the men belonging to the trade form a
union and resolve to charge $5.00 a day for their work. Then it is very
evident that the cost of building is increased, and every one has to pay
more for construction and ask a higher rent to repay himself afterward.
Evidently, then, by this action of the bricklayers every man in the
trade receives $2.00 more per day for each day's work, which must be
paid, directly by their employers, but indirectly by the whole
community. It would be easy to prove that the tax on the community when
the wages are raised in any trade, affects the whole public as well as
those directly employing the workers in that trade; but it seems too
plain to require proof. The main point we now wish to show, is that any
increase in the wages of labor over that received under ordinary
competition must be paid by the community, just as much as any increase
in the price of coal, iron, copper, wood, wheat, or any other commodity
must be paid by consumers at large. Nor does the injury to the
community stop here, by any means. We saw that the advance of prices by
the linseed oil trust was an injury to all those who, on that account,
were obliged to forego painting; and that it thus caused a further
injury to painters, paint-makers, and even those employed in the
building trade. But the increase in the price of the bricklayers' work
has results no less important. Not only is injury done to those who
build and have to pay more for their buildings, but many are prevented
from building on account of the increased cost. If we argue according to
a prevalent method, we may say that this reduced activity in the
building trade will cause stagnation among allied trades with
corresponding loss of employment. Again, as a less number of houses are
built, and those which are built are more expensive, rents are certain
to rise, which means that the poor man must pay out a still greater part
of his earnings for his shelter, or else must put up with poorer and
meaner quarters.

It is a strange thing to trace, in connection with this, the history of
labor, and see how recent it is that the natural right of a man to sell
his services for such a price as he could obtain has been acknowledged.
History shows that until modern times, compulsory personal servitude has
been in every age and country the lot of a large part of the human race.
And when wages began to be paid for service, conditions were not much
improved. In England, in the fou