heir share
from day to day. It is estimated that fully 80 per cent of such wealth is
used up by those who contribute no use of capital to the productive force.
It seems probable also that this ratio is increasing rather than
diminishing, but no statistics are sufficient to show the exact facts.

_Cheap standards of living._--In the natural competition of laborers with
each other, the general standard of living--physical, intellectual and
moral--have an important bearing. The Chinaman in this country competes
with the American upon a wholly different plane of living. His habitual
needs being less, he is willing to work for wages that will not tempt the
native American. If he can do the same work, living as he does, he
necessarily becomes a cheaper force in production, and the American must
find a better field for his energies or go without employment. Under
ordinary circumstances, the introduction of laborers able to live more
cheaply acts upon the better class of laborers exactly like the
introduction of labor-saving machinery. It first brings hardship from
direct competition, but the cheapening of products brings enlarged demands
and so gives new impetus to production, requiring the very skill which the
better class of laborers alone can furnish.

Thus the employment of Chinamen upon railroad embankments made places for
native laborers as section bosses and engineers. The Huns and Italians
that underbid the Irish miners in Pennsylvania have destroyed the "Molly
McGuires" by making the same men responsible for larger enterprises. Yet
the standards of living, which show a constant improvement, indicate a
truer freedom of competition and a clearer recognition of individual wants
and abilities. No one can watch the development of any country without
realizing that its thrift, enterprise and progressive welfare depend
largely upon increasing wants. Men who live best produce most and enjoy
most.

Chapter XVIII. Wages And Profits.

_Wages distinguished from profits._--In discussing the subject of wages and
profits, it is necessary to remember that both are compensation in
different ways for actual exertion. If in estimating profits we sometimes
include a return for the use of capital, it is from incomplete analysis of
the forces in use, since the interest upon capital can easily be separated
in all actual practice, and in most enterprises is counted as a distinct
expense to be provided for in entering upon the unde