Production is only a general term for food, clothing, home, education, surplus. These constitute wealth, which is only another name for accumulated labor. The wages paid for labor are rather the above-named objects, than any certain sum of money, for the value of money consists only in the products that it will command. The natural aim of the laborer is to increase the result produced by his effort. How can this be done? First, subjectively, by greater activity and through the cultivation of individual qualities which tend to success. Second, by surrounding himself

with more favorable environment and conditions. It is not only in accord with Natural Law, but also with common sense, that individual energy and thorough training in a particular department are necessary for much progress in that line of effort. The question with the wage-worker should not be, how few hours or how little exertion can I possibly get along with? but rather, how much can I accomplish? He who puts forth his best efforts will soon become indispensable to his employer, and his labor will naturally increase in value, and he himself by positive development will become an employer.

Society is composed of two classes, the independent and the dependent. To which of these two classes a man will belong is, under all ordinary conditions, a matter of individual choice. The terms independent and dependent are here used in a relative and not absolute sense. There is no absolute independence, for interdependence is universal. But relatively, every one who mingles faithfulness with his labor and keeps his expenditures within his receipts, is economically independent. This is true without much regard to the amount of difference, provided the margin be on the side of thrift. It is true that the situation of a wagelaborer is sometimes subject to contingencies, but with rare and local exceptions, conscientious labor is always in demand. The higher it becomes in quality, the more scarce

it grows in quantity. The high grade is never plentiful, hence demand meets it on an elevated level, both as to value and stability. The highway to independence is open, and guide-boards are up at every turn. Just here is seen one of the bad effects on the laborer of actual - not ideal - labor unions. A member, instead of depending upon individual merit and energy for maintaining or advancing his wages, relies upon the power of the union. The former is natural, the latter artificial. By this course he loses his motive for the attainment of personal superiority and natural advancement, and settles down to the dead level of the dependent elements which surround and control him.

The goal of the American laborer is the position of accumulated labor, or, in other words, that of proprietor. A continuous, even if small margin between income and expenditure in one direction, fixes the condition of independence, and, in the other, of its necessary opposite. It is not a matter of chance, but of law. In this country, even if a laborer begins in the dependent ranks, his condition is not a fixed one. The transition to the independent class is easy and plain, when the natural course of individual merit and effort is chosen. Examples on every hand prove that this is a universal experience, and not a matter of sentiment or theory. But a very small part of the wealth of this country was inherited, probably nine-tenths being the result of personal enterprise. Any short-cut route to success is uncertain, and any forced march, outside of the natural conditions of progress, or under a dictator, is generally disastrous. But the broad, direct, and solid highway of individual industry, economy, and temperance is open always. A surplus is what the daily wage-worker should be accumulating, and presently it supplements his personal force with power of another kind. For such a man to try to antagonize accumulated labor, or those who possess it, is to oppose the very principles and conditions which are his own hope and reward.

The young American wage-worker who puts forth his best efforts, and who practises what economists call abstinence, or the limiting of expenditure to less than income, has as good ground for expecting to become a capitalist as has the gardener to expect a crop from good seed deposited in rich and fertile soil. It is no less true that he who does as little as will possibly keep him in his position, and who has slight regard for the interests of his employer, has the elements in him which make it almost certain that he will be always a member of the dependent class.

In regard to means favorable to increased production by labor which are external to the laborer, two general conditions may be mentioned: first, that of increasing the efficiency of mechanical appliances and aids; and second, seeking a favorable location or propitious field for operations. As to the first, it is not long ago when labor-saving machines were looked upon as the enemy of the laboring man, and some of the most useful inventions were forcibly destroyed, and their owners persecuted. Even so recently as thirty or forty years ago, the opinion was quite prevalent in the rural districts of New England that the general advent of railroads would quite destroy the value of horses and oats. It was found later that the world needed both, and the result was just the opposite of what the farmers had expected.

When the printing press was first brought into use, it was found that with it one man could do the work of two hundred copyists, and, as a consequence, it was feared that one hundred and ninety-nine men would be thrown out of employment. But what was the result? Soon the superiority of printed over written books, together with the lower price, stimulated authorship and increased the sale and use of books a thousand-fold, and employment was given to more printers than there were copyists before. Besides this direct result, there were in addition the related occupations of paper-makers, book-binders, book-sellers, and various

others, so that the final outcome was the demand for many times the number of persons who seemingly lost their occupation when the invention came into practical use. And this, as the result merely of an economic process, aside from the immense impetus given by it to learning, art, and science. It may be regarded as in accord with Natural Law that every new invention and improvement which saves manual labor, and adds to the comfort and convenience of mankind, at the same time increases and opens up new avenues of employment, so that, as in the instance just noted, it gives occupation to a greater number of operatives than were before required. This may require time, but the process is steady and sure. Every improved appliance not only increases production and adds to the varieties of occupation, but it also raises the grade of employment. The engineer who runs a locomotive has a higher quality of occupa tion than he who wields a pick, for the reason that it includes more of the intellectual element. The superiority is in the relative grade of production, for the man who uses the pick is not necessarily lower or less honorable as a man.

In general, with the progress of science and invention, mind has more and more asserted its supremacy over matter, and the physical exertion of the laborer has been tempered in an increasing degree with the intellectual element. An ever increasing proportion of the aggregate work of the world is of the mental variety. As man becomes better acquainted with Natural Law, he gains in his supremacy over, and command of the material elements around him, and makes them minister to his complex needs and desires. All this is to the special advantage and benefit of the manual laborer. In consequence of this, the humble cottager of to-day has more comfort and even luxury than the king in his palace could have enjoyed three hundred years ago. It is said that Queen Elizabeth wore the first pair of knit hose ever brought to England, and they were regarded as a

great luxury; while now even a beggar could hardly be found without them. The introduction and use of the telegraph, telephone, and other electrical appliances afford examples of the conveniences now enjoyed by all classes. These, at the same time, open up immense fields and new avenues for human energy and employment. As before suggested, labor becomes more efficient in production by subdivision. The Jack-at-all-trades quality of production belongs to a past age; the present tendency being towards perfection of detail, by means of thorough organization and subdivision.

The law of progress is in the line of each member of society doing the particular thing which he can do best, and leaving everything else alone. This natural principle is being widely utilized, and, as a result, no past age can be compared with the present in respect to the ease, quantity, and quality of production.

Our own country, without doubt, presents a field of operation where the greatest possible production can be gained from a given amount of labor. The American youth have before them the most promising opportunities which have ever been enjoyed in any age or country. They are indebted for this, not only to the fact that they have the command of all the accumulated skill, knowledge, and experience of their predecessors, but that all their natural rights and privileges are secured to them by the beneficent care and protection of free government. They start in the race without any of the impediments that pertain to less democratic conditions. In the Old World, the fixedness of class, rank, and position, together with its systems of entail, compulsory military service, and many other influences which are artificial in their character, are dead-weights, and in opposition to the free exercise of Natural Law.