The Louisiana populist., 1897-04-16
A LIVING TRUTH.
MAN is THE TRUE STANDARD
OF VALUE.

"The Social and Industrial System Is to
Be Measured, Not by the Wealth 1t
Produces But by the Men 1t Pro-
duces."
Dir. Lyman Abbott has long been an
Advanced leader Of Thought IN many
lines. Whatever subject he Touches he
il!umines, for his mind is clear and free
and Lis purpose is ever inspired by
loftiest intent. That he has OF late
turned his attention to socio-ecSnnmlc
problems is promise that these press
ing questions will be presented in such
form as TO command the respectful al
tention Of all; that others, cropping To-
ward the light. will by him be pointed
out the safe and sure way.
christianity and Social Problems Is
the suggestive title Of new book just
from Ills pen, aid the rl0Ble character
Of the work and the high hsmanitarls
anisn1 which runs through it all is seen
in the extracts which appear below,
to which we are indebted to the Liter
airy Digest:
1.-THE social and industrial system is
to be measured, not by the wealth 1t
produces, but by the men 1t produces;
not by the abundance of the material
things; but by the kind of men devel-
oped in the process. Man is the, stand.
ard Of value, not things. An industrlai
system, then, must produce good men
and good women or tend to produce
them. II 1t does not, it fails, measured
by Christ's standard Thus DR.. Abbott
takes issue With the old political econ
omy which declared itself concerned
simply with wealth and with men sim
ply as wealth-producers. That IS 10
say, he holds, with a number OF mod
erns, that economics, of necessity deal
| ing with man as an intelligent and
moral being, must be ethical. He as
serts that the question whether the
wage system is better than feudalism
or slavery has been settled, but against
the present Industrial system as either
final Or true he makes these counts:
~ That 1t is not giving steady and
permanent employment to all willing
laborers. (s) That it also fails to give
all th6se who are employed under 1t
wages adequate for true livelihood. (9
That it is insufficiently edtcativc in
itself and fail; to allow adequate leis-
ure for educative processes. O That
pure, good homes are in many instances
impossible under present conditions.
at believe,' he declares, that the
system which divides society into two
classes, capitalists and laborers. is but
temporary one; and that the Indus
trial unrest Of our time is the result 0f
blind struggle toward democracy
of wealth; in which the teol-usefs will
also be the tool-6wners; iii which labor
will hire capital, not capital labor; in
which men, not money, will control in
industry, as they now control in gov
ernment. But the doctrines that labor
is commodity, and that capital is to
buy in the cheapest market, is not even
temporarily sound; 1t is economically
false as 1t is ethically unjust.
"'There lis no such commodity as
labor: It does not exist. When work
ingman comes to the factory on Mon.
day morning he has nothing to sell; be
is empty-handed; he has come in order
to produce something by his exertion
and that something, when 1t ia pro-
duced, is to be sold, and pars Of the
proceeds Of that sale will of right be-
long to him, because he has helped tt
produce 1t. And as there is ne labol
commodity to be sold, so there is nj
labor market in which to sell it. " .
Both are fictiors of political economy
The actual facts are as follows:
Most commodities in our time
even agricultural commodities ar
gradually coming under these eondi
tions-are produced by an organized
body Of workingmen, carrying on thei
work under the superintendent Of
captain Of industry" and by the It's
Of costly tools. This requires the co
operation Of three classes-the tool
owner or capitalist, the superintendent
OF manager, and the tool-user or la
borer. The result is the joint produc
Of their industry-for the tool itself
only reservoired product of industr
and therefore belongs to them joint
ly. 1t is the business Of political econ
omy to ascertain how values ca
be equitably divided between thes
partners in common enterprise. Thi
L -. IL L. ~