The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1901-06-19
Ear ,EM LIKE CANDY
keep YOUR BLOOD CLEAN

his sorrow he VIII see people and gov
ernments in open and defiant rebellion
against this benefcent system of natural
law, and absurd legislatures engaged in
their grotesque ard fantastic attempts
to repeal the laws of God.
And when the public begins to realize
the great truths and perfection of natural
economic law, there will come an end to
the strike and lockout, and the boycott
and blacklist will disappear from our vo-
cabulary together with trade unionism.
Then peace, order and the cooperation
of capital and labor will prevail in the in
dustrial world, not alone because 1t is
right, but because capitalists and labor
ers will know that it is wise and profit
able.
This will be the result of true economic
knowledge, and with peace in the in
dustrial world this knowledge will trans
fer the great battle for human liberty
to the political arena, for in the political
arrangements of men all the parasites Of
privilege will be found intrenched.
BOTH AGAINST PRIVILEGE.
This will not be battle between
capital and labor, but battle with cap
ital and labor united on one side and
privilege on the other.
This coalition will come about natur-
ally and inevitably, and is as necessary
to drive piracy off the land as it was to
drive piracy off the sea.
Just as the nations of the earth stag.
gering under the load of militarism and
each urging the other to disarm first and
all the time trying to increase its own
strength, so to announce to organized
labor that wages should be determined
by the law Of supply and demand without
organized interference would be to invite
anathcma, for the price of nearly every
thing that the laborer buys is not de-
termined by the impartial operation of
the law of supply and demand, but like
the price Of coal and railway rates, is
arbitrarily fixed at what the traffic will
bear, and the laborer is filched in extor-
tomato charges whether his wages are
high or low.
Now while all prices are at all times as
high as the traffic will bear. competition
tends to hold prices of commodities down
to the cost of production, and if COM
petition could do its work. then the prices
Of all commodities would be determined
by the wages Of those engaged in their
production, and would result in wonder
ous voluntary system of universal indus
trial cooperation on an individualistic
basis, as superior to the devices of men
as the Kingdom of God is superior to a
Spanish-American revolution.
BAR TO NATURAL LAW.
The chief reason why competition can
not now level prices down to the labor
cost Of production is the device Of pri-
vate property in land, a system establish
ed under false pretense and maintained
by al unholy alliance OF fraud and ig-
norance.
While everybody knows that the price
Of wheat is fixed very nearly by the
cost Of production, vet if we investigate
the cost of production we will discover
great variations; for instance, wheat is
raised on land varying in production from
eighty to forty bushels per acre. Now,
practically the same amount of labor Is
required on the poorest land as on the
best, SO that the returns of the same
amount in one case are FIVE times as
great as in the other. Let us suppose
the price OF wheat determined by what
the traffic would bear to be rs cents per
puoHei, anu tHiS price 10 cover the COSt
of production on the low grade land, then
the one who cultivates the high grade
land-if he is the owner-g,ts the same
price or price much in excess of the
cost Of production to him, or five times
the cost of production the excess in any
case being rent, and since competition
can enter only on the lowest grade land
without paying a premium, price will
hover about the cost of production at
the places Of least advantage.
THE BURDEN OF RENT.
And this rule applies not alone to the
production of all commodities, but to
their sale or exchange as well, for the
merchant who has good location for
selling goods can get about the same
prices as the one located where exchanges
are effected with less ease, but if he can
effect changes at price much in OK
cess Of the cost Of effecting the exchange,
the difference will be rent and 20 to the
since We have seen that the
can enter the business arena
only at the point of least advantage or
pay rent equal to the premium of
point Of greater advantage.
Competition cannot permanently re-
1uce prices below the sum Of wages,
rent, interest and taxes; these are the
elements of price and must be recovered |
from the consumer. Thus we see that |
the consumer should be given credit for
bearing On his back the tax burden Of the
world.
This explains the labor sattisticsF why |
wages are only one-fifth OF the retail
price of commodities, and the futility OF |
to establish industrial equity
without first appropriating ground rent
BY the single tax on land value.