ode that starts from sounder principles than those which
have obtained hitherto can do a great deal towards progressive
betterment. Each decade can be an improvement upon the last. Hitherto we
have been hampered at every turn by the supposed obstacle of immutable
economic laws. The theory of "natural" wages and prices of a supposed
economic order that could not be disturbed, set up a sort of legislative
paralysis. The first thing needed is to get away entirely from all such
preconceptions, to recognize that the "natural" order of society, based
on the "natural" liberty, does not correspond with real justice and real
liberty at all, but works injustice at every turn. And at every turn
intrusive social legislation must seek to prevent such injustice.

It is no part of the present essay to attempt to detail the particulars
of a code of social legislation. That must depend in every case upon the
particular circumstances of the community concerned. But some
indication may be given here of the kind of legislation that may serve
to render the conditions of industry more in conformity with social
justice. Let us take, as a conspicuous example, the case of the Minimum
wage law. Here is a thing sternly condemned in the older thought as an
economic impossibility. It was claimed, as we have seen, that under free
contract a man was paid what he earned and no law could make it more.
But the older theory was wrong. The minimum wage law ought to form, in
one fashion or another, a part of the code of every community. It may be
applied by specific legislation from a central power, or it may be
applied by the discretionary authority of district boards, or it may be
regulated,--as it has been in some of the beginnings already
made,--within the compass of each industry or trade. But the principle
involved is sound. The wage as paid becomes a part of the conditions of
industry. Interest, profits and, later, the direction of consumption and
then of production, conform themselves to it.

True it is, that in this as in all cases of social legislation, no
application of the law can be made so sweeping and so immediate as to
dislocate the machine and bring industry to a stop. It is probable that
at any particular time and place the legislative minimum wage cannot be
very much in advance of the ordinary or average wage of the people in
employment. But its virtue lies in its progression. The modest increase
of to-day leads to the fuller increase of