The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1878-07-18
From the N. Y. Trbune.l
Some Plain First Principles for Com
munistic Worklngmen.

Jones, the workingman, has a set of
tools which have served him to earn his
living for a long time A Labor Re
former" being very fond of Jones, pro-
poses to take away his tools. Evidently,
if Jones is not fool, he will ask what
better instruments for earning his living
it is proposed to give him, and where
they are to come from, and what they
are to cost.
Capital is the tool of Labor Or, rath-
er, Self.denial, which refrains from the
expenditure of earnings, and so stores
up capital for future use, is the instru
ment which makes civilized labor posi-
BILE. The savage, scratching the ground
with sharpened stick, is fortunate if his
labor yields netenth as much grain as
can be produced in the same time with
plows reaping and threshing machines :;
one part of the fruit of civilized labor be,
longs to the mere physical toll directly
employed, and nine parts belong to the
saving, forethought and invention which
supply the tools. Somebody must first
toll, and then deny himself the immedi-
ate satisfaction of using the fruits of his
toll, in order that labor may afterward
yield more largely. The workingms
must have clothes, house to shelter
him, food to give him strength and tools
to multiply his strength, and of these he
must have the use from the day his work
begins until, months afterward, the
product of his labor is sold to some con-
sumner; but all these things he can have
only because somebody has worked to
create them, and then has refrained
from spending for his immediate gratifi-
cation in drink, food, or other pleasures,
the fruit of his work If the clothing,
the house, the food, and the tools or
machinery, are the result of the labor
and saving of others, and if these produce
nine-tenths of that which days labor
now yields, shall the workingman pay
nothing for the past labor or self-denial
multiplies his capability?
In the abstract, every intelligent work
ingman will say, Certainly, if | want to
use what another has produced and by
selfdenial saved, l must pay for its use.
Ii, by that use, | can produce ten times
as much, l can afford to pay anything
less than nine-tenths of my product for
that use, and shall still be better off with
than without it. But in practice the
labor reformer and the workingmen who
follow him virtually say, You who have
saved anything are our natural enemies;
we mean to take without pay the fruits
of your labor and selfdenial; help your
selves if you can. 1t is our good luck, if
you have been foolish enough to create
houses, clothing machinery and i'm
proved lands, instead of spending each
year everything you could earn. If we
are thereby enabled to produce ten times
as much, all that we produce is still ours;
money ears nothing and labor earns
everything War on banks and capi-
talists, on bondholders and money lend
ers, on mine owners, mill owners and en-
ployers generally, is the natural result
They resist because they want some re-
turn for their past labor and self-denial
But labor reformers" grasp because they
want to use the fruit OF the toll of Others
without paying for it. abolish national
banks" say some; down with bondhold,
ers," say others; "limt the rate of inter
est" others cry; eight hours day, and
make 1t crime to hire more or to work
longer" political conventions resolve
But Mr.. Ward. whose Labor Catechism"
represents the logic of the industrial
party" calmly demands that farms, mills.
mines, stores, markets, railroads and tel
egraphs shall be taken and managed by
the Government for the benefit of the
majority. And when asked whether it is
right that telegraph companies, for ex-
ample, 'naVlnS constructed lines with SO
much patience and WISDOM and run
great risks in the adventure" should
have their property seized from them by
"a greater power, like an Alaric,' he re-
plies:
Questions of merely adopted morals
scarcely enter into a great mechanical
equation. Shall the interest of forty
millions be ignored to crafty handful
of forty? The people are physicists
They do not ask how much moral ad-
vantage is going to accrue from change
like this. They only ask concerning the
material advantages"
Mr.. Ward is more rational than the
half way reformers. If it is right to take
any part of the earnings Of capital in
order to make the many more comforta-
ble it is right to take all and the capital
itself, for the same reason. Each and
every demand Of the half-hearted labor
reformer" or trades unionist if he had
the pluck to speak plainly, would end in
Mr.. Wards demand that all rights of
individuals shall be ignored to promote
the material advantages of the MAORI
ty. Thus we are brought face to face
with the demand that individual capital,
and all the incentives to individual exer-
ton and selfdenial, which have hitherto
been the tools of labor, shall be thrown