manent degradation of the laboring classes through the operation of economical forces which the individual is powerless to resist.
Admitting, then, that it is eminently desirable to reduce the action of the organized public force to the minimum consistent with the above object, shall we not say that government can not relieve itself from the necessity of frequent and minute interferences with industry in any other way to so great an extent as by, 1st, insisting on the thorough primary education of the whole population; 2d, providing a strict system of sanitary administration; 3d, securing by special precautions the integrity of banks of savings for the encouragement of the instincts of frugality, sobriety, and industry?
Each of these things is contrary to the doctrine of Laissez faire; yet I, for one, can not find room to doubt that, on purely economical grounds, the action of the State herein is not only justifiable but a matter of elementary duty. A little interference with the freedom of individual action here will save the necessity of a great deal of interference elsewhere. If the State will see to it that the whole body of the people can read and write and cipher; that the common air and common water, which no individual vigilance can protect, yet on which depends, in a degree which few even of intelligent persons comprehend, the public health and the laboring-power of a population, are kept pure; and that the first feeble efforts of the poor at bettering their condition and saving "for a rainy day" are guarded against official frauds and speculative risks, it may take its hands off at a hundred other points, and trust its citizens, in the main, to do and care for themselves. These things therefore are demanded by the true economy of State action.
But, even so, I find to my own satisfaction at least a present necessity for legislation and administration in the interest of health, in the case of all industries where large numbers of laborers of differing sexes, ages, and degrees
are aggregated, especially where other than manual power is employed. Factory acts prohibiting labor for all classes beyond the term which physiological science accepts as consistent with soundness and vigor; restricting within limits carefully adapted to the average capability of effort and endurance the employment of children and of women also, so long at least as women are denied suffrage on the ground either of mental inferiority or sexual unfitness for contact with what is rough and vile; and providing a full and frequent sanitary inspection of air and water, from garret to cellar, in all buildings thus occupied: acts like these seem, at least in the present, to be justified and demanded, not more by social and moral than by economical considerations (pp. 357-9). For it must ever be borne in mind, in such discussions, that those things are economically justified which can reasonably be shown to contribute, on the whole and in the long run, to a larger production, or, production remaining the same, to a more equable distribution of wealth.
Babbage, Charles, Economy of Man
ufactures, 98, 257, 279n., 280n.,
282n.
Adams, John, the paper money of the | Avarice, in masters and employers
American Revolution, 16.
opposes true self-interest, 59,
Agricultural wages paid largely in 164.
kind, 20-4; agricultural laborers in
England crippled early by rheuma-
tism, 38; agricultural truck not for-
bidden in England, 327.
Agriculture, great irregularity of em-
ployment in, 27, 28, 32, 33; law of
"Diminishing Returns" in, chap. v.;
difficulty of applying co-operation to,
280, 281.
Air, purity of the, affecting the effi-
ciency of labor, 60-4.
Alison, Sir Archibald, History of
Europe, 54, 75n., 118n., 133n.,
180n., 268n., 317, 318, 355, 397n.;
(Report on the Payment of Wages
Bill, 1854), testimony respecting
truck, 331-333.
Allotment system, the, 25.
Ames, Dr., Sex in Industry, 373.
Annuities, mistake of the British
Government respecting sale of, 400,
Applegarth, William, objects and
methods of the Amalgamated Soci-
ety of Carpenters, 399.
Apprentices, statute of (England),
306, 307.
Apprenticeship made the condition of
entrance to many trades by union
regulations, 403–5.
Arbitration, 394.
Argyle, Duke of, famine in India,
118n.; necessity for restrictions
upon labor, 357.
Arithmetical increase of subsistence,
102.
Ashworth, Mr., comparative cost of
clothing from cotton, wool, and flax,
122n.
Austria, co-operation in, 288; restric-
tions upon industry, 309, 310;
marriage statistics, 356; factory
legislation, 360; strikes, 395.
Bagehot, Walter, varying efficiency of
labor, 47; Lombard Street, 230.
Baines, Mr., improvidence of the
cottage population of Leeds,
350n.
Baker, R. Smith, false economy of
the labor of married women in fac-
tories, 382.
Bastiat, Fred'k., Harmonies of Polit-
cal Economy, 159n.
Batbie, M., Nouveau Cours de l'Écon
omie, 44n., 49n., 54, 65.
Baxter, R. Dudley, National Income,
30n., 31, 32, 38, 375n.; Local Taxa-
tion, 323.
Bazley, Sir Thomas, accidents in
mining in England, 36n.
Beaulieu, M., Les Populations Ouv-
rières, 78.
Belgium, statistics of height and
weight, 50, 51; intemperance in,
78n.; ratio of bread-winners to de-
pendents, 126n. ; proportion of for-
eigners in the population, 184; co-op-
eration in, 287; marriage statistics
of, 356; no factory legislation in,
361; laws against strikes and com-
binations in, 395.
Beverley, Mr., marriages early in India,
356n.
Biggs, Wm., testimony respecting
frame rents, 334.
Birth-rate, within different occupa
tions, 191; effect of injudicious poor
laws upon, 322, 323.
"Black Death," the, industrial conse-
quences of, 304.
Blanqui, M., Cours d'Economie In
dustrielle, 59n. 274n.
Board, to agricultural laborers, 20, 21.
Bodio, Louis, Casse di Risparmio, 350.
Bonar, Mr., relation of employers and
laborers in Switzerland, 260n.
Boot and shoe manufacture, irregu-
larity of employment in, 30; intro-
duction of machinery into, 189.
Brabazon, Lord, payment of agricul-
tural wages in France, 20n.; food
of the laboring population, 56n., 78;
town and country rents, 118n.;
wages of women and men in agricul-
ture, 375., 380n.
Brassey, Thomas, Work and Wages,
efficiency of labor among various
nationalities, 45, 46, 72; diet of
East Indians, 118.; payment of
wages to French laborers, 350n.;
Women in railway construction,
374n.; Address at Halifax, 277-278.
Bread winners, ratio to dependents,
126n., 191.
Brewster, Messrs., co-operative enter-
prise, 283n.
Briggs, Messrs., co-operative enter-
prise, 282.
Brickmaking, irregularity of employ-
ment in, 28; employment of women
and children in, 52, 202.
Brittany, low stature of peasantry of,
50; language of, 175n.
Britton, J. W., co-operative enterprise,
283n.
Cairnes, J. E., Essays in Political
Economy, effects of the gold dis-
coveries on prices, 14n.; the doc-
trine of laissez faire, 162n, 168, 173;
insufficiency of the employers' sense
of self-interest, 164; The Slave Pow-
er, inefficiency of slave labor, 72;
The Logical Method of Political
Economy, (Ed. 1875) the law of dim-
inishing returns in agriculture, 94n.
100n; ratio between population and
subsistence, 119; the office of econo-
mic definition, 218; Some Leading
Principles of Political Economy,
etc., 137n., 184; theory of "non-
competing groups," 195-7; profits
the reward of abstinence, 231;
profits at or near the minimum,
233; excessive profits restored to
wages, 237, 238, 253; co-operation,
264-265; are strikes successful?
298n.; excessive friction of retail
trade, 314, 315.
Caird, James, dwellings in Scotland,
61; Prairie Farming, 91n.;
Canada, efficiency of labor in, 45.
Cantillon, M., ratio of breadwinners
to dependents, 126n.
Capital, often supplied by the persons
who perform labor in production,
8; does not furnish the measure of
18*
wages,; 130, 131; yet wages are
largely advanced out of capital;
does capital include land? 224-5;
are the returns of capital at the
minimum or not? 233, 237; does it
make any difference to the wages
class whether the returns of capital
are at the minimum or not? 237-41.
Capitalist class, the, chap. xiii. ; not
coincident with employing class,
229, 244, 245; dependent equally
with the laboring class, on the em-
ploying class, 290, 291.
Carey, H. C., Essay on Wages, 141,
382n.
Carpentering trade, irregularity of
employment in, 28, 32.
Carpenters, the Amalgamated Socie-
ty of, 399.
Catholic countries, holidays in, 29;
priesthood, influence in favor of
early marriages, 356n.
Census, United States, 1870, 66, 180,
375; Ireland, 1851, 111; Scotland,
1871, 175n., 191, 377.
Chadwick, Edwin, cost of rearing a
child, 33n.; employers prefer high-
priced labor, 41n.; effects of drill
upon laborers; 72; difficulty of re-
moving laborers, 185, 257; effects
of education upon the condition of
the laboring class, 353.
Chalmers, Thomas, Political Econo-
my, 322n.
Chamberlain, E. M., Sovereigns of In-
dustry, 288n.
"Channel Islands," the, tenure of
land in, 208.
Charles II. (England), industrial legis-
lation of his reign, 308.
Chateaubriand, M., wages a later form
of slavery, 295.
Cherbuliez, A. E., Précis de la Science
Economique, 131.
Cheerfulness in labor, 72-77.
Chevalier, M., Lectures, 99, 105n. 156,
170; Travels in the United States,
180n.
Children, irregularity of their employ-
ment in agriculture, 33; employed
on work unsuited to their strength,
52, 53, 167, 168, 201-3; legislation
respecting the employment of, 356-
62.
China, food habits of the people, 118,
immobility of the population, 176.
China scourers, excessive mortality
among, 37.
Cider truck, 23, 327.
Cleanliness of person, affecting efficien-
cy of labor, 60, 61.
Clerical profession, duration of life in,
Clifford, Frederick, The Agricultural
Lock-out of 1874, 47n., 117, 118n,
|