The herald., 1897-02-26

upn the Bradley Martin ball and luxur,
in general. Your theory Is that any di
version Of labor to the production o
luxuries SO much lessons the produc
tion OF necessities and therefore dimin
ishes the laborers share OF the genera
product You imagine a community o
1000 who, by working six hours per day
produce what they need and thei
wealth steps in" demanding luxurie
so that 500 of the community are takeI
away from the labor of producing neces
sites and the remaining 500 are forced
to work double time in consequence
They must not only support themselve.
but the 500 producing luxuries as well
Now this is certainly not a correct
illustration of the working of our pres
ent industrial system l confess l am
little mystified as to what you mean by
wealth stepping in to such a com.
munity, but l presume that one inter
pretation is "a wealthy man stepping
up to 1t with an offer to strike bargain
for the production of certain luxuries
If you mean this then certainly he must
offer them more wages than they are
already making and if 500 of them ac-
cept l can see no reason why the remain
ing 800 are bound to support them unless
they are tempted by part of the rich
mans wages as payment for the board
Here we are in Los Angeles county, for
instance. using labor and horses for the
production of potatoes and beefsteaks
for home consumption. Along comes
the rich Boston tourist and hires us to
take our team out of the furrow and har-
ness up to his tallyho. We feed him
nurse him, black his boots and generally
neglect our usual avocations to minister
to his comfort and qualification You
70 <aI tl.k
paid for all this better than we would be
If wealth hadn't stepped in" We cer-
tainly divert our labor from the produc-
tion of necessities to the production OF
luxuries but nobody starves in conse-
quence.
However. suppose you will say that
stepping in" is not stepping up" and
that by stepping in" you meant that
the ideal community of 1000 not only
sell their labor but their land, their
ploughs and their horses as we'll to the
aforesaid wealthy man. They are now
at his mercy and he can demand as his
rent so much of their product that in
order to live they must work twelve
hours per day instead of six. He could
thus order it that 500 of them should
minister entirely to his wants by simply
offering them no other work They
would no longer be a community work
mans share increasing with a general
increase of production but their wages
would be regulated by competition
against one another. Wages must nee
essarily be sufficient to afford the neces-
sites and they would not advance be-
yond this as long as there We're any un-
employed who would offer to work for
this minimum.
The practical result then to the COM
tipc 20 \,
man or men would be that all the sur
plus product after their bare necessities
were provided for would go to the new
owner of their land and machinery of
production. 1t is evident that If the la
Dor time per day is doubled so that 500
produce all the necessities required for
the whole 1000 the owner is not going to
let more than 500 produce necessities
He controls the labor of the other 500
and as his personal demand for beef
steak, potatoes and necessities gener-
ally is limited, one or two out of this 500
could satisfy him and of the other 499
1t is but natural to suppose that he will
direct their enel gies to the production
of something else that he wants or
thinks he wants. If he proceeded in the
way of the conventional wealthy man
and capitalist after hiring say forty
nine for personal servants, footmen,
the production of new and better ma
chinery of production; he would build
railways and canals; he would establish
electric power systems, etc, etc. In
fact he would do everything possible to
reduce the 500 required in the produc-
ton of the necessities of life.
There is hardly any doubt that in say,
ten years, he would find that with the
use of his improved machinery he could
produce the necessities of life for the
1000 by the labor of $50 or half Of his
original 500. This would leave him with
$50 at his disposal His demand for per-
sonal necessities would remain the same.
but let us suppose that his desire for
luxuries has trebled and instead of forty
nine in his personal retinue he hires 14T.
He then has still 5O2 men left to improve
still more the machinery of production.
That is, instead of 450 as ten years pre-
vious, he has 502 Notwithstanding the
fact that he has trebled his personal es-
tablishment. He is not only enabled to
use fifty-two more but the labor of the
whole SOP is likewise very much more
effective owing to the use of the i'm
provements in his machinery.
Now the making of new machinery is
not like the making of books 1t has an
end. Some day he is going to build all
the railways, canals and trolley cars
that he wants. Those 502 chaps are
going to have an unemployed problem
staring them in the face. Their only
hope lies in the wealthy man becoming
more and still more luxurious and so
using their labor when they no longer
are needed to produce new railways, etc.
Then comes the time when a Bradley
Martin ball in a godsend to them.
If our rich of today do not geratly in
crease their expenditure on frivolity
and luxury there is no question in my
mind but that we shall have to face
most terrible unemployed problem.
1t may be disagreeable theory to say
that the salvation of the continuance of
the present industrial system rests in
Seeley dinners and Bradley Martin balls
but it is an economic fact.
The machinery of production in this
is practically completed. No
longer does the building of the nation
afford a golden opportunity for the en-
ployment of labor The task is finished
and labor is unemployed. Who will give
the next ball to save society? 1t may
be a leaden one. Faithfully,
H. GAYLORD WILTSHIRE.
Los Angeles, February %, 1897.
The Community's Sin