s due to labour" as to
say "All wealth is due to invention," or "All wealth is due to
thrift." As the brain is more important than the hand, at least in a
highly organised state of production, so invention, organisation,
management, and thrift are more important than manual labour, because
invention, organisation, management, and thrift alone enable manual
labour, working with modern machinery, to be highly productive. In
fact, it may be asserted that wealth is created not so much by labour
as by the saving of labour. A factory-owner who is dissatisfied with
the profits of his factory or with its products does not get better
workers, but gets a better manager or better machinery, keeping his
workers. This fact proves that labour is the least important factor in
modern production. The doctrine "Labour is the only source of wealth"
is untenable and absurd.

Another fundamental doctrine of Socialism is that of

"THE IRON LAW OF WAGES"

According to that law, "wages under competition can never be higher
than that which will just support the labourer and enable him to renew
his kind."[158] In the words of Lassalle, the inventor of the Iron Law
of Wages, "the wages of the labourer are limited to the exact amount
necessary to keep him alive."[159]

The British Socialist writers tell us: "The average price of
wage-labour is the minimum wage--_i.e._ that quantum of the means of
subsistence which is absolutely requisite to keep the labourer in bare
existence."[160] "The labourer cannot as a rule command more than his
cost of subsistence in return for his labour. This principle, that the
return to labour is determined by the cost of subsistence of the
labourer, is generally known as 'The Iron Law of Wages.' But has not
this law been discarded even by some Socialists? There have been
attempts in some quarters to demonstrate that this law does not
actually operate with the rigidity at first claimed for it; but in
truth, it stands as firmly to-day as when insisted upon by
Lassalle."[161] "Capitalism always keeps the wages down to the lowest
standard of subsistence which the people will accept,"[162] for "the
basis of wages is the cost of subsistence of the labourer. This is
called the 'Iron Law of Wages.'"[163] "By the Iron Law of Wages the
recompense of the workers always tends to the minimum on which they
are willing to subsist. If they are content with water to drink and
cabbage to eat, they may be sure that the means of