But it
ought to be clearly recognized that the industrial force which operates
_directly_ to raise the wages of the workers, is not technical skill, or
increased efficiency of labour, but the elevated standard of comfort
required by the working-classes. It is at the same time true, that if we
could merely stimulate the workers to new wants requiring higher wages,
they could not necessarily satisfy all these new wants. If it were
possible to induce all labourers to demand such increase of wages as
sufficed to enable them to lay by savings, it is difficult to say
whether they could in all cases press this claim successfully. But if at
the same time their efficiency as labourers likewise grew, it will be
evident that they both can and would raise that standard of living.

In so far as the results of technical education upon the class of low-
skilled labourers alone is concerned, it is evident that it would
relieve the constant pressure of an excessive supply. Whatever the
effect of this might be upon the industrial condition of the skilled
industries subjected to the increased competition, there can be no doubt
that the wages of low-skilled labour would rise. Since the condition of
unskilled or low-skilled workers forms the chief ingredient in poverty,
such a "levelling up" may be regarded as a valuable contribution towards
a cure of the worst phase of the disease.

This brief investigation of the working of moral and educational cures
for industrial diseases shows us that these remedies can only operate in
improving the material condition of the poorest classes, in so far as
they conduce to raise the standard of living among the poor. Since a
higher standard of comfort means economically a restriction in the
number of persons willing to undertake work for a lower rate of wage
than will support this standard of comfort, it may be said that moral
remedies can be only effectual in so far as they limit the supply of
low-skilled, low-paid labour. Thus we are brought round again to the one
central point in the problem of poverty, the existence of an excessive
supply of cheap labour.

Sec. 5. The False Dilemma which impedes Progress.--There are those who seek
to retard all social progress by a false and mischievous dilemma which
takes the following shape. No radical improvement in industrial
organization, no work of social reconstruction, can be of any real avail
unless it is preceded by such moral and intellectual improvemen