If a benevolent employer engaged in a manufacture exposed to open competition undertook to raise the wages of his men twenty per cent, in order to lift them to a level of comfort which satisfied his benevolence, he must first sacrifice the whole of his "wage of superintendence," and he will then find that he can only pay the necessary interest on his borrowed capital out of his own pocket: in fact he would find he had essayed to do what in the long run was impossible.

The individual employer under normal circumstances is no more to blame for the low wages, long hours, &c., than is the middleman.
He could not greatly improve the industrial condition of his employes, however much he might wish.
Sec.9.The Purchaser as "Sweater." A third view, a little longer-sighted than the others, casts the blame upon the purchasing public.

Wages must be low, we are told, because the purchaser insists on low prices.

It is the rage for "cheapness" which is the real cause, according to this line of thought.

Formerly the customer was content to pay a fair price for an article to a tradesman with whom he dealt regularly, and whose interest it was to sell him a fair article.