d he proportions the worker's remuneration not to his appetite, but
to his ability and his value as a producer. The wages paid to married
men and to unmarried men are identical in the same trade. If there was
an "Iron Law of Wages," the wages of married men should be about twice
as large as those of unmarried men.

The Iron Law of Wages is manifestly absurd. It has therefore been
officially abandoned by the German Socialists at the Halle Congress of
1890 "as being scientifically untenable."[168] "German Social
Democracy no longer recognises the Iron Law of Wages."[169] The
British Socialists have not abandoned it, probably not because they
believe it to be scientifically correct--no one can believe that--but
because it is a plausible and effective means of poisoning the minds
of the people.

As regards the factors which determine wages, one of the foremost
Socialist authorities says: "Thoughtful workmen in the staple trades
have become convinced by their own experience, no less than by the
repeated arguments of the economists, that a rising standard of wages
and other conditions of employment must depend ultimately on the
productivity of labour, and therefore upon the most efficient and
economical use of credit, capital, and capacity."[170] In other words,
productivity and profit determine wages, and it is ridiculous that
Socialists argue: "Over 90 per cent. of our women do not drink, back
horses, smoke, attend football or cricket matches, they do not stop
off their work to watch England and Australia play at cricket, and the
result is they are paid less wages than men in our factories for doing
the same work."[171] Does Councillor Glyde really believe that women's
wages would rise as soon as they took to smoking and drinking?

THE LAW OF INCREASING MISERY

According to this law the improvements in machinery, the increase of
capital and increase of production do not benefit the worker. They
only lead to a decline in wages and thus increase the workers' misery.
"In proportion as the use of machinery and division of labour
increases, in the same proportion the burden of toil also increases
whether by prolongation of the working hours, by increase of the work
exacted in a given time, or by increased speed of the machinery,
&c."[172] "The faster productive capital increases, the more does the
division of labour and the employment of machinery extend. The more
the division of labour and the employment of machinery exte