objects to-day would be nearer $60,000,000
annually. What percentage of this $60,000,000 would go to the class of
people aided by the Army industrial work would be hard to ascertain or
approximate, but there is room for a great extension of this kind of
work, and the Army's efforts are most suggestive. In some of the
European countries, especially Germany, many helpful experiments along
this line are in progress, but conditions in the United States are
vastly different. In any case social economists are agreed that vast
sums are spent annually in our country to little or no purpose from the
point of view of social relief. In the year 1907, 8,696 men were cared
for in the United States industrial homes of the Army. This means just
that amount of saving to the nation that it would have cost the regular
municipal and state charities to have dealt with these 8,696 men, since
these men were aided by a self-supporting organization and paid for
their own support. This work, then, if carried far enough, would effect
quite a saving of taxes.

But along with advantages there may be disadvantages. Some objections
have been raised to this branch of the Army's work. For instance, it is
stated that industries entered into by the Army tend to hurt economic
conditions with regard to both wages and prices.[29] With regard to
wages it is urged that the Army will keep for its industries, workers in
constraint of one kind or another, paying them a lower wage than the
same workers could procure outside, and thus lowering the wages in the
respective industries. We do not consider this objection a strong one.
Let us forget for the present the philanthropic side of the industrial
work, and look on it as a distinctly economic enterprise, as a factor of
production. We think it quite likely that a manager, anxious above
everything else to make his institution a financial success, would make
an endeavor to keep as long as possible, and at as low wages as
possible, men who could receive more on the outside. He might even try
to retain men for whom he could secure better positions through the
employment bureau, if he needed their services, and times were so good
that no other applicant offered to take their place, but this he could
not succeed in doing to any serious extent; for, in the first place, the
restraint exercised over the men is very slight, and secondly, if the
men could secure better wages, it would not be long before they found it
out