The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-04-20
wEALrH-How 1T is CREATED.

selvclves in dividing the productions of
Others. The farmer who plows, soas and
reaps hushcl Of wheat, has contributed
something 10 the actual sum of the worlds
wealth. lie has created sometime neces-
sary, llcasurablc, convenient or comfort
able To- man. The inventor by whose skill
the elements of nature are cunscriptod into
the army Of labor. and made to do the
work Of living muscles, is a bcncfactor to
his race. The author, whose pages delight
and instruct the student, whose in, stga-
tiu.s widen the area Of human knowledge,
and who discusses the laws of that succcs-
sion of phenomena which constitute the
universe, are productive laborcrs. Such
labor ~ that which raises grain, that which
produces useful machinery, that which On
hghtrns and ciNillcs, is the basis 81 wealth
and greatness, individual and national
There Is. however, labor or rather en-
plu,mcut, which is not wealth which does
not occupy itself with the creation. but
with thr distribution uf the products Of
labor. This "a the labor of the middle
men" Who stand between producer ANA con
sumner. and grurrally r,hhlng both To
tins class belong bankers, apcculaturs, and
gamblers, and those Who live ~ interest
IA money As money dora not and can
not produce anything, whatever il accumu-
latvs 10y way of interest Is taken, ncccssari-
Is, from the products of labor, and there
fore from the workmgncn. Let Us cons;d-
cr an instance. A farmer borrovs five
thousand dollars on his farm at the rate of
ivtcrest the law of Illinois allows the lend
or Of money to take for its use At the
end Of n year the borrower will fud him
self in debt, not only the 5000, but
800 in addition. Now, this five hundred
dollars which has been added to the fortune
Of the money lender, has to be paid out of
the wheat, corn and potatoes which have
been produced by the farmers labor during
the year. The time and labor therefore
necessary to produce the commodities
which will bring five hundred dollars in
market do not belong to the farmer, they
are owned by his mortgage. This legal
power of money to accumulate against the
products af labor produces the antagonism
between them, the existence Of which all
honest men are obliged to admit 1t pro-
duces the class of men who reap but who
do not SOW, the idlers and not producers
whose lives are blank; as to any benefit
which the world derives from them 1t re-
verses the divine decree by which men were
to live by the ''sweat" Of their own and
not by that Of other peoples faces. The
power Of money over labor is the founda-
ton stone Of human slavery, and a dstinc
ton between the ownership Of the products
of labor and the ownership Of the laborer
himself, is a distinction without a differ
ence."
We have repeatedly shown that the en-
tire products of the national industry are
sufficient by two or three hundred millions
Of dollars annually to pay the interest &C
cruing upon the money loaned out in the
United States, and which the labor Of the
country has to pay. Capital, therefore,
has lien upon all the products of the PEG
pies industry which is not discharged by
their amount The consequence is that
the wealth Of the nation is rapidly central
zing in the hands Of few people, and po-
htical power with it.
A people who will knowingly contrive
laws which give money power Of accumu-
lation greater than that Of labo,, are al
ready prepared to yield to any demands Of
despotism. Popular suffrage among such
a people is a sham. The right to vote is
valuable to secure the rights of the voters,
but when they employ it to enact laws
which practically enslave them, or when
they fail to employ it to repeal such laws,
their freedom is merely nominal. The
wealth that is the result Of past labor is
entitled to all the protection Of law. There
is broad moral distinction between this
wealth and that which has been created by
the accumulation or interest on money.
This latter source Of wealth represents no
but only the absorption Of the
products Of those who do not possess it.
The wealth of individuals which has
been accumulated by useful labor repre-
sents so much Of the benefit actually con-
tributed, while the wealth which has been
created by the arts Of bankers, brokers and
money lenders, generally represent no pro
duction which could feed or clothe the peo-
pie. We do not say that money should
bear no rate of interest. We are inclined
to believe that it may possess function as
an instrument of commerce, beyond what
it did when Jewish and Pagan and Chris
ton moralists alike denounced the taking
Of increase for its use but any rate of in
terest beyond the average production Of
labor, which is about three per cent, is
wrong which will fearfully avenge itself on
the nation which sanctions it.
OUR OLD SIZB.
Il III u.