The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1894-07-31
NOT A MERE COMMODITY.

wars in Saturdays issue of the
ADVERTISER contains a great deal
of truth, of the kind which labor
ing men should ponder before be-
ginning their desperate and une-
quail industrial conflicts. From
the following sentences, however,
we entirely dissent:
Labor is like everything else, it is
worth just what somebody will pay
for il, and no more. There is no arti-
fetal way of increasing its value. 1t
is invested with sort of sentimental
distinction from other things men
| sell, but there is no real distinction.
That the price of labor should contin-
ue TO advance for a century when the
price of every other commodity has
declined, is an impossibility that la
boring men must sooner or later
learn.
No doubt these propositions are
as orthodox as anything in the old
political economy. They are the
rock on which the orthodox politi-
cal economy has split. The sys-
tenn of thought which owes its
foundation to Adam Smith begins
with series of abstract PROPOSE
tons and builds by long deduc-
tions an immense fabric of doc
trine which would no doubt all be
absolutely true if the statements
upon which it is based were so.
But just here is the great mistake.
None of the so-called axioms of po-
litical economy are axioms in the
strict sense of the word. They are
probable but not certain, they have
a relative validity and not a uni
versal application. The preten-
sions of political economy to be
regarded as an exact science can
not be made good because the SUBJ
ject of the science is man. AS a
wise novelist has said, at is i'm
possible to found any:system upon
a human being"
1t is not true that labor is a COM
modify like any other. That it is,
in an important sense, a COM
modify, since it is sold, and that it
is more or less subject to the econ
omical laws which govern other
commodities must be admitted.
But it differs from these in the
very fact that it is the labor of
human beings, of a creature pos
sessing consciousness and moral
freedom, and the sentimental dis
tinction" with which it is invested
is a very real distinction, bearing
real fruit in the economical world.
Our correspondent says that it
cannot possibly increase in value
while all other commodities fall.
But this is exactly what it does do
the purchasing power of a days
labor is slowly rising-and, per-
haps, there could be no better
proof that it is not a commodity
like others.
The social system which ex-
presses most fully the idea that
human labor is a mere commodity
is that of slavery. Here We have
human labor, i.e., human beings
laboring, bought and sold, yet even
in slave States there is generally
some consciousness that the slave
has rights, that he is something
besides a chattel, and this con-
seriousness operates as check upon
the ordinary operation Of economi-
cal laws. In our system of co.
called free labor" the work of
men is still, to a large extent,
commodity" and to the same ex-
tent the worker is chattel. tits this
fact which makes the designation,
''free labor" such a miserable
mockery. The laborer is not really
free, for ne cannot dispose of his
labor at his own choice or at
really fair price. He sells as he
must, not as he would. In as far
as this is true it justifes our CORE
spondent, and in as far as this is
true it cries out for a remedy.
Fortunately it is not altogether
true. The consciousness that the
laborer is moral subject, an end