Workmen's advocate., 1886-12-19
PROFESSOR ELY'S NEW BOOK.
"The Labor Movement in America"
FOURTH PAPER ECONOMIC VALUE OF LABOR ORGANl- NATIONS.

ECONOMIC VALUE OF LABOR ORGANl-
 NATIONS.
 In the 4th, jth, 9th chapters of his b >ok, Professor Ely discusses the value of labor organizations. In many respects, there fore, these chapters form the most valu able part of the work. All the readers of the WORKMEN'S ADVOCATE. of course, belong to some labor organization. Hence q careful study of the views of an economist. certainly not unfavorably disposed to such coalitions of the labor CTS, will be useful. x And it will be the more useful if the attempt is made to point out the fallacies that, l think, un derlie some of Professor Ely's reasoning.
 The chapter on the economic value of labor organizations starts with what seems to the Socialist to be d fallacy. "A captain of industry renders greater service to tine community for every dol lar received than anyone else (p. 92). This fallacy, that the director planner, overseer of labor is of more vaue--or, more accurately, contributes more value to the product than the actual producer or distributor, appears to me a remnant of mlddle-class egoism The truth is that the two kinds of work are of pre- cisely the same value. This statement is not made to please the workingmen readers of the WoRKMEN's ADVOCATE, but because believe it to be an econonl- ic truth. All absolutely necessary work, {. C., work without which other work and the production and distribution of the particular product would be impos- sibe, is of equaltvalue. It is said that the hand -laborer could not get on with out the head-laborer. Ths-when it implies the necessity of q special class of directors--is only in part true, and if it implies the necessity of a prtrileged class of directors is wholly false, Onthe other hand, that tine head dlaborer, the captain of industry" cannot get on without the hand laborer is wholly true. If there should be higher remuneration for either. it should be for executive work. | But, in truth, there should not be. Each | is necessary; the value of the work of each, as measured by the time devoted to it, is tlse same as that of the other; the remuneration of both should be | the same.
 Next (p. 93 our author points out that production on a large scale is swallowing up the small, independent producer-that concentration and centralizatiOn of capi- tal are going on. 1t is not the fault of the laborer it is not the fault of the capitalist" he writes CD. 94 And yet, in I 4 th,I I,l> and the capitalist are the two classes that make up society in America and Europe to-day. And it is the fault of society that the immediate producers are grow ing fewer, and the accumulators of capi- tai in the hands of few individuals are growing larger. By the phrase, "the fault of society" we really mean that this condition of things is inevitable un- der our present system of producing and distributing goods.
 Then, with very dangerous quotation from Charles Kingsley's novel of Alton Lock-" Professor Ely leads up to his statement of the object of labor organi- zations. The statement seems to me scarcely less dangerous than the quota tion. Here is the latter: '1 believe from experience that when you put workmen into human dwellings and give them a Christian education, so far from wishing discontentedly to rise out of their class, or to level others to 1t. exactly the oppo site takes place (p. 96l. Here is the statement: Labor organizations are designed to remove disadvantages under which t'1e great mass of working-men suffer and must continue to suffer unless they get relief either by voluntary com bination or combined political action"
 The danger in both these passages, more marked in the former than in the latter. is in the underlying assumption that the workers. dS II ctdSS, must always exist. Workingmcn should not wish "disc0ntentedly rise out of their class or to level others to it.. but they should wish to end the system that creates and is created by these class distinctions. It is 10 he regretted that i'll the second pas sage quoted no definite object of either the voluntary combination or combined political action is stated That object, from the Socialist point of view, is the couquering of political power-thun tie conquering of economic power and the natioualtzation of all the means of pro- duction and distribution.
 Discussing next the disadvantages of the labor class, Professor Ely points out the chief fallacies of the iaiSSer- fdire. oI let -things-alone, economists. These art the assumptions, first, of the natural