We notice a curious assumption in all these labour speeches
that what is called the natural "law of supply and demand" fixes the price of labour, and that no combination of labourers could ever interfere with capital "unreasonably." But what is " unrea- sonably "? There is no " law " of supply and demand, except what is contained in the breast of those who supply and those who demand. If the labourers can get funds enough, and choose to hold back unanimously long enough, they might condition for any pro- portion of the product of their labour, however large, which would still leave the capitalist a motive to pay them for their work. True, it would be far more worth their while to employ such strike- funds directly and productively as capital of their own ; but to this they have not trained themselves. It is quite illusory, however, to talk as if the "law of supply and demand" were a self-acting one, like the law of gravitation.
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