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GROSS AND NET GAIN OF RISING WAGES 81
more money, it is sometimes urged, he must, in fact,
spend more money on food and other things than he
formerly did. Here, again, is a question of gross and
net, and it will be observed how the last complaint
raises in a different form the question already suggested
under the first head by a consideration of the effects of
climate. A distinction is made between the gross earn-
ing and the net surplus, the difference being something
which the working man has to pay as a fine to enable
him tJ earn the net sum which he wishes to spend.
Last of all, it is maintained that on all sides the scale
of living has become more expensive. The working
man has to get more food, clothing, and shelter for his
family than he would formerly have had to get; more
is expected of him; and he has to pay for such things
as the education of his children to a much greater ex-
tent than he would formerly have had to pay. In this
way the strain upon the working man has increased.
As I understand the complaint, he is no more a free
man than before. His energies are mortgaged in ad-
vance, and he has all the old difficulty to keep his foot-
ing in the world.
N ow, whether these complaints are right or wrong,
well or ill founded, it is clear that they involve problems
of a most vital kind as to the general effect upon the
working classes of the conditions of modern civilization.
To take the first head of complaint. If it be the case
that a rise of rent or the charge for travelling .between
the place of living and the place of work or similar ex-
penditure is sufficient to deprive working men of the
advantage of increased money wages, then the con-
gregation of men in cities or in certain parts of cities,
where higher money wages are to be obtained than
elsew here, which appear to be the conditions of modern
. industrial life, would be fatal to improvement. It would
be the same with the necessity for working in an ex-
hausting climate. The problem, as stated, is certainly
of the gravest kind. The questions raised by the second
head of complaint are just as important. If increase of
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