Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-02-25
The American Laborer.

We would that he could see his own wealth
and power. Labor rightly directed is wealth. is
power. There is no wealth in the world, and
can be none, not derivable from labor The
question has been asked by the New York I" Ma
tional Democrat" CAN LABOR PRODUCE ITS OWN
CAPITAL? Where, we would ask, would there be
capital, if labor had not preceded it? But the
Democrat gives an instructive reply to its own,
question. Read it, and learn the power of COM
bnation among laborers:
In almost every country on the globe capital
is the sovereign and master of labor. Capital
combined with intelligence, will ever control mere
physical labor. But the spread of knowledge,
the general education of the people, and the
modern systems of credit, often based upon
nothing but the industry and integrity of men,
seem TO have pretty nearly emancipated labor
from the power Of capital. Labor can either
borrow capital or work without it in this country.
As soon as labor begins its work it creates cap-
tai or value with which to pay itself. 1t con-
vcrts itself into currency, which il requires to
keep its debts and credits which are always
equal. To illustrate this, let us refer to the
manner in which some of the great enterprises
of the day have been accomplished. We are told
that on many of the railways being constructed
in Ohio and Indiana, the contractors for grading,
who are farmers and citizens ON the route, take
stock in the road in payment Of their labor,
and the iron is purchased with twenty-year
bonds of the company. In this way the works
may be said to construct themselves The Wabash
and Erie canal was constructed entirely by bonds
issued on worthless lands, to which the canal
gave their sole and only value. The railways in
Illinois are commenced OH the same plan, and
will more than build themselves; for the mere
af hns
to that which was before valueless that will
more than pay their cost. The large subscrip-
tons of Louisville to the Frankfort railroad was
paid by a tax on the real estate of the city, for
which the taxpayers received certificate Of
stock in the road. Before the road was fully
completed these certificates were worth par, and
will soon be, if not now, at q premium The labor
thus returned its cost almost without the assist
ance of capital, before the work was done. Ar
kansas is making labor pay itself in reclamng
her swamp lands
"The most remarkable recent instances Of
what the combined and organized labor of com
munity may do without the aid of capital, has
been exhibited by the works of the Mormon
community around Salt Lake A few thousand
wrctched beings, starving and naked when they
arrived in the valley of their new home, have, in
four or five years. without capital and in q will
demess, built up n city, made farms, and con-
structed factories, roads, and railroads, and Gre
ated millions in value where none existed before.
"The notion that capital must precede labor
that we must provide the means first to pay labor
before we employ its obsolete. Employ labor
judiciously, and deal honestly with it, and it will
provide the means to pay itself; and there is no
limit to the wealth it will create and the bless
ings it will bestow on those who know how to set
it in motion and avail themselves Of it,