es divided labor's
product so evenly that the difference does not amount to one-eighth of
one per cent.

The decade 1890 to 1900 has been of unprecedented prosperity to
capital, but the advantages to labor have not appeared. When the
number of laborers at the beginning and the close of the decade are
considered the annual income of the wage-earner at the close of the
decade is actually $7 per year less than ten years ago.

The tribute to property must first be gained, the wages are secondary.
If the tribute is not paid the enterprise is regarded as not
successful and the industry closes.

There is no protection for the laborer except the selfishness of
capitalists themselves in competition to secure the services of labor.
But the selfish strife has rather resulted in the combination of their
capital to dispense with labor or to cause the same labor to produce
more by the employment of more capital. The effect is to give
employment to capital rather than to labor. If labor can be dispensed
with by borrowing more capital, then a loan is secured and the laborer
is dismissed. Thus capital is made to crowd out the laborer and gains
for itself his reward. This diminishes the call for labor and
increases the number of the unemployed and they become competitors for
the privilege of working. The opportunities for labor becoming fewer,
the strife for work becomes fiercer. The laborer is helpless to
resist, as his wants do not stop; his family must be fed and clothed
and housed. The struggle is unequal between "flesh and blood" and a
material thing that, by a false economy, is given not only the power
of self-support but also continuous increase. For this reason
combinations of laborers never have been and never can be successful
in a conflict with capital. So long as the false principle is
admitted, all efforts must fail. So long as it is granted that
property has earning power, the effort will be made by the owners of
property, and always successfully made, to have property receive the
larger portion of the reward. The true order will be reversed; the
laborer will be given a mere subsistence while the increase will be
claimed for the capital; the very opposite of the true order, the mere
preservation or subsistence of the capital, while all the increase
belongs to the laborers.

CHAPTER XXVII.

USURY OPPRESSES THE POOR--Continued.

Usury makes it possible to impose on the poor the principal burden of
taxation. T