their situation as to "want and provision for want," not primarily because they have more foresight and selfcontrol. One may add, of course, that the strong savers have their huge savable funds, which make it comparatively easy for them to save, in part because of their superior powers in production; but it comes to the same thing in the end. Such men as the Standard Oil and Sugar Trust magnates are rich and successful and ambitious for more wealth; and, because they are rich and successful and ambitious, they are constantly pushing out with masses of fresh capital, and either investing more for the same return, or the same for a less return, or the same outlay for the same return in a longer period of production, which means, in the last analysis, that they are undersaving other men.

It needs also to be emphasized that any force which lowers the margin of the productivity of capital, and thus directly depresses the rate of interest, has the same effect in bringing about concentration as those forces we have just been considering. Thus factory legislation and the exactions of trade-unions as regards hours and wages tend powerfully to drive out the marginal capitalist. In spite of all the clamor against concentration, many tradeunionists see clearly on which side their interest lies. They know by experience that the great employers can and do give the steadiest employment and the highest wages; that the small employers struggling to keep their heads above water pay the lowest wages, because they cannot pay any more.

"Profits" and "interest are not of course synonymous terms; nor do they vary together strictly, as I have thus far, for the sake of convenience, assumed. It is obviously possible, and even probable,- as Sidgwick has pointed out, that at any time the first blow caused by increase of workmen's wages will not fall immediately on * Fortnightly Review, vol. xxvi. (New Series) p. 408.

the interest of capital, but will reach it only through a medium that will absorb at least a good part of its force; that is, as he himself explains it, it will merely cause a deduction from profits proper, or the "wages of superintendence" of entrepreneurs as distinguished from capitalists.

But this, again, means concentration,- concentration in the management of capital. A margin of weak entrepreneurs, working with borrowed capital, who found the former "wages of superintendence" and "compensation for risk" just worth their while, will be forced out of the field. The process may go on for some time, the strong wage-payers absorbing the business and the workmen of their weaker rivals, because they have a stronger effective desire of paying wages and undergoing risks, as regards the rate of profits proper, which in turn is largely because the absolute amount of their incomes makes their standard of living more "compressible." But, in the end, interest must go down in harmony with the fall of grosprofits; and any further raising of wages must lead to concentration in the ownership of capital. This latter process in turn will, in the end, if hurried too fast by pressure from labor unions or legislatures controlled by them, check accumulation of capital, and make any further rise in general wages, for the time being, impossible.

Whether such a tendency towards concentration is regrettable or not, would involve a consideration of its political, social, and ethical aspects, as well as of the economic effects simply. These last alone have here been considered by way of illustrating the fundamental and neglected principle under consideration, the varying strength of the effective desire of accumulation and the element of savers' rent.

C. W. MIXTER.

THE STUDY OF PRACTICAL LABOR PROBLEMS

IN FRANCE.*

THE difference between the study of practical and theoretical economics, the fact that one can thrive while the other is neglected, is strikingly demonstrated by the position now occupied by France as regards her contribution to economic science. France alone among the leading nations has within recent years made almost no addition to the literature of pure political economy. The new study of economic theory, for example, led by the Austrian professors Wieser and Böhm-Bawerk, with their researches concerning value, has there made little or no impression, scarcely eliciting a contribution to the economic press. In spite of this neglect of the theoretical aspect of economics, however, an activity in the study of practical labor problems there exists that is exceeded in no other country of Europe. Sweeping as this statement is, no one, I think, can make a careful examination of the work now being done in France without being convinced of its justification.

In America one is accustomed to associate all real study of labor conditions with the great universities. All of our economic reviews are connected with, and under the editorial management of, the economic faculties of the different universities; and contributions to their pages are largely drawn from men who follow academic careers. The results are such as might be expected. There is much excellent discussion of principles, some historical work regarding institutions; but little examination of actual labor problems with a view to devising means for their solution, and still less effort to put into practical

*Read at the meeting of the American Economic Association at New Haven, Dec. 28, 1898.

operation the measures of reform deemed to be the most desirable.

In France the condition of affairs is the reverse. In scholastic instruction of economics France is notoriously weak. On the other hand, the study of social questions outside of the universities is pursued with great ardor, and is wide-spread. The real centres of education and work in this field are the important economic associations, and, more than all, the numerous organizations for the promotion of particular measures of reform the membership of which is drawn largely from men of affairs, those prominent in public life or in journalistic and business undertakings. Within recent years there have been organized in France a number of such associations, each devoted to the promotion of reform in a certain field, such as the improved housing of the working classes, the study of workingmen's insurance, the promotion of cooperation and profit-sharing. Their work has resulted not only in the accumulation of a great deal of information concerning these subjects, but in the practical introduction of the measures of reform for which they stand. In other words, these societies are not merely organizations for study alone, but are primarily societies of propaganda for the practical advancement of reforms which their studies have led them to believe to be desirable. a number of cases the work of these organizations has assumed an international scope, and is of such excellence that no student of social conditions can afford to overlook it. Their publications in many instances constitute the most valuable body of literature in existence concerning the movements they represent.

In

It is the purpose of the present paper to make a rapid survey of these, as well as other agencies for the study of practical labor conditions, to show the valuable character of the work they are performing, and in general to give an idea of the character of the great movement for the

improvement of the conditions of labor that is now in full activity in France.

Government Work.-Though not the most important, the work of the government should first be considered. It is now generally accepted that the state has an important part to play in the collection and diffusion of information useful to mankind. In the case of information showing the social condition of the country this amounts to a real duty. All modern governments in their administrative reports and in their periodical census enumerations publish more or less information throwing light upon the industrial situation of the country, and consequently indirectly upon the economic condition of the laboring classes. Special effort on the part of the government systematically to collect information directly concerning labor conditions, however, is of recent date.

The first effort in this direction in France was in 1891, when M. Jules Roche, then Minister of Commerce and Industry, by decree of January 22 created a Superior Council of Labor with the duty of examining and reporting upon any measure relating to the interests of labor that might be referred to it. Its character was very similar to that of the Superior Council of Statistics created in 1885, which had been so instrumental in improving and unifying the statistical work of the various departments of the government. The labor council was made to consist of fifty members, partly representative workingmen, employers of labor, and members of Parliament appointed by the Minister of Commerce, and partly members ex officio, the chiefs of bureaus and officers of organizations having to do with the economic interests of the country.

This council has been very effective in promoting and elaborating the labor legislation of recent years. Almost its first service was to recommend and secure the creation of a permanent bureau of labor investigation in the exist