, caused sometimes heavy losses to the speculator, but in most cases they produced values that benefitted others and increased the wealth of the nation. The “insane competition” made goods cheaper, thereby stimulating both production and consumption and not harming, but on the contrary to a certain extent benefitting humanity. The statement that four or five enterprises failed where one succeeded is a “licentia poetica” of which Dr. Leete makes free use. You must know yourself that it is a gross exaggeration.
“The saving from the employment of steam-cooking we have already investigated. If there is any, it is small in the cities and smaller still in the country districts, and offers no compensation for the loss of comfort involved. Furthermore we take into consideration that many of the men engaged as judges, lawyers, bankers, officers, middlemen, or clerks were over forty-five years or under twenty-one, so that you would have to deduct them from the force that you have to consider as a loss to the industrial army”.
“Still, these misplacements of capital and labor, these losses in various ways were enormous”, I insisted, “and they account for the greater poverty of the people of the nineteenth century, compared with the inhabitants of the United States in the year 2000”.
“They would, undoubtedly”, Mr. Forest argued, “if there were no other reasons for a decrease of our production. But there are causes as you will readily see, when I point them out. The principle reason why both the quantity and the quality of our production are constantly abating, is the abolishment of competition. Competition was the gigantic motor that caused nearly everybody during the first nineteen centuries of Christian civilization to use all his mental and physical powers to “get ahead”. Since the introduction of communism, since the good workmen are robbed of a part of the products of their labor for the benefit of the poor workers, and since everybody is sure of an equal share of all the necessities and commodities of life, no matter how much or how little he produces, the masses of the people are becoming more and more indifferent. They are not putting forth their best efforts to furnish much and good work. They are taking life easy. Their mental and physical ability has decreased. The people of the United States, once famous for their energy, are degenerating. Promotion might have acted as a spur, had not favoritism of the politicians monopolized all good positions for the tools of the administration”.
“The second reason for the decrease of production is the shortening of both the years and the hours of work. It is difficult to ascertain how many persons of different ages were employed in your time in productive labor. The census of the United States government taken before you went to sleep for one hundred and thirteen years, the census of 1880 is in many respects a very creditable work but it does not give the ages of the persons who then formed the industrial army. The report is very elaborate as to the number of persons of all ages, their nationality, and so forth. But in regard to the age of the workers it only gives three classes, one comprising all the persons under 15 years of age, another, all persons between 16 and 59, and the third, the number of employees of 60 years and over. Of the people under 15 years of age 1,118,356 were employed, of the men and women over 60 years 933,644 were males and 70,873 females. The whole industrial army of your day numbered, out of an entire population of 50,155,783, not less than 17,392,099, only 2,647,157 being girls and women, including the servant girls”.
“I remember reading some of these figures”, I remarked.
“The census of 1880 thus shows that over 12 percent of the population of the United States belonging to the industrial army were under 15 and over 60 years of age”, Mr. Forest continued. “This is, of course, a very bad showing. Girls and boys under 15 years of age should certainly belong to the schools, while people over 50 years ought to have permanent rest and a good living. But there can be no doubt that the working-force at the close of the last century was comparatively larger than ours. According to the census of 1880, there lived in the United States 15,527,215 persons of the age, that would make them to-day members of our industrial army. You employed, therefore, 2,173,184 more persons than your whole population between the ages of 21 to 45 numbered, and this calculation figures, that all the people of that age are really active. You must consider the fact, that many of our population who are of the age, when they ought to do work in the industrial army, are excused from service for various reasons, for instance: permanently sick people, the weak-minded, cripples, mothers of babies, etc. You must, therefore, recognize that your people furnished a much stronger working-force than does our generation.”
“I guess we did”, I admitted, convinced by the figures quoted by Mr. Forest.
Drawing a piece of paper from his note book the gentleman continued: “Here is a list of all the avocations you may call unproductive, taken from the census of 1880. I have given every point, which seems contrary to my views, the benefit of the doubt. I have embraced all the trades, professions and occupations Dr. Leete himself could fairly claim as nonproductive in this compilation, though a good many of the people engaged in them were, at least, saving time for members of the producing classes. Many men and women of your time would not have been able to produce pictures and works of art, or to sing in operas and so forth, if it had been impossible for them to secure help in housekeeping. Now, in your day, the year of our Lord 1880, the people engaged in the occupations, trades and professions that Dr. Leete would call nonproductive, numbered 1,654,319 including all the servants. Deducting these 1,654,319 from the 2,173,084 persons under the age of 15 and over 60, there still would be a surplus of 518,765 women and men of your time over the number of people, that would belong in our days to the industrial force”.
“Your figures are correct, as far as you state them”, I said, desirous to encourage Mr. Forest to proceed with his argument.