CHAPTER XLV.

THE LABOR QUESTION.

Harmony Between the Representatives of Capital and 491

Labor Necessary for Business Prosperity.—If

Manufacturers should Combine to Regulate Wages the

Arrangement could only be Temporary.—The Workingmen

are Taken Care of by the Natural Laws of

Trade.—Competition among the Capitalists Sustains the

Rate of Wages.—Opinion of John Stuart Mill on this

Subject.—Compelling a Uniform Rate of Pay is a Gross

Injustice to the Most Skilful Workmen.—The Tendency

of the Trades Unions to Debar the Workingman from

Social Elevation.—The Power of the Unions Brought to

a Test.—The Universal Failure of the

Strikes.—Revolutionary Demands of the Knights of

Labor.—Gould and the Strikes on the Missouri Pacific,

&c., &c.