The more zealous advocates of the laissez-faire doctrine in business have insisted that the wage any worker should receive ought to be determined by a bargaining process between the worker and his employer. Less than a century ago this method prevailed in all industries, and it still persists in fixing the wages of farm laborers, rural schoolteachers, and store clerks. Obviously, the worker is not on a level with his employer in the matter of bargaining. A factory owner who employs one hundred hands can usually get along very well if one of the hundred should quit work; also the hiring of a hundred-and-first man is of no great consequence to him. In either case his net income would ordinarily be affected but slightly. The hundred-and-first man, however, has no such choice. He must find an employer. He is likely to offer his services eagerly, while the employer may meet his advances with indifference. Hence, under such circumstances, the employer, if he bargains with each of his workers separately, has a decided advantage over them. This significant fact laborers clearly recognized long before their organization into unions. It is not surprising then that the chief aim of organized labor is to unite workers for the purpose of bargaining as one man. This is known as collective bargaining. Under these conditions the employer can no longer regard the hiring of laborers with indifference; for now instead of dealing with each individual separately, he finds it necessary to deal with the whole force as one man. Their refusal to work threatens his profits. This group, therefore, can bargain on an equality with the employer. Specific demands of organized labor. - Speaking generally, the demands of organized labor may be grouped under three heads: (1) higher wages, (2) shorter working day, (3) better working conditions. Since there must be some relation between the productivity of labor and the size of its wage, the question naturally arises: From what fund shall an increase in wages be paid? It may come from what the employer has formerly enjoyed as profits, from consumers in the form of higher prices, or from the laborers themselves - provided an increase in wages increases efficiency. Usually, we may safely assume, the increase comes from the first or second fund, probably a portion from each of them. The shortening of the work day, however, appears to have been generally offset by an increased efficiency; that is, a man turns out as much product in ten hours as in twelve hours, owing to his ability to increase his hourly exertion during the shorter day. Likewise, in many occupations an eight-hour day is as good as a ten-hour day, and in some kinds of labor a working day of seven or even six hours may be employed to advantage. The relation of improved surroundings to output is not so easily determined. Those in a good position to judge, however, claim that in many cases, perhaps in most, employers are compensated in the long run for their expenditures, in this direction.