The record-union., 1894-02-05
ON THE SUBJECT OF LABOR.
Professor Plehn's Fourth University
Extension Lecture.
The Supply of Labor-Population, Its
Increase and Needs-Free VIII
In Marriage.

The lecture was on the subject of labor.
The number of laborers, said the
speaker, or the quantity of labor as de-
termined by the increase of population
has often been made to determine the
answer to all questions in regard to the
relations of labor and the amount of
wages. While this is of vast importance,
1t is not alone the means of solution of
these difficult problems. So much stress
has, however, been laid on this part of
the labor problem that it cannot be passed
over with word.
This lecture may be regarded as the
study of the way in which man has
obeyed the divine command: "Be fruit
ful and multiply and replenish the earth
and subdue it," The following one will
take the other half of the labor question,
namely, how labor is applied and re-
warded.
1t is TO the laws governing the increase
OF population that our attention must be
first directed. With this special field of
investigation two names are indisSolubly
connected-thOSe of Nautilus and of
Charles Darwin. The mention of the lat
ter name shows how we are obliged to
depend for some assistance on other sci
ences.
The first important treatise on this snb
Ject was that of Malthus. In 1877 ThOs.
Goodwin, writer whose views were ad-
mittedly the offspring of the French
Revolution, was advocating the equal
distribution of wealth as a cure for all
the evils of mankind. Malthus started
out to refute him. The argumentative
poIemic nature of his essay Is thus eX
planned. His so-called theory as to
THE GROWTH OF POPULATION
Is in its essence very simple 1t amounts
to this: Left to itself, or to the unre-
strained working of natural impulses,
population tends to increase faster than
the supply of food can possibly increase.
But in most cases one of two checks keep
it within bounds. There are two pre-
ventive and positive checks. The pre-
ventive is of moral character. 1t COM
priSes all those influences which restrain
the increase of population by preventing
an undue number of births-such as
prudence and foresight in contracting
marriages or abstinence from marriage
altogether.
The positive check is that which cuts
off superabundant population-famine,
pestllence, war, vice, lntemperance.
Since this check will act necessarily
whenever the other fails to work, and
since the operation of this check entails
untold misery and is clearly great evil,
1t behooves US to urge mankind to put
the preventive check into operation.
THE QUESTION OF MARRIAGE.
The necessity for foresight in entering
into marriage varies much in different
times and places. For the early settle
ment of New Endland early marriages
were the custom and wise But in gen
eral very different, is the condition OF
things to-day.
A few statistics were given to show the
age at which marriages are formed in
the different countries.
Tn will
forcibly to the question of free will. In
the individual case marriage is free ac-
ton, in the choice of the individual, of the
time and place, etc. But other influences
control the will OF society, which results
in most remarkable uniformity In the
number of marriages in successive peri
s. These influences were then enume-
rated and statistics cited to show this
uniformity. The number of marriages
in any period expresses the expectations
of economic prosperity prevailing at that
time. In hard times the number of mar
riages decreases. Too liberal support of
the poor may artiicially increase the
number of marriages. In general popu-
lation is increasing. Some savage tribes
are exceptions. The native French peo-
pie and the pure New England stock is
also decreasing. Late marriages and
small families are the rule III these
peoples.
III Il NOV EMENI OF POPULATION
Depends on the relation of births to
deaths. Neither one of these alone is
determinative. A high death rate is
generally accompanied by high birth
rate.
One of the saddest things that the
study of tins subject presents is the
frightful rate of infant mortality. From
% to 40 per cent. of all children born
die within the first five years of life.
In some districts in Bavaria it is 40 per
cent. within the first year.
One of the temporary remedies for
over population is emigration. But al
though this may give relief for time, it
cannot be permanent.
The spur to economic activity is wants.
These wants of human beings may be in
creased up TO the limit OF capability to
satisfy them. Early teachers of Chris
tianity decried the multiplication of
wants as an evil. This view is no longer
held. Science, too, teaches that the
multiplication of reasonable wants is of
greatest good. These reasonable wants,
which, when satisfied, increase the
strength morally and physically, arouse
the energy and call out the skill OF the
individual, furnish the spur to greater
activity and guarantee an advance in
civilization.
Eliminating from the beginning those
undesirable wants whose satisfaction
simply debases our nature, or are at least
not positively beneficial, the desirable
wants may be classified in three general
classes,
NECESSITIES, COMFORT AND LUXURIES.
These classes are not hard and FAST but
vary with she point OF view Of the indi-
Vidual, from nation to nation, from class
to class Only tor the lowest savage is
the mere support of life the measure of
necessity. Some conventional necessities,
like the expensive hats worn by the
factory girls in thes East End of London,
are clung to even when starvation presses
hard.
A laborer content with poor food, with
wretched lodgings and rags IS IN bad
way. Not so much because OF his poverty
as because of his contentment Herewith.
The dissatisfaction and uneasiness of the
laboring population is one of the best
signs of the times. There is hope for
man who desires to be better Oft
Ferdinand Lassalle, the leader OF the
European labor movement, in his Ar
better Lese Buch" (Laborers' Reading
Book bitterly berates the German la
borer because he is so easily content, and
he tries hard TO arouse in him the desire
for other things than piece of bad sau-
sage and glass of beer. In this the great
leader was right. Charity has at last
grasped this fundamental fact also, and
the new efforts are in that direction.
THE STANDARD OF LIFE
OF the people of any class or grade OF
society Is that degree of comfort which is
customary among them and which they
are so used to that If they are deprived OF
it or il is lessened i'll any way they eX
perience hardship. What that standard
shall be is fixed by the habit OF whole
social groups and is within each group
astonishingly regular.
laPfnroISS DerSOnaI know lEGUn of