The Labor enquirer., 1886-05-29

of them is 81. .19 day. or $433.62 a year
He has calculated the annual value o
productive labor in this country at $lO,'
900, 100000, which when divided by tht
II, 100000 workers gives an average o
$528 each, of which eight per cent went
for taxes and ten per cent for capital
leaving $43662 as average wages.
"The average person. including capi
talists, landowners, employers and EN-
ploYed, must have been sustained, shell
tered. must have paid taxes and saved
profits out Of what so cents would buy
in the census year, because such was ap.
parently the measure of all there was
produced, which could be bought and
sold or exchanged"
How true it is that one-half the world
does not know how the other half lives.
There are 250,000 manufacturers in this
country. How they manage to live. paw
taxes, maintain capital and save profits
is problem, but the question of the
greatest interest to the laborer is how
they become miliionaires that is to say
how the portion that have not sunk into
the class of wage slaves have done 80
because capital is slowly aggregatlng
into a fewer number of hands. This ap-
plies also to agricultural lands. Farms
over 100 acres and under 500 have in
creased in ten years 200 per cent: over
500 and under 1000 ocres, 500 per cent
an over 1000 acres, 800 per cent.
There are now ,250,000 tenant farmers
in this country, who give up one-third
of their earnings to the, enrichment Of
class who toll not neither do they
spin.
Zone landlord, whose estate | visited
says writer In the North American
Review for January, owns 10000 acres
in one county alone, and this is less
than half of his entire property. From
these 10000 acres he derives rental in
cash, of considerably more than 100000
year." He Is an eYicted irish land
lord named ScullY. On this point Henry
Georges book throws food of light
that the laborer cannot afford to miss.
In this anne census year nearly S96,
900 900 was paid as interest to the bond
holders, (the earnings of 2l,00O laborers
receiving the high average of $3.50 a
year., and yet these cormorants who
have been paid the original debt once
nearly IN interest, and Is not half paid
yet are demanding that they be paid
in gold, so that they can get more for
their money. 1t is to their interest to
have dear money and cheap goods.
The railroad corporations received
1910, ,6S3, 900 as net profits, after paying
all running expenses cost of repairs,
extensions, damages, etc, and interest
on bonded debt of nearly 100000, 900
These corporations own the debt, and
consequently paid the interest to them
selves. This will give an idea of how
in one way mihonaires are made. AS
was previously shown in the census
figures the average wages was much be-
low S4OO year, and that the profits
amounted to more than the wages. 10
prevent any possible Quibble as to these
figures, and to put the sum in its best
light, let us take the wages at $500 and
the profits at 1880 That is to say, that
each capitalist emvloying ten men can
make" So, 800 year, but when he has
accumulated enough Savings" and in
creased his plant ten-fold, 80 as to be
able to employ 100 men, surplus Of
S3SO,OOO year can be made" and in 8
short time the employer will, if he is
Economical and saving" get within rea
sonable distance of being a millionaire
From this example it will also be seen
how the big fish swallow the little ones
The capitalist employing 1000 mel
can thrive on smaller percentage O.
surplus than the one employing 100
men, and 80 on down to the incipient
millionaire who is making b ,rd fight
with two boys and girl. A. T. Stewart
could afford to sell at a smaller profit
and at lower price than competitor
who only possessed the one hundredth
part of his capital, and herein has been
found the defense of such monopolists
as he and Vanderbilt and Gould, ct al
When it is remembered that the cap
talist is often the landlord, and that out
of the $4OO received one-fourth. at least
of that sum gets back into his pocket et
rent, the growth of millionaire is no
such puzzle as 1t would at first seen
to be. When the capitalist Is g
bond holder as we'll he soon max e!
strides to become Millionaire. Such il
the progress from the heterogeneous to
HOMOGENEOUS" There is a school OF
Socialists who look to this result with
grim complacency-like the foreigner
who wished that mankind had but one
neck, that he might chop off their head
in one blow.
Edward Atkinson's statistics on th'
value of cows liver and Indian corn az
the food of the coming race of wage
slaves, is but adding insult to injury
Let them eat grass" said Foulon to the
landless, homeless, starving Frenchme en-
Just before the Revolution. "Whatso
ever measure ye mete unto others,
must have carried with it a dreadful