The Labor enquirer., 1884-03-01
DFNyER COLORADO. SATURDAY. MARCH !, 1884

food to eat, no clothing to wear, and no
money with which to buy such things
then society does not suffer. But, if by
useless labor he gains food. or clothing.
or money, OF means with which to buy
them, then society Is the loser.
If rich man shall employ men to
build for him . magnificent mansion, or
a great pleasure ship; and pay them a
million dollars therefor, he is not bene-
fitting society particle-no more than
if he had kept his money in his pocket.
In paying them for the work, he is, in
one sense, like poor law COMMITTEES
man, giving pauper an order for bread
which society has to pay for,
A man who builds house, everY part
Eof which is useful, and on which no. la
Dor has been expended in the gratifi ca
ton of vanity or extrsyagant fancies,
deserves pay for his labor.
But when rich man employs thou
sand men for year to build him a.pleas-
ure yacht, which will never in any sense
benefit society, he is not, as may gener-.
ally be supposed, doing good act. He is
parting with some Of bis mon ey /; and it
has gone to procure food for the labor
ers. True enough. But think further.
Suppose the ship had not been built /;
and suppose the condition of society to
have been such that those men were
distributed in the various walks in life
"a due proportion raising food, others
working as shoemakers, tailors, etc
each earning what he receives, by doing
an equal amount of work for the man
who gives it to him. What is the diff
ference? In the first place, society fur
nishes thousand men with food for q
year, and gets nothing for it. In the
other case, the thousand men raise their
own food, and society neither loses nor
gains.
Again, suppose nation should under
take to build tower as great and useless
as the Tower of Babel. Suppose mil
lion laborers were employed at it for
fifty years. Would not the farmers of
that nation be burdened with supplying
them with food? And the tailors and
weavers with supplying them with
clothing? And so on. In short,.would
not the balance of the nation be COM
PEELED to work harder than if those mill
lion men were employed in raising food,
or other useful labor; in other words,
supporting themselves?
If no nation could borrow money there
would be TO wars. And how thankful
humanity would be! See how madly
England, France, Germany, Russia,
Spain, Italy and Turkey are running in
debt And what is the result? They
pay interest to the lenders. For how
long? Forever! And the interest re-
ceivers increase in numbers as the debts
increase. And they are supported by
the nation. The nation gives them their
certificates which entitle them to sup
plies from society. And who earns the
supplies? Alas those who labor. The
more interest receivers, the more bur-
den upon the producers. For every man
who does not raise food is furnished food
by those who do; every man who does
not make clothes is provided with clothes
by those who do. Each stone in all the
layers in a pyramid is supported by the
lowest layer. which bears grievous
burden. The higher the pyramid the
greater the load. Every man who is not
producer is supported by those who
are
1t is generally supposed that the rich
men pay the lakes which support the
different forms of government-town-
ship, county, stale and national; and they
are accorded large degree Of credit
therefor, as in that respect relieving the
poor of burden On the surface, it does
seem that a man who owns a large
amount of property and pays large
amount of taxes, does contribute largely
to the support of the government, and
that man who has no taxable property
and pays no taxes, although he works
ten hours day for every working day
in every year, does not bear any of the