Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-03-05

DR.. Lyman Abbott has long been an
advanced leader Of thought in many
lines. Whatever subject he touches he
illumines, for his mind is clear and free
and his purpose is ever inspired by
lOftiest intent. That he has OF late
turned his attention to socio-economic
problems is a promise that these press
ing questions will be presented in such
form as to command the respectful at
tention of all; that others, cropping to-
ward the light, will ny him be pointed
out the safe and sure way.
christianity and Social Problems" is
the suggestive title of new book just
from his pen, and the noble character
of the work and the high humanitarl-
anism which runs through 1t 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 it produces;
not by the abundance of the material
things, but by the kind OF men devei-
'Oped in the process. Man is the stand
ard of value, not things. An Industrial
system, then, must produce good men
and good women or tend to produce
them. If it 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 to
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:
O That it is not giving steady and
permanent employment to all willing
laborers. (2) That it also fails to give
all those who are employed under 1t
wages adequate for true livelihood. 90
That it is insufficiently educative in
itself and fails to allow adequate leis-
ure for educative processes. (D That
pure, good homes are in many instances
impossible under present conditions.
"I believe he declares, that the
system which divides society into two
classes, capitalists and laborers, is but
a temporary one, and that the indus
trial unrest of our time Is the result of
a blind struggle toward a democracy
of wealth, in which the tool-users will
also be the FOLLOWERS; in which labor
will hire capital, not capital labor; in
which men, not money, will control in
industry, as they now control in gov
eminent. But the doctrines that labor
is a commodity, and that capital is to
buy in the cheapest market, is not even
temporarily sound; it is economically
false as it is ethically unjust.
"'There is no such commodity as
labor; it does not exist. When work.
day morning he has nothing. to sell; he
is empty-handed; he has come in order
to produce something by his exertion,
and that something, when 1t is pro-
duced is to be sold, and part of the
proceeds Of that sale will of right be-
long to him, because he has helped to
produce it. And as there is no labor
commodity to be sold, so there is no
labor market in which to sell it.
Both are fictions of political economy.
The actual facts are as follows:
Most commodities in our time
even agricultural commodities are
gradually coming under these condi-
tions-are produced by an organized
body of workingmen, carrying on their
work under the superintendent of a
captain of industry" and by the use
of costly tools. This requires the CO.
operation of three classes-the tool
owner Or capitalist, the superintendent
or manager, and the tool-user or la
borer. The result is the joint product
of their industry-for the tool itself is
only a reservoired product of industry
and therefore belongs to them joint
ly. 1t is the business Of political econ
omy to ascertain how values can
be equitably divided between these
partners in a common enterprise. This
is the labor question in sentence