The independent., 1903-05-07
SURPLUS VALUE"
Socialist Explanation of This "Key-Note
Socialism"

Readers OF The Independent nave
undoubtedly heard from socialist
speakers about exploitation OF Ia
bor," Surplus value" etc., but per-
haps have not a very clear idea or
what it meant. The following, re-
printed from the Weekly People IN.
Y.) will doubtless aid in better un-
derstanding of the MARKHAM idea OF
Surplus value" Aside from the state
ment that 'the amount of labor en-
bodied in a commodity determines its
yalue"-which leads irresistibly to the
fallacy of intrinsic value" or value
within d thing, there is much truth
in the article. Undoubtedly if each
person who performs useful labor were
to receive in exchange for his service
an equivalent, it would be absolutely
impossible for any man to accumulate
the wealth of Carnegie or Rockefeller,
except in one or both OF two ways:
He must steal it (under cover OF legal
enactments or otherwise) or he must
have it given to him.
Perhaps the whole statement might
be boiled down to one of theft under
the guise and sanction of law, assented
to by the persons robbed under a mis-
apprehension of facts. But whether
theft or gift. the fact remains that
Carnegie and Rockefeller did not pro-
duce the wealth in their possession.
The socialist writer, "T. r. in Edin-
sburgh Socialist, says:
A very common, and very important
term in studying socialism is the term
Surplus value" and in fact a clear
understanding of what surplus value is
is the keynote to socialism. In Cap
ital," that great work of Marks, which
lifted socialism out of the region OF
the purely ideal, or utopian, into the
region of proof and economic science
lin that work large part is devoted
to the explanation of this term. 1t
goes without saying that every one
who even pretends to understand So
cialism should have read and studied
this work; but it also goes without
saying that very few have done so.
The reasons are various and need not
be gone into just now. For the ben
eft, however, of those who have not
read Marx, or have forgotten what
they read, it may not be inadvisable to
summarize ''in a nutshell the mean
ing of this term, surplus value.
1t can be seen at glance, that IL
an employer paid each workman the
value of his labor, there would be no
surplus value, no profit. Taking the
case of workman in a foundry: If his
wages are $3.50 per week, and he
works Sc hours, he is paid slightly over
1914 cents per hour. But these same
goods when placed upon the market
I've a price by far exceeding this
original cost to the employer, say, for
a weeks work, cost of material ST, la
Dor power $3.50, total s14.50. He may,
and does get the value Of his goods ex-
pressed in money at the rate of $50 for
the weeks work, hence the surplus
value, the profit. If this difference of
$3.50 be multiplied by the number OF
workmen and of the working weeks
per year, we find how it is possible to
accumulate large fortunes after the
style of Carnegie or Rockefeller.
But you ask, how does this difference
in the price of wage-labor and the SELL
ing price of the commodity arise?
That is the point. The amount of la
Dor embodied in a commodity deter
mines it's value. Labor power or the
capacity to labor, which the workman
sells to the capitalist is the only
value-creating commodity, which the
capitalist can buy, and it has this Pc
culiar property, that, by destroying it
or using it up you create fresh value.
If, therefore, this labor power can
be bought at its barest cost of produc
ton, that is, at the amount which can
keep the laborer going, and enable
him to procreate more laborers, the
difference between the value which his
labor creates and the cost of subsist-
ence, that is his wages, will give us
the secret of this surplus value. That
is simply to say, it is UNPAID labor"
If he, the laborer, creates value las
suming value the same as our price
already taken) at the rate of SO cents
per hour, we see that he only requires
to work slightly moro than S1a hours
per week! Instead of this he works
sc! And that is how surplus value is
made.
Suppose him to have even an S-hour
day, he is still working practically 5
days per week for nothing for his en-
ployer. This is what Marx calls days
of Surplus" labor time to the boss,