Perth Amboy evening news., 1904-08-20
WHAT CONSTITUTES tAsoR
The Man who Employs HIS Esas-a
and Capital as Much a "Labor-
or" as ANY Other.

The little daughter Of one OF New
York's best known bankers sat In his
office one day waiting for him to GOT
through with his business. in order
that he might take her home. That
evening she related her experiences to
her mother. says the Wall Street Jour
nal.
why, mamma" she said. s-papa
ioesn't work. He simply sits at a desk
and talks all day"
One may smile at the simplicity Or
This child, and yet a great many grown
rp people In this world take exactly
the same view she did. They think that
all work, or to use the word now uni
versally though wrongly adopted. an
tabor" worth considering Is that dQE~
with the hands. g
We speak OF "ckpftaI and "labor-
as producing the wealth OF the c0tin-
try. 1t is from use of these terms that
much of the misconceptions, misunder-
standings and mistakes that cause that
most p%erplexing of issues, the labor
problem," springs. All wealth consists
first of the gifts of nature. the products
Of the soil, the mines and the air; and,
second, of the Tabor of man in gath
ering. transporting and adopting these
products to human use. Capital Is sim
ply labor stored up, saved, accufnu-
lated.
1t is a favorite theory of socialists
that while the basis of all wealth is
labor, there is. under the present eco
nomic system, "a surplus value" which,
while really belonging to the laborer,
has been wrongfully seized by the capi-
%talists, thus creating the great lnequali-
ties In individual wealth.
But this theory depends upon the
idea that 1t is manual labor alone that
creates wealth. At any rate 1t takes
very little account of any other kind or
labor. The banker who sits at his desk
and talks" and the railroad president
who rides in his private car over his
system" are not tailoring" They
are Capitalists who are simply exist
ing on the labor Of others. 1t is not too
much to say that back of much Of the,
agitation which is arraying the laborer
against the employer, and the poor
against the rich. lies this absurd faflacy
that the only labor that produces any
thing is manual labor, and that tho
world consists of two classes, the labor
ers who toll at a wage that provides for
a mere subsistence. and the capitalist, /"
the man who thrives by the labor OF 9TH
ers, and who gets all the surplus of value
after the wages are paid.
OF course such an Idea must be got
rid of If the world is to continue ct
peace under the present system. and
certainly its eradication Is necessary II
we want to pass into an era of s'the CO.
operative commonwealth" which Is the
dream of the socialist. All wealth. apart
from the gifts of God, is, indeed, the
labor of man, and all who refuse to
work, whether they be tramps or the Idle
rich, are equally enemies OF their kind.
But the man who employs his brains
and his capitalize reservoired labor
which is the result of long and tnteili-
gent endeavor in the past-in business
enterprises of any lawful kind is as
much a "laborer" as any one of his em-
ployes who may swing q hammer. WELD
a pick or tend a furnace. It may seem
s%uperfiuous to say a thing that appears
so self-evident as this, but In fact 1t fs
necessary. The most elementary Drinci-
pies are the ones most often nvArinnhad
".I