nd, so much
the more does competition increase among the labourers and so much the
more do their average wages dwindle. And thus the forest of arms
outstretched by those who are entreating for work becomes ever denser
and the arms themselves grow ever leaner."[173] "The more the worker
labours the less reward he receives for it; and that for this simple
reason, that he competes against his fellow-workmen and thus compels
them to compete against him and to offer their labour on as wretched
conditions as he does, and that he thus, in the last result, competes
against himself as a member of the working-class."[174] "The worker in
the factory gets, as a worker, absolutely no advantage from the
machinery which causes the product of his labour to be multiplied a
hundredfold."[175] "John Stuart Mill, it will be remembered,
questioned whether mechanical invention had lightened the labours of a
single human being."[176] "With increasing powers of production, the
worker's share, and therefore his purchasing power, grows less."[177]
"Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the
labourers."[178] "The iron law of competition means, and must mean,
continued degradation for the workers, even though their physical
condition in youth may be improved."[179] "The worker in the factory
is now seen to work no shorter hours or gain no higher wages merely
because the product of his labour is multiplied a hundredfold by
machinery which he does not own. 'The remuneration of labour as such,'
wrote Cairnes in 1874, 'skilled or unskilled, can never rise much
above its present level.'"[180]

The celebrated "Doctrine of Increasing Misery" stands in diametrical
opposition to those facts with which nowadays every child is
acquainted. During the time when our Socialists have been preaching
the "Doctrine of Increasing Misery" working hours have been very
greatly diminished and wages have not been reduced, but have risen by
about 100 per cent. During the same time working hours in Germany have
also been reduced and wages have risen up to 400 per cent.[181] The
German Socialists have been honest enough to abandon the Doctrine of
Increasing Misery under the guidance of Bernstein; the French have
dropped it under the guidance of Sorel; the Dutch have seen its
absurdity, guided by Vandervelde, their foremost leader. The British
Socialists, on the other hand, have not abandoned it, though they must
see its absurdity, probably because, though palp