The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-12-21

iHdlQ IOf LABOR by increasing Lne pT1Ct
to be paid for the natural resources
or raw material required by labor.
In Salt Lake, for instance, during
the past four years about $4,000 600 of
capital has been invested in productive
enterprises-in the building of stores,
residences, churches, schools, factories,
car lines, etc. About three times that
amount has been invested non-produc-
lively in land. This investment not on
ly gave no employment to labor but
by increasing the price of land fewer
houses, stores and other improvements
requiring labor were made. Consider
the same process going on in every
growing community, in town, in coun-
try, with mineral land agricultural
land. in fact every kind of land which
offers a profitable reward for the eXer-
tons Of labor. Think OF the millions
of dollars that are made by this form
of speculation without a dollar of
wealth being created. Surely the check
to production created by the. monopoI-
1Zatlon of natural opportunities, and
the opportunity it offers for the gath
ering of riches without returning any
equivalent, is sufficient to account for
surplus labor and low wages on the
one hand, and rich, non-productive
class on the other.
The simple means by which these I'M
used, partially used or monopolized OPP
portunit;es could be made free or cheap
for the use of labor would be to place
such a tax upon the land containing
these opportunities or resources as
would make it profitable to use them
instead Of holding them in idlenesS. and
further by reducing of abolishing all
taxes on production and SO encourag--
ing the working of all the myriad
forms of wealth which man desires
for his comfort and happiness. Cap
ltal would then only be profitable when
invested in productive enterprises.
Labor would have to pay no toll to
monopoly for the privilege of work.
ing. The demand for labor would only
cease when mans fullest desires were
entirely satisfied. and this would never
be, for man is the unsatisfied animal.
Invention would be stimulated. produc-
ton would be increased a hundred fold.
With poverty abolished, ignorance,
crime, vice and intemperance would
gradually disappear. The certainty
that every man could always have
work at fair wages, and that wealth
and leisure, according to his desires
and abilities we're assured to every
man, would lessen that Self1ShneSs and
greed. that worship of the almighty
dollar. which springs chiefly from the
fear of poverty. Man would be lifted
out of the dark cellar of despair and
poverty into the bright sunlight of
hope, prosperity and happiness. where
alone the highest Christian graces can
blossom into full fragrance. It would
take a few generations Before the
weakness. inherited from ignorant
and poverty-stricken ancestors, would
entirely die out, but within very
brief period mankind would rise to a
condition of virtue and happiness which
is the exception rather than the rule
now, but which is prophetic of what
the race might be. If all this seems
Utopian then man is the one stipend
uous failure of the universe.
With a decrease of the death roll,
through the adjustment of poverty,
the lessening of vice and the disap-
pearance of war, and an increase in
the average length of life through the
same courses and more knowledge
among the people, it would seem as if
populations would tend to increase
more rapidly than at present, when we
also consider the immense increase in
the productive power of this popula-
ton it looks at first sight as if pop
ulations would in time outrun the cap
dCIlA VI TIE SdEln 10 supply InEi1
needs. MolthuS in his essay on Pop
ulation,'' published in 1893, agreed that
population increased as the numbers
1. q 4. s. 16. 81. Ga, etc, While the pro-
ductiye power Of the earth increased
as the numbers 1. 2. 8. T. 5, 6. Z, etc.
John Stuart Mill also believed in the
Molthusion theory. although he did
not attempt to fix any exact proportion
between the increase of population
and subsistence.
He also believed that state reguIa-
tons of marriages and births might
become necessary. DR.. Utter evidently
holds the same theories Without going
into an exhaustive examination of
the many facts that disprove the
Molthusion theory, I would simply
point to the fact that while in the
United States population doubles in
about twenty-nine years, wealth or
production doubles in much shorter
period. 1t is in our most populous
states and communities that there is
the largest per capita of wealth. While
England has been increasing her pop
ulation at the rate of two per cent
per annum her wealth has been grow
ing in still greater proportion. But
that which most strongly disproves
the Molthusion theory and upsetS DR..
Utter's arguments is this: That the
reproductive forces of the race exert
themselves most strongly where the
struggle for existence is most keen.
Is it not a fact that population in
creases more rapidly among the poor
and needy than among the rich and
comfortable classes? This fact is re-
cognized in the homely adage "a rich
man for luck and a poor man for child
rem" The fact is that where life is
little more than an annual existence,
the reproductive forces less active.
tive. When q higher standard of COM
fort gives opportunity for greater intel
lectual and spiritual activity, for more
leisure and a fuller and more varied
life, then the ANIMAL nature is weaker
and the reproductive forces less active
We need only look around US to see
the truth of this. It holds true also
m the animal and vegetable world.
Mongrels and scrubs and weeds are
for more prolific than thoroughbreds
and useful plants. When the hand OF
man fails to provide the conditions
which keep the thoroughbred up to its
standard, it reverts TO a lower type,
where the keener struggle for existence
increases its productive powers. Sc
under conditions where all men might
have a fair share of comfort leisure
culture and a more active intellectual
life. it is more than likely that pop
ulation would increase more slowly
and perhaps remain stationary. if the
limits of subsistence should at last be
reached.
But we need not trouble ourselves
about what unborn generations will
do We have problems enough to solve
for this generation. And I conceive
that the most perpleXing one today is
the problem of poverty 1t is worthy
the attention of every preacher and
teacher, every political economist and
every man interested in suffering hu.
mainly. Even if Dr.. Utter has not
solved the problem he turned at least
one persons mind towards a fuller ex.
{, n,irna ton of the nlIasfi0n.