The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1889-06-14
Uk:ARNED lNCREMENTS.
Income OF Artists and Doctors Effected by
the IIiggling of the Market.


the IIiggling of the Market.
Whatever painter makes by paint
ing, from one point of view, it is OBJ
vious that he earns So much skilled
LABOR exchanges for so much money.
Now let us suppose that a portrait
painter, when his skill has come to
maturity, discovers, by what Adam
Smith calls the higgling of the market,
that the value of one OF his portraits is
9200, and this state of things continues
for ten years, during each of which his
time has been fully occupied. He has
painted, we will say, one portrait a
month, and his annual income has
been &2, 400 year. Now, every one
would admit, indeed, no one could
deny, that the painter earned by his
skill Just what his skill was worth.
The world has known what he could
produce, and the judgment of the
world, which in these cases is the ul-
innate court Of appeal, has settled the
value of the product.
This applies, say, to the first ten
years during which the world has
known him. At the end of this pc
Rod, however, certain changes begin
to develop themselves. A new art
critic has arisen, who has educated
the public taste; considerable num-
Der of immense fortunes have been
made, the possessors of which have all
of them artistic tastes; and all of them
want to have their portraits painted.
The consequence is that the painter,
instead of having as formerly twelve
commissions year, has now sixty.
He cannot execute an. He cannot ex-
ecute more than twelve. The conse-
qience is he has to raise his price, and
instead of receiving G20O for a
portrait he finds that he literally has
thousand thrust upon him. Thus
his income rises from 92, 400 year to
e12,00 There is an increment of
$4,000. What has been the cause Of
this increment Has the painter been
the cause of itl How can that be2 He
does nothing more than he used to do
He is able to do nothing more than he
used to do. He works no harder and no
longer. He has no more skill. And
set there is an increment in his in
come of 900.
A similar phenomenon, and one
equally IaInlllar, SHOWS ltSell III inc
case of doctors. A doctor at some
spa has certain recognized skill in
dealing with a certain class of COM
plants. His fee is a guinea, and his
time is fully occupied. AS years go
on, however, an increasing number
of rich people overeat themselves, and
come to the waters over which this
doctor presides Perhaps a king is
among them, whom he happens to
cure of q stomach ache. He is at once
beset by patients from every quarter of
Europe, and his fee consequently
doubles itself. This increment is no
moro due to the doctor than similar
increment in the painters case is due
to the painter To quote Mills words,
they have neither of them worked
any harder they, have neither of them
''risked," they have neither of them
economical" The increment in
their incomes has come to them, "as ii
were, in their sleep" 1t has come 10
them in the natural course of things
that is to say, in the doctors case,
from an increasing number of rich
men gorging. in the painters case
from an increasing number of rich
men affecting taste for art, in both
from people in general being geese
enough to follow the fashion.-The
National Review.