DEAR SIR: I am a regular reader of your Magazine, which I find very interesting and instructive. I believe in the Public Ownership of Public Utilities, but fear that does not go far enough to cure the land of the evils that now curse it. With Government banks, Government railroads, Municipal Ownership of Public Utilities, there would still be that awful strife of the many for bread and butter. If we may ride cheaper on the “Railhighways,” if we get our Water, Gas, and Electric Light cheaper, will not the wages of the workers go down as the cost of living decreases? Will not then as now, the “iron law” of wages be operative? Please answer in your Educational Department. Yours, ⸺ ⸺. ANSWER As the cost of living decreased, the purchasing power of wages would increase, and every dollar now paid to Labor would command for the laborer a greater quantity of necessaries, comfort and luxuries of life. How could you suppose that the wages of workers will go down when the masses of the people wrest the Government out of the hands of the plutocrats? Public ownership of public utilities cannot be brought about until the people rout the Privileged Few at the polls, when that day comes do you fear that _the people_ will cut down _their own wages_ as the Privileged Few have done? Not many weeks ago the price of cotton advanced. The farmers of the South had suffered so long and so much from low prices that they organized. The result was a rise in the price of raw cotton. How did the Protected Manufacturers of New England meet this increase in the cost of raw material? The Government reports show that the manufacturers have been earning twice as much on their invested capital as the farmers had earned. It was fair for the farmers to contend for a juster division. Hence their organization. The manufacturers saw that they would lose a part of the unjust profits which they were reaping from the Protective system, and they promptly cut down—their fat dividends? Heavens! No. They cut down the wages of the factory boys and girls, men and women, who are _protected_ by our blessed Tariff. Now if _the people_ ruled this country, if there was no Privilege, no Monopoly, no taxing of some to enrich others, no granting of Governmental powers to private Corporations, no corrupt alliance between Commerce and Government, you may bet your bottom dollar that _fat dividends would be cut_, before men, women and children would be desolated by a reduction of wages. * * * * * GALION, OHIO, Dec. 21, 1905. _Watson’s Magazine_, GENTLEMEN: Please give me some suggestions in your interesting Educational Department on the negative side of this question: Resolved, that the United States is retrograding in morality and righteousness.