People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1896 — The Iron Law of Wages. [ARTICLE]

The Iron Law of Wages.

By “the iron law of wages” is ment a law incident to our present economic system. This law of wages is claimed to have been discovered py Ferdinand LaSalle, but whosoever was the discoverer of this law, did not alter its grave significance. Hence, this law of wages, meaning simply that there is a tendency in wages to just in proportion as the cost of reproduction of the laborer decreases. This law is no economic fiction; it is a stern reality, substantiated by facts too numerous to be specified in this short article. When there are millions of men, women and children who are slowly but surely starving to death; when there are hundreds and thousands of those who work early and late and cannot earn enough to keep a roof over them, rags upon theif backs, fire in their stoves and sufficient food in their stomachs to sustain themselves in good' health, who can doubt this cruel law of wages? Let others say what they will, but as for myself, I say this iron law of wages does exist, and results most cruelly to the laboring masses. They who work in the factory and in the mine, they who do the hardest and most dangerous work, those who are the most useful members of the comunity. about without clothing or shelter. Is it becailse they do not deserve comfort that they suffer in poverty? No. Even the meanest boodle politician will tell you that if there is any class that deserves comfort, it* is the wealth producing class.' And yet they who do all of which civilization boasts, go around with empty stomachs, not because they do not deserve food, but because our present economic system does not permit them to have it. • Now the quesoion likely to occur to every intelligent person is whence comes z this depression? Why do wages tend to fall so low that hundreds and thousands are driven to the most 'desperate crimes? Why do wages (the compensation for toil, as some politicians are proud of puttipg it) tend to fall to that point at which it is much the same to the laborer whether he works or not, starvation beidg

his portion in either case? It is our present financial system, the gold-standard, that makes the dollar so dear and so few of them. Why is it that socialism and anarchy is staring in the eyes of the aristocrats of the gold-stand-ard countries in Europe? It is on account of the desperate condition of the laboring classes ttyere. Let us understand, that all this talk of men being free and independent, is not true. Wage earners are not free and independent. When land and instruments of prodution are monopolized and those who have all tne wants of a human being, have nothing, save their labor power to gratify them, it is absurd to &peak of them as free and independeiit men. No man is free who has no access to the Soil upon which he chooses to make his livelihood. No man is free whose livelihood depends on others. As a well known economist has said: “Without land man is almost helpless, without tools he is dependent, and without both he is wholly dependent—he is a slave. And this is precisely what our present monetary and industrial system has made of the laborer. The capitalist does not own the laborer, but he owns that without which he cannot live. And this, as we shall point out later, is how the laborer comes under the “iron law of wages.”

Had been free and independent, as he should be under our form of goverment, that is to say, had the laborer had free access to the soil and machinery, his wages might have been established by the fruits of his Mr. The iorn law of wages could not hurt him because if his wages were not as high as he could earn for himself, he could refuse them. He could work for himself and dislose of his commodities by selling or exchanging them with those who were in need of them. But, under the present monetary system the laborer can not afford to refuse wages, no matter how low they may be. He must accept the wages offered to him or commit suicide, because the laborer of today has no land, no tools, and cannot employ his labor power without selling himself for exploitation. The laborer of. today sleeps in another man’s house; he works in another man’s shop, he uses another man’s tools. He can exercise no will of his own with reference to the compensation for his toil, the present monetary system has rendered- him helpless. What monopoly in land began, monopoly in machinery has finished. Thus comes the laborer of to-day under the biting pressure of the iron law of wages.

’ But as we grow accustomed, the hardest drudgery is imposed upon us with impunity. When a man feels that a thing is inevitable be ceases to complain, even though it may be an evil of the most painful character; he will seek a remedy at the ballot box. The necessity to labor for a bare living, just as the necessity to die is being looked upon as a very ordinary thing. Work seems to the toiler the greatest boon in life. The meanest and hardest drudgery is always welcome to those whose lot has been made miserable by our existing capitalistic system. And with of men falling over each other in the struggle for an opportunity to work, what becomes of those who refuse to work for low wages? Under such pressure there is no downward limit to which wages may not be pushed, except that beyond which the laborer cannot reproduce himself. Now I hope it will be clearly understood why all but the most skillful laborers are forced under the law of wages, without regard to their personal merits or demerits, with regard to the

multiplication of the effectiveness of their labor powers. And when industrial training Schools make all workmen skillful, then what we call “skilled workmen” will be just as poorly paid as the rest. The only point in determining the compensation for toil, is, “how little can the laborer live on?” When this is divided you have also divided the workman’s wages. And so anything tending to reduce the standard of living tends to reduce wages. This is just how the law of wages will operate. Why do men work now for children's wages? . Because children take the places of men. Why then, are children’s prices lower than those of men? Because it costs less to reproduce a

child than a man. It is true that, with the aid of machinery, a child or a woman, can produce as much as a man, but they can live on less and cap offer their labor power for sale at a lower rate of wages. Thus, everybody’s wages tend to come down to the lowest point of anybody’s wages.- Such is the iron Jaw of wages favored through our present monetary system; as we mentioned at the outset, this is not a natural law, but it operates under all forms of government with gold-standard, everywhere the same way, as we see in Europe. Hence, for the purpose of making ;his law of wages ineffective, it is necessary for silver to regain its lost foothold in comparison with gold; it is necessary for us to return to the free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the parity ratio of sixteen to one without reference to any other nation on earth; as it was introduced by our fpreathers and founders of our government, and was practiced until 1878. Through this Me shall regain true peace, economically, protection against all evils and prosperty. Tiy this is done we shall always be slaves to those who own the means of life. Till the opportunities of labor have >een set free, we shall always have our wages cut lower and lower; that is, we shall always get a smaller and smaller part of our products. There is no political freedom without economic freedom; neither is there economic freedom without political freedom. No man nor country can be truly free until both are politically and economically free.

PROF. C. H’S.

A just money is a memorandum of value due the bearer from the common-weal th, paid by the public to its servants as evidence of value due them from the people whom they serve; paid by public servants to the people for the things their wants demand; paid by the people to the public treasury as evidence that public servants have been paid. The above ia a unique and succinct statement of the real nature of money taken from the Archer Ritual. A thorough comprehension of this definition and its perfect application to the functions of this mysterious thing called money would revolutionize the business of the entire world. Why the american people insist upon going all the way round by the Bieck Hills every time they go to the grocery, is beyond comprehension, when the direct route to the grocery is so short. * M w If we elect Bryan the holders of money will immediately seek investments, for with a knowledge of the fact that the circulation will be increased by the opening of the mints to silver, will come the conviction that the appreciation of their money must stop, that prices must advance, and that now -is the time to put it into property. Look for money to come into circulation as soon as free coinage is a fixed fact.