The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-31
CHAPTER TX.

of Wealth-Nature and Labor.
There is a vast and indefinite realm of
wealth in reference to which 1t is easier
to see than it is to describe wherein pro-
duction consists. / mean the wealth which
is made UP of the relations and influences,
the good will of business houses, the prac-
tice of physicians and lawyers, the credit
of bankers and tradesmen. Wealth in
any of these instances is slow, silent
growth, and, as hence, it does not come
with observation, it is usually ignored.
However, one need but reflect a little to
be made aware that the wealth of COM
munities is to an incalculable extent
enhanced by precisely these silent modi-
fcations of relation within the social
body. They are wealth no less than corn
or cattle, no less than mental sight or
skill. To see or feel this try to think what
society would be IL they did not exist. 1t
would suffer inconceivably, its loss Of
welfare being substantially the same in
nature and fully as severe as would arise
from the non-eXiStence of material goods.
Let us not be misied by this presenta-
ton of production in departments. If
We make a deep analysis We shall find
that production is really always one and
the same thing, change of relation be-
tween needs and the resources which the
physical and social universe contains
for the supply of needs. We shall find,
further, that production, even when
seeming to offer its last result in the
form of a physical commodity, is at bot
tom purely immaterial, psychological, in
aSmuch as no external, tangible thing is
wealth, save in virtue of it's power to
effect some psychical change which
someone, for some reason, thinks de-
sfrable. Had economists thoroughly at
tended to this ultimate nature of wealth
there would have been less inclination
to confine the name wealth to material
things.
So much for the essential character of
wealth to material things. Let us next
consider the conditions by which this
production Is governed. OF these there
are three classes-the greater conditions,
the mean or middle conditions and the
lesser conditions, in phrase little more
technical, the absolute, the relatively alb
solute and the relative conditions to the
production of wealth.
The absolute conditions of wealth pro-
duction are those without which no pro-
ductfon whatever could take place There
are two-nature and labor 1t is manifest
that production Is absolutely dependent
on nature, on the world of matter and
of mind" We here use the term ma
ture" in this very broad sense. Nature.
taken as including the original powers
and susceptibilities of man and the struc-
ture and qualities of the material world
is the basis of all production.
Speaking of external nature we may say
that it contributes to the rise of wealth
in the first place a great many materials,
animals, vegetables and minerals the ma
terials of each of those classes differing
widely from one another in the amount
and kind of labor needed to turn them
into wealth products. Fruits may be
wealth by the picking. Coal in the mine
or gold in the quartz can be made into
wealth only through great OUTLAWS of
capital and human toll.
In the second place, nature contributes
forces. These may be organic, like those
of vegetation and animal production, or
inorganic, whether mechanical, chemical
or physical. The forces of nature aid
production actively, while her materials
are passive aids. Many of these forces
merely do what men could at some rate
do. Others, the same kind, transcend III
degree the utmost reach of human ener-
gy. Chemical forces, as also the propensi-
ties and many Of the powers of brutes,
are intrinsically unlike any which man
could supply.
III THESE natural III the creation
of wealth some are free, not subject to
appropriation by man, as wind, sunlight,
sunheat, tides, navigable streams and
the ocean. Others are appropriate as be-
ing limited in amount of locality. Coal,
ores, forests, the soil and useful brutes
would illustrate the appropriate kind.
Space must be taken into consideration as
wealth making condition, pertaining to
external nature. Most of it is not appro-
priable, but in thickly populated localities
parts of it are appropriate, and as we
have seen, immensely valuable in conse-
quence.
The second of the absolute or wholly
indispensable conditions to the rise of
wealth is labor. However kind or ex
uberant Mother Nature may be, no kind
OF wealth can arise without human la
Dor. This proposition requires mo-
ment's thought. Certain individual con-
tributions to actual wealth arise without
cost in labor, but no class of things
which make up wealth can come into
being save by the deliberate exertions
of human beings. Gratuitous abundance
at harvest owing to propitious weather
is a costless contribution to wealth, but
haryests in general grew only as men
toll and moil. Changes in men thcn-
selves, accidental new knowledge, irlven-
TONS discoveries, culture, ETC., may
make into wealth things which were not
so before. Accidental new knowledge,
etc, cannot be regarded as labor, but
the new wealth would be as truly 50
as any wealth. The discovery of spin
ming and weaving-whether accidental
or Iaborious, we can never know-must
have instantly enhanced the value Of
sheep wool and all fber-producing plants.
The discovery of medicinal virtue in a
weed might turn vast patch of land
into a gold mine. Beneficial changes be-
tween the makers or holders of wealth
and the objects of wealth or by better
laws and government of the progress
Of morality in the community would
bring free contribution to the commu-
nitys wealth. However none of these
special pieces Of wealth or additions to
wealth can be multiplied at will, 80 that