By M. L. S. CUD DER, Jr.,
--
AUTHoR of “congestED PRICEs,” Etc.
PUBLISHED BY
T H E PATRIOTS’ L E A G UE,
C HII C A G O .
TIET IIB, ID TEB ID IT IO INT_
C H I C A G O :
JEFFERY PRINTING CO.
1887.



THE
LABA DIE
COLLECTION
A COUIRED 1912
: Assistant Secretary:
JOS. F. JOHNSON.
Eacecº/ffoe Committee:
RICHARD S. TUTHILL. GEO. W. SMITH.
W.M. ELIOT FURNESS. REV. C. M. MORTON.
JNO. V. FARWELL, J.R. W.M. E. STRONG.
J. MCGREGOR ADAMS. EUGENE CARY.
JosłPH SEARS. JOSEPH STOCKTON.
REV. SAMUEL FALLOWS.
Publication, Committee :
GEN, JOHN L. THOMPSON. JOS. R. PUTNAM.
THOS. M. NICHOL. O. F. ALDIS.
JOS. F. JOHNSON.


A a
-
... º.
º T H E
LABADIE LIBRARY
(Private)
DETROIT, - MICHIGAN.
No
C a t a I o g u e d 1 S. O. S.
Gbe
epatriots Ceaſae,
Chicago.
1887.

NOTICE.
Correspondence with persons in sym-
pathy with the purposes of the Patriots'
League, and willing to co-operate with
it, is cordially solicited; and it will be
esteemed a favor if copies of papers
notics of this book, whether favorable .
or unfavorable, are mailed to
THE PATRIOTS' LEAGUE,
Chicago, Ill.

Ghe
PATRIOT's EEAGUE,
C H I C A G O.
1886.
O R T G IIN.
• The idea of the Patriots' League originated with a few
veterans of the late war, whose attention had been specially
called to the doctrines of Socialism, and the desperate efforts
being made to spread them (not without success) in the United
States. It was finally determined to meet organization with
organization, and the Patriots' League is the result. e
The Platform, setting forth the principles and purpose of the
League explains itself as well and fully, perhaps, as any such
declaration could do. But it may be well to add one word of
explanation: This League does not antagonize labor, nor any
legitimate organization or party having for its object the im-
provement of the condition, or the defense of the interests or
rights, of any class of citizens who believe in government, law,
order and justice. But there is a wide difference between the
honest workingman who believes that corporations and the
wealthy classes have too much influence in shaping legislation,
while he and his associates have too little, and the anarchist and
the socialist who seek the destruction of all government. The
one is a citizen pursuing his rights and interests, as he under- -
stands them, under the law; the other, if a citizen at all, is a
perjured traitor perpetrating a crime against the law—if not a
citizen, he is an alien disturber, outraging the hospitality of a
people who welcome “the oppressed of all lands” to liberty,
equality and opportunity, equal to that enjoyed by the most
favored among themselves. The first, this League desires to en-
courage and assist—the second, as a factor of social and political
power, it desires to exterminate.
Il gº tº
THE PATRIOTS’ LEAGUE.
“As far as I can see, the American Constitution is the most wonder-
ful work ever struck off at one time by the brain and purpose of man.”—
*Education is the only interest worthy the deep controlling anxiety
of the thoughtful man.”—Wendell Phillips.
Platform and Purpose.
Any person may become a member of this League by signing
this platform setting forth its principles and purpose.
Any person contributing money to this League will be entitled
to receive its publications to the full amount of the money con-
tributed.
The primary objects of this League shall be:
1. To support and defend the Government, Constitution,
Laws and institutions, of the United States, National, State and
Municipal, as administered through the three necessary and well-
defined departments, Legislative, Executive and Judicial; and to
furnish a channel through which the loyal, order-loving, and
law-honoring sentiment of the country can at all times express
itself and make its convictions and strength known.
2. To oppose Anarchy, Socialism, Communism, Mormonism,
and despotism of all kinds, and all kindred social and political
heresies that tend to destroy the peace of society, the authority
of government, the sanctions of Law, the rights of property, the
liberty of the citizen and the sacredness of the family; and to
warn the advocates of all such heresies that human liberty, as
represented and protected by American free institutions, has cost
too much, and is too valuable, and too sacred, to be suffered to
be overthrown, undermined, endangered, or desecrated, by agi-
tators and revolutionists of any creed, country or description.
3. To disseminate sound views and practical and accurate
information on political, social, and economic subjects, by means
of carefully prepared books and pamphlets, to be published and
sold at the bare cost of production and distribution, thus placing
the means of political ei: within the reach of all; and in
general, to promote and encourage the study and rational discus-
sion of social, political and economic questions, by the whole
body of American citizens.
4. To investigate, and so far as possible remove, the causes
of antagonisms between labor and capital, or more properly,
between employers and employés; and to promote justice, fair
dealing and harmony between them, and to encourage and assist
the development and improvement of all classes, morally, men-
tally and materially.

THE PATRIOTS’ LEAGUE. iii
Address to the Public.
That there is deep and wide-spread discontent among the
laboring people of almost every community in the country does
not admit of a doubt. That this discontent will increase rather
than diminish, till the true causes of it are found out and re-
moved, is equally certain. $
The great strikes of the past year with their attendant evils,
in some cases horrors—the organization of Labor parties in
different parts of the country, the votes they cast, their move:-
ments in the direction of more perfect and general organization
since the elections, the discussions of the daily and weekly press,
and of Magazines and Reviews, and of the pulpit and the plat-
'form, all these tellus that the Labor question has “Come to Stay”
till something is done about it.
A “workingman”—Mr. John Armoup—at a meeting of “The
English speaking Section of the Socialistic Labor Party” in this
city, Sunday, Dec. 5th, in rejoinder to the Commercial Club, said:
“The present discontent is caused by legislation in favor of
. corporations, bankers and rich men generally.”
+
Herr Liebknecht, a leader and an authority among German
Socialists, in a recent address in this city (Chicago) said:
“All wealth is the product of labor. It is a logical sequence
that wealth should belong to labor. But it is a fact that those
who do not do productive work own the greater part of wealth.
The Socialist says this is owing to the wages system, to the
expoliation of labor. If the capitalist gave the laborer an equiva-
lent for his labor, the capitalist would at, the end of the year,
have no more than at the beginning.”
Mr. James G. Batterson, of Hartford, Conn., a large employer
of labor, in an address before “The New Haven Lyceum of Labor,”
Sunday, June 6th, 1886, said:
“The demand which is being made by workingmen through-
out the country for a radical reform in the existing relations of
labor and capital, is a Social and business question which must be
squarely and honestly met by all classes and conditions of men.
The claim is broadly made that employers of labor receive more
than a just proportion of the earnings of labor, against which in
justice the laborer rebels, and demands increased pay for shorter
hours. The whole question finally turns, and ought to turn on
the justice of this. demand, which must be determined by stern
questions of fact, rather than of law, philosophy or sentiment.”
Here, then, from a workingman in the West and an employer
in the East, and a Socialist from Germany, we seem to have

iv. THE PATRIOTS' LEAGUE.
definitely stated the real causes of the present discontent—the
belief among workingmen: (1) that the legislation of the country
is controlled by the wealthy classes: (2) that they do not get a just
proportion of the proceeds of their labor: (3) that all wealth is
created by labor and ought to belong to “productive laborers.”
If all or either of these propositions be true, contentment
and social peace will never come till the abuse is removed
and the wrong righted. If all or either be false, contentment
will not come till the fact is clearly and convincingly established.
The range of argument may be very wide, but where the main
points are so few, so clear, and so condensed and definite, cer-
tainly it ought not to be very difficult to arrive at the truth, if
the effort is made rationally and in the right spirit on both sides.
Strikes, eruptions, and labor disturbances and discussions,
are but symptoms of some serious social disease, or delusion, and
they will never cease till the disease is cured or the delusion dis-
pelled. That there is here an ample field for investigation and
philanthropic work of great value to society, is most obvious.
This is the work, or kind of work, the Patriots' League is
designed to do. Its success will depend largely on the co-oper-
ation and assistance of people of all classes and parties, profes-
Sions and employments. With this co-operation and assistance,
we confidently believe the labor question can be solved and sat-
isfactorily adjusted. Without some such fair-minded, rational
and united effort, it will be left to solve its self through increas-
ing discontent, more numerous and more violent strikes, and
possibly more riots and massacres. Is it not worth while to
make the effort to solve and settle this great problem harmoni-
ously, in the light of such a full and fair discussion of facts,
that none can honestly question the conclusions arrived at? Not
only the rights of individuals, the peace of communities, and the
prosperity of industry, are at stake, but possibly also the capacity
of a free people for successful self-government.
Of one thing we may be sure—at such a time and on such a
subject there is no danger of too much intelligence. All efforts
to disseminate thorough, accurate and pertinent information
ought to meet the approval and hearty co-operation of every one
who has an interest in the peace and prosperity of the country,
or who has at heart the welfare and the improvement of the
condition of its laboring classes. In this work this League ear-
nestly solicits the active co-operation of all good citizens.
THE
LABOR-WALUE FALLACY.
By M. L. SCUDI) ER, Jr.,
Author of “congested Prices.” Etc.
PUBLISHED BY &
THE PATRIOTS’ LEAGUE
C EIIC A. G. O.
TIELT E. D. Ei, ID I TI O INT_
CHICA G O :
JEFFERY BRINTING CO.
1887.
C O N T E N T S.
Publisher's Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Introduction to New Edition, ............................... xii
Introduction to First Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ſ ... . . . . xiii
The Fallacy Stated. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Origin and Growth of the Fallacy............. ........... 2
Outline of the Socialistic Argument ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Mild Forms of Socialism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
“The Right to Labor”..................................... 13
Labor and Value... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
What is Wealth? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . & e s e s e e s = e º s 19
Owen's Labor Exchange. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p = • , a e > * * * * * 22
Labor-Value and Market Prices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Labor but one of the Productive Forces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Cost of Production Analyzed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Labor a Commodity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Labor in Cost of Production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Labor of Prhmitive Man.................................... 28
The Right of Property............................... ... . . . . 31
No Title by Labor Known in Law............. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Ancient Custom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Earliest Property Rights............................. . . . . . . . 37
Competition and Inequality ................................ 40
Henry George's Appeal to Nature........................... 41
Christianity and the Rights of Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Seeking Truth ........ p e s e a • e s s a • * * * * * * * * * * * e s s s e e s a e ºs e s e º a 56
The Argument from Misery .......................... . . . . . 58
Progress of Society. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Is Multiplication of Life a Blºssing.......................... 62
Socialism Involves Extermination of Millions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Improved Condition of Laborers............................ 64
The Value-Perceiving Faculty........... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 66
The Improvement of Society. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
The Rights of the Masses...... ........................... 79
Patronage and Charity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
The Labor Value Fallacy in Politics, Nov., 1886......... , ... 85
The Labor Party ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * e < e < * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 86
R. G. Ingersoll. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Liebknecht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -... 89
Ask Proof... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Appendix—Horace Greeley, Henry George, Josiah Strong... 92
PUBLISHER'S NOTE.
I believe it susceptible of the clearest proof that there has never
before been a time in the history of any country when all the con-
ditions were so favorable to the improvement, comfort and happi-
ness, of all classes, as they now are in the United States, but for
the danger of beliefs in false political, social, and economic theo-
ries and doctrines, and the bad legislation and other vicious con-
sequences certain to follow such beliefs, if they are allowed to
become too general or too active.
Notwithstanding the unprecedented advantages and opportu-
nities open to all on equal terms, there has never before been a
time when malicious agitators, demagogues, blatherskites and
mountebanks, of every villainous creed and ism, were sonumerous
and so busy and so reckless as they are here and now. Almost
every Labor Association, Labor Union, and Knights of Labor
Assembly, is being turned, by these pestiferous humbugs, from its
legitimate and original purpose into a primary school of social-
ism, where honest well-meaning and industrious working men are
being persistently taught the most vicious social and political
theories and fallacies, and are having their minds poisoned
against their government, and filled with hatred of their employ-
ers, and of the whole body of their fellow-citizens who are
engaged in other employments, or who chance to be in better
circumstances, than themselves. All this, if not counteracted by
the influence of truth and sound doctrine, must sooner or later,
lead to disastrous results. Permanent classes hostile to each other,
and permanent class-feuds will be established, that will always
threaten, and often disturb, the peace of society; and that mutual
good will and fraternity of spirit, that ought to characterize the
citizens of a free government, will be quite destroyed.
This raid of the skum of Europe is the more to be feared and
resisted because, as a people, we are just as it were, closing
one great epoch in our national development and history and
simultaneously opening another. New questions, of the most
potential importance, or old ones in new forms and under new
conditions, confront us, and we are fairly entered upon a discus-
sion of politico-social-economic questions that promises to be more
VIII PUBLISHER's NOTE.
thorough and more bitter than any similar discussion that has
preceded it in the world's history. On the result will depend the
cause of human progress and the conditions of human happiness
for generations to come. Indeed, it is believed by thoughtful
men everywhere, that the fitness and power of popular free insti-
tutions to successfully govern society, are more distinctly on trial,
and are to be put to a severer test than at any former time; being
confronted by more serious questions, and more complex con-
ditions and difficulties than ever before. Questions of taxation
and expenditure; of finance and banking, and the relations of
gold and silver and of different forms of paper money; of tariff
for protection or revenue only; of labor—its wages, hours, con-
tracts and rights; of corporations and their rights, powers and
restrictions; of inter-state commerce; of coast defenses; and of
the army and navy, are all pressing for new adjustment, and
must have new solutions, growing out of new conditions, within
the next few years. It is of the first importance to every interest,
as well as to the general peace and welfare, that all these ques-
tions be adjusted to the new conditions of society, and intelli-
gently settled on principles of right, truth and justice. This can
only be done as the result of careful study, and full, free, and
intelligent discussion.
At such a time, when the calmest reason, and the most patient
and patriotic investigations, and the fullest knowledge of our
own institutions and of the science of free government in gen-
eral, are demanded, as though the arch enemy of man had con-
spired tâ overthrow order and liberty, we are being overrun by
European anarchists, socialists, and other pestiferous disturbers
of peace and promoters of riot and destruction.* As a conse-
quence nowhere are socialism and kindred heresies making such
prodigious growth as in the United States: and socialism means
the destruction of individual liberty as completely as absolute
monarchy in the hands of a bad sovereign would mean the same
thing, and would bring with it terrors and dangers to society
that monarchy even, would not bring. as
*Dr. Aveling, during his recent visit to Chicago, said Amer-
ica just now presents the best field for the spread of socialist
principles on account of the large liberty of speech allowed here,
which is not allowed in European countries. An anarchist here
can go on for years, “breathing out threatenings and slaughter,”
and there is no legal way to either stop or punish him till some-
boby has been killed as the result of his teachings.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE. TX
Among the fallacies most prominent, most specious and mis-
leading, iterated and reiterated as an axiomatic truth, stands the
proposition that all wealthis created by labor, and therefore ought
to belong to the laborers who create it. From a full belief in this
proposition (that all wealth is created by labor and ought there-
fore to belong to the laborers who produce it), it is not far to
the belief that laboring men should either take possession of, or
destroy, all wealth; just, it is argued, as the slave should strike for
his liberty and destroy or kill whatever or whoever stands in his
way. And it is recklessly assumed that only those engaged in
manual labor for wages are laborers. A grosser, falser, or more
impudent, or groundless or dangerous dogma it would be impos-
sible to find. Yet it is very plausible, and attractive and flatter-
ing to workingmen, and is the very germ of the seed of the
present socialistic labor agitation.
The following unpretentious essay was brought to my atten-
tion a little more than a year ago. It made a profound impression
on my mind regarding the root of the deadly upas tree of social-
ism that is so rapidly spreading its poisonous branches through-
out the civilized world. In my judgment it completely uproots
the Labor-value fallacy, and is worthy of the widest circulation
and of the thoughtful study of all who would be well informed on
the first principles of questions and doctrines upon which, as citi-
zens, they may be called to pass judgment and make decisions.
When first published this little book was noticed by a large
number of the most intelligent journals of this country, and by
some in Europe, to an extent and in a manner usually only
accorded the exhaustive works of the best known authors; show-
ing that it had arrested the attention of a large number of the best
critics of the press. Even those who took decided issue with the
writer, admitted it to be a work of unusual originality and power.
A sentence or two from a few of these notices will indicate the
opinions of those who ought to be competent judges, and cor-
roborate a high estimate of the value of its brief but pointed
presentation of the subject.*
* “A valuable contribution to the social-science discussions
which are now agitating Europe and America.”—Chicago Tribune.
“The book is one of the most thoughtful of recent contribu-
tions to economic literature.”—Chicago Times.
“While Mr. Scudder's argument has been preceded by Mac-
Leod and others, it is nevertheless timely, true, and sensible.”—
Chicago Inter Ocean.
X. 12UBLISHER's NoTE.
Some of the notices from which these extracts are taken are
quite long, and many more of similar import might be given,
from other leading journals. But these will suffice, it is hoped, to
convince those to whose attention they come, that to read the book
will not be a waste of time. The argument, it will be noticed,
does not pretend to be exhaustive; nor does it even undertake to
define the full relation of labor to capital or to value and wealth.
It admits all the honor and dignity due to labor, as one of the
most important forces in the production of wealth and of the
world's progress, but emphatically denies its Omnipotence as the
only force. It argues conclusively that labor, to produce value
or wealth, must be intelligently expended in the production of
something adapted to the world's wants, and that it is this adap-
tation of the thing produced, and not the amount of labor
expended on it, that is the test and gauge of its value. Labor
“The work merits a careful reading by all students of the per-
plexing labor problem.”—The Interior.
“In this essay * * * some of the most popular of the
socialistic dogmas of the present day are searchingly investi-
gated.”—New York Home Journal.
“It is strong in treatment, simple in style, and important to
all interested in political economy.”—Boston Globe.
“This much besieged and beleagured question (the labor ques-
ton) gets a little fresh thought in a tiny book just published [The
Labor-Value Fallacy]. A good deal of the sentimental rubbish
wherewith labor reformers have enshrouded the question, is
cleared away and common sense and hard fact put in its place.”
—Boston Transcript.
• , “Mr. Scudder's arguments are sound and his point of view is
distinctively the right one.”—The (London) Saturday Review.
“The best book on this aspect of the question [socialist view of
labor] is a short one by M. L. Scudder, Jr., on the Labor-Value
Fallacy.”—The (New York) Independent.
“We wish to call the attention of thoughtful men who are
befogged and perplexed by socialistic reasoning, to the calm con-
sideration of the subject presented in this little book. It is a
blow straight from the shoulder. It smacks socialism square
between the eyes and is intended to hurt.”—Boston Commercial
Bulletin. sº
“Mr. Scudder makes many happy points and shows an inti-
mate knowledge of the subject he treats * * * * is a savage
onslaught upon the pet axiom of the socialists.--New York Herald.
“The spirit of the work is excellent, but it seems to us that
his reasonings are not entirely faultless; but books carefully pre-
pared like this will prove helpful in clearing away many errors
and in getting us nearer on our way toward the true answer.”—
Banker's Magazine.

PUBLISHER's NoTE. X1
*
may be as easily wasted as any other commodity. Scores of
instances will occur to any one who will give the matter a little
careful thought where he knows of labor's being foolishly thrown
away in wild schemes or in the production of useless things. It
is not, therefore, simply the expenditure of labor, nor of capital,
that produces and reproduces, value or wealth, but the intelli-
gent expenditure or investment of either or both, and saving the
results. It is brains that gain and govern—not mere money,
muscles and bones.
Nothing in these pages need be, nor can honestly be, con-
strued to underrate the character of labor, nor deny the credit
due to labor and to workingmen. Labor has its rights, which it
is prečminently the duty of government to foster, protect and
defend. But it will get its rights most readily by confining its
claims to its rights, and not by “Claiming the Earth,” nor by
making any other preposterous and silly demands.
Thos. M. Nichol,
Secretary P. L.
CHICAGO, December 8th, 1886.

INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION.
This pamphlet was written more than two years
ago during some of the spare evenings of a busy
life. The writing of it set my mind at rest concern-
ing socialism and gave me a satisfaction similar to
that which follows the successful solution of a per-
plexing mathematical problem. I had no expecta-
tion that it would become popular reading, but it
seems to have met with favor in a limited way, and
its publication is now requested in cheap form for
popular circulation.
I am well aware that it is too concise in its form—
too bare of rhetoric and illustration, to appear at
first sight, to the ordinary discursive reader, as an
adequate reply to “Progress and Poverty.” But a
little bullet, well directed, may pierce the brain of
a monster and serve the purpose of destruction as
well as a landslide.
I ask only that these pages be read deliberately
and thoughtfully. Let the reader take in what I
have written in a practical, every-day mood. Let
each one test the argument in his own experience,
trying to select some transaction, within his own
knowledge, in which labor alone has created value
in exchange. If he cannot do this, he may conclude
that there is something wrong in the generally
accepted theory. *
INTRODUCTION.
No one can regard with absolute indifference the
fierce discussions concerning social relations which
are now agitating Europe and America. Every
inhabitant of these continents has something at
stake upon the outcome of these discussions; and it
is very important that sincere men should be able to
take a plear and confident stand in these disputes.
I have observed that a large proportion of men,
who are beyond question intelligent and sincere, are
far from confident in reference to socialism. On
the contrary, I have found many benevolent, well-
informed men in avowed sympathy with socialism.
It is not uncommon to hear a good word for social-
ism spoken by careful and conservative citizens, and
not infrequently I have heard socialist arguments
put by, as impracticable, solely on the ground that
mankind never can expect to reach perfection.
For a long time I was befogged and perplexed by
socialist reasoning. The arguments seem unanswer-
able, when their theory alone is considered; but
their application to practical affairs involves so much
that is unfair and unjust, so much that is destruc-
tive of the noblest qualities of individual character,
and the most prized influences of social life, that
their adoption seems a dreadful possibility. It seems
that in order to follow a correct theory, one must
engage in a cruel crusade against the cherished insti-
tutions of modern civilization. The choice is a hard
one; and yet, I believe that there are thousands in
xiv. INTRODUCTION.
whose minds this question has taken this form. I
believe that there are many thousands of well-mean-
ing, order-loving people, who, affected by Socialist
reasoning and the current teaching of political
economy, entertain more or less well-defined opin-
ions, that the principles upon which society is
organized are radically wrong.
The manner in which the writings of Mr. Henry
George have been received, read and commented
upon, shows this quite sufficiently. I do not say
that he has secured, in this country, a large follow-
ing, who are ready to put in practice his scheme
for the “nationalization of the land.” His book,
“Progress and Poverty,” which posterity will prob-
ably adjudge mere balderdash, has had a wider
circulation than any other book published in recent
years. It has been seriously and respectfully read;
and the tone in which editors and professors and
thoughtful men speak of it, shows, at least, that
much doubt exists as to whether his claims are not
sound. The partial and inadequate character of the
replies which have been made to his arguments, and
the bad temper with which his views have been
denounced without being disproved, exhibit, too,
the profound impression which he has made on the
public mind. I think, I may describe the state of
mind, in which Mr. George's book is generally read,
as one of involuntary credulity. Men refuse to
accept and act upon the conclusions, but do not
deny the argument.
Although I venture into this field with much
hesitation, I shall attack the very foundation of Mr.
George's argument. In doing this I shall be com-
pelled to controvert the positive conclusions of much
INTRODUCTION. XV
higher authority than Mr. George can claim to be.
I expect to be misunderstood by the superficial,
condemned by the careless, and perhaps vilified by
partisans and controversialists. I wish to disclaim
at the outset a too positive tone, for in examining
these great questions there is always the danger
that one may mistake a part of the subject for the
whole. There may be facts just outside the field
of vision, which, if embraced in the view, would
materially modify or change the picture. But while
admitting this possibility, I shall strive to tell
accurately, and without prejudice, so much as I
have to tell. The proper spirit, it seems to me, is
that each one shall describe clearly what each one
sees, but with the constant admission that no one
can see it all.
I do not appeal to the authority of great names,
but to the every-day common sense of those who
favor me with their attention, and I shall be satisfied
if I may be able to impart to some well-meaning
men new confidence in old virtues. If I can show
that intelligence, diligence, sobriety and honesty
still remain the only trustworthy means by which
success and contentment can be attained, and that
all theories for securing the rewards of these virtues,
without the rigid practice of them, are fallacious
and vain, I shall rest well pleased.
There are many who are looking gloomily into
the future, seeing there the triumph of socialism—
family ties and home-life destroyed, social inter-
course made a monotonous routine of distasteful
endurance, and man reduced to a mere feeding,
muscle-exerting machine. It is my aim to prove
to those discouraged by this vision, that the true

XVI INTRODUCTſCN.
progress of mankind is not in this direction, and that
it needs but a clear appreciation of the fundamental
conditions of economic relations to dissipate this
disagreeable apprehension. This horrible Franken-
stein, socialism, now dominates with its baleful
power many minds. If the central and vital secret
of this monstrous enchantment can be touched and
destroyed, it will vanish shrieking, like the evil
genius of the Arabian tale, and its victims, relieved
of its paralyzing presence, will breathe again with
old courage and hope.

º
$
TELE LABOR-VALUE FAILLACY.
Socialism's False Foundation.
THERE are two kindred propositions, generally
täcitly assented to, which I think produce a vast
amount of discontent and misery. These are:
1st. All wealth is created by labor.
2d. The title to all wealth ought to be vested in
the laborers who have produced it.
To a great many intelligent people, Ihave no doubt,
these propositions seem self-evident truths. They
pass currently unchallenged. They appear as the
foundations of the creeds of nearly all the labor agita-
tors. They give the key note to the labor discussions
in the newspapers. They figure prominently in polit.
ical platforms; and in the minds of numbers of men,
who are neither agitators, editors nor politicians,
there is a consciousness, proceeding from habit, that
it is useless to question these dicta. There are
thousands of workmen, too, to whom these proposi-
tions have an almost religious sacredness, and in
whom, sullen rage and feelings of continued injury
are produced, by ruminating upon them. They fur-
nish the basis for all modern socialist systems. The
International with its million of members, the nihi-
list societies of Europe, the socialist-labor parties of
Germany and the United States, have been animated
2 THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY.
sº
and energized by belief in them. And whatever of
logical consistency one can discover in the writings
of Mr. Henry George, comes from the assumption of
the truth of these, his fundamental premises.
It is my purpose to call in question the truth of
these important propositions. I think them wholly
false. I think that all theories and systems spring-
ing from them must be erroneous and demoralizing,
and that all attempts to put them in practice will
end disastrously.
Origin and Growth of the Fallacy.
ADAM SIMITH AND RICARDO.
The germ of the proposition that all wealth is
created by labor can be traced to Adam Smith. He
said, in “The Wealth of Nations,” “The real price
of everything, what everything really costs to the
man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble
of acquiring it, etc.” “Labor was the first price—
the original purchase-money that was paid for all
things.” “In that early and rude state of society,
which precedes both the accumulation of stock and
the appropriation of land, the proportion between
the quantities of labor necessary for acquiring dif-
ferent objects, seems to be the only circumstance
which can afford any rule for exchanging them for
one another.” .
These and other similar expressions, which can be
found in his book, are by no means the equivalent
of the modern form of this proposition. Adam
Smith seemed to regard these ideas concerning value,
as merely suggestive, and as applying especially to
the early and chiefly imaginary condition of man.
THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY. 3
When he treated of actual transactions in the market,
he accounted for the values of commodities in quite
another way. But he said enough to suggest the
notion to Ricardo, and it was by him made more
definite and positive. Ricardo maintained that the
exchangeable values of commodities are in propor-
tion to the quantities of labor expended in their
production. But he carefully explained that this is
true only of commodities in the production of which
unrestrained competition is possible.
*ēs JOHN STUART MILL AND BASTIAT.
John Stuart Mill gave much encouragement to
the growth of this proposition, by the professed
adoption of Ricardo’s definition, although qualify-
ing his approval by many important conditions. He
said, “The value of commodities therefore depends
principally, . . . . . . on the quantity of labor required
for their production; including in the idea of pro-
duction that of conveyance to market.” He also
carefully limited the application of this rule, “to
cases in which values and prices are determined by
competition alone.”
Following in the foot-steps of these illustrious
thinkers, subsequent writers on political economy
have treated of value as the creation of labor, gen-
erally complicating the idea with more or less orig-
inal modifications, but almost always presenting
labor as the most important element in determining
value. Even Bastiat's definition of value: “the
relation of two services exchanged,” receives this
interpretation from many of his disciples, service
being understood by them to mean labor.
4 THE LABor—VALUE FALLAoy.
The result of these discussions has been, that the
various complicated exceptions to this theory of
value have been overlooked by general readers, and
the central idea only has remained in the popular
opinion; and it has come to be commonly accepted
as a fundamental truth, that value is created solely.
by labor. On this foundation the socialists have
built.
KARL MARX.
Karl Marx is probably the leading socialist rea-
soner, and his reasoning starts from the assumption
that all value should be measured in units of labor.
It was his argument, preached among the workmen
of Germany and France, which caused a million
names to be enrolled as members of the secret society
of the International. It was his teaching, developed
through the International, which contrived, directed
and afterwards approved the atrocities perpetrated
in 1871, under the Commune of Paris. These theories
animate the nihilists of Russia, and kindle in the
breasts of students and young girls an enthusiasm
for assassination and destruction, which the severest
punishments cannot repress.
I confess, that if Karl Marx is right in assuming
that all value is created by labor, and that laborers
are justly entitled to the products of their labor,
that it is extremely difficult to show where his fol-
lowers are logically wrong, in concluding that all
private property is theft, that property owners are
generally criminals, and that those who support and
administer governments, which do not recognize the
right of the laborer to possess all the products of his
labor, are social pests, whom it may be a social duty
to remove. *
THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY. 5
That this conclusion is warranted by this premise,
is evidenced by the paralysis which has affected the
reasoning world, while these results of these doc-
trines are being worked out before the public eyes.
Intelligent men all over the world shudder at these
sights, but are dumb. Aristocrats tremble, contrive
more terrible penalties, and make martyrs of the
fanatics. Men of peace and property everywhere
look with apprehension into the future, and hope
the present organization of society will last out their
time. But no where is there a voice raised to say,
thät this crusade against Society is based upon a
cunning falsehood, which will prove an economic
absurdity, whenever brought to a practical test.
Outline of the Socialist Argument.
The following is the argument, which leads from
the admission that all wealth springs from labor, to
the justification of the annihilation of civilization,
by a chain whose links are too strong to be easily
broken :
All wealth, that is everything which has exchange-
able value, is created by labor. Then everything not
created by labor has no exchangeable value and is
not wealth. But many things not created by labor
are bought and sold and treated as wealth. It fol-
lows that traffic in things not created by labor is a
wrong done to laborers. All things not produced by
labor are for the common use of all men. That indi-
viduals should be permitted to appropriate to their
own exclusive use these objects, and shut out other
men from the enjoyment of them, is a monstrous
×3
6 THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY.
outrage. To put an end to this wrong is the aim of
socialism. But it can be readily seen that the task
of remodeling society by degrees is a hopeless one.
So intricately is this great so-called wrong woven in
all the relations of men, that centuries of continuous
agitation can not be expected to eliminate it. There
is logically and consistently nothing to be done but
to destroy the whole fabric, and make out of the
ruins a new civilization, which shall know no wealth
but that created by labor. *
THE SINCERE SOCIALIST'S HOPE.
In the view of the sincere socialist mankind will
be perfectly prosperous and happy, if all the gifts
of nature are held as common possessions, and if a
benevolent common government supplies the wants
of each individual, while expecting each to create
value for the common benefit, according to his
ability. Believing this, and seeing poverty and
misery in every habitable land, is it wonderful that
the earnest socialist proposes thorough measures?
To the majority of persons, who are quiet, law-fear-
ing, property-cherishing citizens, the anarchists and
nihilists seem savage beasts, and their doctrines the
incomprehensible malice of fiends. But to them-
selves, it can not be doubted, they appear self-
devoted benefactors of the human race. Their
enthusiasm has been compared by a careful observer
to that displayed by the early Christians, when they
looked hopefully for the general destruction of the
world, and saw, with eyes of faith, a new heaven
and a new earth arise from the burning elements,
and were led by this vision to willing martyrdom.
THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY. 7
INO PRACTICAL AIPPIICATION.
It is remarkable that although socialist doctrines,
based on the labor value of all property, have been
earnestly advocated by many able and sincere men,
such as Saint Simon, Owen, Fourier and Marx, for
more than half a century, they have produced no
impression upon the organization of society. As
far as I can discover, there has been no change or
modification of social order effected by socialist
sentiment, and yet these sentiments have received .
respectful attention, especially in this country, and
have been adopted and put to practical test, at one
time or another, by many well-informed and earnest
people. Isn’t it strange, that if there is any thing
really capable of improving society in socialism, it
should not have developed by this time, and been
made use of ? That no such influence has come
from socialist discussions is pretty good evidence,
that no beneficial reforms of present conditions
should be looked for from that source. It is evi-
dence also, that the extreme socialists, the anarch-
ists and nihilists, are logically correct in their
position. Socialism is incapable of modifying
existing Society and changing its form by degrees.
The only consistent socialist is he who goes to the
root of the matter at once, and desires the total
destruction of all property, that on the ruins of
civilization, a new society may grow up, in which
no property will be permitted to exist, which will
not exchange according to the quantity of labor
exerted in producing it. The only mistake the
anarchists and nihilists make is in not going far
enough. Their programme is incomplete, in leaving
&.
8 THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY.
-º-
human nature unchanged. To fully accomplish
their object, they need the services of a comet or of
a glacial epoch to wipe mankind off the earth’s sur-
face, and then they would be obliged to find a new
creative energy, to produce a new order of beings,
who would “produce according to their capacities
and consume according to their needs.” There is
no other reform radical enough to satisfy the
demands of the socialist theories, and no less
thorough measures will give their system a fair
chance.
LOGICAL CONSISTENCY OF THE ANARCHISTS.
The anarchists deride their half-hearted brethren,
who merely advocate the confiscation of private
ownership of land, for the inconsistency and ineffi-
ciency of their proposals. They sneer equally at the
moderate (?) idea, which is now cherished by prob-
ably a majority of the workmen of France, that the
State or the municipalities may be captured by the
exercise of the elective franchise, and the rate of
wages fixed to meet the wants of the laborers, some
sort of penalty established for exceeding the regular
hours of labor, and a law passed that work (and a
satisfactory compensation) shall always be furnished
to those desiring it by somebody. The anarchists
are right. These reforms can never be secured by
peaceful means, and can never be made parts of the
present system. The whole theory of existing gov-
ernments is opposed to these changes. If carried
by all the ordained means of establishing laws, not
one of these propositions could be successfully put
into effect. They would fail as all similar laws have
heretofore failed, and their discouraged projectors
..?
.* THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY. 9
would then have no refuge for their hopes, but in
anarchism and the complete demolition of all gov-
ernments. The anarchists are acute enough to see
this, and so they treat all these moderate counsel-
ings with undisguised contempt. The anarchists are
the enthusiasts, the fanatics of socialism. They will
hesitate at nothing, if a chance for action presents
itself, and, consistent in their belief, they will lead,
and if a temporary advantage is gained, the mass of
more conservative socialists will fellow them, just
as they followed them in Paris in 1871.**
FRANCE.
France is just now the field in which these demon-
strations are most likely to be made. A great part
of the handicraftsmen and many of the agricultural
*NotE.—Nov., 1886.-A very apposite illustration of the tend-
ency of all socialists to fall in under the lead of the anarchists
whenever the latter move in lawless acts for the destruction of
society, is afforded in the present attitude of the various social and
labor organizations of this country with respect to the condemned
anarchists in the county jail at Chicago. When the Haymarket
murders were committed the Knights of Labor and the labor
unions disavowed any sympathy with the theories or methods of
the perpetrators; but in the months which have passed all these
societies, with more or less vaguely defined socialist leanings,
have been gradually brought to take a lively interest in averting
punishment from the anarchists who advised and contrived that
crime. The members of these societies are now actively circulating
petitions for their pardon, and contributing funds liberally to be
used to avert the execution of their sentence. Why are Henry
George's followers or the Knights of Labor more interested than
other people in saving these criminals from the gallows? Is it not
because they are really anarchists at heart, although they may not
have confessed so much to themselves? They know instinctively
that the anarchists are logically their leaders, and if these fall the
triumph of law and order will be uncomfortably complete and
permanent.
10 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
laborers have socialist opinions. A political revolu-
tion will furnish opportunity. The anarchists will
assume control, and will display a reckless energy,
which Frenchmen always admire. They will be fol-
lowed by an immense army, which will wage war, in
all the large cities of France, not only against per-
sons, but against property, and will destroy with a
wantonness which has never been known before.
This civil war will end, as it only can end, in the
restoration of order in a desolated land.
This is all likely to happen, and will possibly be
the next important event in the record of socialism.
This is all caused by the belief that all value is
created by labor, and that the laborer is rightfully
the owner of the products of his labor. If these
propositions are true, the socialist mob will be justi-
fied in reducing to ruin the cities of France. There
is no stopping place, between admitting these prop-
ositions and committing France and every other
civilized land to dynamite and fire. Is not this suffi-
cient to suggest grave doubts, as to the ability of
labor to create value # Is not this a sufficient reduc-
tio ad absurdum &
Mild Forms of Socialism.
The tendency to socialism is probably indicated
by the desire to advise rich men how to make the
best use of their property. This office of gratuitous
adviser to the wealthy is assumed by many well-
meaning people, including not a few editors of news-
papers. These speak with the air of authority, as
if they had some sort of public commission, and
threaten dreadful but indefinite consequences if their
THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY. 11
advice is not followed. These would probably dis-
claim any socialist sympathy.
The mildest form of acknowledged socialism is
probably represented by the proposition to compel,
by unequal taxation or otherwise, the owners of
large unoccupied estates to dispose of their lands or
open them to settlement. I think the beginning of
Socialism may be seen in an inclination to make the
burden of taxation rest, in undue proportion, on the
larger owners of property. This would be a virtual
violation of the implied contract which society has
entered into with each of its members, which stim-
ulates individual exertion by guaranteeing equal
protection to all. It would discourage exertion by
putting a stigma on good fortune and success.
The proposalis sometimes made that large incomes
should be taxed at a high rate for the avowed pur-
pose of preventing property accumulating in single
hands. This would be a return to semi-civilized
methods, such as prevail in oriental countries, where
men are forced to conceal their riches from the
rapacious tax-gatherers, in order to avoid confisca-
tion.
Bismarck has been accused of socialist tendencies,
because he has proposed to establish a State insur-
ance of support to workmen, disabled in prosecuting
their craft. But this may be explained as a meas-
ure of public policy; and such a system might and
probably would be administered by the German gov-
ernment so that it would not offer a reward for shirk-
ing. It can easily be imagined, that such insurance
might be less socialistic in its influence than the old
poor laws of England, and might become a benefi-
cial element in a well-regulated industrial society.
12 THE TABOR-VAIUE FAILACY.
There are a considerable number of professed
political economists, who are not ready to call them-
selves socialists, who nevertheless adhere to fine
purely socialist doctrine, that inheritance of prop-
erty is a violation of the rights of man. J. S.
Mill took substantially this position, led to it by
the assumption that the title to all property is
derived from labor. It follows that the law, which
gives to the son property for which his father alone
labored, confers an unjust title. This conclusion
must follow this assumed premise, but I hold the
premise to be wholly false.
HENRY GEORGE'S STAND POINT.
The first landing place of active agitation on the
logical ladder which leads, from the admission that
all value is created by labor, down the bottomless
pit of socialism, is at present occupied by Mr. Henry
George and his followers. Mr. George writes in a
popular and persuasive manner, and his writings
have been widely read. His plan for the relief of
the poor is to have the State take possession of all
land and become the universal landlord, applying
the rents received to the wants of the needy. This
idea is not original with Mr. George, but he presents
it just now in a new dress, and calls it “the nation-
alization of the land.” It is an old notion, but has
not received much attention heretofore from practi-
cal men, for the obvious reason that in practice it
would multiply indefinitely the number of the
needy, and would greatly decrease the number who
would be willing to pay rent.
“Nature gives wealth to labor, and to nothing but
labor. There is and there can be no article of wealth
THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY. 13
but what labor has gained by making it or searching
for it, out of the raw material which the Creator has
given us to draw from. If there was but one man in
the world it is manifest that he could have no more
wealth than he was able to make and to save. This
is the natural order.” From “Problems of the
Time,” by Henry George.
This is Mr. George's fundamental principle. If it
is admitted there is no use in denying that private
property inland is unjustifiable. But, believing this,
why does Mr. George stop with this demand? Per-
haps he doesn’t like the looks of the pit below him,
and fancies that mankind will be able to stop on his
little landing place. But he is greatly mistaken.
The inexorable ladder leads down to chaos. Give us
Once the nationalization of the land, and one must
then follow the footsteps of the anarchist and the
nihilist to a lower deep.
“The Right to Labor.”
The next important point to which a formidable
body of socialists expect to carry affairs is the recog-
nition of “the right to labor.” It is for this the
workingmen of France are now pressing. If we
admit that a portion of the soil is the birthright of
every man, we must allow that society in taking
possession of the soil, or permitting a limited num-
ber to take possession of it, deprives the landless of
their rights. As a compensation for this depriva-
tion—for this arbitrary taking away of the means by
which nature intended all men to obtain support—
Society must provide each man with an occupation,
an opportunity to labor, by which he may earn a
14 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
comfortable living. This is “the right to labor.”
It is not a new.idea. It was put in practice to a
limited extent, but with most disastrous results, by
the influence of Louis Blanc under the Republic
of 1848. More than anything else this wretched
attempt to force the State to support the artisans of
Paris, disgusted the people of France with a repub-
lican form of government at that time, and prepared
their minds to accept the empire of Louis Napoleon.
Events are moving in similar grooves in France now.
The French people are now more confirmed in repub-
lican habits of thought, but the socialist element is
also stronger and more hopeful. The workmen
expect to obtain power by their votes, and they
propose to have the right to labor acknowledged,
and a law passed fixing a minimum of wages, and
forbidding the dismissal of laborers, except for
mutiny, and providing that the State shall lend cap-
ital to great corporations, which shall undertake the
principal branches of industry. When this or any
similar scheme shall be taken up by the French
Republic, the world may prepare to hail another
Emperor of France. He will not then be far away,
although France may be obliged to pass through
fire and ruin to find him.
SOCIALIST EXPERIMENTS NEVER SUCCESSFUL.
It cannot fail to strike the curious inquirer as sin-
gular that although there are millions of men, who
believe that all value or wealth is created by labor,
and that the title to all wealth should be in the labor-
ers, who have produced it, that no community or state
has been organized successfully on this principle. It
is true that many such attempts have been made,
THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY. 15
but these have all proved total failures, with the
exception of one or two, which still drag out mis-
erable existences, furnishing illustrations of the
wretchedness of the cause in which they suffer.
It is a matter of surprise, too, that Mr. Henry
George, having doubtless caused much mental mis-
ery among his landless readers, does not attempt to
satisfy the longings for the happiness which is to be
obtained under “nationalization ” of land by organ-
izing a colony to occupy Some unappropriated part
of the earth’s surface. If Mr. George can show us
by actual demonstration how a community, practic-
ing his teachings, obtains more happiness individ-
ually and collectively than others, he will have done
more to convince us than by printing the most elo-
quent appeals. As it is, he has only caused a great
deal of discontent, and it is open for the least argu-
mentative questioner to refute him, by pointing out
the very considerable contentment and happiness
which can be seen in Societies acknowledging and
protecting individual ownership of land, and chal-
lenging him to show better results under his system.
The fact that he has made no attempt to do so, is to
be counted against him, as showing lack of faith in
his own principles.
IMAGINAEY CREATORS OF WEALTH.
During the last century the civilized world has
been engaged in devising and celebrating the apoth-
eosis of labor. Poets have sung its virtues. Orators
have declaimed its merits. Statesmen have done it
honor. And political economists have fallen down
and worshiped it. Far be it from me to treatit with
16 THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY.
irreverence; but I wish humbly to suggest that there
may be other gods in our economic pantheon, and
that possibly a little incense, burned before some of
the other productive powers of our mundane sys-
tem, may be equally well consumed.
Our progenitors in prehistoric times adored the
sun as the producer of all good. From his beams
they seemed to derive all benefits, and to him they
rendered all praise. Later on, in the dawn of his-
tory, the elements became the fashionable sources to
which to accredit blessings. Earth, water, fire, air,
were all personified and deified, and mankind gave
to them respectful prayers and thanks for the satis-
faction of all their wants. After a while the idea of
deity became elevated, but throughout Christen-
dom, for centuries, there were a great variety of
Saints and supernatural agents to whose kind offices
prosperity and good fortune were ascribed. Just at
the beginning of the commercial era of modern times,
the precious metals received the eager reverence of
men, as the wealth containing, if not the wealth pro-
ducing powers. And when these lost this exalted
station in the estimation of men, Quesnay and the
physiocrats raised agriculture to the high place of
creator of all value.
This is not by any means an enumeration of all
the objects and forces to which homage has been ren
dered in return for the possessions, which men have
used and enjoyed. But it is sufficient to show that
there has been a difference of opinion, at different
times, as to the real causes of wealth. It seems to
show also that certain popular notions have prevailed,
to the exclusion of all others, at certain periods.
Noticing the fallibility of human opinion in past
THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY. 17
ages may suggest a doubt as to the correctness of
our own time’s belief.
IMPORTANCE OF ADAM SMITH's VIEW OF LABOR.
It was, no doubt, in opposing the mercantile
theory and the agricultural theory that Adam Smith
suggested, that labor was the first price paid for all
things. The world was in the mood to take up and
exalt labor. The author of the “Wealth of Nations”
struck a responsive cord. Labor had been from the
foundation of the world overlooked and despised.
Invention was then beginning to furnish new means
of satisfying desires. Commerce was developing
new avenues of activity, new regions of the earth’s
surface, and new political ideas. It was fitting that
labor should be treated with greater respect, and be
lifted to a more important place in the calculations
of men. An era of progress in industry, hitherto
undreamed of, was commencing.
The importance of the suggestion made by Adam
Smith, at that time, can hardly be overestimated.
It gave a philosophical basis to the economic prog-
ress of the civilized world. But the time will come,
if it has not already come, when the world may ask
to its advantage, if there are not other elements of
progress which deserve its attention, and whether
there is not danger of reaching a pernicious extreme
and subordinating the best interests of society to the
demands of the self-conscious, all-demanding work-
ingman—the spoiled child of the nineteenth century.
Workingmen not Generally Socialists.
I am far from believing that the real workingmen
of this country, who are for the most part orderly,
18 THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY.
contented citizens, are avowed or secret socialists,
and it is only of those who are members of socialist
organizations and have socialist sympathies of which
I now speak, as wishing to give labor a pernicious
influence in society. But I hope to convince all
candid readers, that the best interests of society are
not to be served by unduly exalting labor as the
creator of all value; but that a society in which there
are many grades of individual inequality,+in which
each, having different accomplishments, and diverse
duties, does his best in his particular place, is the
highest form of social development, and that in
which each enjoys most perfectly the happiness of
which his life is capable.
Labor and Value.
*
Ihave endeavored to show what are the logical con-
sequences of the assumption that all value is created
by labor. I will now try to prove that this assump-
tion is false, and that it has no reasonable founda-
tion in human nature or in fact.
I must be understood as using the term labor, in
the Sense in which it is generally employed, as mean-
ing manual labor, that is physical exertion directed
by more or less mental effort and put forth for some
useful end. f >
By the term value I mean only value in exchange,
and by the term wealth the aggregate of those
things to which value in exchange attaches. I do
not suppose that anyone, even the most stubborn
Socialist, will claim that value in use is always the
creation of labor, or that things which have no value
THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY. 19
in exchange can properly be called wealth, although
there are many passages, in the writing of Mr. Henry
George, and others, which might be interpreted to
have this signification.
What is Wealth P
* The South-Sea Islanders, who are able to supply
their individual wants by their own individual exer-
tions, have nothing to exchange with each other, and
consequently have no wealth; but when a European
trader comes, and offers beads for their cocoanuts,
wealth makes its appearance. A man living and
dying alone, on an umvisited island, has no wealth,
although he may have all the wants supplied and
many possessions. This word is used very loosely,
even by political economists. It is frequently em-
ployed to describe possessions in general, without
reference to their exchangeable quality. But unless
it can be held to apply only to those possessions which
have value in exchange, it loses all precision. Air
and water are possessions, which have value in use
but no value in exchange, and should be reckoned as
wealth, if wealth is not limited to things which have
value in exchange. Mr. George frequently uses
the term wealth in this befogging sense, to describe
things having value in use but no value in exchange.
He has done so in a passage which I have previously
* Captain Cook found some Australian tribes to whom the
idea of traffic seemed unknown. They received what was given
them readily, but they received it as a present only; they seemed
to have no notion of giving anything in lieu of it.—Bagehot,
Economic Studies, pg. 41.
20 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
quoted, but I do not think that he will contend that
it is its proper use.
At all events, I am gaining no unfair advantage
for my argument by confining the term to those
things to which value in exchange attaches. The
assertion that all things which have value in use are
produced by labor refutes itself. There is no occasion
for argument, unless wealth is held to mean only
those articles which have value in exchange.
NO PROOF THAT WYALUE IS CREATED BY LABOR.
I have searched diligently in works on political
economy, for some proof that value in exchange is
created by labor. I find plenty of assertions of this
dogma; plenty of references to authority; plenty of
attempts to illustrate it by describing the doings of
primeval men, but I have not been able to find any
effort to derive this supposed rule from actual
observation or experience. I have tried many times
to discover in real transactions, in the most simple
as well as the most complex, what influence the
labor which had been employed in the production
of an article has exerted in determining the ratio,
in which it could be exchanged for other articles.
But with all my efforts, I have not found a single
instance, in which the price demanded or paid for
any thing bore any ascertainable relation to the
labor which made it. I may be more dull than
others about this. I have often concluded that I
must be so; but still the unguessed riddle would
not leave me. I have not been able to admit to
myself that an accepted axiom in economics could
have no practical application. But, on the other
hand, I have not been able to find any working
THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILACY. 21
illustration of this one, I find its influence every-
where in theory, but nowhere in practice. It is
indeed frequently brought forward, as a specious
argument, to affect prices. A manufacturer may
resort to it to induce a better bid for his product, or
a merchant may plead it to avoid loss on his wares.
Its use is a favorite artifice among auctioneers. But
if its use occasionally enables an expert to drive a
better bargain, the trick is pretty sure to succeed
only in single cases, and general market prices are
not affected thereby. The only place, where it
seems to be sincerely accepted is in the destructive
and revolutionary plans of the socialists.
IET STUDENTS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY MAKE
A TEST.
Let any graduate of any of our many colleges
start out, with the teachings of his professor of
political economy, and the definition of value from
his text-book fresh in his mind, and engage in busi-
ness on the basis that labor creates value. He will
find manythings selling for more, and many for less
than they may appear to be worth, according to this
standard. But he must buy for exact labor-value,
and, adding the value of his labor, offer them for
sale at the exact labor-value, which they have
acquired in his hands. If he should carry on a
profitable business on this basis, he would furnish
an illustration long needed in political economy.
But no one can doubt the result of such an experi-
ment. A lot of rubbish on which labor had been
wasted, would be accumulated on his hands, which
would wait in vain for purchasers.
22 THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILACY.
LET MECHANICS TRY IT IN PRACTICE.
Let any mechanic, who has been persuaded by
Mr. George's writings to believe that value is cre-
ated by labor, make a practical test. Let him rely
on this principle fully, and make no contract for his
remuneration before completing his work. But let
him turn his hand to whatever work takes his fancy,
and then let him call on the world to come and buy his
product, at a price fixed according to the amount of
labor he has expended upon it. Will his appeal
bring purchasers? Will he not find that his ability
to exchange the article which he has made, for
money or for anything else, depends solely upon its
adaptability to the wants of some one, and not at
all upon the labor which he has expended upon it?
A few such practical trials of the first principles of
socialism by workingmen, who have been attracted
by the promising pictures drawn by socialist agi-
tators, would produce a very good effect.
OWEN'S LABOR EXCHANGE.
A very amusing account is given in Holyoake's
“History of Co-operation ” of several attempts
about fifty years ago to establish labor-exchanges.
These labor-exchanges were consistent endeavors to
carry on trade upon the theory that all value is
created by labor. It was provided that any kind of
commodity could be brought to the exchahge, and
appraised according to the amount of labor expended
in its production. Labor notes were then issued
therefor, the unit of labor being one hour, and these
-notes were receivable in the exchange for any article
according to its appraised price in labor units. Mr.
Robert Owen, the wealthy philanthropist, was the
THE LABOR-VALUE FAILLACY. 23
Originator and chief director of the most important
of these labor-exchanges in London. He provided
the means to start it, and gave his time to the super-
intendence of its operations. His popularity brought
custom to it, and his ability gave the experiment
the best possible chance of success. It carried on a
large business from the start, and at first appeared
Wonderfully successful. A large amount of mer-
chandise appeared on its shelves, and its labor-notes
were circulated quite generally in the neighborhood.
These notes were received with considerable favor by
local tradesmen in exchange for their goods, and it
seemed as if a new era in commercial affairs had
dawned. But soon it began to be perceived that the
really desirable goods were disappearing from the
shelves of the Tabor-Exchange. The local trades-
men who had shown so much favor to the movement,
at the outset, had succeeded in transferring to the
Labor-Exchange their unsalable stocks, and had
taken away the really valuable goods which the
enthusiastic believers in labor-value had brought in.
The labor-notes began to depreciate, and fell rapidly
into discredit, when it was found that little remained
in the Labor-Exchange worth the trouble of remov-
ing. The whole affair came to an end in less than
thirty days after beginning business. There were
labor-exchanges on the same plan started about the
same time in Birmingham and Sheffield, and in Amer-
ica, in Cincinnati and New Harmony; but all of these
seem to have been miserable failures from the first.
It is strange that these very well known efforts to
effect exchanges according to the generally received
theory of value, should not have attracted more
attention. As far as I know these were the only
"24 THE LABOR-VALUE FAILLACY.
attempts of this sort ever made. They failed miser-
ably, and yet the theory remained unshaken, and
has been winning adherents ever since.
NO IABOR-VALUE RECOGNIZED IN MARKET PRICES.
I think if any one analyses the elements of the
price of any commodity (price, which is value ex-
pressed in money terms, affords the only opportunity
for accurate observation of value) he will find that
labor employed in production bears no regular norcal-
culable proportion to the quantity of gold, for which
the commodity may be from time to time exchanged.
If such proportion cannot be discovered and stated
in comprehensible language or figures, I claim that
it is absurd to assert that labor determines value,
and, if it is possible to be so, it is still more idle and
foolish to maintain that labor creates all value.
I think that it will be acknowledged by any one,
who studies the fluctuations of the markets, where
the important commodities of commerce are bought
and sold, that the wants of men are the chief influ-
ences which determine prices. The most favorable
conditions for studying the influences by which
prices are made are furnished by the great exchanges,
in which the chief commodities, such as grain or
cotton, are traded in. Here are concentrated, as in
a focus, all these influences, and men of keen minds
and wide information are giving closest attention to
observe their force and effects.
No scientist gives more concentrated thought to
the object which he holds under his microscope,
than do the dealers in the great exchanges give to
the course of trade. They, if any men, should know
the powers which form and fix prices, and if there is
THE LABOR-VALUE FAILLACY. 25
any agency which creates or determines value, they
should recognize and appreciate it.
Let the student of value go on the floor of the
Board of Trade in Chicago, and observe what influ-
ences are regarded as important in determining the
price of wheat. He will find that all these influences
may be classed easily under two heads, first, and
perhaps most important, the demand, second, the
supply. If he is able to impart any information,
which may come under either of these heads, he will
be listened to with eagerinterest. But suppose that
he has been able to make an accurate calculation,
which shows the amount of labor expended in pro-
ducing a bushel of wheat, and that he exhibits this
valuable contribution to economic science to the
members of the Chicago Board of Trade. He will
find that no one has any time to spare to attend to
his great discovery, and that it will have no more
effect on the course of prices than a calculation of
the ages of the Pyramids.
The conclusion, after observing the opinions of
experts in prices on the Board of Trade, will be that
prices, and consequently values, are not determined
by any one influence or class of influences. They
are as uncertain as human life and as changeable as
buman opinion. They are the evidences of mental
actions, and not the creations of physical efforts.
LABOR BUT ONE OF MANY FORCES ENGAGED IN
PRODUCTION.
The sap which swells the tree does not create the
value of the timber. The chemical action, which
formed the coal in the earth and the iron in the hills,
made them exchangeable for wheat and corn, but
26 THE fláBOR-VALUE FAILACY.
did not determine their value in exchange. The wind
and the rain and the sunshine have had their share
in producing the things which man buys and sells
and uses, but have had no part in the fixing of the
market prices. The labor of beasts has rendered
man service, and so has the labor of slaves, but nei-
ther has had influence in determining how those
services exchange. The labor of freemen differs in
no economic sense from the labor of slaves. Each
accomplishes its result according to the strength and
skill of the laborer, and without reference to his
political rights and condition. And this is true
through the whole scale of labor, from the lowest
drudge in the deepest mine to the professor of polit-
ical economy in the most august university. It is
the result which counts, not the instrument. The
freemen has this advantage whep the result is
attained,—when the product of his labor is com-
pleted,—if he has not already sold his labor or his
product, he may take it into the market and do the
best he can with it. But he will find there, that it
takes two to make a bargain, and that the labor
which he has exerted cuts no figure in fixing value,
unless it be that it has some subordinate effect on his
own feelings. His main desire and his controlling
motive will be to obtain for his product that which
will give him greatest satisfaction, and on this basis
the sale will be made.
COST OF PRODUCTION ANALYSED.
It is frequently said, that cost of production deter-
mines value. It seems to me that this amounts to
no more than saying, that the value of a compound
commodity is equal to the sum of the values of its
THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY. 27
component parts. This may be approximately true
within certain narrow limits. If there is no consider-
able fluctuation in the values of the component parts,
during production, the value of the product, at the
completion of production, will probably be about
equal to cost of production. But it is quite improb-
able that the value of an article, completed a year
ago, is now equal to cost of production, or that the
value of an article, just finished, will be equal to
cost of production a year hence.
This rule, even with these modifications, has many
exceptions, and is not of much practical importance.
It gives no opportunity for the deduction sometimes
made from it, that therefore labor determines value.
In those organized forms of production, to which
this rule is generally applied, the labor employed is
treated as a commodity. This it essentially is in all
respects.
Cost of production never determines the value of
agricultural products, or of railroad transportation,
or of any commodity, in which the use of landor any
article not capable of unlimited reproduction enters
largely.
LABOR A COMMODITY.
Mr. Henry George and other socialists object to
treating labor as a commodity. They give no reason.
for this objection, but seem to regard such a consid-
eration of labor as a desecration of a holy subject.
I cannot see that labor has any place in political
economy except as a commodity. It is bought and
Sold and exchanged with other commodities, and the
attempt to invest it with a different character has
produced a great deal of confusion. Man, as a
28 THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY.
laborer, has the same position in economics as any
other machine through which productive force is
exerted. But man as a reasoning being, having a
soul and a vote, is entirely another thing, and is not
treated of in political economy.
LABOR IN COST OF PRODUCTION.
Labor figures in cost of production as a commod-
ity, and exercises no more influence in the price of
the product, than does the cost of the raw material
or the machinery. And the influence of the values
of these component parts is not direct and absolute
in determining the value of the product, but only
indirect upon the minds of men, and thus, by affect-
ing their judgments, upon the value. If any articles
have been manufactured at a certain cost, under
existing conditions, men suppose that more can be
made while those conditions continue, at the same
cost, and consequently will not pay much more,
unless there is some urgency in the want; and the
manufacturer, believing that the demand for his
product will continue, will not sell below the cost of
replacing it. This I think is a correct analysis of
the way in which cost of production affects price,
and it gives no ground for asserting that labor deter-
mines value.
LABOR of PRIMITIVE MEN.
The claim, which is set up in many works on polit-
ical economy, that the earliest exchanges made were
effected according to quantities of labor, which the
first men put forth in taking possession of, or putting
in useful shape, the first rude articles of personal
THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY. 29
property, seems hardly worthy of attention. But
the brains of eminent men, such as Ricardo and
Adam Smith, have engaged in drawing these imagi-
native pictures, and they doubtless have some influ-
ence on general thought. I cannot find any warrant
for these idyls of the prime. The most careful re-
search into ancient record and tradition has not
brought to light any evidence, that early exchanges
were made on such a basis. There has been no sav-
age tribe discovered in which any such system of
“natural” trade is recognized. On the contrary,
the very extensive examinations of primitive customs,
made by Sir Henry Maine, and M. de Laveleye, have
shown that the first men of whom we have traces,
were not traders at all. Human beings in the early
ages knew no way of acquiring property from others
but by force. Savage life has always been a life of
warfare. Peaceful exchange is a product of dawn-
ing civilization; and all the exchanges since then
have been made to satisfy wants. It is highly im-
probable, therefore, that any men ever existed any-
where, who bartered with each other, according
to quantity of labor. It is only in modern times
that labor has been so systematized, and so subjected
to measurement, that it could be compared in quan-
tities, consequently no such comparisons could have
been made in rude ages.

A NARED MAN AND A PLANET.
Colins, the Belgian socialist, has proposed to reduce
this problem to its simplest terms—a naked man and
a planet—and thus show that all wealth is created
by labor. If the planet may be supposed as naked as
30 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
the man, the problem would very soon solve itself,
and the solution would be a dead man and a planet.
If the planet is supposed supplied with an agreeable
climate and plenty of fruits and pleasant things, the
naked man might get on very comfortably, but he
would have no wealth, because his most enjoyable
possessions would be too far from market, and would
have no exchangeable value. The transportation
rates, from the naked man’s planet to the earth,
would be more than the business would bear. But
suppose there were two naked men started on an
agreeable planet. Would their instincts lead them
at once to establish a labor exchange? I think not.
They would either form a primitive partnership and
have all things in common, or one would become
the slave of the other, or they would find that their
dispositions were uncongenial. In the latter case
one would either kill the other, or they would select
separate hemispheres for their habitations. In fact,
I think, about the last thing to suggest itself would
be the possibility or utility of making a trade of some
sort. But all such speculations are idle, and prove
nothing either way. We have not solitary naked
men on isolated planets to deal with, but many mill-
ions of men on a highly organized earth. There is
a great deal of comfort and happiness enjoyed by
these millions of men, and not a little of it is due to
the high organization of the society in which we all
make a living. It is much better for us to study the
principles of this organization, that we may preserve
and improve it, rather than contrive imaginary cases
of imaginary beings to encourage us to despise and
destroy it.
THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY. 31
OUGHT PRODUCTS TO BE THE
PROPERTY OF THE LABORER2
WIDE INFLUENCE OF THE FALLACY.
The pernicious influence which the fallacy that all
value is created by labor exerts over all thought at
the present time might be illustrated by innumer-
able quotations, from all classes of writers. The
deductions from this false premise appear on all
sides. We have them from pulpits; we find them
taught in the public schools. We read them in all
the newspapers, and in all sorts of publications.
They appear in the messages of Presidents and in
the addresses of Prime Ministers. Congressional
documents abound with them, and political speeches
are full of them. I have thought of making a col-
lection of the most extraordinary outcroppings of
this capital error. I could easily fill a volume with
such quotations, and that, too, from the utterances
of the most prominent men of the day. Strange
reading such a volume would seem a hundred years
hence, when, it is to be hoped, the socialist question
will have been finally disposed of, and the world will
be riding some other hobby. It would show that
even the greatest men have a parrot-like way of
using words, which they hear others use, and that
few take the trouble to examine into the significance
of popular expressions. One of the most common
and most obvious of these deductions, that the title
32 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
to all property is justly vested in the laborers, I will
endeavor to consider briefly.
MILL ON THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY.
I would like to quote a whole chapter from J. S.
Mill's Political Economy on this point, but I will
forbear and content myself with a few of the opening
sentences, which I think fairly represent his views.
He says:
“The institution of property when limited to its
essential elements consists in the recognition in each
person of a right to the exclusive disposal of what
he or she have produced by their own exertion, or
received either by gift or fair agreement, without
force or fraud, from those who produced it. The
foundation of the whole is, the right of producers
to what they themselves have produced. It may be
objected, therefore, to the institution as it now exists
that it recognizes rights of property in individuals
over things which they have not produced.”
Mr. Mill was judicious in his use of words, and
carefully modified any expression which might be
construed as bearing too harshly on established
institutions, but he is forced by this definition of
property to deny the right of inheritance, and the
right of the landlord to the so-called “unearned in-
crement” in the value of the land. He shows doubt
as to the justice of both of these in this chapter.
THE BLACK HAND.
It is interesting to compare with this calm utter-
ance of a philosopher, the opinions of the members
of the Mano Wera, the Black Hand, of Spain. They
say in their programme, issued before the last effort
THE LABOR-VALUE FAILLACY. 33
to assassinate those of their neighbors whom they
thought better off than themselves,
“All property acquired by the labor of others,
be it revenue or interest, is illegitimate ; the only
legitimate possessions are those which result directly
from personal exertions.”
This is not quite so well expressed, but it means
the same, as Mr. Mill's words, and I do not see how
Mr. Mill could severely criticize the assassins.
Mr. Mill was considerate and kind. He had no
Sanguinary or revolutionary spirit. Having stated
his theories, such as his labor-theory of value, or
this theory of the right of property, he modified
them, and modified them, until they fitted pretty
comfortably with existing facts. Some of his fol-
lowers, however, are not so circumspect. They have
adopted his theories, without the modifications, and
they insist upon having the facts fitted to them.
LOCKE-THIERS.
M. de Laveleye says that Locke, the philosopher,
was the first to state clearly the theory that labor is
the basis of property, and Locke drew from this
theory the following conclusion, which is not only a
logical deduction, but is well developed socialist
doctrine: “Every one ought to have as much prop-
erty as is necessary for his support.”
M. Thiers in his book “De la Propriété’” adopts
and states this theory most emphatically. “To
every one,” he says, “for his labor, because of his
labor and in proportion to his labor. We may,
therefore, say dogmatically, the indestructible basis
of the right of property is labor.” M. de Laveleye,
34 THE LABOR-VALUE FAILLACY.
commenting on this, says: “It may be said, that
labor ought to be the source of all property, but this
principle would be condemnatory of the existing
organization of society.”
NO TITLE BY LABOR KNOWN IN LAW.
In examining this subject, I have been astonished
and almost overwhelmed by the number and weight
of the names of modern authorities, who have given
their unqualified approval to this doctrine. I have
been surprised beyond measure, also, that none of
these great and good men seem to have realized that
in adopting this theory they were proclaiming that
the whole fabric of society everywhere is a mon-
strous fraud, and justifying its total annihilation.
But I have been, if possible, more completely non-
plussed by not being able to find the slightest evi-
dence of the truth of this doctrine in law or tradition
or custom, in nature or in revelation. Where can
the doctrine have come from ? What are its sanc-
tions :
The lawyers know nothing of it. There is no
hint of it in any of the codes, and neither the civil
law nor the common law shows any trace of it.
There are many kinds of title.known to the law, .
but the title by labor is not one of them. (Unless
it be, perhaps, that patent and copyright laws
can create for limited periods title by intellectual
labor.) There is title by occupancy, title by posses-
sion, title by conquest, title by discovery, title by
descent, title by purchase, title by gift—these all
have been recognized and more or less respected,
from time immemorial. If labor had any part in
THE LABOR-VALUE FAILLACY. 35
creating any of these legal titles, is it not strange
that there should be no evidence of it 8 Is not the
conclusion unavoidable, that if labor creates the only
rightful title, the whole body of the law, ancient and
modern, is founded in injustice º And does it not
seem more reasonable, that the law by which the
relations of men for generations and centuries and
ages have been controlled, is worthy of more respect
than a sentiment of modern philosophy, which has
never had any standing or influence in practice
ANCIENT CUSTOM.
There is no recognition or suggestion of the title by
labor in custom or tradition. Since Locke wrote on
civil government, what amounts to a new depart-
ment of human knowledge has been opened by inves-
tigation into the manners and customs of ancient
peoples. And even since John Stuart Mill’s work
on Political Economy appeared, a most extraordi-
nary addition has been made to our knowledge of
antiquity. Of all those who have contributed to
this new knowledge, Sir Henry Sumner Maine prob-
ably stands first among English writers. His books
are remarkable in that they draw few conclusions,
but give many facts. They do not dogmatically
assert that the dwellers in the twilight of history
thought thus and so, but they exhibit all the evi-
dence, and leave the reader to draw such inferences
as seem warranted. I have read Sir Henry Maine's
books with care, and I have not been able to dis-
cover a single suggestion, that it ever occurred to a
primitive man that labor gave any title whatever to
property.
36 THE LABOR-WALUE FALLACY,
The notions of property possessed by the first rude
men, of whose existence we find faint traces, were
very simple compared with our own ideas. But
they were not antagonistic to ours. Our habitual,
almost intuitive, practices concerning property are
but refinements and developments of the earliest
conceptions of property rights, as described by Sir
Henry Maine. He is of the opinion that the patri-
archal theory of primitive life is the correct one.
That is, that men at first associated in families, and
that each family group was subject to the authority
of the parent or eldest male representative of the
parent. This life may have originally been as sav-
age as that of wild beasts in their dens. From so
low a point the organization of modern Society may
have begun. The earliest rules concerning property
seem to have been for protecting the ownership of
domestic animals. Land was a secondary matter, for
there was plenty of it, but the flocks and herds were
the objects of desire and contention. These animals
were the property of the family, or rather of the head
of the family, and each of the family, whether natu-
ral kinsman or a member of the group by adoption,
defended the flocks and tended them, and took his
part in the common fortunes. Those families or
tribes, which subsisted largely by hunting, probably
appropriated certain territory and punished with
death the intrusion within their limits, of any other
hunters. Sir Samuel Baker found the country near
the sources of the Nile divided in this way, with
well defined boundaries between many small tribes.I
Similar notions as to hunter's right to special
ground were common among the North American
Indians.
THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY. 37
THE EARLIEST RECOGNITION OF PROPERTY RIGHTS.
The right of ownership by conquest was early
recognized. The property of enemies, even their
persons, belonged without question to the victors.
It is probable that the early transfers of property
were all effected by conquest. There is no evidence
of individual ownership of property among primi-
tive men. The earliest transfers of property by
agreement took place between families. It is con-
jectured that the first articles of individual property
were arms or clothing. According to early Roman
law, horses, cattle, slaves and land were all held
by the same tenure, and could only be transferred
with peculiar ceremonies, indicating that they were
all regarded as the common property of the family
or tribe, and could only be alienated by common
consent.
DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUAL OWNERSHIP.
From these rude origins the right of property
developed its various modern forms. The general
advantage seems to be the force which has pro-
duced the successive modifications. There is no
sign, that through the whole progress, the right of
the laborer to the product of his labor has ever been
respected or even asserted. When men became
sufficiently intelligent to live peaceably together in
large communities, the advantage of individual
ownership became evident. I have no doubt that
under individual ownership land became more
productive, cattle more carefully tended, and the
State more prosperous. Individual land owners
proved more energetic citizens in devising good
38 THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY.
government, and braver and more persistent sol-
diers in resisting invasion or pushing conquests.
There is good ground for believing that the law of
the survival of the fittest forced the adoption of
individual ownership of -land and other property
upon mankind. But this process of change left so
much of the old primitive law of property as could
not be destroyed without disadvantage to society,
notably the remnant of parental authority, and the
principle of inheritance.
EFFECT OF TITLE BY LABOR UPON SOCIETY.
The development of custom is a very attractive
field, and much more might be said to show that the
labor-value theory of property has thus far had no
part in shaping man's progress from the companion-
ship with wild beasts to his present improved condi-
tion. I think I have said enough to convince any
fair minded person that this is the fact. Whether
man would have been better or worse, if at any point
of his progress this theory had influenced him, is a
matter of speculation purely. Of this, however,
would society be benefited by it? I think we of
the present age should be well assured before allow-
ing this theory to modify or change our institutions.
It seems to me that its general adoption would dis-
solve all the bands of common custom, would pnloose
all the time-honored ties of social relations, would
destroy the growth of centuries, would substitute
anarchy for Order, would make it impossible for one
man to exist where ten now find subsistence, and
would send those that remained of the race back to
live in caves and to contest with animals for the
fruits of the earth.
THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY. 39
E M A N C II* ATION OF L A B O RIE IR. S.
It may be that some readers will construe the
emancipation of laborers as the recognition of the
laborer's title to the product of his labor. But this
is not warranted. The emancipation of laborers was
brought about by the same causes which produced
individual ownership of land. The general advan-
tage of society was served, at the periods in which
the several modifications of law and custom were
developed. Society became more prosperous with
the growth of individual right to property, and still
further increased in prosperity when it was conceded
that manhood meant the responsibility of freemen.
But it is not by any means the same thing to say,
that man is free to choose how he will spend his
time and his energies, and to say, that he has a clear
title to the products of his labor. He may control
his own powers, but he cannot control their effects.
LABOR CREATES INO TITLE.
If his labor is expended upon his own property,
he owns the product, but if on the property of
another, he has no title to the product. The title to
the product invariably follows the title to the mate-
rial. This is the rule everywhere. Let us suppose
this rule reversed and the title to the product vested
in the laborer rather than in the owner of the raw
material. The dullest imagination can see that a
state of affairs, such as never has existed, would
make its appearance. Society would unravel like
a web whose chief thread had been cut.
The laborer may sell his labor, but if he puts it
forth without a previously made or implied contract,
40 THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY.
it is no longer salable. He may bargain to sell his
labor while it remains in his control, as he may any
other commodity. In the early state of society he
could not do this. His labor was then due to the
family or community of which he was a member, and
his family or community accorded to him a share in
its fortune. When society realized that the general
fortune would be much improved if men were left to
shift for themselves, the laborers were emancipated.
The emancipated laborer acquired the right to dis-
pose of his own labor, but he, at the same time,
assumed the risk of his own support. This new con-
dition is undoubtedly highly beneficial to general
Society.
COMPETITION AND INEQUALITY.
Stimulated to exertion by the necessity of provid-
ing his own support, and by the promise of greater
comfort and enjoyment if he excels others, man has
become violently competitive. There was little or
no competition between individuals in patriarchal
society. It is individual competition which has
changed all the condition of life, and transformed
the face of the habitable globe. It is this which
furnishes food in abundance for ten times the num-
ber of human beings which the patriarchal age
could have supported. º
Now and then, there may possibly be found a
person, who would be glad to exchange his individ-
ual freedom in the nineteenth century, for a place in
the tents of Abraham or in the caves of the Cyclops.
There is nothing to be said in argument with such
persons. Man cannot choose his birthplace or his
birthright. It only remains for him to make the
THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY. 41
best of the fortune which falls to him. If there is
anywhere at the present time any man so friendless
and poverty stricken and unfortunate, that having
the ability he can find no opportunity to earn his
bread, it is truly pitiful. But it is a case for pity,
not-for wrath against the institutions of society.
Inequality in the conditions of men has not been
removed by the development of individual liberty.
It has been rearranged, on what we are bound to
believe a juster basis. The inequality in social con-
ditions is possibly greater to-day than in the most
brutal days of slavery and serfdom. But to say
this is not to condemn society.
Right of Property by Natural Law.
HENRY GEORGE's APPEAL TO NATURE.
The appeal to nature is the favorite recourse of
modern advocates of the right of the laborer to the
product of his labor. I can produce many instances
of this appeal, but I will content myself with two
or three quotations from Henry George's book,
“Progress and Poverty.”
“Thus there is to everything produced by human
exertion a clear and indisputable title to exclusive
possession and enjoyment which is perfectly con-
sistent with justice, as it descends from the original
producer in whom it is vested by natural law.”
“Hence as nature gives only to labor, the exer-
tion of labor in production is the only title to exclu-
sive possession.”
42 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
“It is a strange and unnatural thing that men
who wish to labor in order to satisfy their wants
cannot find the opportunity.”
There are many more, but these are sufficient to
show the character of the appeal.
WHAT IS MEANT BY NATURE.
I do not know exactly what is Mr. George's concep-
tion of nature and natural law, but it is evidently
a work of the imagination, and not at all founded on
fact. The philosophers of the last century amused
themselves and their sentimental admirers by de-
scribing man in a state of nature. By this they
meant a sort of idyllic paradise, where imaginary
beings, endowed with imaginary attributes, con-
ducted themselves according to an imaginary set of
rules, which they were pleased to call perfect justice
or natural law. If Mr. George refers to these well
known fairy tales, his reference is intelligible and
consistent, but it hardly furnishes a serious founda-
tion for an argument. g
But if Mr. George means by nature “the verita-
ble system of things of which we ourselves are a
part,” or by natural law, that unchanging law by
which all things exist, and in accordance with which
we live and move and have our being, he is speaking
without sufficient consideration. The law of gravi-
tation and the law of the impenetrability of matter
are natural laws. Mr. George is surely very hasty,
if he means that the title to property is vested in the
original producer by a law of this kind. Natural
laws are invariable. There are no exceptions to
their operations. But there is no evidence that it
THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY. 43
has ever been recognized that any title to the product
was created by labor. That can hardly be a natural
law to which all human action furnishes a continual
exception. As there is no title by labor known in
fact, it is obvious that if nature means the system
of-things as they are, nature has ordained no such
title.
There is another sense in which the word nature is
often used. In this sense it is contrasted with art,
and is applied to that condition of things, which the
art of man has not modified or changed. In this
sense nature can hardly grant any title to the
laborer, for as soon as man has exerted his efforts
upon a natural object, it ceases to be in the domain
of nature.
MILL ON INATURE.
Mr. J. S. Mill regretted that Plato had not left to
posterity a Socratic dialogue “On Nature,” so that
the precise definitions of this term might have been
handed down through the centuries, and much con-
fusion of thought, probably, thereby prevented.
To meet this long felt want, Mr. Mill gave us his
chapter on “Nature,” as an introduction to his
“Essays on Religion.” The careful perusal of this
chapter would, Ithink, effectually deter his followers
from claiming that the laborer has acquired any title
from nature to the product of his labor. Mr. Mill
recognizes as the only proper uses of the word those
which I have given above. First, nature as including
man and all things as they are, and second, nature as
including all those things which the art of man has
not modified or changed. In the first sense it is
absurd to say that anything is according to nature
44 THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY.
which is not an invariable fact. It is then only in
the Second sense that it can be claimed that nature
gives to the laborer a title to the product of his
labor.
DOES NATURE GIVE ANY TITLE TO PROPERTY }
But it is contrary to experience and observation,
that such title is conferred by nature. To deter-
mine what nature does we must observe man unin-
fluenced by art. But the only men in a state of
nature, of whom we have any knowledge, are
Savages. . If nature gives to the laborer the product
of his labor, we should find a natural instinct to
this effect in the breast of the most untutored saw-
age. I am ready to admit, that my opportunities
for observing untutored savages have been few, but
I think that the eminent political economists and
Socialists have not been more favored in this respect.
I have not found in the writings of any of them
any attempt to cite examples of this instinct in
Savages. On the contrary, I have read many de-
Scriptions of the habits of savages, by well-known
travelers, and I have never yet found any suggestion
that any savage, even the very lowest, had a sense
of acquiring right to property by the labor of pro-
duction. Among savages the ownership of property
seems to be determined solely by the ability to
retain control of it. The natural instinct of man is
to possess himself if he can of those things which
will satisfy his wants. Of this there is abundant
proof. The untutored savage takes whatever he
Sees, that he wants, if some stronger power than his
does not prevent him, and never thinks whose labor
has produced it.
THE LABOft—VAí, UE FALLACY. 45
Does any man doubt this? Can there be any
other conclusion reached by calmly considering this
question? What possible justification then is there
for the appeals to nature which are so liberally
uttered by Mr. George and his followers? Where
can the slightest evidence be found that nature has
vested the title to any property in the laborer who
produced it?
THE AIPPIEAL TO NATURE A BEGGING OF THE
QUESTION.
Perhaps it is well, in order to account for the
many confident appeals to nature which are made
by Mr. George, as well as by abler men and more
consistent reasoners, to refer once more to Mr. Mill’s
essay. He there describes a use of the word nature,
which is a survival of those superstitious times, in
which all the attempts of men to interfere with the
action of natural forces were regarded as impious.
There are probably some ignorant persons, even
now, who look upon lightning rods and preventives
of disease as irreverent challenges of the wisdom
of Providence. By a confusion of ideas, with such
persons, nature comes to mean the designs of Provi-
dence, and also such an ordering of the affairs of
this world, as they think ought to be. The appeal
to nature thus becomes merely an assertion of their
own opinions; those actions which they approve
being according to nature, and those which they
disapprove unnatural. This is a common use of
the word, and will be found frequently in the
speech and writings of men whose ideas are vague,
but who wish to express themselves emphatically.
The appeal to nature, to establish the title of the
46 THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILACY.
laborer to the product of his labor, thus resolves
itself into a mere begging of the question. The
socialist in effect says, such a title ought to be
because it ought to be. This is the whole of his
argument from nature.
NATURE DOES NOT FAVOR THE LABORER,
It is according to our observation of nature, that
mothers love and protect their offspring, and we are
correct in saying that she is an unnatural mother
who neglects or destroys her child. But it is not
according to our observation and experience, that
opportunities are uniformly provided by any natural
agency for men to satisfy their wants by labor.
Nature produces with entire disregard to the wants
of man ; she takes no pains to satisfy his wants.
She is careless whether he is starved or surfeited or
poisoned by that which she produces. The oppor-
tunities which he enjoys to satisfy his wants by
labor must be and always have been contrived by his
own intelligence. If his intelligence can not contrive
the opportunity, nature lets him perish. It is not
according to experience that nature loves and pro-
tects the laborer. She is deaf to his desires and
blind to his efforts. She destroys the product of
industry and the most industrious laborer also, and
has no remorse.
RIGHT TO PROPERTY IN ONE SENSE UNINATURAL.
In one sense nature is the rich but blind enemy of
man. All that he possesses he seizes from her, and
he is always in danger from her heedless blows.
Through the knowledge of nature, acquired with
infinite ingenuity and handed down and augmented
TIHE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY. 47
from generation to generation, men have constructed
an elaborate structure of art. It is art which enables
man to elude the destructive strokes of the sightless
giant nature, and it is art which teaches him to
snatch her products and adapt them to his ever
developing wants. Art is the work of man. It is
unnatural, for it is in one sense opposed to nature.
It is artificial. But it is not unnatural in the same
sense as is a mother's cruelty to her child. The
right of property is unnatural in this sense alone,
because it is artificial. It is a part of that slowly
developed system of art, by which man has grasped
the products and powers of nature and caused them
to satisfy his wants.
NATURE RECOGNIZES NO TITLE TO PROPERTY.
Nature seems totally oblivious that man has any
title whatever to property. She takes possessions
from one and destroys them, or confers them upon
others, without rule or reason. In a state of nature
there is no property right, unless the control which
the wild beast exercises over his lair and his prey
may be dignified by that name. The whole idea of
title to property, it seems to me, is the creation of
art. We can not peer back into the primeval gloom
to detect its earliest suggestion. But look where we
may, we find no recognition of it in nature.
It is probable, therefore, that man invented prop-
erty right as he invented the so-called division of
labor, to enable him the better to contend with
nature. And when he found that the idea of right
of property encouraged production, and helped to
satisfy more of his wants, he defined it more clearly
and gave it greater respect. And this, I think, may
48 THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY.
describe the whole process. It has not been one
uninterrupted series of improvements. Not every
change has been beneficial. But the whole develop-
ment has been greatly for the advantage of society,
and he is little better than a madman, who would
destroy the growth of centuries because he is not
satisfied.
Through the whole development of the right of
property, it does not appear, as I have already
endeavored to show, that the title of the laborer to
the product of his labor has been thought worthy of
practical consideration. It is entirely opposed to the
whole spirit of this development, and it cannot be
adopted now without subverting and destroying the
artificial fabric of civilization.
Christianity and the Right of Property.
Deprived of the appeal to history, to custom or to
nature, it may be that the socialists, will turn to
religion for a justification of the laborer's title to the
product of his labor. I do not think that socialists
have at any time been remarkable for religious pro-
fessions or practices. On the contrary, I think that
socialism is commonly associated with the most sac-
rilegious opinions. But there are some who, like
Henry George, are not too conscientious to quote a
mangled verse of scripture, now and then, if it seems
to them that they can thereby make a point. And
there are multitudes of well-meaning people, who
have a decent respect for the words of the Bible, who
are influenced thereby. There are, moreover, a great
many teachers and preachers of Christianity, who
THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY. 49
reason loosely, and whose sympathies being with
the poor, are ready to take the view of society which
seems popular, and encourage the belief that some-
how the laborers have been unjustly deprived by the
rich of the products of their labors. I do not say,
that the doctrine, that the title to the product of
labor ought to vestin the laborer, is definitely taught
from Christian pulpits. I do not think, that Chris-
tian ministers often reason sufficiently closely on
such matters, to arrive at such precise conclusions.
But Ihave heard many expressions from such sources
which tend in that direction, and which show that
current discussion is shaping the minds of religious
people to accept this belief.
OLD TESTAMENT TEACHING.
It seems to me, however, that this doctrine is as
opposed to the spirit of Christianity as it is to exist-
ing law and order. The teaching of the Old Testa-
ment is that all property is the gift of God, and the
man who serves God is encouraged to expect pros-
perity. Loss of property is represented to be a trial
of man’s faith, as in the case of Job, and his stead-
fast faith in God is rewarded by a restoration of his
property greatly increased. When the children of
Israel sinned against Jehovah, they were punished
by loss of property and other calamities. When
they obeyed the commands of Jehovah, the property
of their enemies was given to them. Nowherein the
Bible is there any suggestion, that man acquires by
labor a just title to the product of his labor; such a
suggestion would be not only foreignto, but destruc-
tive of the teaching of the Bible. “The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name
5() THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
of the Lord.” This seems to be the epitome of
the doctrine of the Bible concerning property.
CHRIST’S TEACHINGS.
The New Testament and Christianity built upon
this foundation but did not change it. The spirit of
Christ's life and teaching was self-renunciation, not
Self-assertion. There is something better worth
working for than the accumulation of property. He
said, “Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but
for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,
which the son of man shall give unto you.” He
taught, that under certain circumstances it was the
duty of a rich man to sell all that he had and dis-
tribute to the poor; but this sacrifice was to be made
for the rich man’s own benefit. He was thereby to
acquire “treasure in Heaven.” The poor were not
taught by him to demand gifts from the rich. Such
demands would be hostile to his teachings.
CONDITION OF SOCIETY IN JUDEA.
In the time of Jesus Christ the political and eco-
nomic affairs of men were in a deplorable condition.
They were in much worse condition than similar
affairs at the present time. I suppose the most
hardened socialist will not deny this. There was
little protection for life or property, and fraud and
dishonor and nameless crimes were too common to
be noticed. This was especially true of Herod’s
Kingdom, and of the provinces into which it was
divided. There was hardly any social order. Gov-
ernment was only the forcible execution of military
commands, and bloody faction-fights rendered it
continually uncertain who were the government.
THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY. 51
A very considerable portion of the men of Palestine
were openly robbers, and the multitude of publicans
or tax-farmers were little better. There was no
such thing as justice. The rights of men, if any
one had thought of them, would have seemed
utterly absurd. The Romans were the masters of
the world, and the favorites of the Roman Emperor
went everywhere, seizing whatever pleased them,
punishing all resistance to their pleasures with
Scourging and torture and cruel deaths, and spending
their plunder in brutal, vicious and lavish luxury.
CHRIST DID NOT TEACH MEN TO DEMAND RIGHTS.
Surely then, if ever, a divine revelation of the
right of the laborer to the product of his labor would
have been appropriate. Surely then, if ever, divine
encouragement to rise and assert its rights was
needed by down-trodden and demoralized humanity.
But such was not the burden of the divine message.
The Christ had nothing to say of the rights of man;
he passed in silence the laborers who had no title to
the products of their labors, he even advised peaceful
submission to the foreign military tyrants who ruled
his countrymen. He suffered himself without com-
plaint the undeserved punishment of scourging, and
bore without revolt or remonstrance, having broken
no law and done no wrong, the most manifest
injustice,—the ignominious death by crucifixion.
The divine message in that den of thieves, which
the world then was, was not resistance to oppres-
sion, but, “Love your enemies, do good to them
which hate you,” etc. If we can imagine a country
peopled solely by such men and women as now fill
Our prisons and occupy the attention of our police,
52 THE LABOR.—VAf.UE FALLACY.
we would probably not conceive a state of affairs so
bad as existed in Palestine about the year 30 A. D.
To such a community the divine word was preached,
“Unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer
also the other.” It was, indeed, light shining in
darkness.
This, I think, is the spirit of Christ's teaching,
and of true Christianity, at least so far as the ques-
tion of the laborer's title to the product of his labor
is concerned. If he were entitled to this product,
the spirit of Christianity would prevent the asser-
tion of such title.
EQUALITY NOT CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
I have been at a loss to discover how such ideas as
the following are obtained from the teachings of
Christ. -
Dr. Geike, in his “Life of Christ,” says the seminal
principle of Christianity is “the realization of the
truth that the whole human race are essentially equal
in their faculties, nature and inalienable rights.”
This is, I think, a fair example of similar expres-
sions which occur often in the writings of eminent
expounders of religion, I give it here, because it is
the latest of such expressions which I have noted.
It seems to me not only an error but an error which
can only be explained by a confusion of ideas.
Christ taught that each individual is the object of
His Heavenly Father's love, and when any individ-
ual labors and is “heavy laden,” he may find rest
in his love. He taught that all men are children of
the Heavenly Father. But I do not recall any
expression which can be construed to mean that they
are equal in any other respect. Saying that all men
THE LABOR-VALUE FAILLACY. 53
are children of God does not imply other equality
among them.
Indeed, I think the introduction of this claim of
equality, as a fundamental doctrine of Christianity,
is a grave mistake and not authorized by the words
of the Bible. I think it is also a dangerous heresy,
subversive of the real spirit of Christianity. Men
are not equal in fact in their faculties. Men are all
embraced in human nature. They are all parts of
nature in general. It is a confusion of ideas to say
they are equal in nature. It is a form of words
which has no precise meaning. Whether men are
equal in their inalienable rights depends upon the
organization of the society in which they live. Men
have no rights outside of society. To say then, as
Dr. Geike does, that “the whole human race are
essentially equal in their faculties, nature and
inalienable rights,” is the seminal principle of
Christianity, is to say that Christianity is founded
upon a proposition which is either untrue, vague or
variable, as you regard it in each of its threefold
divisions. It is moreover a proposition calculated
to produce discontent in the minds of men, against
society. This Christ never did. His teaching was
directed to making the individual discontented with
himself on account of his own sinfulness. This
kind of discontent may be beneficial, for it may pro-
duce regeneration.
CHRISTIANITY AND EMANCIPATION.
The new view of religion which mankind gained
from Christ was the special importance of the atti-
tude of the individual toward God. Before His
time the family, the tribe or the nation was sup-
54 THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY.
posed responsible for the religious behavior of its
members. Christ taught that God looks into the
heart of man to judge him. From this new view
sprang the increased importance of the individual
in other relations of life, and, although its influence
may not be directly traced in the development of
individual right of property, it may nevertheless
have been felt there. And this new view of each
man’s personal responsibility to God for his doings
may have aided in working out the economic con-
clusion, that man is a more productive member of
society if he is politically a freeman. The connec-
tion of the teachings of Christ with this modern
belief is not close. It requires some pious blindness
to overlook the Christian slave-makers and slave-
holders of eighteen centuries, and to attribute to
the spirit of Christianity the emancipations of the
nineteenth century. Yet there is a connection. It
may be that the advances of the individual in many
directions are kindred developments of upward-
reaching man, and that all are but parts of and
stages in the whole harmonious growth.
CHRISTIANITY AND COMPETITION.
Competition is the result of emancipation. This
Christianity encourages, as it teaches the responsi-
bility of the individual; and it harmonizes with the
modern ideas, that individual freedom of action and
individual freedom in acquiring and controlling
property, produce the noblest forms of personal and
social life. The full recognition of individual
responsibility involves the keenest competition.
But Christianity adds to its commandment, “Thou
shalt love the Lord with all thy heart,” by which is
THE LABOR-VALUE FALL ACY. 55
inculcated man’s individual responsibility to God,
this second commandment which is like unto it in
importance, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself.” That is, if I may give these teachings a
modern form, competition should be tempered with
charity. “On these two commandments,” Christ
said, “hang all the law and the prophets.” On the
proper observance of these two principles at the
present day seems to depend the maintenance and
improvement of modern civilization.
It may be said that I have gone too far in tracing
a connection between the Christian doctrine of the
responsibility of the individual to God, and indi-
vidual competition. As I have already said, the
connection is not close. It is not at all necessary to
my argument that it should be admitted at all. I
have only introduced it here as a suggestion of the
harmony which may be established between the
Christian religion and the working of economic laws,
and to hint how the best results of competition are
obtained, when it is modified by charity..
I think this consideration may also suggest the
fundamental antagonisms between Christianity and
socialism. As far as I have been able to observe all
socialists are anti-christian. I think this irreconcil-
able difference lies in the Christian teaching of the
responsibility of the individual to God, and in the
fact that Christian charity is 'essentially voluntary
and not compulsory.
[The foregoing brief examination of the teachings of the Bible
with reference to equality, competition and the right of property
has met with varying and contradictory criticism from the relig-
ious press. While certain journals of this description have de-
nounced it as fallacious and even sacrilegious, others of equal
b6 THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY.
weight and character have commended it highly, and have found
in it the true spirit of Christianity. I believe, however, that the
more these suggestions are considered the more will they meet
the approval of thoughtful and sincere men. These views will
warrant elaboration and restatement, for they seem to bear all
the marks of good seed, and develop in the minds of readers in
new forms, and produce quite a refreshing growth of biblical
interpretation. I have room here for but one example of this
gratifying result of this discussion. A student of the Bible has
acknowledged to the author that before reading these pages the
parable of the talents in Matt. xxv. and Luke xix. had always
appeared inexplicable to him, but that now he sees in it an intel-
ligible and useful lesson. A careful reading of this parable may
be recommended to those preachers and editors who wish to find
in the gospels authority for proclaiming the absolute equality of
men. It would be interesting to see what exposition they would
make from the following text—Luke xix., 24, 25 and 26:
“And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the
pound and give it to him that hath ten pounds. (And they said
unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) For I say unto you, That
unto every one which hath, shall be given; and from him that
hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him.”]
Seeking Truth.
My argument would probably seem unsatisfactory
to most readers if I should leave it at this point. I
think I have shown conclusively, that value is not
created by labor, and that although labor may have
been expended in producing many of the articles to
which we attach value, there is no traceable relation
between the labor and the value, which can justify
us in Saying that the labor creates or determines the
value. In proving this I have also shown that there
is no warrant for the claim that all wealth is pro-
duced by labor. And I think I have also made it
clear, that the assumption that the just title to the
THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY. 57
product of all labor vests in the laborer, rests on no
basis which is worthy of respect. If I have done
this so successfully that any one reading what I
have written with ordinary attention, is convinced,
I have destroyed the foundations of socialism. This
is what I hoped to do; but I am conscious that
socialist notions and half-beliefs are so common,
even among men who fear and abhor socialist prac-
tices, that the destruction of the groundwork of
socialism must leave vacancies in many minds. I
wish, if possible, to provide some sound doctrine
to take the place of those erroneous beliefs, which I
have tried to destroy.
THE DESIRE TO RELIEVE MISERY.
There is a great deal of misery in civilized com-
munities, and human nature is so constituted that
the knowledge of suffering causes pain, and begets
an impatient desire to relieve misery and remove its
cause. The first impulse which every one feels at
the sight of suffering is that it has been caused by
Some human agency, and that some wrong has been
committed. If a ship founders at sea, we hasten to
accuse the owners or officers of criminal negligence.
If a passenger train leaves the rails and a hundred
lives are lost in its debris, we blindly rage against
all the servants of the railroad company, from the
brakemen to the ornamental directors.
The desire to punish some wrong-doer follows
almost immediately in most minds the perception of
misery. Human nature seems to demand a victim
in whose person suffering shall be expiated. And
this demand is often unreasoning and even passion-
ate. Among Savages it provides bloody human
b8 THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY.
Sacrifices to gods. It once led men to burn innocent
and harmless old women, as witches. Among more
civilized men it develops itself in various phases,
from the shooting of landlords in Ireland, to the
execration of railroad kings in America.
THE ARGUMIENT FROM MISERY.
It is this human disposition to find a wrong at the
bottom of all suffering, which opens the minds of
men to admit the labor-value fallacy. The lowest
classes in all civilized communities suffer more or
less. There are very many men, women and children,
in the large cities of Europe and America, who fre-
quently cannot obtain food, clothing and shelter,
when they need them. These bear emaciated, frost-
bitten bodies, the easy prey to diseases, and some of
them sometimes die in circumstances of heart-rending
wretchedness. The well-fed, comfortably housed
man turns away from such sights, and would gladly
be without the knowledge that such things exist,
but somehow he cannot escape the feeling that such
things ought to be prevented. Andwhen the socialist
agitator draws the startling contrast, between the
condition of the starving fever-pinched wretch and
the luxurious millionaire, living perhaps within a
stone's throw of each other, we are apt to imagine
that somehow the latter is accountable for the misery
of his human brother.
THE APPEAL TO SYMPATHY.
Let the socialist tell of the hardships of the brake-
man who in darkness and storm performs his peril-
ous duty on the top of the rumbling freight train,
and then let him picture the brave man crushed in a
THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY. §9
great collision, and with his last breath expressing
the fear that his wife and child will come to want.
Let this story be continued, and show how the child
dies from starvation, and the wife drowns herself to
escape a worse fate, and then let the socialist de-
scribe the comfortable home and luxurious life of the
president of the railroad, whose property has been
benefited by the brakeman’s labor. Let him then
in eloquent and impassioned words assert that a
great injustice has been done, that the brakeman and
his family have been wronged, and that the railroad
president has profited by the wrong, and that it is a
vicious organization of society which permits the
president to enjoy his wealth, while the brakeman
and his family perish. Then the socialist may con-
clude triumphantly, and nine out of ten men will be
led by their aroused sympathies to agree with him,
that as all wealth is created by labor, justice can
never be secured until all property is vested in the
laborers.
It requires calm consideration to perceive that the
unfortunates who exist everywhere, have no just
complaint against Society, and very likely have not
suffered wrong from any one. But calm considera-
tion cannot fail to bring unprejudiced minds to this
conclusion. The fact of coming into the world gives
no individual a right to food, clothes and shelter, but
human love and sympathy give these as favors,
almost always, while the individual is unable by
reason of weakness or lack of skill to secure them
for himself. But if the individual having sufficient
strength and skill makes no effort to acquire those
things which he needs, love and sympathy will prob-
ably cease to provide them.
60 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
IIMIIPO S S IIB L E TO AN IN IIH II, A TE MIS EIR Y.
Bowever much benevolently disposed people may
wish that all men may be comfortably provided with
food and clothes and shelter, it is impossible that
this can ever be. These must always remain the
rewards of well-directed exertions, and there must
always be some who fail to make the exertions, or
whose exertions are not well directed. There must
always be, as there always have been, some to whom
daily bread does not come day by day, and some of
these unfed mortals must be overlooked by the most
vigilant benevolence. But for the failures of the
unfortunates, or for the oversights of benevolence,
neither society nor its prosperous members are to be
blamed.
THE PROGRESS OF SOCIETY.
Society is a highly organized and complicated sys-
tem, differing in its form and development in differ-
ent places and for different peoples. The principles
on which various forms of society are based, may at
one time have been mere arbitrary rules. If so they
have become crystalized into immemorial customs,
and have been approved by the ages of progress
toward the general advantage of the members of
society. There have been steps in this progress.
There have been at sometimes slow changes, at others
rapid advances, at others retrograde movements, at
others stagnant hesitation. But if the best state of
man is that in which knowledge is most widely dif-
fused, freedom of action most untrammeled, and the
most diverse wants are most completely satisfied, the
Society of the present day, as represented in our own
THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY. 61
country, and in some of the States of Europe, has
reached the highest development ever known.
THE ARGUMENT FROM ENVY.
There are many persons of, I think, envious dis-
positions, to whom inequality in the condition of
individuals seems a greater hardship than general
deprivation. Such persons are disposed to lament
the changes which have been made in the last hun-
dred years. They say that industrial and commer-
cial activity has made the rich, richer, and the poor,
poorer; that political enfranchisement of the work-
ingmen has not checked this growing inequality.
One hundred years ago employers and employed
worked together, and were on terms of friendly inter-
course. To-day, the employer knows no more of his
workmen than their ability to complete their tasks.
He would as soon make companions of his machines
as of those to whom he pays wages. This may be
true in a degree. It is undoubtedly the tendency of
the organization of industry to draw master and men
apart. The most successful manufacturer, or mer-
chant, is he who carries on his business on a large
Scale, pushing the division of labor to the limit of
economy. The manager of such a business is likely
to regard his laborers as parts of a great machine,
and to have little feeling of companionship with
them. If this is an evil, it is one which is made
necessary by active competition. The most success-
ful manager is likely to have this characteristic most
highly developed.
But is this anything more than an imaginary evil?
Can no amount of increase in the comfort of his life
gompensate the workman for losing the society of
62 TIIL, LABOR-WALUE FAILACY.
his boss? If the master has gradually drawn away
from intercourse with his men, the men have gradu-
ally gained in the increased purchasing power of
their wages. Of this there is no doubt. Workmen
now wear better clothes, eat better food, and enjoy .
luxuries which one hundred years ago were not
within the reach of the most opulent. What matter
if the social scale has been lengthened? Should it
not satisfy the critic of progress, if all have been
raised to higher planes of consumption ?
IS MULTIPLICATION OF LIFE A BLESSING !
IBut there is another consideration, which I do not
remember to have seen noticed, and which seems to
me of vast importance. About seventy years ago,
Malthus predicted great evils for England, when the
products of its soil would no longer feed its popula-
tion. But the population of England has increased
far past that point, and the general prosperity of the
country is said to be greater than ever. The support
of this increased population has been furnished by
the organization of industry and commerce, effected
by competition. This, as a factorin thefood problem,
Malthus did not take account of. But it has changed
all the conditions of life of the people of England.
The English workman of to-day has very different
surroundings from those of his predecessor in the
time of Malthus. He may not now have so much
country to roam in. He may not be able to keep a
cow or have a patch of ground in which to grow a
few roots. But he is equally well fed, well housed
and well clothed, and moreover there are twice as
many of him. This is the point which generally
escapes remark. The whole case is not by any means
THE LABOR-VALUE FAILLACY. 63
presented, when the individual of to-day is compared
with the individual of fifty or one hundred years
ago. There are twice as many human beings living
comfortably in England to-day as were there when
Malthus thought that population was already press-
ing upon the limits of subsistence. Is this an evil
or a good? We would call it a great calamity if
war, pestilence or famine should destroy every other
inhabitant of a country. Ought not then that be
reckoned a great blessing which doubles population,
and sustains the increase as well as the smaller pop-
ulation was previously maintained? Competition
has done this. The stimulus to individual exertion
afforded by laws which protect each man in the
enjoyment of property acquired in conformity to
law, by laws which enforce contracts and give to
mental exertion a greater advantage than it ever
before enjoyed over physical labor, has enabled
millions to keep soul and body together, and to feel
more or less of the joy of existence, who never would
have visited these glimpses of the moon at all if
the “good old times” had continued.
SOCIALISM INVOLVES FXTERMINATION OF MILLIONS.
Do those reformers who look regretfully into the
past, and assert that the life of the English laborer,
as pictured by Defoe, is preferable to the life of
phe English workman of the present, ever reckon the
multiplication of human life a blessing? Speaking
in the interest of the poorer classes, as they pro-
fessedly do, do they realize what a return to the
habits and mode of living of the time of Defoe
would involve? It would involve the crushing out
of the lives of millions. Every turn of the wheel
64 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
backward toward those eonditions under which the
workmen and their employers lived and worked
together would exterminate millions. The most
wretched, the lowest in the scale of Self-support,
those whom the socialists profess to be most anxious
to benefit, would go first. But before the imagined
comfort of the laborer of Defoe could be restored, -
the common cow pasture and the vegetable patch,-
vast masses of population to whom the competitive
system furnishes easily, food and raiment, would
find the means of existence cut off and would perish
miserably.
IMPROVIED CONDITION OF LABORERS.
“The bitter cry of outcast London,” of which we
have heard something lately, is not less bitter
because it is not peculiar to our time. The wailing
of thes suffering has gone up from the comfortless
dens of all large cities since men devised metropol-
itan life. It is the desire of every man of human
impulses to mitigate, or if possible relieve wholly this
misery. But every right-minded man can see that
this can never be wholly accomplished. If any one
compares the condition of the abject poor of London,
as described in recent newspaper articles, with the
condition of English laborers during and previous
to the last century, as described by Fielding, Defoe,
Macaulay and others, he cannot avoid the conclu-
sion that the very outcasts are now better provided
for than were once the common workingmen. There
is a certain advance from the chimney-less, window-
less hut, whose floor was the bare ground covered
with rushes and accumulated filth, to even the worst
single-room tenement of the present London slums.
THE LABOR-VALUE FAILACY. 65
And even the repulsive bed and "bedstead in the
vilest furnished lodgings of this day are better than
the dirty straw and the wooden pillow, which were
once the best couch that English laborers hoped for.
This comparison should not cause us to pity less the
wretched outcasts of to-day, but it should prevent
us from rising in rage and cursing the organization
of society.
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT CANNOT ANNIHILATE
POWERTY.
Whatever has been done to raise the conditions of
human life has been done by society. That wretch-
edness and poverty remain, perhaps as keenly felt
as ever, is due to an ineradicable characteristic of
human nature. The art of man, working in the form
of social organization, may multiply comforts, may
make it possible for two human beings to obtain
subsistence where one could with difficulty secure it
before, but it cannot abolish poverty or annihilate
wretchedness. Poverty and wretchedness are rela-
tive facts. They imply contrasting affluence and
contentment, and while individuals are created under
differing conditions and are endowed with differing
faculties, this contrast must exist. What would
have been affluence several centuries ago is accounted
poverty to-day.
The Malay enjoys a bodily comfort, beside which
the frozen existence of the Esquimaux seems pov-
erty, but, as neither knows of the life of the other, the
one feels no self-satisfaction, the other no envy. But
the life of a large city brings these opposite condi-
tions in juxtaposition. Art produces for the rich
the equable temperature, the delicate fruits, the
66 THE LABOR-VALUE FAILLACY.
delight of flowers and tropical foliage, which the
Malay enjoys, side by side with dark, cold and cheer-
less dens in which the poor greedily appease the
the cravings of hunger with food as nauseous as that
of the Esquimaux. This contrast serves to exhibit
the reality of affluence and poverty. It develops
exultation and pride on the one hand, the grinding
torments of envy on the other.
The Value-Perceiving Faculty.
There is opportunity for a very long and compre-
hensive essay on the causes which produce inequali-
ties in the material circumstances of individual lives.
The tendency of historical research at the present
time is to find out and identify these causes. The
efforts to learn the thoughts, habits and conditions
of people, and by these to explain developments of
national traits and events in national progress are
the manifestations of this tendency. I have not the
time or space here, nor indeed have I the learning or .
ability to go into this subject at length, nor does my
present subject demand it. But it seems to me that
a voluminous collection of historical data might be
made to show that the wealth-accumulating faculty
has been developed in individuals and nations by a
sort of natural selection. The differentiation of civ-
ilization has, as the naturalists would say, specialized
the perception of value. Man as far as we know
in his savage state had little or no perception of
value. When men began to trade they began to
recognize value in exchange. An infant has no per-
ception of this value. Savages and infants desire
THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY. 67
and attempt to possess themselves of whatever will
satisfy their wants, but the complicated perception
of what will satisfy the wants of others, and thus
enable them by exchange more completely to satisfy
their own far-off wants, is beyond their powers. In
this respect some human beings, even in civilized
communities, remain savages and infants all their
lives. I think any of us can readily find, in our own
neighborhoods, men and women in whom the percep-
tion of value is merely rudimentary. Such persons
may be highly qualified in other ways, may in fact
possess many amiable and admirable faculties, but
lacking in this they are comparatively poorly
equipped in the struggle for life under present
conditions. In this commercial, competitive age it
is necessary that the value-perceiving individuals
should hold the chief social power, just as in ruder
times those who possessed the fighting faculty dom-
inated their fellowmen. The value-perceiving gen-
iuses of our day do not depend for their authority
upon the Suffrages or the favor, but upon the needs
of their fellowmen, just as the best soldiers once
acquired command by mere force of circumstances.
We are all familiar with the process by which excel-
lence in the perception of value asserts itself. There
are well known stories in every family, in every
Social circle, in every village, in every community
of how this or that individual, perhaps with most
unpromising beginning, gradually developed this
faculty, surpassed his associates, organized indus-
try, managed trade, attained wealth, and became a
pillar of society on which his friends lean, and to
which his neighbors lookswith respectful admiration.
And equally common are the stories of failures and
68 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
descents from prosperity to misery, by reason of the
lack of this faculty.
IMPORTANCE OF RECOGNIZING THIS FACULTY.
I do not wish to intimate that the value-perceiving
faculty is the highest or most to be desired. I merely
wish to suggest that in the present state of society,
which I believe is the highest which man has ever
attained, it is the faculty to which the greatest power
attaches, and I think a very considerable benefit may
accrue from a simple recognition of this fact. This
removes at once all ground for the common feeling
that the well-to-do members of society are account-
able for the misfortunes and failures of the degener-
ating and incompetent. The rich, as a class, have no
more just responsibility for the misery of the poor
than have the whole and healthy for the pains and
infirmities of cripples and imbeciles. The attitude
of the rich to the poor should be one of pity, but
there should be no shade of remorse. The attitude
of the poor to the rich should be one inviting
compassion, but not demanding compensation for
wrongs inflicted. Of course I mean by this only
the abject poor, actually suffering for the necessities
of life.
CONTENTMENT WITHOUT THIS FACULTY.
I am prepared to maintain that a comparatively
poor man may be, and should be, as happy and
independent as any rich man, asking no favors and
confining his wants strictly within his resources.
If any one has not the value-perceiving faculty he
Cannot acquire, and unless efortunate in his friends,
can not retain wealth, but he can lead a contented
THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY. 69
and independent life by limiting his wants to his
means. This is one of the most useful results of
the recognition of this analysis of faculties. A
great many beneficial members of society have not
the yalue-perceiving faculty well developed. Art-
ists, musicians, teachers, clergymen, skilled labor-
ers and those who have no skill, can not be expected
to possess this faculty in any considerable excellence.
For all these a great point has been gained, if they
realize the existence of the faculty and their own
lack of it. They will then no more expect to be
rich than to be phenomenally strong or extraordi-
narily beautiful.
LUCK AND GAMBLING.
There is a very common notion that the acquisi-
tion of wealth is a matter of luck, and very many
simple minded people are seduced by this notion to
attempt to win förtunes in various forms of gam-
bling. But one may as well hope to add a cubit to
his stature as to acquire permanent wealth in this
way. It is notorious that the sudden acquisition
of money or property by any one, not accustomed
to its use and care, produces demoralization, and
results in waste and ruin. It is as absolutely certain
that the individual who has not possessed and cul-
tivated the value-perceiving faculty, can not retain
possession of a fortune, which may be thrown in his
lap by chance, as it is that water poured out on a
hill top will seek the water course in the valley.
The great gains in all forms of gambling go ulti-
mately to the value-knowing manipulators of the
games, and those who are lacking in the value-per-
ceiving faculty and are eager to try their luck,
70 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
furnish the wealth which the expert gamblers gather
in. He is fortunate who correctly estimates his own
value-perceiving ability and is wise enough not to
contend with those who are better endowed or better
equipped than he.
VALUTE–SENSE INECESSARY FOR A CCUMULATION OF
WEALTH.
It is in his intellect that man differs from the
beasts, and it is in intellect that oneman differs from
another, making as wide a difference between the
highest and lowest man as between the lowest man
and the highest beast. The value-perceiving faculty
is highly developed in the highest intellect. He
who has this faculty will accumulate wealth by
comparatively slight exertion, while he who has it
not will not gain wealth, no matter how energetically
he labors. Races and families differ widely in respect
to this faculty, but it is generally true, perhaps by
natural selection, that the races and families highest
in general development and in prosperity, exhibit
this faculty most largely. Other things being equal,
he who has the keenest appreciation of art will paint
best and will enjoy the best painting; he who has the
most delicate musical sense will secure the most per-
fect musical instrument and will perform most sat-
isfactorily thereon. So he who is the best judge of
value will make the best bargains, and will most
rapidly accumulate wealth.
VALUE—SENSE OF THE JEWS.
Mr. Matthew Arnold in “Literature and Dogma”
elaborated a theory, that the Jews, the children of
Israel, were “the people who had the sense of
THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY. T1
righteousness most glowing and strongest,” just as
the Greeks had the sense of art, and the Romans the
military spirit in greatest perfection. A similar
theory might, I think, be worked out and illustrated
by plentiful historical examples, to the effect that
the sense of value has characterized the Jews even
more particularly and persistently than the sense of
righteousness. I think it can be shown to be reason-
able that this sense of value, possessed by the Jews
in an unusual degree, has kept the race for centu-
ries separate from others and distinct among other
Teoples. Without the military sense or spirit, with
no country which they could call home, they have
been distinguished from other men by their keen
perception of value, and by this trait have preserved
their lineage and their identity through centuries of
change and decay in other races. That the Jews
have fairly inherited this faculty no one can doubt,
who reads the story of Jacob. They are true chil-
dren of that Israel, who drove the sharp bargain for
the birthright with the value-dull. Esau, and placed
the ring-streaked rods by the water-troughs of La-
ban’s heifers.
SOCIALISM IGNORES THE WAIUE–SENSE.
The best development of the value-appreciating
faculty has passed beyond the mere bargain-driving
stage, and the greatest commercial successes are
achieved by the organization of industry and the
systemization of methods. The true commercial
spirit of modern times asks only a fair field and no
favors, seeks only trade which benefits both buyer
and seller, increases wealth by ingenious devices, by
more economic transportation, by the use of banks
72 THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY.
and clearing-houses and boards of trade or exchange.
It has contrived that the earth, or that portion of
the earth to which its influence extends, sustains a
hundred million more of human beings than the same
countries could furnish food for fifty years ago.
And all this, which the commercial spirit has accom-
plished, it alone can sustain. If the intelligent
energy of this spirit is checked, if the well-devised
system of its operation is disordered, the abun-
dance of its results, on which so much depends, will
decrease. Each degree of this decrease will bring
straitened circumstances to millions, hard times,
difficulty in obtaining food, and in some cases abso-
lute inability to sustain life. Surely such a prospect
should warn us to oppose no discouragement to the
commercial spirit. Yet this is exactly what social-
ism demands of us. In their blindness and folly the
socialists would take the management of property
from the hands in which the present organization of
society has placed it, would have a redistribution of
property, so that those who have had no experience
in its management, would hereafter manage it.
They would reconstruct the laws, so that those who
possess the value-sense, the wealth-accumulating
faculty would no longer be able to enjoy any special
reward for the exercise of their talent. They
stupidly imagine, no doubt, that civilization will
somehow continue to exist when the motive power
has been destroyed. . They fancy that somehow the
hands which have been taught to labor, will continue
laboring when the brains, which taught and directed
them, are dead or torpid. But any such expecta-
tion is the most fatuous imbecility. -
THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY. 73
The Improvement of Society.
While I maintain that all the demands of the
socialists are unwarranted, and that the least yield-
ing to any of them will cause social damage, I am
far from claiming that the social organization is now
perfect. It is a wonderful development as it now
exists, but I doubt not, that it is capable of greater
development and improvement. But its healthy
and beneficial growth can only be in accordance with
the principles which have brought it thus far. I do
not doubt that by wise measures and the diffusion
of correct ideas of life, the comfort and happiness
of all classes of men may be greatly improved.
IMPROVEMENT NOT TOWARD SOCIALISM.
The improvement in the condition of those who
labor with their hands, it seems to me, is not to be
brought about by the demands of labor societies,
when such demands are based on the theory that
labor creates value. (I believe that it is highly
proper, and shows the possession of the value-per-
ceiving faculty, for laborers to unite in trade-unions
for the purpose of securing the highest market price
for their labor, the commodity which they have to
sell.) But the real hope of improving the laborer's
condition is in the diffusion of the gentle spirit
among all classes. This might be called culture, if
that word had not acquired a certain priggish signif-
icance. It is not by loudly claiming what he sup-
poses are his natural rights, that the laborer is to be
benefited, but by lending a hand in Sustaining and
advancing civilization as he finds it. He must be
74 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
the friend and not the enemy of society, if he would
enjoy life. What matter if he finds himself some-
what low in the social scale? If he rightly esti-
mates his faculties and does his best to make them
useful, there is a fair share of contentment for him.
If instead of ruminating on the unaccountable cir-
cumstances which have given to certain of his fellow-
men greater advantages and greater powers than he
possesses, he endeavors to cultivate among those
with whom he comes in contact, mutual respect and
the recognition of the worth of individual character,
he will be far happier. The substitution of efforts
to deserve well, for efforts to secure all possible
rights is an indication of the gentle spirit.
SELEISHINESS WELL CONTROLLED.
In a state of nature, selfishness is uncontrolled.
It is neither desirable nor possible to eliminate
selfishness from man. It is an essential part of him.
But the best results of civilization are gained by
stimulating individual exertions by proper rewards,
and modifying selfishness by proper self-restraints.
Without selfishness man would have no force. But
the selfishness of a well-trained man is to natural
Selfishness, as the appetite of a polite dinner-guestis
to the hunger of a wild beast. The one satisfies its
cravings decently and in order, with due regard to
the similar cravings of others, but the beast rends
and devours and gorges himself, oblivious of all but
his own satisfaction. The civilized man, whether he
be laborer or manager, value-sharp trader or value-
dull star-gazer, should not be devoid of selfishness,
but should hold it like his passions in firm control.
THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY. 75
He should do this for higher reasons than mere self-
ish wisdom suggests; yet pure selfishness, if it be
intelligent, must approve this self-restraint, for by
reason of it, when generally exercised, each individ-
ual Secures most prolonged and fullest enjoyment.
SOCIALISTS APIPEAL TO PASSIONS.
The pictures which socialist agitators draw of the
lives of rich men, in order to induce laborers to cast
aside all self-restraint and give their selfishness full
rein, are commonly grossly untrue. But evenif they
were true, the argument based upon them is a gross
fallacy. Suppose that rich men pass their lives in
vicious excesses, what possible good can the laborer
derive by meditating on this state of affairs, or by
imitating it to the best of his ability? The intent of
this fallacy is to lodge in the minds of the laborers
the notion, that the wealth which they have some-
how created is being spent in riotous living, and that
he laborers ought to participate in this sort of
enjoyment, which is supposed to attend this use of
riches. The cunning of the fallacy lies in first inflam-
ing the passions, or at least the prejudices of labor-
ing men, by vicious descriptions, and then teaching
them that these wasteful excesses are indulged at
their expense. No reasoning could be more unsound.
It is true that the conduct of every member of Society
is a matter of interest to every other member. But
this is a rule which applies to rich and poor alike.
The rich man is as greatly injured by the poor man’s
debauchery, as is the poor man by the rich man’s
vice. The question of personal conduct is entirely
removed from the question of property.
76 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
But the socialist agitators carry their attempts to
arouse prejudice in the minds of working men to a
still more vicious extreme, and represent in certain
cases the mere possession and enjoyment of righes as
a wrong. §
UNFAIR ABUSIE OF RICH MEN.
The name of Wanderbilt is so commonly used
as a synonym of great wealth, and the persecution
and abuse heaped upon Mr. Wm. H. Wanderbilt
and his family, by certain newspapers and would-be
labor reformers, are so well-known and so unrelent-
ing, that I may be excused in using this name in an
illustration.* It is not charged that Mr. Wanderbilt's
wealth has been acquired in an unlawful way, or that
it is employed by him for unlawful purposes. It is
not charged that he has robbed any man, or that any
man is the poorer to-day by reason of his possessing
millions. As far as is known, Mr. Wanderbilt and
his family are respectable people, affectionate in
their family relation and reasonably courteous in
their intercourse with friends and strangers. They
have done nothing to attract public attention to
themselves. They have not been overbearing or
Ostentatious, and have set no example of vicious or
corrupt luxury. But it is known that Mr. Wander-
bilt owns a large amount of stock in several impor-
tant railroad companies, which probably afford him
a larger income, than any other man in this country
*I wish to make it plain that I have used this name only by
way of illustrating my point clearly and with no intention of
appearing as the champion of any individual. For Mr. Vander-
bilt's name may be substituted any other law-abiding citizen who
possesses and manages property acquired in the development of
American enterprises.
THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY. 77
enjoys. On this account alone he is made to appear
in a peculiar and unenviable light to a large part
of the people of this country. His face is freely
caricatured in all the comic papers. Almost every
week he is depicted leading a typical workman in
chains, or is represented as a fierce dragon devour-
ing helpless laborers with their wives and children.
Newspaper correspondents vie with each other, in
inventing unfavorable gossip about him and his
Surroundings, and leading articles daily denounce
him without stint. In fact so far is this misrepre-
Sentation—this outrage upon private life and charac-
ter—carried, that I think a considerable part of the
American public conceive of him as a sort of resur-
rected Nero or Caligula—a modern tyrant, gross and
remorseless, levying cruel and unjust assessments
upon the poverty-stricken people who travel on his
railroads, smiling at the tears and groans of his vic-
tims, and muttering, as he figures up his dividends,
“the public be damned.”
The fact is, Mr. Wanderbilt is receiving a propor-
tionately small, and a well earned part of the profits
of the greatest economical device of modern times.
Mr. Wanderbilt's father possessed extraordinary
ability. He had the value-sense largely developed,
and with it great energy and persistence. He organ-
ized and perfected a great system of cheap trans-
portation, which has brought immense wealth and
prosperity to the people of this country. The results
of the combinations which his genius effected are an
unprecedented increase in the means of subsistence,
an unparalleled multiplication of population. It is
very likely that some of the reckless agitators, who
are to-day denouncing the Wanderbilt family, owe
78 THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY.
the bread they eat to Commodore Wanderbilt's com-
mercial genius. It may be said, that some one else
would have consolidated the New York Central and
Hudson River railroads, and extended its connec-
tions in the West, if Commodore Wanderbilt had not
done so. This may or may not be probable. No one
can tell. But if so, some other man’s children would
be enjoying to-day the Wanderbilt income. He who
renders a great service to society is worthy of a great
reward. Mr. W. H. Wanderbilt is to-day receiving
his just dues, under the contract which civilized
society holds with all its members. This contract is
the very corner-stone of all civilization. To injure or
destroy it is to turn mankind about and start the
race on the downward road to barbarism. Even
to question its importance argues ignorance and
degeneracy.
THE WANDERBILT ESTATE AN EVIDENCE OF THE
SUCCESS OF REPUBLICAIN GOVERNMENT.
Mr. Wanderbilt's large income is often spoken of
as a monstrous injustice in a republic. This shows
a singular confusion of ideas, and that there are
some persons who imagine that a republican form
of government is somehow to cause an equal distri-
bution of mental and physical powers to all its citi-
zens. This is not, and never can be, its function or
object. The equal protection of every man in the
exercise of his peculiar powers, is the object and
glory of republican government. By this means
each man is encouraged to use his powers to the best
advantage, and the results which he may be able to
attain are guaranteed to him and to his children,
according to their ability to retain them. Mr.
THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY. 79
Wanderbilt's large income should be regarded as an
evidence of the grand opportunities afforded under
well regulated popular governments. It should be
an incentive to every citizen to be diligent in devis-
ing economic benefits for the public, that he and his
children also may be rich and prosperous.
The Rights of the Masses.
While I am writing this a cable dispatch comes to
the effect that Mr. Henry George has been received
on arrival at the railroad station, in London, by
fifteen hundred persons, representing the Land
Reform Union, and that he has made a speech.
The telegraph represents him as saying:
“Power must always be with the masses. Do not
ask for patronage or charity, but demand justice—
your own rights, and the rights of those below you.
In this way we shall conquer.”
There is a great deal of very dangerous error in
these few words, but the fifteen hundred people
whom Mr. George addressed are probably doing
their best to believe these errors, to propagate them
and to act on them. And in this fact lies the neces-
sity of exposing these errors and refuting them, lest
great social damage be done,—lest multitudes suffer
useless misery. e
FOWER OF THE MASSES.
The power which the masses possessis mere phys-
ical force. Without intelligent guidance it is no
more than the power of so many beasts. And
whether this power is to be exerted benevolently or
80 THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY.
malevolently depends on the wisdom with which it
is directed. It must be manifest to every man, that
this power misguided will do, immense harm. If,
then, the masses are led to believe that they suffer
injustice, when no injustice is done them, or that
they are denied some rights, when in fact they are
enjoying all their possible rights, it must be admitted
that they are grossly misguided, and are in danger
of doing great mischief. The quéstion then is, are
the masses deprived of any just rights? By the
Imasses I suppose Mr. George means those persons
who have little or no property, and are dependent
on their daily earnings for their daily sustenance.
To this question then the answer is plain. All men
are equal before the law; all men have equal rights.
This is true to its fullest extent in this country. It
is true with but slight limitations in England. Those
who compose the masses, and those who make up
the remainder of society, have the same rights,
and society guarantees and secures to each man,
whether he be rich or poor, laborer or capitalist,
the enjoyment of these rights. These rights are
numerous and well defined. The right of personal
liberty, and the right to acquire, possess and dispose
of property, are perhaps the most important; and it
is the last and most carefully guarded triumph of
civilization, that no discrimination is made against
any man in respect to his rights, on account of his
learning, his belief, his wealth, or his position in the
State. The laborer has now the same rights—no less
and no more—that every other man possesses. Nei-
ther Mr. George nor any other man can truthfully
deny this,
THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY. 81
THE COMPETITION OF IDLENESS.
What then does Mr. George mean, when he urges
workingmen to demand their rights? He can mean
nothing else but that the masses have rights, which
others, who are not the masses, do not possess. If he
means this, he is leading the masses to demand some-
thing more than their just rights. He is striving to
direct the power, which is in the masses, to the
upsetting of the benevolent development of society.
He would have the masses destroy the organizations
of industry and commerce, by removing the master
minds who direct them. He would deprive mankind
of all motive for exertion but the mere temporary
desire for food and clothing. Any higher object, if
attained, would lift an individual above the masses,
and would work a deprivation of the supposed
rights, which he exhorts the masses to demand.
The spirit of Mr. George's harangue is to discourage
all effort but that which is merely physical, and to
substitute for the competition of intellect, a compe-
tition of idleness. Is this the proper intelligence to
guide the power of the masses?
GEORGE AND WANDERBILT COMPARED.
Mr. George has at various times indulged in a
good deal of unpleasant rant about Mr. Wm. H.
Wanderbilt and his so-called unearned wealth, but
it has probably never occurred to him to make
a comparative statement of the happiness and mis-
ery which he and the much-abused millionaire are
causing in their day and generation. Mr. George
very likely counts himself something of a philan-
thropist, yet a truthful statement of this kind might
82 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
surprise him. It is not necessary to give Mr. Wan-
derbilt credit for benevolent motives, or to take
into account his active charities, if such there are.
It is needful only to assume that he manages his
large property on just business principles, and it
is easy to see that he is constantly furnishing the
means of living to a large number of men, and
that he is instrumental in assisting a much larger
number to acquire a portion.of the comforts which
they enjoy. But what have been the results of
Mr. George's efforts? Has he ever conferred any
material benefit on any considerable number of his
fellow-men? Has he not rather rendered a great
many men discontented! Is not the sum of human
misery increased by the work which he has been
engaged in 8 Are not the fifteen hundred working-
men of London worse members of society for the
exhortations which he has addressed to them? If
his words have been heeded, he has unquestionably
rendered labor less cheerful and hence less efficient.
Discontent among laborers causes slackening of
exertion and waste in production. Can any one,
who has given any attention to Mr. George’s ad-
dresses to workingmen, doubt that they have retarded
the wheels of industry in a thousand factories?
PATRONAGE AND CHARITY.
Mr. George says to the workingmen of London,
“Do not ask for patronage or charity.” There is a
tone of manly independence in these words which
is very deceptive. No man should ask for charity
except as the last resort. A proper spirit will lead
a man to practice all possible economy and self-
denial rather than ask charity. In this self-denial
THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY. 83
lies the manliness of not asking charity. But this
is not the meaning of Mr. George. Self-denial and
personal economy have no place in his teachings.
He tells his followers not to ask patronage or charity.
Now asking patronage is entirely different in charac-
ter from asking charity. The only sense in which
the word patronage is used in commercial affairs is
as an equivalent for the favor of customers or
employers, or favor in trade. It is necessary for
success,’ in nearly if not quite all the modes by
which men make their livings, that they should ask
patronage. And he who is most apt at Soliciting
patronage is, other things being equal, likely to
secure the best living. The banker, the merchant,
the physician, the lawyer, and even the clergyman
have well known ways of asking patronage. The
railroad company and the manufacturer ask patron-
age most persistently and are not ashamed. Why
should laborers be too proud in spirit to ask the
patronage of employers? The tradesman does not
think it unmanly or humiliating to ask people, who
have the means, to buy his goods. It might be
more according to his taste to put out no sign, to
make no display of his wares, but to wait for pur-
chasers to find him as best they could. Ashopkeeper
who scorned to ask patronage, however, would have
to content himself with small profits in these days
of active competition. Yet this is the line of con-
duct which Mr. George advises laborers to pursue.
Having the commodity labor for sale, they should
not ask for employment. They should stand proudly
apart and wait until employers solicit them to labor.
Is it anything unreasonable to say that the laborers,
who follow Mr. George's advice, will be left behind
84 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
in the race by the patronage-asking laborers? The
latter will find the best work and the best pay, and
will enjoy prosperity, while Mr. George's misguided
disciples, neglecting to ask patronage, but demand-
ing more rights than other people, will remain
floundering in poverty. -
THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY. 85
THE LABOR - VALUE FAT,LACTY IN
POLITICS. gº
NovKMBER, 1886.
Since the foregoing pages were first published, the
Scene of the socialist agitation has changed some-
what. It then more especially afflicted France, and
it seemed probable that some success would attend
the efforts of the socialists to seize and direct the
government of that country. We of the United
States, if we thought of it at all, looked on with
much complacency at the prospect of these experi-
ments across the water. We congratulated our-
selves, doubtless, that this is a free country and that
there is no occasion for socialist agitation here.
But we have been somewhat rudely enlightened
on this point. The industrial depression in France
Sapped the life of the agitation. The agitators have
sought richer fields. They have flocked to the
United States, where the prosperity of the industrial
classes gives them something to feed upon. A pov-
erty-stricken community is no place for a socialist.
He seeks a community that has accumulated a fine
Surplus, where he may be admitted to membership
and secure a division of property.
Hence we are brought face to face with the ques-
tion which two years ago we thought removed from
us a generation or two at least. Events have fol-
lowed each other in rapid succession. One great
strike succeeded another, keeping the workingmen
86 THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY.
in all the large centres of population in a state of
discontent and uneasiness, until the bomb exploded
in the Haymarket in Chicago. This great crime,
which neither the Knights of Labor, nor Henry
George, nor Master Workman Powderly, nor any
other labor organization nor labor organization leader
has yet designated as a crime, furnished matter for
agitation for months.
The Labor Party.
This agitation has increased in strength remark-
ably. It has tempted socialists of all the numerous
varieties from Europe, and has involved hosts of
men in this country who are yet hardly ready to
acknowledge Socialist sympathies. It has got into
politics. It has got its adherents counted at an elec-
tion. It has shown a voting strength in New York
City of 68,000 votes, in Chicago of 18,000 to 20,000
votes, in Wisconsin of 22,000 votes (mostly in the
city of Milwaukee). Whether its candidates were
defeated or elected at the polls, the Labor Party
has accepted the result with all the enthusiasm of
victors. It has moved at once to consolidate and
perfect its organization. Demagogues already, in
talk and actions, prepare to join it as the rising
power.
The Labor Party, born of the Haymarket murder,
organized to save the necks of the criminals, brings
the Labor-Value Fallacy into politics and forces the
issue. No citizen of this country can longer with
safety afford to treat this subject with indifference.
It imperatively demands discussion. The safety of
society demands that the intelligent discussion of
THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY. 87
this subject should be placed before all classes of the
people. There is danger that, deceived by this eco-
nomic error, the people may be led to commit a
stupendous blunder.
The Labor Party Founded on the Labor-
Value Fallacy.
There is hardly an official utterance of any of the
numerous labor organizations, hardly a speech of
any of the leaders of the labor movement, which
does not contain this fallacy plainly stated as a text.
Do the owners of property realize that a strong party
is organized whose fundamental principle is that
everything in the production of which labor has been
exerted is wrongfully held if possessed by anyone
whose physical labor has not been expended upon it,
or upon some other commodity which has been ex-
changed for it? Do they realize that.this party is
animated by the belief that none but workmen can be
rightfully owners of property?
The following are sample extracts from the ad-
dresses of representative labor organizations.
The Central Labor Union of New York City, in
which it is said is concentrated the strength of 185
labor Organizations, representing an aggregate of
fully 100,000 “wage-workers,” says in its declara-
tion of principles:
**The soil is the social and common inheritance
of the people, and hence all should have free and
equal access to it without tribute to landlords.”
“Lábor produces all wealth, and the laborer is
therefore entitled to a full share of the wealth he
labors to produce,” etc., etc.

88 THE LABOR.—VALUE FALLACY.
The campaign committee of the United Labor
Party in Chicago, before the recent election, issued
an address to the Stock Yards workingmen, begin-
ning as follows: -
“The wealth invested in the stock yards and pack-
ing houses, and the millions of dollars possessed by
Armour, Allerton and the rest, has all been taken
from the workingmen whose labor created it.”
Robert G. Ingersoll.
Immediately after the late election, Mr. Robert
G. Ingersoll prepared an interview of himself and
caused it to be published simultaneously in several
Chicago newspapers, in which he said:
“I think the foundations have been laid for a new
party. I think the people who have done the work
of the world begin to see that they have the power
to control. They find, too, that the men who exist
in poverty, create the very wealth with which the
others live in luxury,” etc., etc.
Mr. Ingersoll doubtless had satisfactory reasons
for publishing this spontaneous interview at this
time. I am probably not far wrong in quoting him
as an example of a considerable class of time-serving
politicians who think they see in the Labor Party
the rising tide, and hasten to get their endorsements
of the Labor-Value Fallacy ready, in order that they
may float successfully upon it.
I do not quote the whole of Mr. Ingersoll's con-
fession of socialism. It is long and not clear. He
will probably make a better statement of the social-
ist creed when he has had time to study the subject.
THE LABOR.—VALUE FAILLACY. 89
Herr Liebknecht.
For a clear, definite and temperate statement of
the belief of the Labor Party, however, I have
found nothing better than the following. This is
an extract from an address of William Liebknecht,
a socialist member of the German Reichstag, im-
ported apparently to agitate for the release of the
condemned anarchists, although professing strong
disapproval of anarchism. This address has been
delivered to large and enthusiastic audiences in this
country, and is doubtless as favorable a statement
as can be made of the Labor-Value Fallacy:
“All wealth is the product of labor. It is a logical sequence
that wealth should belong to labor. But it is a fact that those
who do not do productive work own the greater part of wealth.
The socialist, says this is owing to the wages system, to the
expoliation of human labor. If the capitalist gave the laborer
an equivalent for his labor, the capitalist would, at the end of
the year, have no more than at the beginning. We read that
the national wealth of all the nations grows by millions every
year, but it remains in the hands of the capitalists. Here comes
in the doctrine of Karl Marx of unpaid labor, which is practi-
cally admitted by all professors of political economy. On an
average the laborer only earns as much as is sufficient to keep
him alive. That is the iron law of wages. It is difficult for the
workingman to tell just what he produces in a given time, and
he is underpaid by the capitalist who makes money out of the
labor for which he does not pay the laborer. If you want to
solve the question, peaceably, you should study the question.
There is a surprising ignorance in political economy in the
United States as well as in Europe, and the lesson of last Tuesday
(election day) will teach the writers for the press to study the
question and not attempt to brush it aside by answering argu-
ments they never studied.”

Common Belief in the Fallacy.
The remark about the ignorance in political
economy in the United States is doubtless true, but
it is doubtless equally true that political economy is
more generally studied in this country than any-
where else in the world. It is not for lack of study
90 THE LABOR-VALUE FAILLACY.
that we remain in ignorance. Nearly every one here
believes that “all wealth is the product of labor.”
At least nearly every one you may ask the question
of will say he believes it. But if you ask humbly
and anxiously how this can be proved, you are told,
“because it is,” or “every one knows that.” If
you press for a little more light, you are triumph-
antly answered that all the well-known political
economists, from Adam Smith to Henry George, say
that all wealth is created by labor. If you still
remain unconvinced, and point out that manythings
which are commonly counted as wealth—such as
land, domestic animals, the products of the soil,
etc.—are not created by labor, you are told that
although these things may not be actually entirely
created by labor, still the labor which has been
expended upon them is the sole cause of their being
wealth ; in other words, the sole cause of their value
in exchange. If you ask how this may be shown,
you are again told that it may be easily seen, and
that John Stuart Mill and others say it is so. But
if you insist upon some practical demonstration, if
you demand some real case in which it can be shown
that the exchangeable value of anything has been
created entirely by labor, you must meet a wiser
political economist than I have been able to discover
if you receive a convincing answer. You may press
these questions on the many political economists
you meet in your daily walks, in the workshops or
in the banks, behind editors' desks or behind shop-
counters, on your minister or on your boy’s school
teacher; you will find that all will take you over the
same course. They will give you plenty of authority,
plenty of assertion, but they will all fail to show you
y THE LABOR-VALUE FALLACY. 91
a single real instance in which labor expended in
producing anything bears any ascertainable relation
to its exchangeable value.
Ask Proof.
It is apparent that momentous consequences hang
on belief in the doctrine “all wealth is created by
labor”—nothing less than the upsetting of soci-
ety. Would it not be well to pause a bit, and ask
the anarchists and the socialists, and the Labor
Party, and Mr. Henry George, and Mr. Robert G.
Ingersoll, to combine their intellects and find one
demonstrable case in which the exchangeable value,
the quality in which wealth consists, of any com-
modity, is created solely by labor? Until they can
produce such a case clearly and definitely proven, is
it not the part of prudence and good citizenship to
refuse to follow them? If they fail in a simple mat-
ter like this, is it likely they will be wise in managing
the reorganization of society ?
Let the American workingmen and all other indus-
trious American citizens, when appealed to by Henry
George and his followers, whether they call them-
selves socialists, anarchists, or mere friends of labor,
apply this simple but effective test: Ask them to
prove the fundamental premise of their argument,
that labor creates all wealth. Until they do this, by
all reasoning beings they may be held unworthy of
confidence.
92 FROM POLITICAL ECONOMY,
APPENDIX.
LABOR AND CAPITAL.
[From Political Economy—By Horace Greeley.]
“If there be those who would array Labor against Capital, I
am not of them, nor with them. If there be those who regard the
interests of Labor and of Capital as naturally or properly antag-
onistic, I do not agree with them. In using the term “Laboring
Class” or “Working Men,” I conform to a usage which has the
recommendation of convenience, and hardly another. In my
view, there should be none other than laborers, save the infan-
tile, the disabled, and the dead; and there are not nearly so
many non-laborers as is vulgarly supposed. The rum-seller is a
worker, though to no good end ; even the gambler evinces indus-
try, though to very bad purpose. If I had the ordering of human
affairs, I would have every one an apprentice of some sort in
youth, a worker for wages (or something equivalent thereto) in
early manhood (or womanhood), and every one his or her own
employer at a later stage; so that the class of hired workers
should be constantly receiving recruits on one side and dismissing
skilled, experienced persons to enter upon graver responsibilities
on the other. I would have every journeyman realize that he
will soon be an employer, every employer remember that he was
once a journeyman, as his son (if son he have) soon will be; and
I believe the influence of these contemplations would be salutary
on all alike. I do not like to hear a man boast that he has been
a hireling these twenty or thirty years, and expects to remain
such till death; for, though it be true that no man should be
ashamed of a humble position, I qualify the statement by the
proviso that he has had no fair opportunity to rise above it. A
true man will much prefer to shoulder a hod or sweep streets
rather than eat the bread of idleness and dependence; but, either
our political institutions are mistakes, or a hale, two-handed
person, who has not been pulled down by unavoidable misfor-
tune, should be ashamed that, having had twenty years' control
BY HORACE GREELEY. 93
of his own time and faculties, he still finds hod-carrying or
street-sweeping the best thing he is asked or enabled to do. If I
had had a fair chance to do for myself for even twenty years,
and could now find no better employment than the rudest and
coarsest day-labor, I should accept the situation, but not be
inclined to brag of it.” -
º * º # # * * # * + * *
“The world is full of misdirection and waste ; but all the
calamities and losses endured by mankind through frost, drouth,
blight, hail, fires, earthquakes, inundations, are as nothing to
those habitually suffered by them through human idleness and
inefficiency, mainly caused (or excused) by lack of industrial
training. It is quite within the truth to estimate that one-tenth
of our people, in the average, are habitually idle because (as they
say) they can find no employment. They look for work where
it cannot be had. They seem to be, or they are, unable to do
such as abundantly confronts and solicits them. Suppose these to
average but one million able-bodied persons, and that their work
is worth but one dollar each per day; our loss by involuntary
idleness cannot be less than $300,000,000 per annum. I judge that
it is actually $500,000,000. Many who stand waiting to be hired
could earn from two to five dollars per day had they been prop-
erly trained to work.” . . . .
# # # * * * * * * * * 3%
“Labor may be so wretchedly misapplied as to produce no
Wealth at all. The ruins of ancient capitals like Tadmor, Thebes,
or Palmyra, are not capital, and can be made to yield little or no
wealth; the Pyramids cost a vast amount of labor, yet have no
pecuniary value; the remains of the Coliseum or of Pompeii have
very little. I fully concur in the assumption that a prodigal's
lavish expenditure no more contributes, in the large view, to the
relief of powerty than to the increase of national wealth. The
drunken idiot or maniac who sows the street with dollars, to be
scrambled for by the mob, does not befriend—he rather de-
bauches—his scuffling, struggling, shouting followers. I fully
insist that he who makes and saves, though already possessed of
vast wealth, is a greater benefactor to the poor than though he
Yvere content to riot, spend, and Squander.”
* * % # 3; 3: * # * * * *
94 FROM POLITICAL ECONOMY,
“And, though Man is first impelled to labor by the spur of
material want, the movement outlasts the impulse in which it
originated. The miser toils, and schemes, and saves, with an
eye single to his own profit or aggrandizement; but commodious
public halls, grand hotels, breezy parks, vast libraries, noble col-
leges, are often endowed in his will or founded on his wealth.
Whatever the past has bequeathed for our instruction, civiliza-
tion, refinement, or comfort, was created for us by the saving,
thrifty, provident minority of vanished generations, many of
whom were despised and reviled through life as absorbed in self-
ishness and regardless of other than personal ends. How many
of those who flippantly disparaged and contemned him while he
lived have rendered to mankind such signal, abiding service as
Stephen Girard or John Jacob Astor?”
40
# # # # * +& * 3% * * * *
“Yet, when poets, philanthropists, and divines, have said
their worst of it, the love of personal acquisition remains the
mainspring of most of the material good thus far achieved on this
rugged, prosaic planet. Columbus, wearily bearing from court
to court his earnest petition to be enabled to discover a new
world, insisted on his claim to be made hereditary Lord High
Admiral of that world, and to a tithe of all the profits that should
flow from its acquisition. The great are rarely so great or the
good so good that they choose to labor and dare entirely for the
benefit of others; while, with the multitude, personal advantage
is the sole incitement to continuous exertion. Man's natural love
of ease and enjoyment is only overborne, in the general case, by
his consciousness that through effort and self-denial lies the way
to comfort and ease for his downhill of life and a more fortunate
career for his children. Take away the inducements to industry
and thrift afforded by the law which secures to each the owner-
ship and enjoyment of his rightful gains, and, through universal
poverty and ignorance, even Christendom would rapidly relapse
into utter barbarism.”
* * * * * º * * # * * *
“Civilization is founded on accumulated capital and system-
atic labor. It cannot dispense with either. Though all men work
diligently and efficiently through each day, yet, if they spent as
fast as they earned, civilized society must perish, and human
IBY HORACE GREELEY. 95
existence be maintained with difficulty, if at all. The bar-room
loafer who decries capital could not survive the next hard winter
without its aid. He lives through the inclement season on that
which others more provident have saved and stored against a
time of need. He may or may not render an equivalent, but in
the absence of capitalists opportunity to make the indispensable
trade would be wanting. There is none so poor or wretched that
capital earned and owned by others has not already saved him
from perishing of want, as it will do again and again. Capital
justly acquired and wisely employed is every one's friend,
Smoothing the ruggedness and lessening the discomfort of even
the most forlorn and hapless career.”
* * $ * * # * 3% # * * *
“First of Man’s material interests, most pervading, most essen-
tial, is Labor, or the employment of human faculties and sinews
to create, educe, or shape articles required by his needs or tastes.
Though Providence is benignant and Nature bounteous, so that,it
was possible, in the infancy of the race, that the few simple
wants of a handful of savages might be fitfully, grudgingly satis-
fied from the spontaneous products of the earth; and though a
thin population of savages is still enabled to subsist, on a few fer-
tile tropical islands, without regular, systematic industry,<-their
number being kept below the point of mutual starvation by
incessant wars, by cannibalism, by infanticide, and by their
unbounded licentiousness, the rule is all but inexorable that
buman existence, even, is dependent on human labor. To the
race generally, to smaller communities, and to individuals, God
proffers the stern alternative, Work or perish l Idlers and profli-
gates are constantly dying out, leaving the earth peopled mainly
by the offspring of the relatively industrious and frugal. Philan-
thropy may drop a tear by their unmarked graves; but the idle,
thriftless, improvident tribes and classes will nevertheless disap-
pear, leaving the earth to those who, by planting as well as by
clearing away forests, and by tilling, irrigating, fertilizing, and
beautifying the earth, prove themselves children worthy of her
bounty and her blessing. Even if all things were made common,
and the idle welcomed to a perpetual feast upon the products of
the toil of the diligent, still the former would rapidly pass away,
leaving few descendants, and the children of the latter would
ultimately inherit the earth.” * * * * * *
96 FROM POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Hence, I regard with apprehension the problem now chal-
lenging our attention of Chinese and Japanese Labor. That I
profoundly dissent from the line of argument by which its pro-
hibition is usually upheld, need hardly be stated. But, if millions
of “coolies” are to be thrust upon us merely because their labor
is cheap, are to remain among us uneducated, unenfranchised,
unassimilated foreigners and strangers, to whom our responsi-
bility ends with the payment of their stipulated wages, then I
hold that their cheap labor will prove in the end dearer than any
other, because obtained by the sacrifice of those vital principles
on which this republic was founded, and lacking which it must
cease to be a beacon and a blessing to mankind.
“The Wages system, with all its defects and abuses, is an
immense advance upon the mildest and least objectionable form
of Slavery. The worker for Wages has rights which the law
affirms and constrains all men to respect : his wife and children
are his, and in no sense another's; the latter are sometimes
invited by the State to partake of the bounties and blessings of
an education, which may be rudimentary and imperfect, yet is
still of inestimable value; he is usually a citizen and a voter,
and may almost always, by good conduct, become either or
both if he be not already such ; he can often save a part of his
earnings, and thus gradually win his way to independence and
competence; he has always before him the prospect of becoming
his own master, and even the employer of others, a prospect
which should, and often does, make him considerate of the rights
and saving of the property of those to whom he sells his services.
He, surely, has never been a slave who rashly proclaims the hire-
ling's condition no better than the bondman's.
The very first association mainly of the Laboring Class which
shall clearly demonstrate their ability to supply the want of a
great capital by combining their moderate means, and directing
their own labor to profit through the agency of freely-chosen
foremen, officers, or chiefs, will have done more for the emanci-
pation and elevation of Labor than all the speculators and
system-builders from Plato's day to our own.”
SPECIMEN, UTTERANCES FROM
HENRY GEORGE.
The following extracts from some of the late writ-
ings of Henry George may be taken as his matured
Opinions, and as fairly representing the appeals
which he addresses to workingmen, and what he
proposes to accomplish.
These have been selected and are here published
in order that many who have not the patience or
leisure to read his books may obtain in his own
words expressions of his peculiar views on various
important questions. -
I. He seems to believe that the Constitution and
laws of the United States fail to secure equal rights
to all citizens, as in the following: -
“Our so-called recognition of the equal and natural rights of
man is to large classes of our people nothing but a mockery, and
as social pressure increases, is becoming a more bitter mockery
to larger classes, because our institutions fail to secure the rights
of men to their labor and the fruits of their labor. That this
denial of a primary human right is the cause of poverty on the
one side and of overgrown fortunes on the other, and of all the
waste and demoralization and corruption that flows from the
grossly unequal distribution of wealth, may be easily seen.”—
Social Problems, page 136.
II. He thinks all the benefit from labor-saving
machinery has accrued to landlords:
“Were labor-saving inventions carried so far that the neces-
sity of labor in the production of wealth were done away with,
the result would be that the owners of land could command all
the wealth that could be produced, and need not share with
labor even what is necessary for its maintenance. Were the
powers and capacities of land increased, the gain would be that
of the landowners. Or were the improvement to take place in
98 UTTERANCES FROM HENRY GEORGE.
the powers and capacities of labor, it would still be the owners
of the land, not laborers, who would reap the advantage.”—Social
Problems, page 300.
“Labor-saving inventions primarily increase the power of
labor, and should, therefore, increase wages and improve the
condition of the laboring classes. But this only where land is
free to labor; for labor cannot exert itself without land. No
labor-saving inventions can enable us to make something out of
nothing, or in anywise lessen our dependence on the land. They
can merely add to the efficiency of labor in working up the raw
materials drawn from the land. Therefore, wherever land has
been subjected to private ownership, the ultimate effect of labor-
saving inventions, and of all improved processes and discoveries,
is to enable landowners to demand and labor to pay more for the
use of the land. Land becomes more valuable, but the wages of
labor do not increase; on the contrary, if there is any margin for
possible reductions, they may be absolutely reduced.”—Social
Problems, page 266.
A little cold calculation as to the relative increase
of capital in land and capital in personal property
will effectually dispel this delusion. The former
has increased slowly, but the latter rapidly. But a
comparatively small part of the annual profits of
trade and manufacture goes for rent. By far the
larger part of the savings of the nation remains in
goods and chattels.
III. Henry George thinks American laborers are
slaves, and slaves of a very miserable description, as
witness the following:
“And as no possible increase in the power of his labor, or
reduction in his expenses of living, can benefit the slave, neither
can it, where land is monopolized, benefit those who have nothing
but their labor. It can only increase the value of the land—the
proportion of the produce that goes to the landowner. And this
being the case, the greater employment of machinery, the greater
division of labor, the greater contrasts in the distribution of wealth,
become to the working masses positive evils—making their lot
harder and more hopeless as material progress goes on. Even
UTTERANCES FROM HENRY GEORGE. 99
education adds to the capacity for suffering. If the slave must
continue to be a slave, it is cruelty to educate him.”—Social
Problems, page 303. º
“English ships carried negro slaves to America, and not to
England or Ireland, because in America land was cheap and labor
was valuable, while in western Europe land was valuable and labor
was cheap. As soon as the possibility of expansion over new land
ceased, chattel slavery would have died out in our Southern
States. As it is, Southern planters do not regret the abolition of
slavery. They get out of the freedmen as tenants as much as they
got out of them as slaves.”—Social Problems, page 306.
“Or what would the New England manufacturer gain by the
enslavement of his operatives? The competition with each other
of so-called freemen, who are denied all right to the soil of what
is called their country, brings him labor cheaper and more con-
veniently than would chattel slavery.”—Social Problems, page 306.
“But by changing the form of slavery—by freeing men and
appropriating land—all the advantages of chattel slavery can be
secured without any of the disadvantages which in a complex
society attend the owning of a particular man by a particular
master.”—Social Problems, page 308.
“They no longer have to drive their slaves to work: want and
the fear of want do that more effectually than the lash. They no
longer have trouble of looking out for their employment or hiring
out their labor, or the expense of keeping them when they cannot
work. That is thrown upon the slaves. The tribute that they
still wring from labor seems Tike voluntary payment. In fact,
they take it as their honest share of the rewards of production.”—
Social Problems, page 209,
“The essense of slavery is the robbery of labor. It consists in
compelling men to work, yet taking from them all the produce of
their labor except what suffices for a bare living. Of how many
of our “free and equal American citizens’ is that already the lot?
And of how many more is it coming to be the lot?”—Social Prob-
lems, paga £10. e
“Of the two systems of slavery, I think there can be no doubt
that upon the same moral level, that which makes property of
persons is more humane than that which results from making
private property of land.”—Social Problems, page 218.
“And I think no one who reads our daily papers can doubt that
even already, in the United States, there are many who, did chat-
100 LTTERANCES FROM HENRY GEORGE.
tel slavery without race distinction exist among us, would gladly
sell themselves or their children, and who would really make a
good exchange for their nominal freedom in doing so.”—Social
Problems, page 220.
The absurdity of these utterances is sufficiently
manifest. Slaves that vote, and hold mass-meetings
and organize political parties, that may, and fre-
quently do, become members of Congress, State
Legislatures and City Councils—in fact slaves who
are eligible to any office from President down, are
certainly a novel kind of slaves. The slaves (?) of
Milwaukee Co., Wisconsin, representing about one-
third of the population and less than a twentieth
part of the property of the County, elected, at the
recent election, a member of Congress and a full
County Ticket, and for the next two years will levy
taxes upon and make appropriations at will out of
the property of their masters (?). Verily, these
George slaves are a queer kind of slaves. Weventure
to assert, too, that the American citizen who is willing
to make slaves of himself and his children, is a
curiosity which the enterprising proprietor of a dime
museum would do well to secure for exhibition, if
he can find him.
• IV. Thisis what he thinks of the warfor the Union,
by which the slaves in the South were emancipated,
and of the financial measures by which its success
was secured :
“While as for the great national debts of the world; incurred
as they have been for purposes of tyranny and war, it is impossi-
ble to see in them anything but evil. Of all these great national
debts that of the United States will best bear examination; but
it is no exception.”—Social Problems, page £25.
“A great public debt creates a great moneyed interest that
wants ‘strong government” and fears change, and thus forms
UTTERANCES FROM HENRY GEORGE. 101
a powerful element on which corrupt and tyrannous government
can always rely as against the people. We may see already in
the United States the demoralization of this influence; while in
Europe, where it has had more striking manifestations, it is the
mainstay of tyranny, and the strongest obstacle to political
reform.”—Social Problems, page 229.
Yet he wants the strongest kind of a government
to be the universal landlord.
W. This shows what he thinks of the National
Banking system, and of the financial credit of the
nation, although it is apparent that he has only very
hazy notions regarding these matters:
“Not only did we, by the institution of the National Banking
system, give them [the rich lenders] back nine-tenths of much
of the money thus borrowed while continuing to pay interest on
the whole amount, but even where it was required neither by the
letter of the bond nor the equity of the circumstances we made
debt incurred in depreciated greenbacks payable on its face in
gold.”—Social Problems, page 225.
VI. The following is his criticism of the admin-
istration of our Government since the war:
“Ever since the war the great effort of our national Govern-
ment has not been to reduce taxation, but to find excuses for
maintaining war taxation. The most corrupting extravagance
in every department of administration has thus been fostered,
and every endeavor used to increase expense. We have deliber-
ately substituted a costly currency for a cheap currency; we have
deliberately added to the cost of paying off the public debt; we
maintain a costly navy for which we have no sort of use, and
which, in case of war, would be of no sort of use to us; and an
army twelve times as large and fifteen times as expensive as we
need.”—Social Problems, page 230.
VII. He does not approve the common law, and
has a poor opinion of lawyers:
“In legal administration there is a large field for radical
reform. Here, too, we have servilely copied English precedents,
and have allowed lawyers to make law in the interest of their
102 TJTTERANCES FROM HENRY GEORGE.
class until justice is a costly gamble for which a poor man can-
not afford to sue. The best use that could be made of our great
law libraries, to which the reports of thirty-eight States, of the
Federal courts, and of the English, Scotch and Irish courts are
each year being added, would be to send them to the paper mills,
and to adopt such principles and methods of procedure as would
reduce our great army of lawyers at least to the French stand-
ard. At the same time our statute books are full of enactments
which could, with advantage, be swept away.”—Social Problems,
page £36.
VIII. His financial theories, if they can be dignified
by that name, are vague, but make up in positiveness
what they lack in coherency:
“Yet instead of doing what every public consideration impels
us to do, and assuming wholly and fully as the exclusive function
of the general Government the power to issue paper money
[seems to be a fiat-money man}, the private interest of bankers
have, up to this, compelled us to the use of a hybrid currency, of
which a large part, though guaranteed by the general Govern-
ment, is issued and made profitable to the corporations. The
legitimate business of banking—the safe keeping and loaning of
money, and the making and exchange of credits—is properly left
to individuals and associations; but by leaving to them, even in
part and under restrictions and guarantees, the issuance of money,
the people of the United States suffer an annual loss of millions of
dollars, and sensibly increase the influences which exert a cor-
rupting effect upon their government.”—Social Problems, page
344.
IX. He has settled the railroad question for all
time and no more need be said:
“It is not necessary to go into any elaborate argument to show
that the ownership and management of railroads is a function of
the State. That is proved beyond dispute by the logic of events
and of existing facts. Nothing is more obvious—at least in the
TInited States, where the tendencies of modern development may
be seen much more clearly than in Europe—than that a union
of railroading with the other functions of government is inevit-
able.”—Social Problems, page 347.
Y. The following proposition is likely to startle
the average man who is versed in practical affairs.
tjTTERANCES FROM HENRY GEORGE. 103
Nothing more is needed to prove that Henry George
is an idle dreamer, that he has little knowledge of
human nature or of the ways of the world:
“There can be no doubt that the standard of commercial hon-
esty would be much higher in the absence of laws for the collection
of debts.”—Social Problems, page £37.
XI. Lastly, Henry George's peculiar views with
reference to property in land are fairly epitomized
in the following quotations:
“There is no escape from it. If we would save the republic
before social inequality and political demoralization have reached
the point where no salvation is possible, we must assert the prin-
ciple of the Declaration of Independence, acknowledge the equal
and unalienable rights which inhere in man by endowment of the
Creator, and make land common property.”—Social Problems,
page 376.
“As a matter of fact, nothing is more repugnant to the natural
perceptions of man than that land should be treated as subject
to individual ownership, like things produced by labor. It is only
among an insignificant fraction of the people who have lived on
the earth that the idea that the earth itself could be made private
property has ever obtained; nor has it ever obtained save as the
result of a long course of usurpation, tyranny and fraud.”—Social
Problems, page 277.
“What more preposterous than the treatment of land as indi-
vidual property? In every essential land differs from those things
which being the product of human labor are rightfully property.”
—Social Problems, page 278.
GEORGE'S LAND THEORY.
Mr. George made his reputation out of his book,
“Progress and Poverty,’” the central thought and
doctrine of which is, that private ownership of land
is the most potent cause of poverty among the
masses. He pronounces all other remedies for the
cure of poverty inadequate, and demands the abro-
gation of all private real estate titles—practically
demands that the government confiscate all lands
without compensation; establish a fixed annual
rental to be paid the government and no other prop-
erty but land to be taxed at all.
In Chapter II. of Book VI. of “Progress and Pov-
erty” (page 237), Mr. George says:
“To extirpate poverty, to make wages what justice demands
they should be-the full earnings of the laborer—we must, there-
fore, substitute for individual ownership of land, a common
ownership. Nothing else will go to the cause of the evil—in
nothing else is there the slightést hope. This, then, is the
remedy for the unjust and unequal distribution of wealth appar-
ent in modern civilization, and for all the evils which flow from
it. We must make land common property.”
•PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF LAND UNJUST AS SLAVERY.
Over Chapter II. of Book VI. (page 249), he places
this heading: “THE ENSLAVEMENT of LABORERs
THE ULTIMATE RESULT OF PRIVATE FROPERTY IN
LAND.” And then he opens the chapter as follows:
“If chattel slavery be unjust, then is private prop-
erty in land unjust.” Same book and chapter
(page 257), he says:
“Our boasted freedom necessarily involves slavery, so long as
we recognize private property in land. Until that is abolished,
GEORGE'S LAND THEORY. 105
Declarations of Independence and Acts of Emancipation are in
vain. * * * * º * * º # *
Private ownership in lands is the nether mill-stone. Material
progress is the upper mill-stone. Between them, with an increas-
ing pressure, the working classes are being ground.”
Same book and page, Chapter III. begins:
“The truth is, and from this truth there can be no escape,
that there is and can be no just title to an exclusive possession of
the soil, and that private property in land is a bold, bare, enor-
mous wrong, like that of chattel slavery.”
LAND OWNERSHIP ROBBERY.
This chapter is devoted to the discussion of the
question of compensating the owners of the land,
and Mr. George doesn’t seem to have been in the
compensating humor when he wrote it. He says
page 263): &
“It is not merely a robbery in the past; it is a robbery in the
present—a robbery that deprives of their birthright the infants
that are now coming into the world ! Why should we hesitate
about making short work of such a system? Because I was
robbed yesterday and day before, and the day before that, is it
any reason that I should suffer myself to be robbed to-day and
to-morrow 2 Any reason that I should conclude that the robber
has acquired a vested right to rob me?”
ONE GOOD REASON.
One good reason why he should “hesitate to
make short work” of it is because the land own-
ers will have something to say about it, and because
they would fight to the death before they would
submit to any such scheme. Men hold on to their
property while they live and direct the disposal of
it after they are dead. It is idle and foolish to sup-
pose that any large number of property owners will
106 GEORGE’s LAND THEORY.
• ever surrender their property, or be convinced that
they ought to do so. Slavery was only wiped out
in this country at the point of the bayonet. It took
four years of war to do it; and there were less than
four hundred thousand slaveholders in 1860, and
the interest and feelings of a majority of other prop-
erty owners were against slavery. There are mill-
ions of land owners and the interests and sympathies
of all other classes of property owners would be
with them in this contest. Mr. George asks poor
men to contemplate a scheme which they could
only achieve by force, with the odds both in num-
bers and power—the power of the government—
against them. Every man who has property, or a
home, or expects to have either by his own exertions,
would be against them.
The whole scheme is manifestly impossible of
practical application, and grossly absurd, and only
evil in the effects of its agitation.
S O C I.A.L.I.S.M.
[From “Our Country,” Chapter VIII.—By Rev. Josiah Strong.]
PERILS–SOCIALISM.
The despotism of the few and the wretchedness of the many
have produced European Socialism. It has been supposed that its
doctrines could never obtain in this land of freedom and plenty;
but there may be a despotism which is not political, and a dis-
content which does not spring from hunger. We have discovered
that German socialism has been largely imported, has taken root,
and is making a vigorous growth. Let us look at it as it appears
in this country. There are two parties in the United States,
known as the “Socialistic Labor Party,” and the “International
Workingmen's Association.” The one is the thin, the other the
thick, end of the socialistic wedge. Both seek to overthrow
existing Social and economic institutions; both propose a co-oper-
ative form of production and exchange, as a substitute for the
existing capitalistic and competitive system; both expect a great
and bloody revolution; but they differ widely as to policy and
extreme doctrines. The platform” of the Socialistic Labor Party
contains much that is reasonable, and is well calculated to dis-
ciple American workmen. It does not, as a party, attack the
family or religion, and is opposed to anarchy. The International
Workingmen's Association, which is much the larger party, is
extreme and violent. The ideals of the Internationals àre “com-
mon property, socialistic production and distribution, the grossest
materialism—for their god is their belly, free love, in all social
arrangements, perfect individualism; or, in other words, anarchy.
Negatively expressed—Away with private property l Away with
all authority! Away with the State 1 Away with the family!
Away with religion ſ” # In the manifesto unanimously adopted
* See the document in Joseph Cook's “Socialism,” pp.20–22.
+ Prof. R. T. Ely, in The Christian Union. For an able expo-
sition of Recent Phases of Socialism in the United States, see
articles by Professor Ely, in The Christian Union for April 24th,
May 1st, and May 8th, 1884.
108 SOCIALISM.
by the Internationals at Pittsburgh, occurs the following: “The
church finally seeks to make complete idiots of the masses, and to
make them forego the paradise on earth by promising them a
fictitious heaven.” Truth, published in San Francisco, says:
“When the laboring men understand that the heaven which they
are promised hereafter is but a mirage, they will knock at the
door of the wealthy robber, with a musket in hand, and demand
their share of the goods of this life now.” Freiheit, the blas-
phemous paper of Herr Most, thus concludes an article on the
“Fruits of the Belief in God”: “Religion, authority and State,
are all carved out of the same piece of wood—to the Devil with
them all !” The same sheet “advocates a new genealogy, traced
from mothers, whose names, and not those of the fathers, descend
to the children, since it is never certain who the father is.”
“Public and common up-bringing of children is likewise favored
in the Freiheit, in order that the old family may completely
abandon the field to free love.” +
Having lost all faith in the ballot, the Internationals propose
to carry out their “reforms” by force. The following is from the
Pittsburgh manifesto: “Agitation for the purpose of organization;
organization for the purpose of rebellion. In these few words the
ways are marked, which the workers must take if they want to
be rid of their chains. We could show, by scores of illustrations,
that all attempts in the past to reform this monstrous system by
peaceable means, such as the ballot, have been futile, and all such
efforts in the future must necessarily be so. There remains but
One recourse—force l’”
The Central Labor Union had a parade in New York City,
September 5th, 1883, in which from ten to fifteen thousand labor-
ers participated. Some of their banners were inscribed as follows:
“Workers in the Tenements, Idlers in the Brown-stone Fronts”;
“Down with Oppressive Capital”; “The Wage System Makes Us
Slaves”; “We Must Crush Monopolies Lest They Crush Us”;
“Prepare for the Coming Revolution”; “Every Man Must Have
a Breech-loader and Know How to Use It.” The Vorbote, pub-
lished in Chicago, glorifies dynamite as “the power which, in our
hands, shall make an end of tyranny.” Truth says: “War to the
palace, peace to the cottage, death to luxurious idleness. We
have no moment to waste. Arm I say, to the teeth I for the
---r
* Professor Ely, in The Christian Union,
SOCIALISM. 109
revolution is upon you.” An article in the Freiheit, entitled
“Revolutionary Principles,” contained the following: “He (the
revolutionist) is the irreconcilable enemy of this world, and, if
he continues to live in it, it is only that he may thereby more
certainly destroy it. He knows only one science—namely, de-
struction. For this purpose he studies day and night. For him
everything is moral which favors the triumph of the revolution,
everything is immoral and criminal which hinders it. Day and
night may he cherish only one thought, only one purpose—namely,
inexorable destruction. While he pursues this purpose, without
rest and in cold blood, he must be ready to die, and equally ready
to kill every one with his own hands who hinders him in the
attainment of this purpose.” There has been recently formed in
the United States a society called “The Black Hand,” which, in
its proclamation, urges “the propaganda of deed in every form,”
and cries: “War to the knife ſ” The explosions in the Houses of
Parliament and Tower of London called forth the following dec-
larations at a meeting of socialists in Chicago: “This explosion
has demonstrated that socialists can safely go into large congre-
gations in broad daylight and explode their bombs.
“A little hog's grease and ă, little nitric acid make a terrible
explosion, Ten cents’ worth would blow a building to atoms.
“Dynamite can be made out of the dead bodies of capitalists
as well as out of hogs.
“All Chicago can be set ablaze in a minute by electricity.
“Private property must be abolished, if we have to use all the
dynamite there is, and blow ninety-nine hundredths of the peo-
ple off the face of the earth.”
At the time of the railroad riots in 1877, which cost many lives
and not less than a hundred million dollars of property, and to
quell which ten States, reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
called on the President of the United States for troops, there were
but few socialists among us, and they seem to have been taken
unawares by the outbreak; but they will be prepared to make
the most of the next. The following are stock phrases found in
all their publications: “Get ready for another 1877”; “Buy a
musket for a repetition of 1877”; “Buy dynamite for a second
1877”; “Organize companies and drill to be ready for a recur-
rence of the riots of 1877.”
The Vorbote of Chicago says: “You might as well suppose
the military organizations of Europe were for play and parade,
110 \ SOCIALISM.
as to suppose labor organizations were for mere insurance and
pacific helpfulness. They are organized to protect interests, for
which, if the time comes, they would fight.” But the present
strength of socialistic organizations in the United States concerns
us less than their prospective numbers. Let us look at the condi-
tions favorable to the growth of socialism. The reception given
to the books of Mr. Henry George is one of the signs of the times.
“Progress and Poverty” has been read by tens of thousands of
workingmen. And the fact that the demand for an economic
work should exhaust more than a hundred editions, and still con-
tinue unsatisfied, indicates a great deal of popular sympathy with
its doctrines. That Mr. George has made many disciples among
American workmen is shown by the organs of the various labor
organizations; and any one who is convinced that proprietorship
in land is unjust, has taken at least one step toward Proudhon's
famous doctrine that “property is theft.” Mr. George has ren-
dered eminent service to the cause of socialism against traditional
law by bringing to its support, in the United States, the strength
of moral ideas.
Workingmen are apt to be improvident. It is often their own
fault that enforced idleness so soon brings want. Though, at
times, they know enough of want, as a class they know little of
self-denial. They generally live up to the limit of their means.
If wages are good, they have the best the market affords; when
work and credit fail, they go hungry. Neither the capitalist nor
the laborer has a monopoly of the fault for the difficulties existing
between them. But our inquiry is after facts, not faults; and
the fact of improvidence on the part of many workingmen only
makes their discontent the deeper and more certain.
A communistic leader, who visited America thirty years ago,
was asked what he thought of the condition of the working classes
here. “It is very bad,” he replied, “they are so discouragingly
prosperous.” But the growth of dissatisfaction and of socialism
among our wage-workers, in recent years, has taken place not-
withstanding generally good harvests and a great increase of
aggregate wealth. Poor harvests were potent causes in bringing
Louis XVI. to the guillotine, and precipitating the Reign of Ter-
ror. We must, of course, expect them to occur as heretofore,
perhaps recur in successive years. The condition of the working
man will then probably be bad enough to satisfy the most pessi-
mistic agitator. Every such “winter of discontent” among
SOCIALISM, 111
laborers is made “glorious summer” for the growth of socialistic
ideas.
We have glanced at the causes which are ministering to the
growth of socialism among us; a wide-spread discontent on the
part of our wage-working population, the development of classes
and class antipathies, and the appearance of an unemployed class
of professional beggars, popular skepticism, a powerful individu-
alism and immigration. If these conditions should remain
constant, socialism would continue to grow ; but it should be
remembered that all of these causes, with the possible exception of
skepticism, are becoming more active. Within the life-time of
many now living, population will be four times as dense in the
United States as it is to-day. Wage-workers, now one-half of all
our workers, will multiply more rapidly than the population. After
our agricultural land is all occupied, as it will be a few years
hence, our agricultural population, which is one of the great sheet-
anchors of Society against the socialistic current, will increase but
little, while great manufacturing and mining towns will go on
multiplying and to multiply. In the development of our manu-
facturing industries and our mining resources we have made, as
yet, hardly more than a beginning. When these industries have
been multiplied ten-fold, the evils which now attend them will be
correspondingly multiplied.
It must not be forgotten that, side by side with this deep dis-
content of intelligent and unsatisfied wants, has been developed,
in modern times, a tremendous enginery of destruction, which
offers itself to every man. Since the French Revolution nitro-
glycerine, illuminating gas, petroleum, dynamite, the revolver,
the repeating rifle and the Gatling gun have all come into use.
Science has placed in man's hand superhuman powers. Society,
also, is become more highly organized, much more complex, and
is therefore much more susceptible of injury. There never was a
time in the history of the world when an enemy of society could
work such mighty mischief as to-day. The more highly devel-
oped a civilization is, the more vulnerable does it become. This
is pre-eminently true of a material civilization. Learning, states-
manship, character, respect for law, love of justice, cannot be
blown up with dynamite; palaces, factories, railways, Brooklyn
bridges, Hoosac tunnels, and all the long inventory of our mate-
rial wonders, are destructible by material means. “The explosion
of a little nitro-glycerine under a few water-mains would make a
great city uninhabitable; the blowing up of a few railroad bridges
112 SOCIALISM.
and tunnels would bring famine quicker than the wall of circum-
vallation that Titus drew around Jerusalem ; the pumping of
atmospheric air into the gas-mains and the application of a match
would tear up every street and level every house.” We are pre-
paring conditions which make possible a Reign of Terror that
would beggar the scenes of the French Revolution.
Modern civilization is called on to contend for its life with
forces which it has evolved. Said President Seelye, last sum-
mer, to the graduating class of Amherst College: “There is
one question of our time toward which all other questions, whether
of nature, of man, or of God, steadily tend. . . . . No one will
be likely to dispute the affirmation that the social question is, and
is to be, the question of your time.” That question must be met
in the United States. We need not quiet misgiving with the
thought that popular government is our safety from revolution.
It is because of our free institutions that the great conflict of
socialism with society as now organized is likely to occur in the
United States.
There is a strong disposition among men to charge most of
the ills of their lot to bad government, and to seek a political
remedy for those ills. They expect in the popularization of power
to find relief. Constitutional government, a free press and free
speech would probably quiet popular agitation in Russia for a
generation. The new Franchise Bill will array restlessness in
England for a time. If Germany should become a republic, we
should hear little of German socialism for a season. But all our
salve of this sort is spent ; there are no more political rights to
bestow; the people are in full possession. Here, then, where
there is the fullest exercise of political rights, will the people first
discover that the ballot is not a panacea. Here, where the ulti-
mate evolution of government has taken place, will restless men
first attempt to live without government.
There is nothing beyond republicanism but anarchism.


|
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LO CALL LEA. G-U E S.
Persons desiring to form local Leagues,
O co-operate With the Central organiza–
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SSistance, On application.
Generally, all that is required is for
me One who feels so inclined to take
he lead—invite a few friends to join him
'hd Organize by electing officers and adopt-
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}rship as possible among good citizens
|ho favor and appreciate the purposes of
he Organization.
Address
PATRIOTS’ LEAGUE,
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TO THE READER:
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