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

creation of economic goods in the senss
defined in our earlier lessons would not
be regarded as labor
| Roscher gives the following interest,"
ing classification of the various kinds
| of labor:
l. Discoveries and Inventions
2. The utilization of natures spontane-
Gus gifts, as gathering wild berries or
| plants, catching fish and game or I'M
earthing minerals. These are commonly
referred to as 'extractive industries"
8. The creation of raw materials by
agriculture or stock-raising operations.
which consist in giving to natures forces
a certain direction different from that
which they would have taken il left by
themselves.
4. Manufacturing the crude effects of
eytractive or agricultural industry intoj
higher forms
5. The distribution of goods by changed
of place and change of title, that is tol
say, transportation and the whole vast /
work of exchange, wholesaling, retail-(
ing, leasing, renting, loaning and the
like.
6. Services such as teaching, writing
and the business of statesmen, judges,
soldiers and the police.
Z. If we add now the work of super
intendence, directing the labor of others,
is so Indispensable an accomplishment
of this the deyising means for the most
energetic coupling of capital and labor.
skill in which makes the great captain
of industry-if we add these we have
very complete Est of the forms which
human labor takes.
In every form of labor there is both a
physical and an intellectual element. Com
monty, too, there is a moral element,
49, I,l,-
the consciousness of the iaborer. But
neither the physical nor the intellectual
ingredient can be wholly absent In any
case whatever. 1t requires much mental
training and effort even to chop wood.
to pound upon q drill, or to throw
shovelful of sand just where you wish.
On the other hand, the learned counselor
cannot earn his fee without at least the
motion of his lips, or the inventor think
out his novelty save as brain particles
are stirred.
In no form of wealth creation can ma
ture be called more important than la
Dor or less important. Each is absolute
ly indispensable. John Stuart Mill well
said: 1.-THE part which nature has in any
work of man is indefinite and incom-
measurable. 1t is impossible to decide
that in any one thing nature does more
than in any other. One cannot even say
required, but if that which is required
is absolutely Indispensable the result Is
just as much the prodct of labor as or
nature" Mill adds the just observation
that when two conditions are thus equal
ly necessary to result the endeavor to
fix their relative proportions of contribu-
ton is like attempting to decide which
blade of pair of scissors is the more
efficient, or whether five or six is the
main factor in their product, thirty.
Yet, while all this is true, different
products. provided they are measured by
bulk, display the presence of the two
Ingredients, labor and nature, in very
equal degrees, the general rule being that
the labor element in goods predominates
in proportion to their removal from their
rude state. Instance, a ton of steel and
then ton of needles or watches. Taken
bulkwise the average production of the
torrid zone contains far less labor than
that of the north temperate zone. Even
when measured in dollars worths-
money yaluation-equal amounts of dir
ferent species of wealth do not embody
labor equally, though the correspondence
is in this case usually closer.
Copyright, 1907