The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-03-21
MONEY AND LABOR MUTUAL
CnNVERTIBILITY.
Neither a borrower nor ler.uvl De

our common schools and academies and on
~ young men and women grow up without til
essential tuition. Il is learned usually lat
: in lite, and millions toll for money, speculat
rs for it. swindle for 1t, buy and sell, barter an
exchange for it, hoard it, borrow it, lend il
"a gamble with it, or buy vicious indulgenc
with it, We. know not what it is and what
means.
To say that money is labor would be onl
. figuratively accurate, but in substance
would be very nearly true. Looking on
: upon the whole face of the earth we find tina
8 whatever nature has not given free and il
common to all, but yet is valued, is the result
Of labor done. Anything artificial which has
value can be produced by labor. Anything
OF that nature will buy labor in return. fall
the numberless varieties Of things bought and
sold, all but an insignificant action are the
products of labor. All merchandise is labor; all
products of the fields, the air, the sea or mines
are labor. We cannot touch on article
OF furniture in our houses, an item Of
food upon our tables garment on our per
sons, or an article of merchandise in our
stores except what labor produced The
cars IN which we ride, the animals which
draw them, the rails on which they run, the
| paved streets which they pursue, the walks
beside them and the buildings which over
| look them, all the results of labor
sweating, painting, patient, hopeful labor
The bright flames which mock the sunlight,
| and cheer. our homes and streets at night,
are the labor of the miner the ditcher and
the furnace man. We enter a library and look
on the heaped up labor Of ten thousand men.
Our galleries of art are but memento Of la
Dor. All the comforts and conveniences en-
!oyed by the rich are the products of work
Wealth is the child of work and knowledge,
Money is only the wages Of hbor. 1t must
always represent something which has been
done and paid for. He whose labor has
created value can exchange that value into
money, and with money SO received he may
command other labor and the products Of
labor. We cannot be far wrong therefore in
defining money as labor condensed, crvs- |
talized, certified, and made transferable. In |
proportion as anything called money deserves
the name, it represents work that has been
done, or value that has been produced By
work If the average laborer's work is worth
two dollars day, he who Possesses a million
dollars may control the labor Of five hundred
thousand men for day, or of thousand
men for five hundred days, or of hundred
men five thousand days. MIR. Stewart. the
merchant king of New York, can buy sixty
millions of days work, or the labor Of two
thousand men for eighty three years. His
merchandise, his bank balances his stores,
his ships, his stocks and his bonds, are only
accumulated work which be can transform at
viii into work again.
Ia the light of this definition of money the
of other words are clear Covet-
BUSINESS is the eager desire that others J
'hould give Us their labor without an equiva- !
ent. When one wishes for q thousand dol i,
ars without return he wants slave to work
or him thousand days for nothing Theft
$ the attempt to compel men to work without
'ay. To beg a dollar is the same as asking
tx or ten hours service for nothing. To
peculate for gain is to use superior knowl.
dge to obige others to give up the results OF
abor for less than their value. To buy and
ell for profit is to exact tribute on the F
ransmutaton of labor
So, too, the prodgal and spendthrift en-
lave hundreds for their pleasure. The
loughtless belle is virtually the owner of
yenty or forty laborers whose earnings she
onsumes in her wardrobe. The epcure sur
FUNDS his board with a troop of invisible
aves, and the man of fashion is virtually fol-
WED by an attendant train of servtors.
The lender of money retains ownership of
lat which enables him to compel men to
ork for him, and yet he makes the borrower
is servant by eNacting from him money for
lie use of money. Possessed of the represen-
tive of labor and of the products Of labor
ore than he needs, he demands from his
ebtor still more. This method of amassng
e condensed essence of toll is o purely ar nj
fetal one growing out of the complications
business. 1t was formerly held in disre-
lte from the custom among money-holders
take great advantage of the necessities Of
'rrowers. Methodicsl and legally regulated
stoms, and rates OF interest uniform and
oderate, have reconcied this manner Of
lining money to the moral sense of the busl-
,ss world. although still looked upon with
indetinable dlsfavor
If money, the representative and essence 7
work that has been done were duly con the
Tered, in its essential character, Dor cha
wing would be less practiced One ! =
10 would hesitate to undertake the !,
rection of a hundred laborers for fly davs H.
'uld equally hesitate to assume the employ aut
mt of loan OF twenty thousand dollars n
: who owes money is never free, because he
es labor. He who owes for money spent
lost, which he cannot repay, is miserable
proportion 10 the sensitiveness Of his
nscience There is no specter more formi-