They are merely given
in order to indicate the general character of the situation to-day, as
compared with that of an earlier, but still comparatively recent period.
To go into details minutely would involve extensive and here needless
discussion.
[22] A letter was sent me by a friend in America, from a writer who,
commenting on my late addresses in that country, said that in the main
he entirely agreed with my arguments, as against socialism; but that he
could not divest himself of the belief that labour as a whole got less
than it produced, and was thus as a whole suffering a chronic wrong. He
suggested, however, a method, fundamentally analogous to that set forth
in the text, of computing what labour, as such, does produce in reality.
He gave his own opinion as to actual facts, as an impression merely; but
how misleading impressions may be can be seen from his statements "that
all _very great_ fortunes, at all events, must be derived from the
underpayment of labour." Had he only considered the case in detail, he
would have seen that labour received the highest wages from some of the
richest employers. According to his theory the wages of labour, in such
cases, would touch the minimum.
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