The Washington bee., 1893-08-12
WEALTH PRODUCERS,
a Few Inventors Have Furnished In
creased Wealth to All.


creased Wealth to All.
In this age the majority of single
products are produced by great num-
nefs OF men, and one cannot say, i'm
Lteral sense, than any one man pro-
auces any one thing. According TO
w. M Mallock, in the North American
heNleW, the same number of men
VINO, In the United States, in the wear
dotu, produced wealth to the value Of
Sl:ooO,oOO,O0O per year, are producing
| TINS present year wealth to the value of
aZ'5oo,oOO,OOo. In proportion to the
number of producers the product has
Deen more than doubled, while il the
inquiry is carried back to 1900 the then
product is now trebled. This increase
Id the productivity of the same number
OF producers must be due to some
cause or causes which are in operation
now, and which were not in operation
tnen. These causes are scientific in
Ventlon and discovery, and improved
methods of dividing and applying labor,
1hese improvements are not the work
OF cnance, or Of nature but have been
brought about by the deliberate and
persistent action of a few men. and
the millions said to be due to the i'm
proVements are really due to these
men by whom the improvements were
introduced. These men, who are q
very small minority, correspond, broad
iy speaking, with the wealthier class
es, and out Of every hundred million
dollars produced in the United States
today these men produce at least S66.-
100000. Instead Of the riches of the
few being taken from the products of
the many the present competence of
the many is taken from the products of
the few, who produce the whole of the
wealth which they enjoy, and also
every increase of wealth which is, wear
Dy year, enjoyed by the many. Labor
is the Industrial exertion of a single
man on some single piece of work only.
Ability is the industrial eXertion of q
single man which affects Simultaneous
iy the labor Of many men, multiplying
ana improving the results of it in each
case. There is an inventive ability
and an ability of enterprise. Capital
is the economically saved creation Of
past ability. Interest is the sum paid
oy ability for the use of capital to the
owners OF capital. That labor PLAYS
subordinate part in production in no
way casts slur on the general quail
ties Of the laborer Wealth is not the
measure Of a man, and many a laborer
may be far superior as a man to the
man on whose industrial ability he is
absolutely dependent as laborer. He
should not long remain thus depend
cnt, but by cooperation should gain
ability to manage his share of the
worlds work, if necessary to social
freedom. But an accurate study Of
the daily work Of the world will show
that the few, however inferior morally,
produce the larger part of the wealth
Of the modern world; that wealth is
not, as commonly said, the result Of
social labor only, but is the result Of
social labor multiplied by ability; and
whatever claims the public may have
on the wealth of the minority, that
claim cannot be sustained on the
ground that the public has produced
this wealth, for the minority as a body
have not only produced the whole Of
it, but a vast amount besides, which
the public has already appropriated.