Workmen's advocate., 1886-12-26
WAGE-LABOR AND CAPITAL,
BY KARL MARX,
Translated by ]. l.. JoYSEs.
 CONTINUED.

profit, rises in the same proportion in which the exchange value of labor. wages, sinks; and conversely The rise in profit is exactly measured by the fall in wages, and the fall in profit by the rise in wages.
 The objection may perhaps be made that the capitalist may have gained profit by advantageous exchange of his products with other capitalists, or by a rise in the demand for his goods, whether in consequence of the opening of new markets, or of greater demand in the cld markets; that the profit of the capi- talist may thus increase by means of over-reaching another capitalist; nde. pendently of the rise and fall of wages and the exchange value of tabor; or that the profit of the capitalist may also rise through an an improvement in the imple- ments of labor, a new application of natural forces, and so on.
 But 1t must nevertheless be admitted that the result remains the same, al- though it is brought about in different way. The capitalist has acquired a larger amount of eXchange-value with the same amount of labor, without having had to pay a higher price for the labor on that account; that is to say a lower price has been paid for the labor in proportion to the net profit which it yields to the capitalist.
 Besides, we must remember that i'll spite of the fluctuations in the price of commodities, the average price of each commodity the proportion in which it exchanges for other commodities -i is de- l h,ri ,f, er-reaching and tricks that go on with in the capitalist class therefore necessa- rily cancel one anather. Improvements ill machinery, and new applications of natuaal forces to the service of produc- tion, enable them to turn out in given time with the same amount of labor and capital larger quantity of products, but by no means a larger quantity of eX- change-value If by the application of the spinning jenny can turn out twice as much thread in an hour as could be fore its invention, for instance, a hun dred pounds instead of fifty, that is be- cause the cost of production has been halved, or because at the same cost l can turn out double the amount of products.
 Finally Tn whatsoever proportion the capitalist classes, the bourgeosie - whether of one country or the market of the whole world-share among them selves the net profits of production, the total amount of these net profits always consists merely of the amount by which, taking all in all, direct labor has been in creased by means of stored-up labor This sum total increases, therefore, in the proportion in which labor augments captal that is, in the proportion in which profit rises as compared with | wages.
 Thus we see that even if we cOntine ourselves to the relation between capital and wage-labor, the interests of capital are in direct antagonism to the interest of wage-labor.
 A rapid increase of capital is equal to a rapid increase of profits. Profits can only make a rapid increase, if the ex- change value of labor-the relative wage -makes an equally rapid decline, al- though the actual wage rises along with the nominal wage, or money price of labor; if only it does not rise in the same proportion as profit For instance, if, when trade is good wages rise five per cent. and profits on the other hand thirty per cent, then the proportional or relative wage has not increased but declined.
 Thus if the receipts of the laborer in- crease with the rapid advance of capital. yet. at the same time there is widening of the social gulf which separates the | laborer from the capitalist, and also an 1 increase in the power of capital over labor and in the dependence of labor upon capital.
 The meaning of the statement that the laborer has an interest in the rapid in crease of capital is merely this; the faster the laborer increases his masters domin- ion, the richer will be the crumbs that he will get from his table: and the greater the number of laborers that can be em- ployed and called into existence, the greater will be the number of slaves of which capital will be the owner.
 We have thus seen that even the most fortunate event for the working class, the speediest possible increase of capital, however much it may improve the mate rial condition of the labOrer, cannot abol- ish the opposition between his interests and those of the bourgeois or capitalist class. Profit and wages remain just as much as ever in inverse proportion. When capital is increasing fast, x ages may rise, but the profit of capital will 1 rise much faster. The actual position of 1 the laborer has improved. but II Is at the expense of his social position. The social gulf which separates him from tie capi- talist has widened.
 Finally, the meaning of fortunate con- ditions for wage labor and of the quick est possible increase of productive capital, is merely this: the faster the working classes enlarge and extend the hostile .. power that dominates over them. the better will be the conditions under which they will be allowed to labor for the fur ther increase of bourgeois dominion and fJr the wider extension of the power of