The daily morning oasis., 1919-10-03
A PROBLEM OF THE TIME


I Causes of the eWalth of Nations" published IN
Il 1776) Adam Smith, the Scottish philosopher anu
economist maintained that when all the land IN a
given country has been appropriated and brought
under cultivation and development, with accumu-
alton of wealth. have settled to regular and nOrma
expansion, without violent flucutation or unnatura
interference the annual volume of production OF al
elements and commodities of all sorts may be aSSu
ed to be an economic fund that provides the popua-
ton with subsistence and the comforts convenence
and luxuries of existence together With surplus
above those four items that may be denomlnated
ENJOYMENT; and by analysis he dissolved that econ
omic fnud into three elements, viz rent, profit and
wages. (Some economists have added fourth
element that they call interest; but Smith dismissed
that but such part OF profit as the user gives oVe
to an owner of capital for enjoying it's use).
Proceeding upon that assumption Professor
Smith maintained that any analysis Of the economl<
fund mentioned would resolve it into the three
elements needed And those three elements ne as
serted are found united in the product OF single
property and frequently the person of single own
er. Profit so reasoned the Scotchman is maintain
ed average per centage OF the capital invested
and if man in given business undertaking gets
more than that average per centage the excess Is
wages for superintendent given by him. or rent OF
the land and building he owns and uses in prosecut-
ton fhis business.
Carrying on his dissertation Adam Smith main
aimed that when country new land cheap, and
aborers scarce that part of the fund described as
wages gave workers with nothing but service to sci
larger proportion of that general economic fund
than when population had grown so great as will
complete settlement and occupation; and that con
sequenty reward for labor is greater, wages higher
than in an older and longer established community
Then Professor Smith laid down the proposition
that such part of the economic fund he described as
wages going to the individual worker must be suf
ficient to enable him to live and family in the
style and manner as is common to his fellow work
men and others in the same class as himself He ad
mitted that with growth in population, and increase
In competition between wOrknen and classes O.
workmen, there is constant tendency to reduce the
reward of labor and the material comforts Of The
labOrer and his family, with lowering Of the
standards of living
Against that lowering of standards laborinp
populations have rebelled always. When they have
done SOL their sense of the injustice they feel has a
tendancy to enrage them, and drive them to acts Of
violence against those whom they feel to be subject
ing them to an ntolerable yoke. Such demonstrat
tiOns are put down by force of arms: and to keeT
them overawed under subjection, armies are needed
yea are used at times to quel any rebellion or vol
ence that may offer. An army may be as necessarv
fr protection against domestic violence, as against
foreign aggression.
AS the inevitable reduction of standards des
cribed by Adam Smith Decor and continue, the labor
ing masses become more reStlve more prone to out
break, the task of keeping them in subsection re
qulrlng augmentation of the nations army. Tha1
may be one secret of the sudden conversion witnessed
of late of avowed pacifists to advocates of larQ
standing armies. 1t has been by providing such az
mics, to keep the upperhand of the rebeious labor
ing population that hose classes denominated bOur-
geosie have strengthened the hands Of successful
military commanders, even eevating the INTO thrones
Those have been tendencies and circumstances Of
the past.
The American republic was founded upon the
idea that Its democracy could be maintained and the