Note 231 — Chapter X · ToC

Mr. Gould's general conclusion, from his comparison of American and European production, is "that higher daily wages in America do not mean a correspondingly enhanced labour-cost to the manufacturers" (Contemporary Review, Jan. 1893). This he holds to be partly due to superior mechanical agencies, which owe their existence to high wages, partly to superior physical force in the workers. But Mr. Gould's evidence and his conclusion here stated, taken as testimony to the "economy of high wages," are insufficient, for they only show that high wages are attended by increased output of labour, not by an increase correspondent to this higher wage.