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96 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES
The conclusions of this long argument may now be
very shortly restated .. In certain cases the increase of
net earnings by the advance of the last fifty years can-
not be so great as the increase of gross earnings, be-
cause some classes of workmen have to submit to an
increased charge for rent and railway fares, and similar
expenditure, which really amount to a reduction from
the gross earnings 'which they receive. But on the
whole, the classes of workmen affected in this way must,
from the nature of things, be comparatively small, 'while
the general conditions are such that the deduction from
gross earnings, as a rule, still leaves an enormous net
gain. Next, the allegation as to the increased severity
of labour, and as to workmen not getting a sufficiently
adequate remuneration or a sufficient share of the in-
creased gross produce, is met by the admission gener-
ally ·of an increase in the severity of labour, which,
however, is found to be more properly described as a re-
volution in the quality ofthe labour, and to be connected
with the fact of improvement generally, and to be evi-
dence of improvement in the workman's condition.
The character of labour generally has so changed that
it cannot really be measured in comparison with the
labour of a former time. Some workmen engaged about
machines may appear to get comparatively little of the
increased production for themselves, but the reason is
that the improvement in machines is for the benefit of
society as a whole, and not specially for that of the par-
ticular workmen engaged upon them, who only parti-
cipate in the improvement as consumers, and not as
producers. Substantially, however, there is more severe
toil all round, and whether the additional remunera-
tion is adequate or not, the change in the quality of
the labour is necessary to the production, the labourer
gets all the possible remuneration, and the labour itself
could not be carried on without the remuneration ob-
tained. I t is the same with the complaint as to the
rise in the. scale of living. The rise in the scale is at
once a proof of the improvement iIi the workman's con-