The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-09
and the equal relations the natural law is
seeking to establish

interference with natural social law, and
we must abolish this interference if we
expect to restore order and equality in our
social relations. Consider the effects of
competition on society-how three men are
kept at work doing what one man might
do as well; how it destroys markets and
keeps labor in idleness and want. 1t is
hard to understand how competition can
find so many defenders and apologists
among the educated. The reason compeu-
ton is not better understood by writers on
economic subjects is because the full force
OF modern development has escaped their
notice. In a simple society, before fixed
values in buildings and manufacturing
plants We're common, the values of COM
modltles were not so Intimately associated
with rates of profit as they are to-day, and
competition was the regulator of their re-
latlons to each other. When this simple
society, with its primitive tools, was sup
planted by our modern society, with its
intricate and complex development the law
OF higher development superseded the low
er law and included it, and we changed
from law of equality between simple
things to a law of equality between COM
pound things. When we fail, therefore, to
observe this law of relation between com
pouhu values Gas the value of railway
or manufacturing planD we are trying to
push development back TO that period when
men produced with simple tools and with
out organized capital There is now no
commodity so simple but some kind of a
plant involving capital and organization,
n. "A
ton has been established between labor and
capital and we have failed to put it into
erect; 1t is the law of profits that now is
1ntehdeq 70 regulate values of all kinds.
monopoly IS intended to fix the relation be-
tween all classes of values instead of the
Teidtlon between few classes There is
no excuse Tor our writer's not observing the
importance of rates of profit, because this
importance is illustrated in many ways at
an times, and especially is this true in
every panic, when hard times continue until
prohts begin to reappear and the recovery
Keeps pace with the recovery of profits.
value flows and circulates according to
demand, and the rates of profit determine
rent.
If there is one thing the defenders of
composition are more sure about than an
other 1T is that competition is absolute on
4 &c 1an OF what they are pleased to call
the law or supply and demand. There are
TWO phases of demand and supply as was
pointed out in the beginning. demand being
value in action and supply being its effect
Demand always includes the cause and SIM
ply always includes the effect and it is
important that this distinction be remem-
DeIeH. Inc defenders of competition have
overlooked the cause in their anxiety about
supply; they should have paid more attenJ
non on 10 demand. The supply can always be
any possible demand but the demand NAV
IaSiI snort and compel the supply to COM
pete. We never hear of a SURPLUS demand
put always of a surplus supply. Demand
~ r. important, and governs. for, as it grows,
as as0 supply grows to meet it, and
fni
In order to overcome the low WAGES Of lsi Ia.
Dor very great increase in demand For
t co fi WI WI pc required. The supply can be
e ee ely let alone. for nature viii take care
or that Value is force and If fo11o s11s
n mes or least resistance; it seeks its greatest
is ai(,,do aIqng the easiest road Demand
10 Always with the best profits and the
world IS full of illustrations of this flow of
vdiiu9 from one class of goods to another
WHiCh returns better profit. The gold fever
or the world is a fever for excessive nrofits.
SO IS every speculative craze. The necessitv
OF attracting demand and holding it is
more sensitive regulator of values of air
xmas than direct competition could ever
nope to become. i
PROPOSED SOLUTION.
In order to settle the labor question it
Will be necessary to abolish that interfa-
renee with demand which produces CONNIE
tltlons The world has endured and suf-
fered competition for so long a. time that If
may be hard for it to realize that il can
get along better with less of it. Instead
Of the direct competition between simple
values, which only reduces wages and prof
its, we will have relative competition be-
tween compound values to take SIS place
instead or one man competing wit another
for work, work will continually b seeking
the man. wages will be increasing all the
tlme, ana each class of workers will be
paid what that class of work is worth com
pared with all other kinds; there will be no
nope OIL getting more than the law allows
competition between laborers, each seeking
the same job, will drive wages down as low
as the individual life of the Iaborer will
permit. Relative competition, where the
same job seeks two laborers, will allow
wages to rise as high as the life of society
VIII permit. Relative competition estab-
fishes monopolies and regulates their val
ues. Instead of a conflict between values
of the same kind, as wheat against wheat
ana carpenter against carpenter determin-
ing the point at which values shall rest.
the influence OF other values attracting
demand is sufficient to keep all value in
their true relation. Should the oil monopoly
attempt to double the price of oil it would
at once encounter this law of COMPOUND re-
sistance; other values would attract the
demand away from oil until the surpIus
supply compelled an adjustment. Monopoly
values are governed, therefore, by the rela-
ton they sustain to each other and in a
world so full of variety and complaxity as
this world, it ought to be apparent that ma
ture has found the solution for Us. the es-
cape from competition. This relative COM
petition is not a new thing by any means
as it now regulates at least half the values
of the world, and it is from the extension
OF this monopoly principle so as to in
clude values of every kind that great bene-
fits are expected to flow to labor.
The mistakes that have been made re-
garding competition, gave rise to CORE
spending mistakes about monopoly. The
same writer's who hail competition as
blessing denounce monopoly as a curse.
Bear in mind that monopoly is one thing
and that the concentration of wealth IN {,
few hands is quite another thing; they do
not nave the same cause and they do not
produce the same effects. Because monop-
olistS are excessively wealthy arises from
the fact that there are now only a few of
them, and they are getting the benefits
that would go to others if it was not for
competition. Excessive wealth now con-
centrates to mOnopolists because of the low
rate of profit which enables them to gather
in great floods of value which competition
squeezes out of other things Then each
Iaborer has small monopoly of his own.
This concentration of wealth will change
to diffusion of wealth among the masses.
It is the purpose of this law of relative
competition to lift the masses up to the
monopoly level instead of dragging mo-
nopoly down to keep company with labor
in it's misery. If our capital had all been
earned and widely distributed among
the people, it would command much higher
rates, and then monopoly would wear
ticle there has been occasion to refer to
natural wages and profits and since these
wages and profits are quite rare in society,"
it may be well to explain of what they con-
sist An effort was made to explain that
competition was an interference with the
natural law of profits. and that this inter
ference prevented labor from receiving it's
natural wage, which was divided among
two or three competing laborers instead of
all of it going to one. Society at large now
determines wages by the monopoly stand
ard. 1t pays the very highest possible
price for the kind of work il is having
done but if we limit the amount of work
and refuse to allow each man to work d.
with other men instead, then all society
can do is to allow this sum to be divided
among the fighters as they may determine
Natural wages, therefore are monopoly
wages; they are the wages that each would
get if there was no competition in his trade
nd there was always room for few more
workers. To some extent monopoly wages
are now paid for considerable professional