y now commonly have? The answer must depend on our view as
to the limitation of natural abilities. It is clear that some gifted
individuals--a few men of science and letters, inventors and engineers,
business men and lawyers, physicians and surgeons--would tower above
their fellows, and would obtain in a competitive society unusual
rewards. But would physicians as a class secure higher rewards than
mechanics as a class? They would do so only if the faculties which a
capable physician must possess are found among mankind in a limited
degree. And mechanics, in turn, would receive wages higher than those of
day laborers only if it proved that but a limited number possessed the
qualities needed. On this crucial point, to repeat, we are unable to
pronounce with certainty. What are the relative effects of nature and of
nurture in bringing about the phenomena of social stratification, we
cannot say."[32]

Next among the facts which account for the existence of relatively
separate groups of wage earners are those which are usually summed up
under the phrase inequality of opportunity. Equality of opportunity in
the way of education and training, and in the way of healthy and
strengthening environment would have to be assured before the theory of
a general rate of wages could possibly apply. This equality of
opportunity is not realized in the United States to-day.

The United States has been the scene of continuous and heavy
immigration. The mass of this immigration entered into the field of
unskilled labor. The great majority of these workers because of the
partly unavoidable handicap of their strangeness, and their ignorance
of American life, and because of their poor education, did not have
equal chances with the older inhabitants to rise in the industrial
scale. They could not possibly make the same use of the common
opportunities--even if their natural ability were on a par with those of
the older inhabitants. Furthermore, the rapid growth of our great cities
and the accompanying social changes, the growth in the size of the
average industrial enterprise, and the progress of standardization have
all lessened equality of opportunity. The chances of the children born
in the lowest industrial groups to discover and fairly test their
natural abilities have declined in relation to the chances of the
children more fortunately born. These conditions have certainly checked
the working out of those forces on which the theory of a ge