The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-10-01
Amusing Attempt of Bourgeois Professor to
Discover Fundamental Error in Marxism

class by a studied defamation OF
Marxism, while pretending to be fol
lowers of Marx.
Carver's Premise.
I SHALL deal with the three au.
thors and their articles in the
order in which they appeared il
Current History.
Carver takes upon himself tasl
which many another chair-warmel
of the universities has attempted
for the past half century, an attemp
to explain the fundamental error il
Marxism. 1t would require more
than one volume to merely enumer
ate in chronological order, these at
tempts. Carver's contribution i:
quite simple. He says:
ANY intelligent person can
reason correctly If he is supplied
with premises. The real diff
Guilty is to know a sound prem
Use when one sees it. CWell said,
oh most profound and learned
doctor.-H. NJ. W. The diff
ductive but only acquisitive is
that if one starts with false
premise, the more logically one
reasons, the further astray one
goes That capital is non-pro-
ductive but only acquisitive is
the proposition on which are
based many false conclusions,
though, if the premise be as
sumed, they are arrived at log
ically enough.
THE most complete exposition
of doctrines based on this funda-
mental premise is found in the
writings of Karl Marx, particu-
larlY in Das Capital. He was a
philosopher and capable of rea-
soning clearly enough and he had
the courage, which many lack, to
follow his reasoning to it's ulti-
mate conclusions. The difficulty
is not with his reasoning. 1t is
with the assumption with which
he starts
A more wretched, stupid distor
ton of Marxism would be hard tt
find. The above quotation from Car
yer proves that he doesn't know the
first, most elementary proposition
postulated by Marx in regard t.
capital, when he claims that Mari
held that capital is non productive
but only acquisitive.
Composition of Capital.
Marks monumental work "Capi
tai" is devoted exclusively to de
picting all the ramifications of CAPT
tai in the process of production anC
distribution. Never, at any time OIL
place did Marx expound the idea
that Carver attributes to him. Marx
emphasizes the fact that in the com
position of capital there are two
categories-constant and variable
That which is invested in machin
cry, raw material, buildings, fue
and other auxiliaries is called con
slant capital because in the process:
of production, although it's form
may change, it does not undergo
any quantitative alteration of value
Capital, Vol. |, page 1922 There
many be a considerable deteriora
ton of machinery, fuel, oil and Other
auxiliaries may be completely con
sumed as far as their use value i:
concerned and the raw material may
change it's form, but the actual ex
change value remains the same. Tit
value of the materials consumed i!
transferred to the product of the in
dustry.
Of that part of capital invested il
labor-pow Marx says: "On The
other hand that part of capital, rep
resented by labor-power, does, il
the process of production, undergo
an alteration Of value. 1t both rep
resents an equivalent of its owr
value, and also produces an excess
surplus value, which may itselt
vary, may be more or less according
to circumstances. This part Of cap
ital is continually being transformed
from a constant into a variable
magnitude. | therefore call it the
variable part Of capital. or shortly