PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.
PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.
PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.
PAPERS ON LABOR AND CAPITAL.
Production lies at the basis of all progress. Material production precedes all other kinds of acquirement. In the first degrees of social evolution, labor was merely to obtain the means of bodily sustenance and comfort; from this the present has widely departed; while the future must still further widen the distance between production as anend and production as the means to some end beyond. Production in early times meant simple muscular toil; it still means this, but also a great deal more; the proper direction of power makes it possible for a given amount of force to accomplish a greatly increased result. In the next century make proportionate rapid advancement in the better adaptation of means to ends than last made over the preceding, the direct application of muscular exertion to accomplish a material purpose will be almost unknown. Steam and water have relieved muscle of nearly all its most laborious occupations and increased the capacity of production a thousand fold.
The reduction of these powers to the uses of man will be supplemented by that of still more subtle and powerful agents to the same end, and this reduction will be followed by a proportionate relief to manual labor. The results of this advancement in the discovery of the means of reducing the elements of nature to the service of man, is to be revolutionary to the present grades and distinctions between the laborer and the capitalist—unless a proper understanding and application of the science of society first perform that inevitable result—which will guarantee to all individuals the possibility of like attainment in all things.
Science equalizes everything that comes within its sphere. Let the great scientist be never so destitute of material wealth, he is still the great man sought for and honored by those who have nothing but material wealth to recommend them. Any person may incidentally become wealthy in material possessions, but none but the devoted student of nature can become rich in mind; and, none but the devoted philanthropist can become rich in heart and soul. Even those who have immense earthly possessions, show their consciousness of inferiority by courting the great in other fields of acquirement. This alone should teach all people that true greatness is not to be gained through riches, and that these should only be considered advantageous as the means by which to acquire other greater riches and blessings.
The true uses of wealth are to advance the peoples of earth from the conditions in which they are to higher and better conditions, to those where caste and distinctions shall not be measured by it, but by the good that is accomplished by its use, in which he will be considered the greatest man and the most honored, who shall make the best uses of material wealth in benefiting humanity as a common brotherhood.
It has become too late in the ages for individuals to think of living for themselves, or even for those immediately connected with them.Mutuality of interest is spreading from family interests to world-wide interests, and the greatest minds of the present are those which perceive and act upon this fact. The leavening power of assimilation is rapidly at work among the nations, races and peoples of the earth. The electric telegraph makes it possible for all the different nations of the earth to be possessed of the same thought at the same time. For the last two months the minds of the whole world have been turned toward France, where the real contest of the future has but just begun. It is impossible for this concentration of mind upon one centre to be productive of anything but a growing likeness among those who are the subjects of it. All the discoveries in all departments of life tend to the same unification of thought and interest. In this unification is contained the prophecy of what the future shall be when no individual, family, nation or race, shall feel that they can live entirely for themselves.
The lesson the present movers in labor reforms have to learn is that of harmonizing the interests of labor and capital by the demonstrations of science. Springing from a common source and tending toward a common end, humanity must learn to progress on its course according to rule, to law and the requirements of order. These sustain the harmonies of the universe, and should be never-failing authorities for humanity to pattern after. Those who achieve the greatest conquests are they who can bring themselves into harmony with the principles that govern the movements of the innumerable worlds, no two of which are ever known to disastrously cross each other’s path.
The world is capable of producing luxuriousness for all its children. It is their fault that all do not have it. A very large proportion of the capacity of humanity for production is diverted from natural occupations by the illegitimate relations existing in society. A part live off of the vitality of the rest; the principal object of the part being to see how much of the fruits of the rest they can aggregate, either by personal capacity, trickery or cunning, or by ingenious devices of law formed and administered in their interests. A perfect equality and an equal justice condemns all such distributions of the fruits of the earth. If capacity for acquisition exist among a part of the people, government should interfere to stop its being practiced at the expense of others.
We are aware that this kind of social rule will be repudiated as an infringement upon individual freedom of action. In this connection, however, it must ever be remembered that the individual can never be greater than the community of which he forms a part; in other words,the interests of the community must always be superior to those of the individual, and when individual interests conflict with the interest of the community they must yield to the community. This principle is recognized in very many things in government; for instance, the public demands a common highway which must interfere with the rights and interests of individuals; the individuals are compelled to give way for the public, from whose adjudgment there is no appeal. To this rule of action all the relations of society must sooner or later become subject, and the sooner it is reduced to this scientific determining power, the quicker society will have begun a progress whose course need never be deviated from.
New York, October 17, 1870.
New York, October 17, 1870.
New York, October 17, 1870.
New York, October 17, 1870.