St. Paul daily globe., 1893-06-11
WHO ARE THE WEALTH PRO
DUCERS?


clares that all men are created equal.
and Nature is all the while demonstrate
ing to us that nothing she has made is
SO unequal as men. JEFFERSoN's
phrase cannot be taken literally, nor
can it be taken fully in the sense in
which he undoubtedly used 1.-THE
equality of men before the law-because
the hundred years of government by
law in nation in which the people are
supposed to govern bristleS with in
stances Of glaring inequality. Legisla-
ton is enacted. both by congress and by
the states, whose real purpose, no
matter what may be its ostensible OBJ
ject, is to give to some persons
or class of persons an advantage over
their fellows. All of the various legis-
lative schemes which purp0rt to be in
tended for the betterment of men have
back of them as propeiling force the
selfish interest OF men or classes who
expect to gain by their enactment some
selfish advantage for themselves. If
there has been no equality in the law
for all men, there has been but little
more equality for them before the law.
The resources of wealth have been too
often used to delay or defeat justice for
the poor. Prejudice, popularity. glamor
or bigotry have deprived men of their.
equality before the law.
When we extend the field covered by
tion to equality of opportunities for
men, its inaccuracy becomes more ap-
parent. The difficulty here is radical
and Inherent in the constitution of men
No human law can remedy it; it is in.
grained in the nature of things. Oppor-
tunities do not lie open like highways
visible to all men, but while they come
to all men they are seen only by those
TO whom power has been given to see.
A Thousand men fail to recognize the
opportunity that comes to them. and
permit il to be seized and utilized by
the one man who has been endowed with
greater clearness of vision. He seiZes
the opportunity which comes to him, de-
velopS its possibilities and achieves
fame or fortune, or both.
MALLocK, in the North American
Review, utiliZes this inherent inequal-
ity of ability on which to base an arti
Gle designed to show that it is not labor
that produces wealth, but ability, claim
ing that the few men gifted with capac-
ity for administrator above their fell
lows are the real wealth producers
The inventor. the man to whom has
been given the power to utilize and ap-
ply mechanical forces, cOntriveS some
appliance by which something which
the consumers need is produced with
greater ease and rapidity, and cOnSe-
quently atless cost. The economyin eX-
penditure thus made possible results
in a greater accumulation of wealth
by the consumers. AS an illustration,
he instances the sewing machine. Prior
to its invention labor piled the needle.
Production was slow, laboriouS and
costly. The sewing machine was in
vented. 1t was product of abil-
ity. 1t has increased productive
ness, and plopOrtionately cheapened
product. The vast increase of wealth
thus produced is due to the ability
which produced the sewing machine
and not to the labor which produces the
finished garment. Mr.. MALLoCK thus
draws the distinction which is often
lost sight of between the wealth-pro-
ducing power of labor and ability, the
one possessed by all men in compara-
lively the same degree, the other the
possession of comparatively few men:
Mr.. MALLOCK defines labor as "the
industrial eXertion of a single man
upon some single piece of work and
on that single piece of work alone."
and ability as 1.-THE Industrial eXertion
of one man which effects simultaneously
the labor of many men," In a sense,
everything is the production of labor,
because nothing can be produced with
out it, but in the larger sense the ability
which provides employment for labor
because of its superiority of power is
the real producer of wealth.