immense amount of harm. It is they whom I blame most, rather than the labor leaders whom we view as creating all kinds of trouble for us. If financiers and captains of industry, who are supposed to know about such things, tell the people that we are in a state of great prosperity why should not the workman get all of it that he can? What does he know about such things as economic unbalance? I am convinced that our affairs are not going to be put in order until something like the old economic balance is restored, but we are going to have a mighty hard time in bringing this about so long as our own colleagues are betraying us out of their ignorance.
It seems to me strange that any intelligent person, much less than being a victim of happy fallacies, can fail to be impressed by the horror and cruelty of the present situation. Town labor is simply sweating and eating up agricultural labor. Among town labor there are some classes that are eating up other classes. The white-collar classes are the great victims, but many of the humbler workers with their hands, such as many in your own factories, many charwomen, etc., are also the victims of the aristocrats of labor who have been having their own way. It is only common sense to understand that when bricklayers, carpenters, and plasterers get fantastic wages the cost of building houses is increased and consequently the rental of houses. If the building mechanics by reason of their princely rewards do not work so hard as formerly, and this is but human nature, with the result of fewer houses, the situation is aggravated. This reacts upon such people as are working in your factories, indeed more so upon them than upon anybody else. The building mechanics
