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THE GROSS AND THE NET GAIN OF RISING WAGES.l
•
N the discussions to which former papers of mine on
I working-class progress have given rise, there are
some criticisms which have interested me very much.
Theyare made by members of the working class them-
selves, who are slow enough to admit the average in-
crease of their money earnings in the last fifty years,
which the figures demonstrate. But, admitting some
increase of money, they go on to say, and admitting,
too, the low prices, the improvement after all is not
without drawbacks, or, as I have suggested in the
above title, it is mainly in the gross. There are draw-
backs which take away much of the apparent advantage.
A . general statement like this, apart from particular
allegations to support it, could not but excite my atten-
tion, although I have avoided hitherto any discussion
of it. It is a good rule to do one thing at a time. An
improvement of money earnings and no increase of
prices appeared to be hyo points worth establishing,
whatever the drawbacks of a less apparent kind, and
which the working classes could themselves best ap-
preciate, might be. But while avoiding the discussion
hitherto. I have been none the less observant, for the
simple reason that each class knows its own grievances
as no others can, and that such complaints, though
easy enough to prove unfounded, are apt to cover facts
which will reward investigation-which will throw light,
when properly understood, not only on the particular
problems in hand, but on larger problems. I propose
1 From the "Contemporary Review" of 1889.
79