Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1898-11-19

| fr1iStS themselves that three con-
ditions are absolutely necessary
Il to the existence ofhunan society,
namely: that there shall be labor,
or capital; and that there shall be
exchanges. 1t has likewise been dem
onstrated that these conditions,
from their very nature, and the rela-
ton in which men in society stand
with regard to each other, can be
evaded by one individual, or one class,
only at the expense of other individ-
uals or classes; and it follows, there
fore, that every man commits a wrong
upon some part of the community if
he render not to society an equivalent
equal to the benefits which he receives.
1t has been deduced, also, from a con-
sideration of the intention and end of
Society, not only that all men should
labor, and thereby become exchangers,
but that equal values should always
exchange for equal values; and that,
as the gain of one man ought never to
be the loss of another, value should
ever be determined by the cost of pro-
duction.
But we have seen that, under the
present arrangements of society, all
men do not labor; that all eXchangers,
therefore, are not equally benefited;
that the gain of the capitalist and the
rich man is always the loss of the
workman; that this result will iiivari-
ably take place, and the poor man be
left entirely at the mercy of the rich
man, under any and every form of
government, so long as there is in
equality of exchanges; and that equali-
ty of exchanges can be insured only
under social arrangements III which
labor is universal, and where the re-
enumeration is equal to the labor.
A few more examples ofthe working
of the present system will show us,
more clearly, the utter faulty of at
tempting to remedy evils which are
inherent in the very constitution ofso-
ciety, in any other manner than by a
complete reconstruction of the social
system.
There are, in the world, at the pres
ent moment, many millions OF per-
sons who have toiled hard all their
lives, and vet who are not possessed
of property of the value of one years
labor; and there are many thousands
who have never performed a months
labor, but who, nevertheless, are
now possessed of vast wealth. How
came these rich men in possession of
this capital? They have never labored,
and yet they are not only enabled to
live without working, but their wealth
increases every year. Some of them
will tell us--and they glory in the con-
fession-that their property was
acquired in by-gone times, by con-
quest; others say that their riches are
the boarded fruits of their own indus
try-meaning, thereby, the interest or
profit which they have obtained by
means of unequal exchanges in the EN-
ployment ofcapital; and Others, again,
merely affirm that the wealth which
they possess has been derived from
their ancestors, by inheritance.
The attainment of wealth by con-
quest is so glaringly unjust that all
claims founded upon it stand selt-con-
demned at once; and that any individ-
ual has a right to take to himself, or
to grant to another, one single foot OF
earth, has been denied and disproved
already, for the earth is the common
PppSllE vi all us liiiibildiiSs, anu
each one has just claim, not to par
tcular part OF the earth itself, but
merely TO that wealth which his labor
can compel the earth to yield him.
Those capitalists who profess to
have acquired their riches by deriving
a profit from capital, through the in
strumentality OF unequal exchanges,
have a claim but one degree more just
than the claim by conquest. Our
daily experience teaches us that if we
take slice from loaf, the slice never
grows on again; the loaf is but an
accumulation of slices, and the more
we eat of it, the less viii there remain
ITO be eaten. Suchis the case with the
loaf of the workingman; but that OF
the capitalist follows not this rule.
Ills loaf continually increases instead