AND ON THE CONTINENT.

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able capital, were still in the position to acquire the necessarybusiness qualifications. This circle constantly increases with thegrowing prosperity of the middle and the elevation of the workingclasses. It is scarcely possible any longer, owing to the advancedcentralised industrial development, for the individual worker torise up to be an employer on his own account alone, whilst at onetime the greatest and most celebrated pioneers of centralised in-dustry emanated directly from the working class. He can, on theother hand, with the necessary talent become a servant of largecompanies, which, along with talent, require character andhonesty ; while that first generation of industrial employers, alongwith their talent, were in many cases indebted for their success tocunning and meanness. Marshall says, with respect to this point:

“ Perhaps at the present time not so many operatives rise to theposition of employers; but more get on to-day far enough to puttheir children in a position to reach the highest offices. The riseto prosperity is divided over two generations, but the completenessof this movement upwards is to-day perhaps greater than ever.This is better for society. The foreman who still has to obey aswell as to order, and sees his children rise up, is in a certaindirection more to be envied than the small employer. Thechildren become well educated and make at some time, probably, abetter use of their riches ” (3).

With this growing competition for industrial leadership in thissecond period comes the pressure from below, which—as Brentanoin his “Arbedtergilden” first pointed out—is exercised by the opera-tive class elevating itself. Both, at this stage of development,force down the profits to a minimum, under which they cannotsink without detriment to the industry. In the first stage ofcentralised industrial development the employer received thebalance after loan capital and operative had been paid; but nowlabour receives the balance after the payment of interest andmanagement. With an insight into this relation, the leader of theEnglish spinners said to me: One must guarantee the employer,as far as possible, a certain margin of profit, which cannot withoutloss to the operative be lessened in favour of wages. A high-standing operative class must think about attracting intelligenceinto industry, and keeping it—if possible, more intelligence than

3. “ Elements of Economics,” p. 195.