Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1890-01-10

, duction is always the mother of wages
and invariably when the truth is reached
does labor precede soageS.
1t is urged that labor cannot exercise it:
productive power unless supplied by cap
ltal with maintenance. The laborer must
have food, clothing, ETC., before he can
work. True, but is this food and clothing
truly capital? Is it wealth devoted to
exchange" and can you measure
its return by the interest at SO
much per cent paid To it? No. this
confusion results from a misconception-
intentional or otherwise-of what capital
is. The payment Of wages always sup
plies the precious rending of labor, and
so far as the employe is concerned it is
but receipt of portion of the capital
which his labor has previously produced.
In the exchange of labor for wages the
employer always gets the capital created
by the laborer before he pays out any cap.
ital IN wages. At what point is his cap.
ital lessened, even temporarily?
The laborer who works for his employer
does not get his wages till he has per-
formed the work. He is exactly like a
depositor in a bank. He can not draw
money out till he has put money in. In
paying wages the capitalist only eX-
changes capital of the one form for cap
ital of another form. The payment of
wages, no matter how long the process,
never involves any advance of capital.
1t may take two years to build steel
works, but the creation of value of which
the steel works will be The sum goes on
day by day from the hour the foundation
is dug till the works are finished.
In agriculture the creation of value
does not take place at once but by degrees
step by step from the sowing of the seed
till the crop is gathered, and that no pay.
ment of wages in the interval lessons the
farmers capt. i is proved when the land
is sold or rented during the growth of
crop. A plowed field will bring more
than one not plowed, or a sowed field
more again than plowed field. Nor is
the maintenance of labor drawn from cap
ital. Food, clothing, and all articles of
wealth are only capital so loEg as the
owners propose not TO consume but to eX-
change them for other commodities as a
means OF getting a return OF increase of
wealth. Keep clear the line between
wealth that iseapital and wealth that isnCt
capital. All capital is wealth, but
not all wealth is capital. Men
do not con,umc clothes and food
according to whether the doing of it
is going to leadto return by their going
to work. They put on clothes because
they want comfdrt; they eat because they
are hungry.
London has nenty of capital, and if
maintenance wGe drawn from capital
this would suffice, yet if productive labor
i'll London were 10 cease, within few
hours men and women would die like
| sheep.
The series Of exchanges is like curved
| pipe filed with water. If more water is
| poured in one end, the same comes out
the other, not Fentically the same water
| but its eqmyahnt. Those who do the
work Of production put in as they take
out--gcnerally putting in little more
than they take out They receive in sub
sistence and wages but the products of
their labor
We do not urge that capital is not use
full. 1t is very useful, but we do urge
that labor can get along without capital
far better than capital without labor. All
the capital of London would not do the
African savage much good, yet such
capital as he wants he manages to ac-
quire, andit is as civilization advances
as more capital is needed--that it is pro-
duced, and that easily by united labor,
just as the human organism secretes what
blood it needs. The purpose of capital is
not to adTance wages or subsist laborers,
it is to assist labor in production with
tools, seel, etc., and with the wealth re-
quired to carry on exchanges. If there
fore we are right in these conclusions, all
schemes looking to the alienation of pow
erCy by Increasing capital or by restricting
the number of laborers, must be condemned
If each hborer in performing labor really
creates the fund from which his labor is
drawn as we hold he does, then wages
cannot he diminished by increase of
laborers but, on the contrarp, the more
laborers the greater the fund and the
higher should wages be. We know that
at present this is is not so, and we be-
lieve We know why it is not so. This,
amongother lessons, will be taken up in
our subsequent lectures. Tonight we
want only to consider wages and capital.
We urge, as we believe has been clearly
proved that capital does not pay wages.
There is one capitalist who pays wages,
and that is the Godhead, and He gives to
man in advance the capital from which
he draws those wages. When He puts
him on this earth He puts into him life,