Under our present industrial system a worker's wages depend entirely upon the value of his services. The value of anything tends to increase in propor tion to its scarcity. The wages of clerks, of stenog raphers and of bookkeepers are low because these callings demand little preliminary education or train ing, and the applicants for positions are usually greatly in excess of the demand. Shall we blame the "cruel" law of demand and supply, or shall we blame tbe parents who do not make every effort and sacri fice in order that their children may be trained to do more valuable service or to work in a field not al ready over-crowded? A good stenographer and type writer; if she has had the right mental training, may become a private secretary, may learn a great deal about business, and finally may become a business executive. But if the stenographer's education was merely that of the public school with a few months in a business college, the future contains little promise. The job is easy to learn and too many are after it.
The insufficient wage is like the toothache, the corn or the bunion; it is the product of wrong conditions, it indicates lack of proper adjustment to the environ ment. If the wages of routine workers in business
were all raised at once, so that no worker got less than one hundred dollars a month, sentimental and shallow people would.rejoice, but the real effect would be evil. Many a man would be robbed of the motive for self-improvement and would stand still forever. The low wage acts as a spur, rousing the lazy and list less, stimulating the ambitious, and driving all into their best effort. For the man of weak ancestry and poor training the low wage is a goad or whip to which Ile is almost unable to respond. Tha't is a sad fact and the existence of such men in large numbers in a civilized country creates a social problem of the ut most importance, but the problem will not be solved by giving those men higher wages. They and their children must be taught to render to society a higher service.
The rank-and-file worker in business should not complain much or often about his wages. He should seek rather to make certain that he really earns more wactes than he receives, that he does more and better 1! work than is expected of him; then sooner or later a rise of wages is inevitable.