Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1891-11-10

should be borne IN mind that the terms
used receive more strict Specification
than is usually bestowed upon them in
everyday modes OF speech The term
land has often served as an illustration
of this particularly which thoroughly
accords with scientific method. In this
instance, however. the science requires
an elimination where usage has Jumped
together the original spot OF the earth
with notifications achieved by human
industry. On the other hand, as to la
Dor, as a technical term, the scientific
method requires correction OF popular
usage in the opposite direction, for
popularity labor is distinguished from
discernment direction. skill, inventive
intelligence, courage and enterprise,
which nevertheless are variously COM
bined with mere manual labor, and
and qualify it and render it more effect
i've than it would be with minimum OF
these qualities necessary to sustain life
in primitive conditions. Indeed mere
toilsome exertion without intelligence
would effect nothing of value; would
fail to safeguard its accidental results,
and would not sustain an artificial eX-
istence or avert famine from the homes
of men established for the greater part
in climates naturally inhOspitabie to
the untortured human being. In the
September number Of the Social Econo-
mist there is thoughtful and some
what original article, ''Public Obstruct-
ion to Industrial Progress" in which
the writer, Henry Powers, denies that
''labor produces everything" and con.
tends that profits of capital are not
drawn from the earnings OF laborers,
but from forces Of nature that work for
nothing under application OF superior
instruments and methods. 1t will be
perceived that the question turns up
what labor is No sane man would de-
ny that the forces of nature are con-
stantly working to create and also to
destroy the fruits of the earth, includ-
ing animal organizations and to level
down the structures created by the in
genuity and toll OF mankind. The logic
OF the liberal school Of political econ
omy is all one with the logic OF
the liberal school of politics-to the
effect that an equal claim OF participa-
ton in the bounties of nature may be
predicated for all men. Nature works,
and man takes occasion to utilize natu-
raj processes, whether growth, fermen-
tation, gravitatiOn or what else Has
any class superior claim over another
to appropriate such working unless it
asserts the right OF force, the claim OF
war? Appropriation itself is labor, is
it not? The savage begins to labor when
he gathers Wild fruit and stores it, pro-
tecting it from the rain and insects In
ventiOn which produces superior instru-
ments is labor, perhaps chiefly intellec-
tual. The general plan of governments
has been to protect the owners of new
appliances and create monopolies. Hen
ry George was betrayed by sophism
stating the superior productiveness Of
individual labor plus the labor saving
tool into allowing that the difference in
excess of profit belongs to the lender Of
the tool But consider the desire Of
mankind to participate in profit, and
then determine whether, in the absence
of monopoly, any gain by lending tools
will not turn competition into the man
ufacture of tools for hire until the profit
on tool making will annihilate the profit
on lending tools and on itself 1.-THE man
ufacture OF tools) as nearly as other
profits go the same way. Effective Ia
Dor is always more or less intellectual,
and some labor is constantly necessary
to reap any benefit from nature. In fact
a great deal OF labor is necessary to
counterfeit the destructive effects Of the
elements. 1t is only by taking a narrow
and unscientific view of what consti-
tutes labor that one can pretend to oeny
that humanity is indebted to its powers
of labor for all that it possesses not
nronerlu DESIGNATED as land or natural