Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1878 — THE EARNINGS OF LABOR. [ARTICLE]

THE EARNINGS OF LABOR.

Hon. S F. Cary on the Creation ami Distribution of the Products of the Worker. How can the joint earnings of labor and capital be equitably distributed—labor and capital each getting its share ? Upon the proper solution of this great problem depends the material and moral grandeur, the strength and perpetuity of free government. That there is no such equitable distribution, that capital appropriates the lion’s share, will not be questioned or doubted. The problem is becoming more complex and difficult of solution by reason of the many improved processes for increasing product, which processes require a large amount of capital. involving combinations of men of wealth, and the crowding together of a great number of laborers under a common direction. Men of small means, however skilled, cannot compete with the rich firm or incorporation which employs machinery. Individual enterprise must either retire and seek some other employment, or become a factor in the aggregated mass. Dependence and helplessness are the result, and capital, always a tyrant, becomes despotic in its power over the toilers. Our problem may be properly subdivided, or rather involves two propositions: First, how to produce wealth, and, second, how to distribute it. Wealth or riches consists in the raw material and whatever skill and labor can add to it for the useful purposes of mankind. If wealth is created rapidly by means of machinery, and is badly distributed, the result must be great opulence in one direction and extreme poverty in another. Over-grown fortunes and general destitution are hardly possible, if the means of distribution (legal tenders) correspond with the increase of production. The study of the statesman should be to maintain tho equilibrium, that tho general welfare may be secured and established. The problem is not solved by an equal division of property, as by that means all emulation is destroyed, and labor is virtually abolished, because no man will work without a prospect of reward. It is not an equal, but an equitable distribution of the products of labor that is desirable. We would not abolish property, but universalize it, so that every citizen, to the extent of his unassisted production, will be a proprietor. Every man is entitled to all that he individually creates without aid from others. He can accomplish little with empty hands; he must have tools and implements with which to work. When he lias paid a fair rent for the use of these tools he is entitled to the residue of his product, and this rent should not be disproportionate to the results ; otherwise the laborer is robbed, and the man who furnishes the tools is the robber. The rent or rate of interest paid for the use of capital is in excess of the ability of labor to pay, or, in other words, is not in proportion to the market value of the joint product. Labor is at still greater disadvantage, and inequalities in condition are magnified when machinery is employed involving a large expenditure of dear capital. An increase in production, however brought about, can never injure labor, if an equitable distribution is secured. In every normal condition of society, consumption and production will always be the counterparts of each other. An increased production of the necessaries of life enlarges the number and magnifies the wants of consumers, if the instrument of distribution (money) is ample and within the reach of the laborer. New wants are created with increased facilities of gratification. The skill and ingenuity of man have added enormously to the product of the farm, the mine, the manufactory, and the workshop, while the avarice and selfishness of Shylocks have dictated the financial legislation in such a way that these vast products remain undistributed, presenting the singular phenomenon of millions starving in the midst of plenty. The function or office of money is to distribute or circulate the riches of a people. If it is insufficient in volume to distribute products, barns and warehouses will be crowded with needed but unused articles of consumption. Every new machine, by means of which wealth is created, demands an increase of money to carry it to the people. As well attempt to deliver at a railroad depot, with one pair of mules, 10,000 bushels of wheat, when their capacity would be taxed in moving 5,000 bushels, as to carry on the commerce of the country with a wholly inadequate volume of money. It is worse than a blunder—it is a crime—to delay the march of civilization until other gold and silver mines are discovered, and those metals are melted into coin. With an insufficient volume of money, rates of interest will be usurious, or labor will be unemployed. The creation and distribution of wealth will bath be crippled. This is the oonditiou of thing?

our country to-day ! Educated labor is doing wonders in the production of riches, but vicious legislation is hindering its distribution by withholding a proper instrument of exchange. This is a land of bankrupts aud beggars because of the determination of the money lords to adjust the business of this great country to tho available amount of gold and silver! Labor must be unemployed and business be suspended unless the precious metals can be obtained 1 France, iu her financial policy, demonstrates the correctness of our theory. She had to pay an enormous amount to : Germany for getting whipped in tho late struggle. She furnished a large amount of paper money which she did not discredit by refusing to receive for her own dues. Full employment was thus given to all the producing classes, and an immense surplus was created, which was sold iu the markets of Germany, and France soon had back again all she had paid. Germany became as poor as the last heir of Lazarus, while France has been greatly enriched. Instead of following the example of France we have adopted the policy of England after the Napoleonic war. It needs no prophet’s ken to foretell the end. A yawning gulf is before us 1 Men of business who, by patient industry and praiseworthy enterprise, have made large accumulations must see them melt away, and the only consolation from the Shylocks is that they have been extravagant and have been over-trailing. The millions of unemployed workingmen must go backward and downward urtil starvation and rags drive them into tlie highways to become tramps, to beg or steal or starve. These are insultingly told that they have brought ruin upon themselves by improvidence ,in lazess and vice. There is only one way out of these difficulties, and that is to inaugurate at once the policy of the National party as clearly set forth iu the Toledo platform. S. F. Cahy.