New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-02-23
THE Law OF LABOR.
,somETps ECONOMIC METHODS NINpl'
GATED.
PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMIC PHILOSOPHY 7a By
Van Buren, Dcnsow, LID oVo'' Pr 'o-
q

Van Buren, Donslow, LID. eVo'' PIP 90
Casseu b Co. .,.,,I
This a. in one sense q belated, but an unusually
,rterasting and valuable work. 1t would nave
hesn ~ larger value and influence had 1t been
pphusbsd several years ago, for lts treat-
ment Of some important questions is almost con-
fined TO phases which were presented ana 10
statisticaI information which was accessible as
earlv as 1853 Yet its philosophy is not STALE
INIT vigorous constructive and courageous even
70 the verge of temerity. The best thinkers
NAV gain from it better comprehension OF inc
problems which lie at the foundation OF economic
Science. while its breadth of learning and rich
ness of illustration render it helpful to those
who desire to comprehend the causes which HI
streets with strikers and Treasury vaults with
silver, which prompt the lament OF the iandless
and the cry of the corporaton-hater, which open
mines and light the fires in furnaces and start
the music of thousands of spindles and yet leave
multitudes TO believe that the wealth for these
works is stolen from their illreouited toll
After the can't which has filed the air so long
IL is pleasant to find 3 writer speaking OF labor
as If it could bear to hear the truth and Of cor
porations as if they were not composed exclu-
avely of fends Professor Denslow stands so
straight in dealing with the relations between
capital and labor that he almost leans backward
The vital part of his work is its constructive phil
losophy, though in destructive criticism Of WORKS
of the theoretic school so much space is occupied,
and the imaginings and metaphysical gymnastics
of Adam Smith, Ricardo, Mill Marx and others
are so elaborately proved contrary to the facts
of human experience, that the book is thereby
rendered almost too voluminous. Its chief aim
is TO explain society to ITSELF" to vindicate It's
economic methods at the bar Of its own con-
science Before criticising or attempting to I'M
proye them the author holds it essentials that So
ciety should comprehend that these methods are
fruits of long progress from worse to better, are
the best that human nature is yet prepared to
support and have produced infinitely better re-
suits than could have come from the distractions
of any closet theorists.
Two points of departure be taken In IN
yesugating the economic phenomena OF human
history. The first starts with labor and ends IN
socialism. The other starts with demand ana
ends with society. Closet spectators nrst con-
ceiyed that compact created ali government and
labor all wealth. Professor Denslow holds that
historically the root of government was force, and
the root of labor was slavery He finds seizure
at the bottom of all rights of property and COM
pulsion at the beginning of all industry. Slavery
preceded wages; labor Of itself can produce
nothing: .. A.. .,,,b ,rh,oh ho
seems determined to ignore Ae assumes 'na1 Ils
ments to work with the means TO suosSi am unr
the harvest Is re =, s but helpless suffering image
Of desttuon, lacking the land to labor upon ms
with. Is he in this condition produceri Certainly
not All that he produce Is famine. Inc l Sd
orI orE non and the farmer who gives him means
and subsstence while he labOrs are the true p0uucsis
o. ns e Wholly destitute he has the initiative in
production, but must be initiated nom "loIu.' -
frnIy as must the labor of al OK, mule OF engine
A., -. % .ha rnannloved stands idle, capable
of nothing but hunger:
.r,s nroStmsker comes Instantly they spring to
their feet and begin building why becsu &C. u, ~
nav hsuo %, sun dav what forl SO that he might out Of
their idleness create labor-out Oh Ihelr ntx
o psir restitution and ncapacty create wealth
He does create all these, buys them uy puymhs
% 1ayIns created them shall he not own what
he has createdl If so, then, for the puIpoSs Tr e
meut. He Is Mind Force, Energy, and the s6oreF 81
is carhorse and harrow mere es claw saw to the
the potter How, then, shan inc cray pay " Wv
potter, {" l am the producer
Starting with the notion that labor produces
Mr. Mil is betrayed by his own logic INTO speaAine
of profits as diverted" from the earnings OF
labor, and Marx insists that every dollar SO III
yerted is stolen. But MIR. Denslow urges that
caotal alone has become in some sense the pro-
Queer
BY far the largest portion Of the worlds work is
now done by capital in IT'S employing capacity,
but In its capacity as physical toller ana ln,sd
labor consists In the wageworker acting as ehde
feeder regulator to the working machine cr H 6ee
physically and capital superlntended. Now, In the
main capital performs sc the %a f d sSa tSe
w sTRS[in'en0. inc "Ae"'No "AN'
from the stalk by hand and husked Now machine
drawn by two horses picks of the ear, gathering all
Spsks az fast as eight men leaves all the husk the
stalk and does not pun up or cut out or break down
the eor rTGy ss end % chr the
worker sitting, he could shell from five to twenty
twenty -four bushels hour with the three classes
Of horsepo shelters four men will shell 800
1000 and 5000 bushels per day respectively one man
doing the work OF seventy five, 100 or loo men,
The student of history therefore, starts with the
anarchy OF barbarism lie recognizes the progress
of the race through usurIations and tyrannies
TO order and sacred1ess of individual rights;
through appropriation Of property which creates
the possibility of infinitely larger social use TO
modern protection of capital which makes modern
organization of industry possible; through Serfdom
and apprenticeship to a freedom and reward Of
labor never known in any previous age Thus
property in land has been found necessary to its
most productive use, and tribal and communal
holding looks back toward barbarsm:
The right of all to use for hunting precludes the
right of any to use for farming and gardening, and
50 prevents each man from producing as much as
he Immediately wants, thus claiming all down 10 the
seyercst penury. Private property in land steps in
10 maks the interest Of each TO produce what others
want.
Mr.. Georges theories are handled with very
little respect:
Nor, since the State did not produce the land, can
the state It. 1t simply cannot be owned at all
And since, except we own the land on which things
are produced we cannot the things produced IL
follows that neither the individual the TRIBE nor the
State, can own anything. Mr. Georges doctrine,
therefore, lands In that of Prudhon, that . all
property Is robbery" Mr.. George doubtless thinks
Mr. George Of being destitute OF the thinking faculty
in the degree essential to rational creature by as
suming that In the above extracts and indeed through
out his work. he has been impeed by an impulse Of
intensely active and burning thoughtlessness. :.
Mr.. Georges uncourteous, and In the most exact
sense uncNilized remark, that the reason that the
majority Of men think private title to land TO be just