Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1890-01-10
"THE LANDFOR THE PEOPLE" "
MR.. A. j. MOXHAM'S LECTURE BEFoR e
THE HENRY GEORGE CLUB ON
MONDAY NIGHT.

ment Setting Forth Some of the MaiI
Points in Henry Georges Theory.
The lecture of A. ]. Moxham, ESQ.,, de
livered at the rooms of the Henry George
Club on Monday Dight was, excepting the
extracts read from " Progress and Pow
erty," substantially as follows:
Mr.. Moxham begin his lecture by read
ing an extract from Henry Georges
50 Progress and Poverty" on "why in
spite of increase in productive power dc
not wages advance in proportion ?" The
accepted political economy answers be-
cause wages are fixed by the ratio between
the number of laborers and the amount OF
capital. 1t says that capital pays labor
therefore the more laborers there are for
a given amount of capital the less per man
is the result. This has been taught uni
versally and believed universally. This
lbellef has prompted men who suffer to
Imagine that if they could get all capital
and distribute it, all could be rich, An
archists, socialists and many other lists"
have been tempted by this will of the
wisp," and not unnaturally. If it is true
that capital is the means by which labor
is paid, then it is but a step further to be-
lieve as there are millions of laborers in
this world and all paid by it, capital must
be thing well worth having-nay, it
must be well nigh inexhaustible.
In 1889 the total wealth of this country
Awas G1 ,459 millions. OF this amount
what is termed capital, or wealth used
for productive purposes only, could only
be small proportion, let us put it at
10000 millions (perhaps that Is too high),
and let us take this capital and di-
vide it among the sixty-fye millions of
people of this country, They get less
than 800 each. All the capital accumu :
lated during the whole existence of Amer
lea as nation would not keep the wolf
from the door for a year, if there were no
other source of wealth and no other means
of recuperation. This ANALYSIS would in
eliout,, than Instead of capital being the
source of our wealth, something else big
ger than capital must be the source of its
wealth. Again, if it is true that capital
pays labor, the more capital, the more
the laborers get. Those countries which
are richest would be the countries which
would pay the highest rates Of wages i.e,,
those countries which were the oldest in
civilization. Is it so? No; wages are
universally higher in new countries than
in old, and in new countries cap
ital is always scarce; in old countries
always plentiful. If capital pays labor,
then high wages and low interest go to-
gether, because high wages must mean
more capital, and plenty of capital aways
means low interest. Is this true? No !;
on every side you find one law as abso-
lutte as that of the Medes and Persians !;
viz, wages and interest go both down
and up together.
During times Of great depression, when
wages are at the lowest point and men
are begging for work, what is capital do
ing? Why its wages (Which is INTEREST,"
are at the lowest point, and like labor it
also is begging for work. During the de-
preston that followed the panic of 1878 /
knew of capitalists who could not get one
per cent for their capital, and | knew of
men who could not get seventy-fve cents
day for their labor. Nay more, l knew
of capital and men that could get no work
at all, therefore could get nothing for
their labor. Thus under conditions
which admit of no explanation consistent
with the theory that capital pays labor, do
we find high interest coinciding with high
labor, and low interest with low wages
capital seeming scarce when labor is
scarce, and abundant when labor is plen-
tiful. All these facts point to relation
between labor and capital, and-note you
well-it is a relation of mutual harmony
and nos one of opposition. AS we go on
with our investigation we will learn that
Fapital is just as helpless as labor in its
future struggle with a power that is an
enemy to both. What that power is our
later lectures will prove.
If labor is not paid by capital, what is
it paid by? We hope this evening to an
swer that query by proving that labor is
paid by itself.
Because labor is paid in money and
generally paid before the product of labor
has been turned into money, it is inferred
that wages are drawn from pre-existing
capital, and therefore labor can not be
employed till capital has beer accumu-
lated, and yet the very same school
teaches that capital is nothing but "store-
up, or accumulated labor" Is it not a
little inconsistent to couple the two state
ments ? First grasp and hold on to one
truth" Society in its most complicated
form is but an elaboration of society in its
modest beginnings. The man pmes from
the baby, Principles, evidelt in the
simplest state of society are merely dis
auised, not changed, by an advancing
and complicated civilization, and
when looking for real he pure
truth, 60 to the baby, leave the man