A Plain Mans Talk On the Labor Question

reases the prosperity of each individual. I can imagine him to make the following reply to all I have been saying on the subject: " You show plainly enough that if we put sixty millions of men into four millions of houses, we must, on the average, put fifteen people into each house; and I readily admit that, were one million of new houses built, wo should, on the average, have to put only twelve people into each house. What you call the average prosperity, obtained by dividing the number of people by the number of houses, will no doubt be thus improved. But it doesnot at all follow that there will be any proportional increase in the actual material prosperity of the people, as yon yourself have defined it. As a matter of fact, although the people may average fifteen to a house, they are divided very unequally. Some large houses have only a single family, of perhaps live people, all told. In our great cities there are large tenement houses in which hundreds live in a single house. Now if the million new houses built were all to be occupied by those who now live in crowded quarters, your conclusion would be all right. But would not these new houses, as a matter of fact, be mostly occupied by well-to-do owners, who already have house-room enough, thus leaving the crowded poor as badly off as ever ? And so with the bread, the shoes, the clothing, the furniture, and everything else you have described. Who will be benefited if their production is increased ? It is no...