be supposed
capable of taking care of their own health. There are many trades and
professions in which people are practically paid by the piece, but it is
not found necessary to have trades-unions to keep them from killing
themselves. There is more fear that people will work too little rather
than too much.

The real objection which trades-unionists feel to piece-work is that it
gets the work done quickly, and thus tends, as they think, to take
employment away from other men. But, as I have already explained, men do
not work for the sake of working, but for the sake of what they produce,
and the more men in general produce, the higher wages in general will
be. Trades-unionists put forward their views on the ground of
unselfishness. They would say that it is selfish of Tom to work so as to
take away employment from Dick and Harry; but they overlook the
thousands of Toms, Dicks, and Harrys in other employments who get small
wages indeed, and who are perhaps prevented by their rules from earning
more. If the nation as a whole is to be wealthy and happy, we must each
of us work to the best of our powers, producing the wealth which we can
best produce, and not grudging others a greater success, if Providence
has given them superior powers. People can seldom produce wealth for
themselves without spreading a greater benefit over society in general,
by cheapening commodities and lightening toil.

#57. The Fallacy of Equality.# Workmen often show a dislike to allowing
one man to earn more than another in the same shop, and at the same kind
of work. This feeling is partly due to the mistaken notion that in doing
more work than others he takes employment from them. It partly, however,
arises from a dislike to see one man better off than his mates. This
feeling is not confined to workmen. Any one who reflects upon the state
of society must regret that the few are so rich, and the many so poor.
It might seem that the laws must be wrong which allow such differences
to exist. It is needful to reflect, therefore, that such differences of
wealth are not for the most part produced by the laws. All men, it has
been said, are born free and equal; it is difficult to see how they can
be born free, when, for many years after birth, they are helpless and
dependent on their parents, and are properly under their governance. No
doubt they ought to become free when grown up, but then they are seldom
equal. One youth is stout, healthy and energet