In this connection I can give you and the whole working class an infallible means of escaping once for all the many attempts to deceive and mislead you.  To everyone who talks to you about the improvement of the situation of the working class, you must first put the question:  Does he acknowledge the existence of this law, or not?  If he does not, you must say to yourself at the start that this man is either trying to deceive you, or has the most pitiable ignorance in the science of political economy; for, as I said, there is not a single economist of the Liberal school worthy of mention who denies it—­Adam Smith as well as Say, Ricardo as well as Malthus, Bastiat as well as John Stuart Mill, are unanimous in recognizing it.  There is an agreement on this point among all men of science.  And if he who talks to you about the condition of workingmen has recognized this law, then ask further:  How does he expect to abolish this law?  And, if he can give no answer to this, then coolly turn your back upon him.  He is an idle prattler, who is trying to deceive you or himself, or dazzle you with empty talk.

Let us consider for a moment the effect and the nature of this law.  It is stated in other words as follows:  From the product of industry there is first withdrawn and divided among the workingmen the amount which is required to maintain their existence (wage).  The whole remainder of the product (profit) goes to the employer.  It is therefore a consequence of this inexorable and cruel law that you (and for this reason in my pamphlet on the working class to which you refer in your letter I have called you the class of the disinherited) are forever necessarily excluded from the productiveness which increases in amount through the progress of civilization, i.e., from the increased product of industry, from the increased earning power of your own work!  For you there remain forever the bare necessities of life, for the employer everything produced by labor beyond this amount.

When, because of this great advance of productive power (yield of labor), many manufactured products become extremely cheap, it may happen that through this cheapness you have a certain indirect advantage from the increased productiveness of labor—­but as consumers, not as producers.  This advantage in no way affects, however, your activity as producers.  It does not affect nor change the portion of the yield which falls to your share; it affects only your situation as consumer and also improves the situation as consumer of the employer, and of all men, whether they take part in the work or not, and in a much more considerable degree than yours.  And this advantage, which affects you merely as human beings and not as workingmen, again disappears in consequence of this inexorable and cruel law, which always forces wages in the long run down to the point of consumption necessary to maintain life.

Now, however, it may happen that if such an increased yield from labor (and the extreme cheapness of many products caused thereby), comes about very suddenly; if, moreover, it coincides with a prolonged period of increased demand for labor, then these products, which have become disproportionately cheaper, are taken into the body of products that are regularly considered in a community as necessities of life.