Workmen's advocate., 1888-02-25
A SOPHlSTICAL WHY" Something That Manufacturers Can.
 not Manufacture.

pcoi SSitto du obJcttlol lO ooCldllSll which is quite unique in it's original ity. Upon the occasion of Laurence Gronlund's lecture before the Phila- delphia Society for Ethical Culture. a member of the Anti-Poyerty Socie- ty of Philadelphia interrogated that gentleman as follows:
 Socialism contends that the laborer is being exploited by the capitalist it treats of so-caled surplus values, namely the difference between the cost of ma terlals and wages aS compared with the price or value of the finished product.
 [To illustrate for the benefit of the reader we will use the United States Census to show what is meant thereby.
 Total value of all products in 1sSo S. 3i9 579 l9l Cost of materials and wages ..... 3il111 ,3lt
 Balance ............ .......... .... Sl024 s11 s41
 The balance is the difference mentioned above and is termed surplus valuesl
 "Now then, if this is true, why Is it trat so many laborers are unemployed /? For, surely, if it were true, capitalists would out of pure seltishness employ every available man in order to pocket all the more of the surplus created for him by the larger number of laborers employed. The large number of unem- ployed proves your theory fallacious and the laborer is not exploited by capital. 7
 This, superfcially, appears some what plausible, but upon inyestiga tion is found to be very puerile in- deed. Such an objection properly belongs to the pretender or trickster trying to obfuscate and befog rather than assist in intelligent anal ysis.
 It must be borne in mind that the manufacturer is not only the manu- facturer, but also the seller of his tor rather his laborers) product. As a manufacturer he IS only limited by the amount of his capital or in a more or less degree by his supply of labor and raw material, but as a sel- Ter the case is entirely different.
 The capitalist manufactures is a very potent character, but there is one thing in which he is lmpotent- he cannot manufacture customers for his wares; and right here Is found the milk in the cocoanut; 1t is here where we find the reason why manu- facturers periodically abandon the pocketing of more surplus values. It is not, forsooth, voluntary ab- negation. Manufacturers view with feelings of regret and often of i'm pending ruin, times when the'r plants are idle and the market dull, when at all events they are sure of making no profits.
 They understand its cause very well, even though they know no more of economics than the average "anti-poyerty" man. Certainly there are times when stoppage of business is voluntary, and voluntary stoppages are even multiplying, but this very fact corroborates what we say. They are systematically arranged by the pools, trusts, and other forms of combination, the very existence of these bodies, operating thus being attributable to the fatal fact, that capitalists can manufacture almost anything but customers.
 The prime object of production is to gratify mans wants and needs, bat as a matter of fact that object Is to-day of only secondary consldera- tion, the main object being the en- richment of the contracting parties. Of course, commodities if they are to possess "eychange values" must also possess values of use; that is 10 say, they must possess the elements of usefulness and requirement, but of the extent of such usefulness or requirement most manufacturers have as little conception as they have of the quantity of the production by their competitors. There are articles which cannot be produced in ad- vance of the demand. The owner of locomotive works, for instance, will be very careful not to build locomo- tiyes before he has orders for them. No orders, no locomotive building: and he stops, regardless of loss of profit in the meantime. Again, Tn many industries manufacturers con- tinue operations without orders in the hope of the markets revival, but the market, no matter how great the