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ctuations of demand at a reduced price. No one doubts that even the Standard Oil Company, by means of its savings through consolidation, has at the same time preserved the general supply of oil from waste and brought it to every man's door, with a great improvement in quality, comparative safety in use, and an almost constantly diminishing price. The record of facts shows that with all the tendency to great aggregations, and so to concentration of power, masses of wage-earners have had their hours of labor shortened, have gained facilities for culture in libraries, lectures and voluntary associations, have gained habits more systematic, and regular methods of life with greater constancy of employment, have better protection of civil rights, better provision for education of children, a larger insurance against accident, and a better provision for hospital care when disabled. The same system has provided methods for economical use of savings in joint stock companies, and cultivated a general unity of purpose and appreciation of others' welfare. Withal it has given to the mothers of families an immense increase of leisure for home-making, and at the same time has opened ranges of employment for women without homes. Even the rate of wages has not been diminished, but rather increased, as is shown also by actual records. That the great establishments cannot pay less than average rates is evident from the multitudes seeking to enter their employment. Moreover, they must pay their workmen regularly or appear bankrupt. Employers on a small scale can easily postpone upon all sorts of pretences, and failures are frequent. Suppose the distribution of milk in New York city were under a single management. A systematic division of territory would at once reduce the number of milk wagons by at least one-half. The certainty of responsibility would insure uniform purity, and means of transportation could be brought to perfection, so that the amount now delivered would actually cost perhaps not more than two-thirds the present price. While at present prices the profit would be large, the necessity for investing those profits would at once call for extension of the trade by reducing the price, and at the same time increasing the proceeds to farmers somewhere who furnish the larger supply. The better quality and larger quantity for the same money would certainly increase the demand, and probably with direct benefit to the milk-raisers. The
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