Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-02-08
Labor aud Wealth.

is the great producer of wealth. Lands
and minerals represent wealth in latent,
u1ldeveloped form. TO cultivate the
lands and so make their fertility avail
able, and to dig and gather minerals
and utalize them involves labor. Thus
labor brings out and makes available
the latent and undeveioped wealth of a
country. And the position Of labor is
Il test of the civilization and the basis
of the prosperity of q people. There is
far less difference in the natural re-
sources of the different countries Of the
world than many suppose. The poor
est has as rich a variety Of natural re-
sources as the richest. Turkeyhas rich
lands and abundant minerals, both in
Europe and Asia. Brazil is a tropical
region of almost unboundad natural
resources. Mexico has fertile lands
and abundant resources in the precious
metals. Yet all these countries are
proverbially poor. England is a small
island, with not enough fertile land to
support It's population, with deep mines
Of coal and iron, and yet it is vastly
wealthy. France has rich lands, but
comparatively few mineral resources.
but is wealthy-the most thrifty of the
Continental countries. Germany has
equal resources, but is less thrifty.
Why? The status of laboris the an
sWer. In Turkey, Brazil and Mexico,
labor is oppressed and never rises to
the skilled level, but is crude and I'M
skilled, 1t cultivates the earth in the
simplest manner, and produces only
raw materials. Its product represents
the lower order of Intelligence andskill.
Hence its trading value is small, and
in competition with the products of
skilled labor in trade is always beaten,
and so remains poor. These facts may
be simply illustrated.
Unskilled labor commands the small
est return. A nan can be hired to dig
bitches, work OF roads, or for farm la
Dor, or to dig coal, or perform crude
work of any kind for a dollar a day,
If called on to puddle iron he com
mands two OF threetianes as much. III
an artist, he gets more, and if specially
skilled his labor is all the more valu-
able. The reason for this is that, as
his skill Increases, he produces greater
value, and so his labor is worth more.
Thn Iahn,. ic worth mana I'hn lnl,,, -
a farm hand produces cotton worth.
in its raw state, ten cents Il pound.
This is the product of urskilled labor
which will command a dollar q day.
This ten cents worth of cotton is then
subjected to manipulation of skilled
hands, and in time comes forth i deli
cate fabric for ladies' wear WW99rtl1 i4any
dollars. The difference hos Been
wrought by labor. A mass CT iron Ore
is dug in a day, and produces iron val
ued at a dollar. This is then, by man
ipulation, changed into steel. From
this it is transformed into watch
springs, worth hundreds of dollars.
The change is chiefly the result of Skill
ed labor. Thus in most Of the depart
ments of life, skill ed labor produces
wealth far more rapidly than unskilled
labor, and SO is better paid. Its pay is
in proportion TO its wealth-producing
capacity. We do not in this consider
the subject of demand and supply, pro-
posing to treat this separately. But it
is rigidly true that labor PRODUCES
wealth, and the more skilled labor is
the greater its collaborating power.
So the nation which has the largest rel
alive amount Of skilled labor. all else
being equal, gains most rapidly in
wealth.
This may be readily seen. China,
Turkey Brazil md Mexico trade large
ly on raw materials-tea, coffee, fruits,
etc. England, France and Germany
trade. on manufactured articles. The
labor CT one hundred persons, repre-
sented III the form Of manufactures,
will purchase The product of the labor
OF Two hundred persons, represcnteGb by
raw material, Hence the Idea, so long
prevalent, that o nation which trades
with ray materials, the product of un-
skilled labor, must become poor, while
the one which trades with the product
of skilled labor will grow rich. This
is SC. We have partially revolution
izea this by machinery, which multi
plies the powerofaman andintrodrccs
skilled labor into agriculture. Now,
blowing by steam, or with Improved
plows, and planting and harvesting by
machinery, has introduced skill in aeri-
cultural work, and SO has madeit more
profitable. The use OF skillet Labor, in
various ways, in prodtcihg and trans
porting tie product OF The SOL, has rev
%olutionized one OF the Old axic1rs CT
political economy, and yet it is III har-
moly with old essential truths. As
skill s. impaired to. labor its wealth
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