The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-06-19 00:00:00

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SATURDAY, JUNE 19, 1875

CAP 4 ; AL, A

'at .k..tarLion by the }to e Secretary of
the -rte!elleetthu ir..l a reminder
of the importance anien statesmen of both po-
litical perties attach to the f settlement o a very
difficult 6iocial question. Indeed the solution of
this problem has become one of the most pres-
sing of the day. From time to time labour has
eta tick against capital, and capital has locked out
labour, to the dirrct loss of both, and to the in-
direct disadvantage of the entire body politic.
Cs.plts.l is supposed by many persons to be syn-
onymous with money; but this is not so. It
should not be forgotten that money is a measure
of value and a medium of exohange ' • it is a sub
stance which is selected by universal consent to
serve as a standaed by which the value of all
other commodities may be estimated. Oanital
may better be defined as that part of wealth
which is saved in order to assist future produc-
tion. Agricultural operations, for instance,
could not be earni. d on unless the labourers were
supported by wealth which had been previously
accumulated. There are many showers and
much sunshine between the sowing of the seed
and tbe reaping of the harvest, and there at
more stages to be gone though between the time
of the ingatheziag of the grain, sad its conver-
sion into a loaf of bread. It is therefore clear
that the labourer cannot live upon that which his
work is assisting to produce; but he is main-
tained by wealth which has been accumulated by
his own previous labour or the labour of others.
Wealth, on the other hand, consists of anything
which possesses an exchange value. Still, there
are some things which, however useful and in-
dispensable, cannot be considered wealth. The
air we breath, for example, is essential to our
existence, yet it is not wealth, for it has no ex-
change value. Each individual can obtain gra-
tuitously and without labour as much as he re-
quires. In the same way the light of the sun
has no exchange value. Neither animal nor
plant could live without it ; yet, although it so
indispensable to life, it is not wealth, for we can
get any quantity of it without money and with-
out price. Water does not exactly stand on the
same footing. Granted that three-fourths of
the earth's surface is covered with it; that in
the vast continent of America there are rivers
3,000 miles long; and that our (safe islauds are
intersected by broad and ample streams. Yet
water, being not so easily obtainable as air and
light, is converted into wca:th in all places
where the natural supply is iueufficient to meet
the wants of the inhabitants. In large towns
water is brought in by means of canals and
aqueducts—it then has an exchange value, and
may consequently be regarded as wealth.
So much for the distinction between capital
and wealth. How shall we defiue labour? The
late John Stuart Mill told us that labour in the
physical world is always and solely employed in
putting objects in motion, and it is clear that
without it capital must remain unproductive.
Tie vast number of forms which labour takes
are really marvellous. Look for one moment at
the work required to produce such an apparent-
ly simple thing as a loaf of bread. We select
that illustration because from the palace to the
humblest cottage there is no habitation in the
land without it. Immediately, of course, it is
the result of the labour of the baker, but it is
evident at a glance that his work is only a very
small part of the varied amount of effort brought
into requisition for its production. The niihr
grinds the corn, the reaper gathers it into the
garner, tee sower drops the seed into the soil,
the pi,n,.2.huran prepares the land, both black
smiee and the e,rpenter have had to make V..°
plougo, the .leieer has obtained the metal from
the earth, the •-itov‘e.r nas turni'sned the carpen-
ter with the timber ‘viiich in its turn has been
failed as a tree by some unknown woodman. Do
these exhaust the enumeration of the elaborate
ma •hinery which is set in els ,ration before a loaf
of bread can be placed upon the table? Not a
bit of it. There are the waggoners, the barge-
men, and the railway officials employed in the
conveyance ef the various materials to places
were tl..ey ar f, the manufacturers of the
implemente, ! ;kers of the tooe:. used by the
blacksmiu, u,o on in A succession which may
well be des;:•rilioa as never-ending. From this
simple ,o, it alit be seen how important
apart le, viayeu eiv labour in the development of
the productive power of the country. It is
totally a mistek., o suppose that wealth and
gold are synonymous terms. A good moral is
drawn from a story told of Midas, who, accord-
ing to the mythological writings of the ancients
once pleased the gods so much:that they offered
to give him anything he liked to ask for. Midas
accordingly requested that he roight have the
power of turning into gold every aling which he
touched. This was graeted, and Midas found
that no sooner did he touch his food, his drink,
his clothes, his bed, his wife, or his child, than
in the twinkling of an eye all became masses of
solid gold. If he shook hands with a friend,
that friend at once became a lump of auriferous
metal. What was to be done? Here was the
foolish fellow in danger of starvation, and much
use his heaps of gold would be to him then?
So he petitioned the gods to remove the power
which they had conferred, and which had merely
renner,d him miserable during the period of its
contiouance. The lesson is a useful one as
showing the utter folly of supposing that the
possessor of a pile of coin Must I•.e. from that
fact alone, the happiest of man. The sleep of
the labouring man is sweet; and when we see
the extraordinary influence of labour in the des-
tinies of a community, its immense power for
good or for evil, the loss to the commonwealth
involved in the stoppage of only one department
of industry, and the potentiality of hand and
brain combined, it will be seen at a glance how
important it is that the relations of labour to-
wards capital should be placed upon a satisfac-
tory birdie and that those who build our cities
an. eultivate our soil should pursue their avo-
Ca:10114 free frorra all sense of grievance or in-
jury.