the economic thought of the
whole world is now devoted to the devising of means by which he may
receive his due. There is no longer much question as to facts; they are
only too palpable. Distribution must be reorganized, and haste must be
made to discover how.

It is the wages problem, then, with which we are to deal,--the wages of
men and women; and we must look at it in its largest, most universal
aspects. We must dismiss at once any prejudice born of the ignorance,
incompetency, or untrustworthiness of many workers. Character is a plant
of slow growth; and given the same conditions of birth, education, and
general environment it is quite possible we should have made no better
showing. We have to-day three questions to be answered:--

1. Why do men not receive a just wage?
2. Why are women in like case?
3. Why do men receive a greater wage than women?

First, Why do not men receive a greater wage than they do? can be
answered only suggestively, since volumes may be and have been written
on all the points involved. For skilled and unskilled labor alike, the
differences in industrial efficiency go far toward regulating the wage,
and have been grouped under six heads by General Frances A. Walker,
whose volume on the Wages Question is a thoughtful and careful study of
the problem from the beginning. These heads are--1. "Peculiarities of
stock and breeding. 2. The meagreness or liberality of diet. 3. Habits
voluntarily or involuntarily formed respecting cleanliness of the
person, and purity of the air and water. 4. The general intelligence of
the laborer. 5. Technical education and industrial environment. 6.
Cheerfulness and hopefulness in labor, growing out of self-respect and
social ambition and the laborer's interest in his work."

With this in mind, we must accept the fact that the value of the
laborer's services to the employer is the net result of two
elements,--one positive, one negative; namely, work and waste. Under
this head of waste come breakage, undue wear and tear of implements,
destruction or injury of materials, the cost of supervision of idle or
blundering men, and often the hindrance of many by the fault of one.
Modern processes involve so much of this order of waste that often
there is doubt if work is worth having or not, and the unskilled laborer
is either rejected or receives only a boy's wage.

The various schools of political economists differ widely as to the
facts which have