CONSUMERS AND WAGE-EARNERS CONSUMERS AND WAGE-EARNERS THE ETHICS OF BUYING CHEAP BY J. ELLIOT ROSS, Ph.D. NEW YORK THE DEVIN-ADAIR COMPANY 1912 Copyright, 1912, by THE DEVIN-ADAIR COMPANY NOTE J. ELLIOT ROSS is a member of an old and prominent Southern family. He has long been an ardent student of economics, of sociology, and of the enslaved condition of the Wage-Earner,--and _who, save the idle rich and the social drone, is not a wage-earner_? Dr. Ross is a graduate of George Washington University. The Catholic University of America conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Philosophy for this, his excellent work in behalf of the Consumer, the Wage-Earner, and the Oppressed. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE POINT AT ISSUE 3 CHAPTER II OBLIGATIONS OF THE CONSUMING CLASS 8 CHAPTER III WHAT IS A JUST EMPLOYER? 38 CHAPTER IV THEORY OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION 47 CHAPTER V INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS: WAGES 66 CHAPTER VI INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS: HEALTH 77 CHAPTER VII INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS: MORALS 95 CHAPTER VIII WHAT SHOULD THE INDIVIDUAL CONSUMER DO? 107 APPENDIX 133 BIBLIOGRAPHY 135 CHAPTER ONE THE POINT AT ISSUE Have you ever stood in a country store and from the superior heights of mature wisdom watched a chubby-faced, bright-eyed boy invest a penny in a prize-bag? To you it is simply a paper enclosing a few nuts, a piece of candy, and a variable quantity in the shape of a tin flag, an imitation ring, etc. But to the child there is an excitement in getting one knows not what. All the gambling instincts of the race that squanders thousands upon the turf, all the love of adventure that peopled our continent, are summed up in that one act. The child has, perhaps, contentedly endured the routine of the farm for weeks in the anticipation of this one moment of blissful joy when his anxious fingers nervously reveal the delight or the disappointment. * * * * *