The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1903-10-17
What are Wages and how are
they Determined.
Continued from last week.

Continued from last week.
fruit Of the earth of twice the va
lue, and turns one dollar into two.
The day laborer on the other hand
he receives liz place Of his produc'
tive force, which he has just bar
gained away to the farmer, one
dollar; and this he exchanges for
means of subsistence: which means
of subsistence he proceeds with
more or less speed to consume.
The one dollar has thus been con
sumed in double fashion; produc-
lively for capital, since it has
been exchanged for the labor force
which produced the two dollars;
unproductively for the laborer.
since 1t has been exchanged for
means Of subsistence, which have
disappeared forever andits value
he can only recover by repeating
the same bargain with the farmer.
Thus capital presupposes wage
labor and wage labor presupposes
capital. They condition one ano-
ther; and each brings the other
into play.
Does a laborer in a cotton fac
tory produce merely cotton? No,
he produces capital. He produces
value which sttms aflesh to
his own laborer, and to create new
value by it's means. Capital can
only increase when it is exchanged
for labor, when it calls wage labor
into existence. Wage labor can on
ly be exchanged for capital by
augmenting capital and strenthen-
ing the power whose slave it is.
An increase OF capital is therefore
an increase of the prolectalist that
is of the laboring class.
The interest Of capitalists and
the labOrer are therefore identical
asserts the bourgeoisic and their
economists, and in fact, so they
are! The laborer perishes if capt.
al does nat employ him. Capital
perishes if it does not exploit la
Dor; and IN order to exploit it, 1t
must buy it. The faster the CAPT
tai devoted to production the pro-
tuctlve capital increases and the
the more successful the industry
IS carried on, the richer do the
Dourgeoisie become, the better
Ices business, the more laborers
Ices the cap'ilists require, and
he dearer does the labOrer sell
Thus the indispensable condi-
ion of The laboreIs securing a to-
cradle position is the speediest
growth Of productive capital.
But what is the meaning of the
Increase Of productive capital9
rhe increase Of the power Of s.o-
dup labor over living labor. The
Increase OF the dominion of the
'ourgeoisie over the laboring class
As fast as wage-labor creates it's
'wn antagonist and its own mas
ers in the dominating power of
apltal, the means of employment
hat is of subsistence, flow back to
faom it's antagonist; but only on
he condition that it is itself trans
ormed afresh into a portion of
apital and becomes the lever
thereby the increase of capital
lay be again hugely accelerated.
hus the statement that the inter
st of capital and labor are iden-
cal come to mean merely this:
apital and wage labor are the two
re the two terms of one and the
lme proposition The one condi-
on the other, just in the same
ay that the insurer and Il e Dor.
'wer condition each other mu,u
ly.
So long was age-laborer remains ,
wage-labOrer his lot in life is de c
,ndent upon capita That is '
e exact meaning of the famous |
Of interest between
pital and labor. The increase
~ ;toI &c ottondad NV an mora