The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1886-11-11
Fict,tiOuS Capital.

has been, even by its votaries, styled
" the dismal science" But the way
in which those votaries depart from
and ignore its teachings i'm practice is
far dismaler. All wealth, says the
standard economist. and therefore all
capital, is the joint result of industry
and abstinence. That is to say, theo-
retically all wealth comes, first, from
actual production, and, second, from
the saving up of the fruits of produc.
ton by the producer.
This is the merest fiction. By far
the largest part of the worlds wealth
is not the result of production at all,
but is directly and solely the result of
the conversion into commodities, into
the subjects of bargain and sale, and
the instruments and material of spec
ulation and monopoly, of two things
which are not legitimately commodi
ties, which are not the result of pro.
duction in any sense, but are the
sources, the Instruments, the sole fac.
tors OF production, namely, land aud
labor. Thirty thousand millions is
doubtless an underestimate of the ag-
gregate wealth now in the United
States which is fictitious wealth ac
cording to the canOns of the political
economy which the accumulators and
poSsessors of that wealth ack knowledge
wealth not in any sense or degree
the result of production, but the fruit
solely of the increment of land values
aud of the capitalization of the fran.
chises of vast corporations, the water
ing of the stocks of railroad, telegraph
and telephone companies. Two hun
dred and eighty years ago, when the
first permanent English settlement
was established in America, the same
land existed on this continent which
~ here now but it, had no value. 70
day it is worth billions. And the con-
tinent is not half developed. In the
South and West and Northwest there
are limitless areas of unoccupied land
untraversed yet, for the most part, by
railroads, telegraph and telephones
To-day those lands are of little value,
but they only await the advent of pop
ulation to become worth countless
billions We do not allude to the in
crease of wealth which consists in
farms and buildings, and actual rail
roads and telegraph lines, etc, placed
upon these lands, but only to the in
crease in the value of the lands them
selves; to that increment in value
growing out of the franchises which
government permits, and itself direct
Iands-the power conferred on certain
lndiv duais to make, or permit, or pre-
vent, improvements at will, through
the ownership of the lands, and the
and other companies. This power,
right, franchise. valueless before the
advent of population, becomes upon
the full development of country,
worth ten times as much as the actual
That is to say, the
bogus wealth thus created in the hands
of few individuals, absolutely out OF
nothing, comes in time to outweigh,
ten times over, probably, the real
wealth produced by the actual toilers
OF the land, This is a transcepdent,
i momentOus circumstance. 1t is q
which furnishes the kew
to the pOrtentiouS questions which are
crowding upon us. Wealth is power,
Adam Smith tells US, and we'll eDou In
do we know 1t without being told by
The possessor of wealth
b olds, to the extent of his possessions,
an absolute command lover all the
labor then in the market" But there
are social regulations which place that
class of wealth which is in reality
g stored up labor" at disadvantage
at least ia the proportion of one to ten.
in the social struggle for existence,
Here is the secret of fselfperpetuating
germinal, expansive power of modern
times. Here is the power whereby |
wealth is crowding manhood to the |
wall, whereby monopoly is crush |
ing the people, a matter the most |
ever; matters in regard to which if
be not done, something will |
10 itself one day, and in fashion that
will please nobody.-[ Voice of Labor.