Lassalle’s most careful statement of the Iron Law, to which he frequently recurs in subsequent writings, is contained in his _Open Letter_ (p. 13). ‘The Iron Economic Law, which, in existing circumstances, under the law of supply and demand for labour, determines the wage, is this: that the average wage always remains reduced to the necessary provision which, according to the customary standard of living, is required for subsistence and for propagation. This is the point about which the real wage continually oscillates, without ever being able long to rise above it or to fall below it. It cannot permanently rise above this average level, because in consequence of the easier and better condition of the workers there would be an increase of marriages and births among them, an increase of the working population and thereby of the supply of labour, which would bring the wage down to its previous level or even below it. On the other hand, the wage cannot permanently fall below this necessary subsistence, because then occur emigration, abstinence from marriage, and, lastly, a diminution of the number of workmen caused by their misery, which lessens the supply of labour, and therefore once more raises the wage to its previous rate.’ On a nearer consideration, Lassalle goes on to say, the effect of the Iron Law is as follows:— ‘From the produce of labour so much is taken and distributed among the workmen as is required for their subsistence. ‘The entire surplus of production falls to the capitalist. It is therefore a result of the Iron Law that the workman is necessarily excluded from the benefits of an increasing production, from the increased productivity of his own labour.’[3] Such is Lassalle’s theory of the Iron Law of Wages. He accepts it as taught by Ricardo and the economists of the orthodox school in England, France, and Germany. We believe that his statement of it is substantially just and accurate; that it fairly reflects the economic science of his time, and, under the then prevailing economic conditions, may be described as a valid law.