Workmen's advocate., 1886-12-26

have the key to the riddle of society to- day-the solution of the labor question. The value of thing, economically considered, depends upon the average | amount of average human labor time that must be spent in producing and dis | tributing it. 1 am not here speaking of its uSe-value. That may be wholly lnde- pendent of human labor, as in the case of free air Or it may be, and in most cases is, partly independent of human labor The lse-value of thing depends, generally, on it's natural properties, and on those conferred on it by the labor of man. Thus, the use value of watch depends on the natural properties of the steel. glass, gold or silver and so forth, and on the property (of keeping time) conferred on it by the labor of man in
 producing it, the property of being ready
 to hand in the jewellers shop, conferred
 on it by the labor of man in distributing
 it.
 Now, so much of the use-value of any
 commodity as depends. not on its natural
 properties, but on the human labor spent
 on it, constitutes the rdlne of the com
 modity. And it is this technical ''value,
 this embodied human labor for which
 we pay. The erchdnge value of anything
 is the proportion in which its value as
 product of human labor mot it's use-vaue)
 exchanges against the universal medium
 of exchange that we call money.
 In d word, the dollars we pay for the
 watch are not paid for it because the
 watch is of use to us, but because human
 labor has been spent in producing and
 distributing the watch.
 We now begin to see what is meant
 by saying that the commodity, labor
 power, creates value. and how essentially
 labor-power differs from all other com
 modities. When the raw material of
 the watch (steel, glass, gold, etc., is made into watch none of it creates any value,
 All that happens is that, by human labor,
 the value of this raw material (whose
 value wholly depends on its being in part
 the result of past labor is transferred to
 the new product. In the same way
 machinery creates no value, By human
 labor, the value of all machinery whose
 value wholly depends on its being inpart
 the result of past labor) is gradually transferred to the new products. All
 the value of piece of machinery is, be-
 tween the moment when it first begins
 working and the moment of its becoming
 useless, transferred piece by piece (allow- ing for waste) to the things that are pro- duced by the human labor working through the machinery on the subject of
 labor-g generally on new material. And yet, the watch has more value, and a higher exchange-value, than the sum of those of the material used and of , so much machinery as has been worn out in making it. This added value. labor power has created. Thus human labor , power acts in double capacity. First, r it transmits the value of the new materi-
 al on which, and of certain part of the
 machinery by which, it works. Second, it adds a new value (creates value), due to its own functioning. And in this par - ticular it differs from all other commodi . ties.
 A bale of cotton comes into St. Louis l It has certain value, say one dollar
 due solely to the labor that has beer , spent in growing, picking, packing, car | is pressed--nOthing more. Its value is e now greater by, say fifteen cents Why n It is the same cotton. It has more value - and therefore greater exchange-value
 because human labor has been spent ir pressing 1t,
 r. The same cotton, in no wise altered J. save in loss in bulk and of use-value is e carried east on the railroads. It's value !, and therefore it's exchange value have Q increased Why? Because human labol y has been spent in carrying it to Connec :. ticut, may be.
 Q Finally, the same cotton, in no wiSt J altered, save in loss of bulk and of use : value, comes into the mill. It leaves tht l. mill as yarn. That yarn has the trans T. mitted value of the cotton when it en r. tered, plus the transmitted value of s, 7. much of the machinery as has been wori IS out in turning the cotton into yarn, plu e the newly y-created value added by tn, human labor-power that has agail e worked upon it.
 Il Now, from the difference between tn, IS value labor ceaselessIy creates and tn, IT wages it is paid, come profits, interest B dividends, fortunes. And this fact, to s: gether with the essential quality of labor d power, as the only value creator, Pro l. lessor Ely ignores. Yet, upon this fac n and this quality our modern society, fas l. drawing to its end, is based. Socialism T. is the recognition of the fundamenta d principles, of their injustice and immor IT ality, of the impending changes that wi Is end once for all the system of societ r. that rests upon them.
 n EDWARD AyELING.