But the influence of the rate of interest resembles so closely that resulting from immigration, that Professor Fisher’s explanation is of especial service in the present discussion. The rate of interest represents the payment which the entrepreneur makes for one of the great factors of production—capital. The failure of this remuneration to keep pace with the price of commodities in general leads to excessive profits and overproduction. The payment which the entrepreneur makes for one of the other factors of production—labor—is represented by wages. If wages fail to rise along with prices, the effect on business, while not strictly analogous, is very similar to that produced by the slowly rising rate of interest. The entrepreneur is relieved of the necessity of sharing any of his excessive profits with labor, just as in the other case he is relieved from sharing them with capital. It would probably be hard to prove that the increased demand for labor results in further raising prices in general, as an increased demand for capital results in raising prices by increasing the deposit currency. But if the demand for labor results in increasing the number of laborers in the country, thereby increasing the demand for commodities, it may very well result in raising the prices of commodities as distinguished from labor, which is just as satisfactory to the entrepreneur. This is exactly what is accomplished when unlimited immigration is allowed. As soon as the conditions of business produce an increased demand for labor, this demand is met by an increased number of laborers, produced by immigration. In the preceding paragraph it has been assumed that wages do not rise with prices. The great question is, is this true? This is a question very difficult of answer. There is a very general impression that during the last few years prices have seriously outstripped wages. Thus Professor Ely says, “Wages do not usually rise as rapidly as prices in periods of business expansion.”[322] R. B. Brinsmade stated in a discussion at a recent meeting of the American Economic Association that “our recent great rise of prices is acknowledged to be equivalent to a marked reduction in general wages.”[323] Whether this idea is correct, and if correct, whether this effect had transpired in the years immediately previous to 1907, cannot be definitely stated. The index numbers of wages and prices given in the _Statistical Abstract of the United States_, for 1909 (p. 249), seem to show that during the years 1895 to 1907 money wages increased about _pari passu_ with the retail prices of food, so that the purchasing power of the full-time weekly earnings remained nearly constant.