ail's
Principles of Scientific Socialism_, Boudin's _The Theoretical System
of Karl Marx_, and Hyndman's _Economics of Socialism_. You will also
find a simple exposition of the subject in my _Socialism, A Summary
and Interpretation of Socialist Principles_. It will also be well to
read _Wage-Labor and Capital_, a five cent booklet by Karl Marx.

But you do not need to be an economist to understand the essential
principles of this theory of surplus value and to judge of its truth.
I have never flattered you, Jonathan, as you know; I am in earnest
when I say that I am content to leave the matter to your own judgment.
I attach more importance to your decision, based upon a plain,
matter-of-fact observation of actual life, than to the opinion of many
a very learned economist cloistered away from the real world in a
musty atmosphere of books and mental abstractions. So think it out for
yourself, my friend.

You know that when a man takes a job as a wage-worker, he enters into
a contract to give something in return for a certain amount of money.
What is it that he thus sells? Not his actual labor, but his power and
will to labor. In other words, he undertakes to exert himself in a
manner desired by the capitalist who employs him for so much an hour,
so much a day, or so much a week as the case may be.

Now, how are the wages fixed? What determines the amount a man gets
for his labor? There are several factors. Let us consider them one by
one:

First, the man must have enough to keep himself alive and able to
work. If he does not get that much he will die, or be unfit to work.
Second, in order that the race may be maintained, and that there may
be a constant supply of labor, it is necessary that men as a rule
should have families. So, as we saw in a quotation from Adam Smith in
an earlier letter, the wages must, on an average, be enough to keep,
not only the man himself but those dependent upon him. These are the
bottom requirements of wages.

Now, the tendency is for wages to keep somewhere near this bottom
level. If nothing else interfered they would always tend to that
level. First of all, there is no scientific organization of the labor
force of the world. Sometimes the demand for labor in a particular
trade exceeds the supply, and then wages rise. Sometimes the supply is
greater than the demand, and then wages drop toward the bottom level.
If the man looking for a job is so fortunate as to know that there are
many