Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-08-22

otuOl SOONo oClNC tuCii uoSiuihSos' If the farmer exchanges corn for shoes or clothes it is because the shoes and clothes have capacity for utility. The point that Marx would make is that since labor in the ab- stract is the common element of eX- change value, therefore labor is the standard of valuation. But since Marx himself admits that only use full objects can have exchange value for society, his theory that use value must be entirely discarded in esti- mating exchange value, falls by the wayside and with it falls his conten- tion that labor alone is the standard of valuation. Indeed, the practical everyday market proves the fallacy of Marks contention. In Litchfield county, from New Milford to Kent, they raise considerable tobacco leaf. The planter will expend equal labor on the whole crop and according to Marks theory all ought to bring the same price. But those who are en- gagged in sorting it>can testify that it does not. Even the exchange
 
 mined by the usefulness and hence the expert can generally command higher wages than the bungler.
 There remains to be considered the famous, or rather infamous, iron
 law of Lassalle, which was in effect
 the teaching also of Adam Smith,
 Say and Ricardo. In few words No To fn ic.
 salary of the workman can never
 rise for any length of time much
 above that which is necessary for his | own sustentation and the propaga- , tion of the human species. For If 1 the salary is increased there will be
 a greater influx of workingmen and
 soon the salary will be lowered, for
 the more numerous the workingmen
 the less each receives, and so the
 workingman must live on with no
 other hope than the mere necessaries
 of life. The weakness of this argu-
 ment lies in the fact that it does not
 correspond to facts. It is not true
 that labor increases according to the
 comforts of life. The increase oi
 labor would come from one of two
 causes, from migration or generation If laborers attracted by favorable
 circumstances would migrate from one district to another the increast
 0. laborers might cause a fall in the
 price of labor in the second district;
 but in that case there would be 1T
 ordinary circumstances a correspond
 ing increase in the district iron
 which they migrated and the iroI
 law could thus hardly be considered
 an economic law, for such a law il
 the result of permanent causes exist
 ing at all times and in all places.
 on the other hand the increase of la
 borers results from generation a
 least the increase of wages woult
 last till children had grown ol'
 enough to enter into competition with adult labor, a period of iron ] fifteen to twenty years at least.
 Lassalle would make his iron la1 work the other way, viz: that wage , cannot long remain below a certai standard and for the reason that ,emi , grafton and restriction of propaga : tion would so reduce the number c l laborers that the salary would talk , rebound. In this feature, too. hi theory is not in harmony with fact 5 It Is a remarkable fact, abundant l evidenced in our own country, ths t propagation rather decrease amongst the we'll to do class rathe l than among the victims of povert. e It is an oft made complaint that GU = old New England stock is dying ol !. among the better classes. The mai = fallacy of Lassalle's law is that 1t e not true that the workman receive
 only wages sufficient to support lii n and for propagation. For how the S can we account for the number o men who have propagated large fan e flies and have little by little lat l. aside sums which enabled them l, after life to take advantage of oppo }, tunities to become really opulent. l. The latest phase of socialism, {. what has been termed the polite Il phase, arose in the last quarter of tl IT nineteenth century. With the exec
 ton of the most extremely radio s socialists men realized that the rev IT lutionary ideas of Marx, Beb, II Bastiat. Engel. Liebnicht, were il al possible of realization, and so beg le to advocate a progressive change. S, degrees capturing political pow S. until a death blow could be given y. existing conditions. Hence soci IS democracy or state socialism becaI m popular and the slogan was and S, state ownership of railroads, min, Us etc. That the government may o'
 what comes under the name of pJ a lie utilities no one denies, nor is il lg properly speaking socialism. B k that it may own everything or tf ,h it may conflscate public utilities wi is out compensation is entirely at va e. ance with the dictates of natural il IS. tice.
 ch It would be easy to prove from [ lie highest authority recognized m. Christians. the Scriptures, that { SC right of private dominion to exteri ed goods is a right that flows from all law of nature. An appeal might a i'd be made to the continuous history 10 the human race with rare exceptl, ed down to the eighteenth century. sft this is the age of reason, the age q ITS demands the why and wherefore TO- everything. the age that says. q est contradicts itself in the saying. | he 1t will believe nothing upon wh ,n. reason does not set its imprimai ,ts To the forum of reason therefore or will take our cause. And maint
 that the very nature of man. his ifs vate good as an individual, as V TVS as the public good and the end ad society demand private dominion .. ' external vnuHa