New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-15
FUNCTION or WAGE CAPITAL

Here in its essence, the function OF
capital The possession Of It means tho control Iy
one of the necessaries required by many, and
button Of these necessaTies conditonai 10 impose
the industrial guidance OF his own knowledge and
And here we see that Marx was at once right and
wrong when he said that the essence OF modern
capitalism vas monoPoly II is monoDolyIa
own directions on the manual activities OF the
many but It Is not Prima rIy as Marx thought
production, which arises only from It conse
9cts Which are essential to daily lie We e can see
that this is 50 by turning TO the account which
ism about the beginning OF the fifteenth century,
when the implements Of production began he says
take trade-that Of weaving-caplJalism
capitalists in the reign OF Henry VIII would have
got into their possession nothing except number
Of the handooms then In use; they would have
imposed their own terms on those who desired 10
tellSr mean no iore man S tS Ie looms ..
ing to improve their construction But the salient
feature Of production since rise of the capital
isc system has been the fact that since then the
means Of production have been revoutonized-
monop2lized, have disappeared and their place has
gh 49, Dy ot "Ise rClticg as goillpaIed
comns ,fi's v5 tba a OF nonstrous dtns as
said to the laborers: You Shall either give us
s 81 to the 6ano o1 & or H GH sna po[
They have said: You shall weave no cloth unless
a type yet unknown you which viii enable
you TO weave fifty yards in the time which 1t
takes you to weave only one"
ABILITY OF FEW GUIDES LABOR.
Modern capital repeat, is primarily wage capital;
such capital machinery being the direct result
OF IT'S application; and wage capital is productive
in virtue OF any quality inherent in itself but
because it is the reins by which the exceptional
Ability Of the few guides the labor, skilled
skilled, Of the many. And here, to show you how
imperfectly this fact has been apprehended by the
orthodox economists, / may mention that some OF
them, cropping after the truth, have proposed
take cognizance OF talent under the name OF per-
sonal capital. This is attempt express the
truth but it IS attempt which merely confuses
it. TO speak OF Ability personal capital is
neither less than to Identify the coach
man with the reins the fact being that the latter
are useful useless only in accordance with the
manner in which the coGchman handles them.
The enormous augmentation of wealth, then,
which is characteristic Of modern times IS due
tiaI to it, II is due. In it's distinctive magnitude.
10 the Increasing concentration of intellect knowl-
edge and other rare mental faculties the process
of directing this labor In increa snsly erucious
wav; and ca Ditasm is primarily the means by
which this direction is effected No intelligent
socialist when the matter is thus put plainly,
possibly deny this. Let any consider for
cast their single spans over enormous estuaries OF
water These structures fossil labor, doubt
less but they are, I'm their distinctive features, not
fossil labor such They fossil science, fossil
chemistry fossil mathematics, fossil mechanics-in
short fossil knowledge and intellect OF degree and
kind which shall not find existing in one mind
out OF a thousand, and labor conduces 20 the pro-
duction OF these structures only because i sub
mits itself to tho guidance Of these intellectual