"The balance on the right side," replied Aaron, "is a little over seven thousand." "I congratulate you. The gentleman I spoke with said that if he had had the contract he would have made a profit of three times as much." "It is likely." "Then why didn't you do it, Cohen?" Aaron smiled and shook his head. "Let us speak of another subject." "But I want to get at the bottom of this. I should like you to know what the gentleman said about it. His view is that you are ruining the labor market." "In what way?" "By high wages and short hours." "That is a new view." "You do pay high wages, Cohen, according to what everybody says." "Oh! it's everybody now as well as your gentleman friend. I pay good wages, and I don't consider them high." "And the hours are not as long as they might be." "They are reasonably long enough. If I am satisfied and my workmen are satisfied I give offense to no man." "You are wrong, Cohen; you give offense to the capitalist." "I regret to hear it." "The idea is that you are ruining the capitalist." "Oh! I am ruining the capitalist now. But if that is the case he is no longer a capitalist." "You know what I mean. I don't pretend to understand these things as you do, because I have not studied political economy." "I have, and believe me it is a horse that has been ridden too hard. Mischief will come of it. Apply your common sense. In what way would your friend have made twenty-one thousand pounds out of the contract instead of seven thousand?" "By getting his labor cheaper and by making his own men work longer hours." "Exactly. And the difference of fourteen thousand pounds would have gone into his pocket instead of the pockets of his workmen?" "Yes, of course."