CATHOLIC  SOCIALISTS.

123

Evidently  upon  the  rate  of  his  wages.  And  upon  what  does
the  rate  of  wages  depend?  Upon  the  law  of  supply  and
demand,  replies  the  prelate  with  the  Economists,  that  is  upon
the  iron  law,  the  eherne  Lohngezetz,  as  Lassalle  expresses  it.
Formerly,  says  the  bishop,  the  future  of  the  labourer  was
guaranteed  by  the  trade  guilds.  Labour  constituted  a  property ­
  which  the  regulations  of  the  guild  preserved  from  the
fluctuations  of  the  market  and  the  strife  of  competition.  Today ­
  this  is  no  longer  so  ;  labour  is  now  treated  as  a  commodity ­
  in  the  market  {DU  Arbeit  ist  eine  Waare),  and,  as
such,  it  is  subject  to  the  laws  which  govern  other  commodities.
The  price  of  commodities  rises  and  falls  according  as  they
are  in  greater  or  less  demand  ;  but  it  tends  to  approach  the
level  of  the  cost  of  production.  In  order  to  get  ahead  of
his  competitors,  the  manufacturer  is  therefore  obliged  to  reduce
this  cost  as  much  as  possible  so  as  to  be  able  to  offer  his
wares  cheaper  than  others  do.  The  cost  of  production  of
this  labour-commodity  is  the  food  and  maintenance  of  the
labourer.  There  would  consequently  be  a  universal  and
necessary  tendency  to  reduce  to  the  minimum  the  cost  of
the  labourer’s  maintenance.  The  employer  who  can  obtain
from  his  workmen  the  largest  amount  of  useful  exertion  at
the  least  expense  will  carry  the  day.  In  the  present  state
of  things  this  is  a  mathematical  or  mechanical  law  which
destroys  at  once  the  good  intentions  of  masters  and  the  resistance ­
  of  men.  Hence,  concludes  the  Bishop  of  Mayence,  it
cannot  be  denied  that  the  whole  existence  of  the  labouring
population—who  constitute  the  greater  part  of  humanity—the
daily  bread  of  the  father  and  his  family  is  subject  to  the
fluctuations  of  a  market,  disturbed  by  endless  crises.  “  This
IS  the  slave  market  open  all  over  modem  Europe,  fashioned
according  to  the  model  sketched  by  our  enlightened  and
anti-Christian  liberalism,  and  our  humanist  freemasonry.”
Is  it  not  curious  to  And  at  the  head  of  Monseigneur  von
^tteler’s  book  the  theory  of  “  the  labour-commodity,”  Arbeit
•^aare,  which,  expanded  with  a  vast  display  of  seien  tiñe
analyses  and  algebraic  formulas,  is  the  very  basis  of  Karl  Marxs
nious  book.  Das  Kapital.,  the  Gospel  of  German  Socialism  ?