The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-03-27
The Lecture Delivered at tho Audi
torium Friday by Louis
F. Post
The Apostle OF George Discusses
Industrial and Social
Questions.
Three Steps Which Present All the EIe-
mentsry Principles Of Politicsl
koonOmy.

NAk uabAuaS 0AO sAo utukAumu . W0sSA ~o
illustrated his lecture were ingenious and
forcible.
The lecturer began with an explanation
of tho character n scope Of political
economy. showing that political economy
ia not a bookish subject at all, but simply
requires clear thinking about, familiar
things. II 10 one phase OF what nay be
called the economy OF man. AZ there 10
an economy Of nature. economy OF ants,
economy Of bees and Of birds. 80
there is an economy Of man. which
relates to the efforts of man to
adapt means to ends for the satisfaction
of his desires. There are two principal
phases of mans economy which may DO
distinguished as personal economy and po-
litical economy. When an individual
adaIts means to ends for the satisfaction
of his individual desires, that is personal
economy; when he co-operates with the
rest of mankind for the purpose OF satisfy
ing bis desires by exchanging with them
the results of his labor, in return for the
results Of their labor. that is political
economy. Political economy. therefore. is
merely the economy OF co-operation; and
its distinctive characteristic is exchange or
trade.
Having made this explanation the leo
turer analysed the subject of mans eoon-
omy, showing that all objects within its
scope are logically classified either in the
GLASS man. or the class "things external
to man and adaptable to the satisfaction of
his desires" For the purpose Of illustrat-
ing this lie analysed a loaf of bread and
classified the parts. using u series Of dia-
grams for the purpose. lie found that
bread is composed of flour. yeast. salt. wa
to stand upon and a baker. The baker falls
into the class man." while all the other
objects fall into the class ''things." There
fore, bread consists economically OF IMAM"
and ''things." Man is an element. econo-
mically speaking, and oannot be further
Analysed. but things may be.
Pa Upon examination the fact appeared that
some of the objects classified AZ things are
artificial, being composed OF natural ma
Serials shaped by the labor of man, while
one of these objects. the lot of land. was a
of a loaf of bread were classified az man."
natural things' and artificial or combi-
nation things"
The technical terms for theseolasses were
then stated. Man is called labor" ma
fetal or combination things are called
wealth." So, the economic formula for a
loaf Of bread is this: bread is composed
of labor. and land wealth." But, as
wealth ia a combination thinR-a oombina-
tion of land and labor-it analyses into
land and labor, and therefore does not be-
long in the formula at all. All that is i'm
piled by the term wealth" ia expressed by
the other terms '.land" and ''labor."
Hence, it is found that a loaf of bread con-
sists. in the last analysis, OF = and Ia
Dor. and of nothing else. With land and
labor bread can be made; without other
one, bread cannot be made.
Whas ia true of bread is true of all other
artificial or combination things, and, since
combination OF things are also wealth, No
find that all wealth is composed of land and
labor, and of nothing else.
This was the first step in tho lnvestiQa-
tion of the subject. Tho second was to
discover the law of production. II Is a
ing: demand generates SUPPLY or, ''con-
sumption determines productions" or.
mo Q fully. ''dcmand for consumption de-
termines the direction in which labor will
be expended in production" The lecturer
illustrated his law by u series of diagrams
form, the character, the quality and the
quantity of the wealth which labor pro-
duccs is at all times determined BY de-
mand.
incidentally in the course of this explain
alton the economic advantages of free trade
were explained snd illustrated with charts.
as was the central law of the "Ecouomy of
Man, namely: Man seeks to satisfy his
desires by the least cxertion," or, as the
lecturer finally expressed it, Labor follows
the line OF least resistance"
Incidentally, here also, the banking sys-
tom WINS explained, by which it was made
to appear that the p. inoipal function of
banks is az community bookkeepers. and
that with the growth Of this function the
necessity for actual money diminishes. it's
<,,pot;ov,o ha;pr narfoyr,od IN n M, I.,-h
degree by means of bookkeeping. Thus,
whom a man buys goods. gives a check for
them, his check is merely an order upon
the bank bookkeeper to shift a credit from
one ACC ount to another, and when this
credit has been shifted and the transaction
completed, the result is the same as If
money had passed for the goods. but the
operation ia much easicr and simpler.
The third and final step in tho ~investi-
cation was for the purpose of ascertainipg
the law OF distribution. for. as tho speaker
explained. we produce in order that we may
consume, and, since We cannot, consume
wealth until it is distributed. it il as i'm
portant to understand the law OF distribu-
sion as the law Of production.
The elementary law of distribution, he
continued, is known as the law of rent, and
1t flows from the central axiom that labor
follows the line of least resistance, just az
the law OF production does. Labor draws
wealth from land, and the owners of land
exact part or this wealth as a condition of
allowing land to be used. The proportion
which they can exact depends upon
the desirableness of the land, Sons
land will yield more wealth to given
labor than other land. 1t Ia, therefore.
more desirable. because from it man can
satisfy his desire with less ~exertion than he
Can from poorer land; consequently he will
give more of what he produces for the priyi.
lego of using better land than he will for
the privilege of using the poorer. Hence,
the rent of land varies with it's desirable.
ness and the demand for it; and tho pro
portion left to labor, which il wages. will
be greater or less in proportion M rent ia
less or more. This law of rent was stated
TO be as follows: Tho rent of any land in
the excess of its produce over what the
same expenditure can secure from the
! oorer land in uae;' and it was illustrated
by u variety of ding ans which made the
apparently nbstruse law clear TO all who
On this law 10 based the single
tax doctrines advocated by Henry George,
Wages. the speaker explained, are the
of the individual; they are his
and they are sacred az property;
they should not be oonhscnted even for the
of government; therefore wages
should not DO taxed. But rent IL not the
OF the community IA a whole; it is
n value thnt attaches not TO labor nor to the
produce Of labor, but to land. which in jus-
tice ia common property; and from this
fund all public revenues should be drawn.
In conclusion. the speaker said that these
three steps present all tho elementary prin-