Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1898-11-19
The GoDs@queDc@s of
MggleetiDg first Principles
Extracts from" COMMONWEALTH LIBRARY"
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of diminishing; with him, it is cut and
come again and again, forever.
Every workman knows that if he
save a few dollars and come to be i'll,
or out of employment, he can live only
for q certain time upon this money. 1t
is his capital-the accumulated prod
uce of his own industrv-and it dwin-
dies away until the whole is consumed.
And SO, likewise, if exchanges were
equal, would the wealth of the present
capitalists gradually go from them to
the working classes; every shilling
that the rich man spent would leave
him a shilling less rich; for from the
nature of things it must follow that,
if part be taken from whole, that
which remains must, as a whole, be
less than it was before such part was
taken from it.
With respect to the acquisition of
wealth by inheritance, it requires but
little reflection to convince us that
past circumstances have rendered it
impossible for any member of the pro-
ductive class to have accumulated, by
the most incessant boarding of the
produce Of his own industry, wealth
amounting to one-fiftieth part of such
vast Accommodations as somany thous-
ands of individual capitalists and pro-
prietors now hold. 1t is evident,
when we take all things into consider
alton, that it would require the hand
ing down Of tlsc savings of many gen
erations of a worlsingman's family to
amount to the sum even of five thOus-
and dollars; and that this could be
done only by combination of favor
able circumstances such as would not
have fallen to the lot of one family in
million.
We all know that there have been
bloody and discriminating wars in all
ages; that most countries have at
times been overrun and plundered by
bands of armed~ robbers, and conse-
quently all production of wealth has
been at standstill; that the product
i've classes alone, through the medium
of unequal exchanges, have always
had to support the pride and the
pomp of aristOcracy and its playthlng
governments-so that it is all but im-
possible that any capitalist can have
derived even FIVE thousand dollars
from the actual boarded labor of his
working-class prOgenitors.
From the very conditions laid down
by the political economists-that
there shall be labor, and accumula-
tons, and exchanges-it follows that
there can be no exchanges without
accumulations, no accumulations
without labor. This latter condition
alone condemns at once the cause of
the capitalist, and shows the injustice
and worthlessness of the tenure by
which he holds his wealth. There are
accumulations, and therefore there
has been labor on the part of certain
individuals or certain classes. II the
capitalists have created the accumula-
tons they hold, the accumulations
are theirs by right of creation; and if
they have obtained them by exchang-
ing for them other accumulations of
equal value, then they are theirs by
right of exchange. But the great mass
of capitalists and proprietors have
never labored in the business of pro-
duction; and even had they been
laborers. they could not have created
the wealth in their possession; for
their physical and intellectual power,
and their consequent capability OF
production. is not superior to that OF
the great body of workingmen.
How comes it to pass, then, that he
who is idle is rich, while those who
are Industrious toll on in perpetual
poverty? How is it that the wealth
of the workingman remains station
airy, or decreases, while that of the
capitalist yearly increases? How is it
that the rising man of profit rides up
on his horse while the workman walks;
the horse gives place to the gig, the
gig is superseded by the carriage, and
as the rich man grows more rich, he
grows more lazy, and performs less
work? The anomaly, and the wrong
connected with it, we have seen, arises
soiciy rom unequal exchanges; ion AS,
under the present system, every work
ingrnan gives to an employer at least