ust be based on other principles than those of economics. One class
requires punitive discipline, another needs life-long care, a third--the
mentally and morally sound but physically defective--must depend, to its
misfortune, on private and public charity. There is no question here of
payment for a function, but of ministering to human suffering. It is, of
course, desirable on economic as well as on broader grounds that the
ministration should be so conceived as to render its object as nearly as
possible independent and self-supporting. But in the main all that is
done for these classes of the population is, and must be, a charge on
the surplus. The real question that may be raised by a critic is whether
the considerable proportion of the working class whose earnings actually
fall short, as we should contend, of the minimum, could in point of fact
earn that minimum. Their actual value, he may urge, is measured by the
wage which they do in fact command in the competitive market, and if
their wage falls short of the standard society may make good the
deficiency if it will and can, but must not shut its eyes to the fact
that in doing so it is performing, not an act of economic justice, but
of charity. To this the reply is that the price which naked labour
without property can command in bargaining with employers who possess
property is no measure at all of the addition which such labour can
actually make to wealth. The bargain is unequal, and low remuneration is
itself a cause of low efficiency which in turn tends to react
unfavourably on remuneration. Conversely, a general improvement in the
conditions of life reacts favourably on the productivity of labour. Real
wages have risen considerably in the last half century, but the
income-tax returns indicate that the wealth of the business and
professional man has increased even more rapidly. Up to the efficiency
minimum there is, then, every reason to think that a general increase of
wages would positively increase the available surplus whether that
surplus goes to individuals as profits or to the State as national
revenue. The material improvement of working-class conditions will more
than pay its way regarded purely as an economic investment on behalf of
society.

This conclusion is strengthened if we consider narrowly what elements of
cost the "living wage" ought in principle to cover. We are apt to assume
uncritically that the wages earned by the labour of an adult man oug