VOL. XXVII. " THE LAND FOR THE PEOPLE." MB. A. J. MOXHAM'S LECTURE BEFOKE THE HENKY GEORGE CLUB ON MONDAY NIGHT. Wages Not Paid by Capital, but From the Produce ot Labor—A Lengthy Argu i „ merit Setting Forth Some of the Main Point* In Henry George'* Theory. The lecture of A. J. Moxham, Esq., de livered at the rooms of the Henry George i Club on Monday night was, excepting the extracts read from " Progress and Pov erty," substantially as follows : Mr. Moxham begun his lecture by read ing an extract from Hpnry George's " Progress and Poverty," on "why in of increase in productive power do not wages advance in proportion ?" The accepted political economy answers : be | cause wages are fixed by the ratio between the number of laborers and the amouut of capital. It says that capital pays labor; therefore the more laborers there are for a given amount of capital the less per man I is the result. This has been taught uni versally and believed universally. This •belief has prompted men who suffer to ' imagine that if they could get all capital ll and distribute it, all could be rich. Au archists, socialists, and many other "ists" have been tempted by this "will of the wisp," and not unnaturally. If it is true that capital is the means by which labor f is paid, then it is but a step further to be lieve ns there nrc millioijs of laborers in this world and all paid by it. capital must be a thing well worth having—nay, it must be well nigh inexhaustible, i In 1880 the total wealth of this country I Kvas 01,459 : millions. Of this amouut I what is termed capital, or wealth used I'' for productive purposes only, could only : be a small proportion, let us put it at 40,000 millions (perhaps that is too high), and let us take this capital and di vide it among the sixty-five millions of I people of this country. They get less than S7OO each. All the capital accuinu - lated during the whole existence of Amer ica as a nation would not keep the wolf from the door for a year, if there were no ' other 9ource of wealth and no other means i of recuperution. This analysis would iu dicau- tlisc instead of capital being the ? source of our wealth, something else big ger thnu capital must be the entree of it* J wealth. Again, if it is true that capital pay 6 labor, the more capital, the more ' the laborers get. Those countries which I' are richest would be tiie countries which would pay the liigheSt rates of wages; i.e., those countries which were the oldest in ' civilization. Is it so ? No; wages are ' universally higher in new countries than i in old, and in new countries cap ital is always scarce ; in old countries always plentiful. If capital pays labor, then high wages and low interest go to-1 gether, because high wages must mean more capital, and plenty of capital nways j means low interest. Is this true? No; on every side you find one law as abso lute as that of the Medes and Persians; viz., wages and interest go both down I 4 and up together. 'During times of great depression, when wages ore at the lowest poiut and men are begging for work, what is capital do ing? Why its wages (which is interest) are at the lowest point, and like labor it also is begging for work. During the de pression that followed the panic of 1873 I knew of capitalists who could not get one per cent for their capital, and I knew of men who could not get seventy-five cents a day for their labor. Nay more, I knew of capital and men that could get no work at all, therefore could get nothing for t their labor. Thus under conditions • ' which admit of no explanation consistent with the theory that capital pays labor, do we find high interest coinciding with high labor, and low interest with low wages— I capital seeming scarce when labor is scarce, and abundant when labor is plen tiful. All these facts point to a relation between labor and capital, ami—note you well—it is a relation of mutual harmony and not one of opposition. As we go on with our investigation we will learn that [ Capital is just as helpless as labor in it 8 > future struggle with n power that is an ' enemy to both. What that power is our ( later lectures will prove. If labor is not paid by capital, what is it paid by ? We hope this evening to an swer that query by proving that labor is paid by itself. Because labor iB paid in money and generally paid before the product of labor has been turned into money, it is inferred .that wages are drawn from pre-existing I capital, and therefore labor can not be employed till capital lias beet accumu- I lated, and yet the very same school teaches that capital is nothing tut "store up, or accumulated labor." Is it not a little inconsistent to couple the two state ments ? First grasp and hold on to one truth—" Society in its most complicated form is hut an elaboration of society in its modest beginnings. The man <omes from the baby. Principles, evide|t in the simplest state of society, arc erely dis guised, not changed, by an advancing and complicated civiliaaton, and when JOT real he pure truth, go to the baby, leav the man JOHNSTOWN, CAMBRIA COUNTY. PA., FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1890. alone- The baby does not lie, it ling not learned 'o. The man cannot help it; lie has become "civilized," according to In gersoll's story. Here Mr. Moxliam again read several pages from Progress and "overty and then continued : Before proceeding further let us give our terms a meaning. There are three elements that enter into the production of wealth in to-day's civili zation, viz., Man, Land and Capital. All wealth is produced bv labor. When man kind was in its infancy there was no cap ital except that provided by the Godhead, in the thing called life, and that he gives us yet. Man we define as that creature or animal, made in the image of the God head—less than this we can not say, more we dare not. Isind we define as includ ing everything existent not made by man —not merely the surface of the earth, but the whole material universe, its forces, and opdortunitics. and everything sup plied by Nature. Starting with these two we produce by man's labor. Wealth, which menus all natural products obtained by the exercise of man's labor on land, that tend to the gratification of man's desires, but we find that if man is not debarred from the natural opportunities that exist in land, he can make more wealth than lie need use. We, the followers of Henry George, believe he can make more than he can use. As man does not want nothing but labor, he saves part of this wenlth, so that when he wants to rest he can, and puts it by for further use and expediency, and out of part of the wealth so stored up comes Capital; viz., that part of a man's stock of wealth, which he expects to use for the purpose of getting out of it some return or revenue. We must exclude from capital everything that is included in land or labor, and we will call it " wealth in course of exchange." As men multiply it is found that instead of isolation, caeli from his fellow, and living and laboring as units, it is better to work together. It is found that 100 men, each taking the special work he is fitted for, cau produce more than 100 times as much as one man. As each does all lie can in his own line and then exchanges the surplus of his particular products above his individual wants with those who have a similar surplus of their own and different products. The fisherman gives some to the man who makes shoes by ex change, each get what he wants, and so on. In this general exchange, we want a name that willl explain whnt part of the general distribution goes to the different elements of wealth. So we say that the proportion done by land is paid for by rent. The proportion done by man is paid for by wages, and capital is paid by interest. We must now define the"threc. Rent, the return received for the use of laud, means that share of wealth which mensuies natural products and opportunities, Wages means that part of wealth which gives us a return for labor us distinguished from the re turn received for the use of land and the I return for the use of capital. We include iu this the labor of all who work—not the day laborers alone, hut all men who work, whether as bankers, doctors, authors or day laborers. Inttrest is the return for the use of capital. To continue we will first consider man as his own employer, and bear in mind that if not debarred from natural opportunities, every man who so desires could to-day be his own employer. Remember that we are dealing particularly with the returns of wages and capital. Say I devote rav labor to gathering bird's eggs as food, or picking berries. Are not the eggs or benies I get my wages ? There is no capital in this case, or if I take a piece of leather and make it into shoes, the shoes are my wages, Are they drawn from capital, either mine or arybody else's ? If you choose to call the leather my capital, have I taken any valuo lrom it ? No ; I have added value to it, snd if this be your ar gument what is left is the capital plus my wages—-the additional value being my wages. We wiil go further and take agriculture. Since the days of the Roman Empire large dis districts in Europe have been worked by what is called the " Metayer System"—a system similar to the practice of farming on shares, where tau landowner and capi talist, generally combined in one, gets his return from the resulting produce. Does the capitalist pay the laborer? It seems to mc in this case the laborer pays the capitalist. The next step is advance brings us to the case where the laborer, though work ing for another or witli another's capital, roccives his wages in kind, or a step further, though estimated in kind, is paid in money. For example, on American whaling ship the custom is to pay a fixed portion of the catch, say from one twelfth to the captain to one three hundredth to the cabin boy. Can any thing be clearer than that these wages this oil and bone, which the whaler has taken—have nqt been drawn fioni capi tal? The principle with whalers is, no catch, no wages. Take again the admir alty law under which sailors work. One maxim ia that freight is the mother of wages, and any disaster which prevents the ship from earning freight deprives the seamen of his claim] for wages. Pro duction is always the mother of wages, and invariably when the truth is reached does labor precede wage*. It is urged that labor cannot exercise its productive power unless supplied by cap ital with maiutenauce. The laborer must have food, clothing, etc., before he can work. True, but is this food and clothing truly capital? Is it "wealth devoted to exchange," and can you measure its return by the interest at so much per cent paid to it? No: this confusion results from a misconception— intentional or otherwise—of what capital is. The payment of wages always sup plies the prctiou* rending of labor, and so far as the employe is concerned it is but a receipt of a portion of the capital which his labor has previously produced. In the exchange of labor for wages the emyloyer always gets the capital created by the laborer before he pays out any cap ital in wages. At what point is his cap ital lessened, even temporarily? The laborer who works for his employer does not get his wages till he has per formed the work. He is exactly like a depositor in a bank. He can not draw money out till he has put money in. In paying wages the capitalist only ex changes capital of the one form for cap ital of another form. The payment of wages, no matter how long the process, never involves any advance of capital. It may take two years to build a steel works, but the creation of value of which the steel works will bo the sum goes on day by day from the hour the foundation is dug till the works are finished. In agriculture the creation of value does not take place at once but by degrees —step by step from the sowing of the seed till the crop is gathered, and that no pay ment of wages in the intervf.l lessens the farmer's capit 1 is proved when the laud is sold or rented during the growth of a crop. A plowed field will bring more than one not plowed, or a sowed field more again than a plowed field. Nor is the maintenance of labor drawn from cap ital. Food, clothing, and all articles of wealth are only capital so lor-g as the owners propose not to consume but to ex change them for other commodities as a means ot gettiiig a return or increase of wealth. Keep clear the line between wealth that is capital and wealth that is net capital. All) capital is wealth, but not all ycultli is capital. Men do not comumo clothes and food according to whether the doing of it is goiug to lead to a return by their going to work. They, put on clothes because they want comfort; they eat because they arc hungry. London has jjenty of capital, and' if maintenance were drawn from capital this would suflicj, yet if productive labor in London were lo cease, within a few hours men and'women would die like sheep. The series ol exchanges is like curved pipe filled withtvuter. If more water is poured in one,'end, the same comes out the other, not identically Ihe same water but its equivalent. Those tvho do the work of production put iu as they take out—generally putting in a li'tle more than they take but. They receive in sub sistence and Mages but the products of their labor. We do not that capital is not use ful. It is very useful, but we do urge that labor can get along without capital far belter than capital without labor. All the capital of London would not do the African savage much good, yet such capital as he wants he manages to ac quire, and it is as civilization advances— as more capital is needed—that it is pro duced, and that easily by united labor, just as the human organism secretes what blood it needs. The purpose of capital is not to advance wages or subsist laborers, it is to assist labor in production with tools, sedl, etc., and with the wealth re quired to carry on exchanges. If there fore we are right in these conc'usions, all schemes !ooking to the alleviation of pov erty by increasing capital or by restricting the number of laborers, must be condemned If each hborer in performing labor really creates the fund from which his labor is drawn a< we hold lie does, then wages cannot be diminished by increase of laborers, but, on the contrarp, the more laborers the greater the fund and Hie higher fhould wages be. We know that at present this is is not so, and we be lieve we know why it is not so. This, amongother lessons, will be taken up in our subsequent lectures. To-night we want only to consider wages and capital. We urge, as we believe has been clearly proved, that capital does not pay wages. There is one capitalist who pays wages, and that is the Godhead, and lie gives to inan h advance the capital from which he draws those wages. When He puts him on this eardi Ho puts into him life, and puts before him opportunity, and that life lasts long enough for man to tin n bis opportunity to account. Imagine the creation according to the old school of Political Economy. Picture the Godhead creating man and putting him naked into Eden only—man and land -and then cre ating a Rothschild and drawing on him for funds to keep his universe going. After thinking this out make up your whether wages are drawn from capital or capital from wages. LETTER FROM SOMERSET, Comity limtltute—Futullty Among Physi cians—The Nicelys. SOMERSET, PA., January 3, 1890. To ihe JCaitor of the Johnstown Democrat. As a looker on here in Somerset, I have bem impressed with the bustle and stir to he ivitnessed on every band. Streets are thronged with men, women and children fiou all parts of the county, and from adjiining counties. Hotels, boarding bot|ies and private dwellings are all paoted with guests. Stores, offices and shoes are filled from early morning until latehours in the night with buyers and gosupers. Mhy all this life? The answer is, that it is the annual gathering of the hundreds engiged in the laudable work of " teach ing he young idea how to shoot;" in otbr words, it is the week of the County lusitute. More spruce young men with silk mufflers, and prettier young worien never graced any Pennsylvania tow), than those to be seen in the streets, in tte Court House iu day time and in the <)pe:a House in the evening, than are visitng this county seat. And if one weiy to believe half of what Professor Breaks, of Philadelphia, one of the in stnptors, says, a better equipped corps of tea<hers is not to be found in any other couity than those now representing 'lie scluols of this cou lty. Tie day sessions of the Institute are held in the Court House, and the evening lectlres are delivered iu the Opera House, bott places being tilled to overflowing witienthusiastic audiences. Of the pro ceedings of the Institute proper, it can be iid they have been of a very interest ing and instructive character from firsn to last. As to the lectures, it mjy be said some were good and oth ers juliffereutly so. The notorious Sam Small's harangue, yclept " From the Har-ftoom to the Pulpit " was in keeping witllthc man—coarse, abusive, sarcastic, fun*- ant! v.ninstructivc to many of his audbnee, but highly entertaining to oth ers. Professor Brook's lecture was a lit tle tio profound to be popular in the eyes and li ars of a mixed crowd. Will E. Cailjton, measured up to the expectations of everybody, in talking about home. While he cannot render some of the i funny tiling:, iie has written wilii gs goojl effect as Riley or Mill Nye cau most of their productions, lie is a popular lectur er, and always gives satisfaction. Artis tically considered the Boston Stars, in their performances, were a success ; their only failure was along the line of what is regarded as popular music. The Hub culture is a notch or two too high for general appreciation. This town has been sorely visited with in the past four weeks. The well-known nud popular physician, Dr. Brubaker, whose sudden death cast a gloom on the whole county, had scarcely been laid away in Ins grave, until the people were called Upon to mourn the loss of Dr. Blcscaker, whose good qualities as a your.p man, and whose skill as a physi cian, lad given hint prominence in the eyes oj all. And now the sad announce ment b made of the 9udden death of Dr. Miller, a well rounded and accompl'hed pliysijian, who caino here from Berlin to take '(ie place of Dr. Brubaker. Wednes day morning at nine o'clock, he left home to visit patients in the connliy, and at three o'clock p. M., he was !ound dead in his bnggy—the horseliaving picked his own wayjfor two or thipe miles along the road. His death is attiibuted to lupg and heart complica tion. The doctor was a son-in-law of llou.jA. J. Colburn, at whose house the lifeless body will remain until Saturday, wherlit will be taken to Berlin for inter mcLt The shock to his wife has been so great! that much anxiety is felt as to the result. A grange fatality seemingly has lighted upon, the medical profession in the coun(y. Within the past four weeks Dr. Bloufh, a young roan with fine prospects, located at Meyersdale, and who had just returned from his wedding trip, took sud denly sick and died in a very short time afterward. Un to date only a few cases of influenza are imported, all being of a comparatively mild type. Upon inquiry 1 find the Nicely boys, convicted and sentenced to be hung for the murder of Farmar Umberger, are still in the old insecure jail. As the Governor has not set the day for their execution, and as no time lias been fixed for a hear ing before the Pardon Board, one never hears a word said about them, unless elicited by an inquiry. A LOOKER ON. At Their Einnl Renting Place. The remains of Rev. Alotiza P. Diller, who prior to the flood was pastor of St. Murk's Episcopal Church, were on Sat urday toge'her with those of his wife and child, exhumed in Prospect and taken to the morgue. Yesterday afternoon, after funeral services, the remains of the three were finally interred in Grand View. A lady tells us that she heard a colored preacher say : "De fo' part of de house will please sit down; fo' de hind part cannot see de fo' part if de fo' part per sist in standing befo' de hind part, to de uttab obsclusion of do hind part by de fo' part."— Christian Advocate. | TWO MORE DEATHS ON THE RAIL. Mail Went Tenterilay Evening Danlien Upon Two Men at Henncreek and Kills Tliem Both. Monday afternoon about 4:25 o'clock, as the Mail Train west rounded the curve in the cut just east of Benscreek station, about twenty miles east of this place, it struck two men, knocking them off the track. The train was stopped as soon as possible, but the men were both dead when picked up. They were put in the baggage car and brought to this place and left in the baggage room at the sta tion. One of them had both legs broken and was bruised about the face and head. The other had the back of his head crushed n and was otherwise mangled. The life must have been knocked out of botli in stantly. Both were young men, apparently not twenty-five years of age. and wore work ing clothes. They had the appearance of foreigners, and are thought to be miners in the Benscreek collieries. The bodies were brought from the station to the morgue at a late hour last uigbt. They will be buried at the county's expense. The trainmen 9aid that they had either stepped out of the way of a freight train which was moving on the other track, or had just got off of it. That locality is noted for the great amount of riding done on freight trains, and perhaps these poor fellows were doing as most of their asso ciates were in the habit of doing. The grade at the place where the accident hap pened i 9 very heavy, and it furnishes a good opportunity for persons to get off or on east-bound freight trains, which move quite slowly there. St. rani's Ungallaiit Beaux. St. Paul pioneer Press. Last winter, so the story is whispered around the circles of upper-tendom, a re ception was held at the home of one of society's local queens. When gentlemen iu coats of steel pen cut and ladies clad in fashion's triumphs were curtseying and bowing to the well-marked measures of a quadrille, 10, a garter was seou lying upon the floor among the feet of the light-hearted dancers. Of course, some Chevalier Bayard of the ball room stooped and picked up the dainty circlet, to keep until claimed by its fair OWIICI\H T&iembering-how a king bent down ;■ ."( gain the Countess of Salisbury's garter and j made it the badge of England's highest ! order. But no: they politely stnred, | while ladies blushed, until the hostess discovering the cause, sent a domestic who removed the shocking article upon a dustpan. Ye gods, such is the nineteenth century, that the young men would hold themselves polluted by the touch of a silken circlet. Once men went forth to battle, trusting in the talisman of a little ribbon or a fragment of a maiden's samite dress. Description of the Bodies. We noticed Wednesday the find. ! iug of the body of a woman at Coopers dale on Mondav. In removing the wo man the body of a man was found under her. The morgue descriptions arc ns I follows: No. 525, female, dark hair, cnl'co dress, j probably Mother Hubbard, white cotton '• undergarments. The body was fairly j well preserved, but the clothing was nearly all gone. She was five feet three inches in height, had a full head of brown hair, and wore a switch. There was a small notched rubber hairpin nud a long rubber hairpin broken in two, having a round top. The dress had a dash of red crossed with white, and polka dots on a brown ground. No. 526, male, pants of figured woolen goods, red flannel drawers, w rite shirt with linen standing collar, gray flannel undershirt, gold separable collar button, white cotton socks, trunk or desk key in pocket, also a " surprise box " He was five feet eight inches in height, narrow, low forehead and wide jaws. The upper teeth gone, all tW lower teeth small and irregular. The County's New Officer*. The new county officers will assume their duties to-day. They are all Demo crats. Following is the list: Prothono tary, James C. Darby, of Conemaugh borough, who succeeds 11. A. Shoe maker : Register and P.ccorder, Celestine J. Blair, of Ebensburg, who succeeds himself; District Attorney, Frank J. O'Connor, of Johnstown, who succeeds Hon. John Fenlon, appointed by the Court to fill the unexpired term of the late Harry G. Rose; Poor Director, Raphael Hite, who succeeds Jacob Shaffer, de ceased, Coroner, Peter McGough, of Por age, who succeeds Dr. D. W. Evans, of Johnstown; Auditor, Joseph Hipps. who succeeds Louis Roland, of Johnstown, deceased ; Surveyor, Henry Scanlan, of Carrolltown. Thoughtful nd Kind. Mr. Hughes, of Hoover, Hughes & Co., ou Saturday, ordered his foreman in charge of the new Lincoln Bridge, to erect side walks on either side of the bridge at the expense of his firm. No provision was made in the contract with Hoover, Hughes & Co., for side walks, and Mr. Hughes will be entitled to the thanks of the whole community for his kind thoughtfulness in providing side walks for our people at this time. NO 38 GLADSTONE ON CARNEGIE. What tile Grand Old Man Thinks ot the Iron King's Views n the Dulles of Wealth. Mr. Gladstone has become deeply in* terested in Andrew Carnegie's ideas con cerning the duties of wealth, as set forth in a recent article in the North American Review. Mr. Gladstone says he agrees with Carnegie in nearly everything that he affirms and recommends, and his (Gladstone's) maiu reservation i 9 prompt ed by Carnegie's language respecting the Endowment of Stanford University} Gladstone says he has some doubts as to whether large endowments of places of learning do not raise the market price of the higher education, which they aim at lowering. " I must add," he says, " that the growing tendency to the dissociation of universities as such from religion does not abate hut enhances the force of all such cansiderations ns have suggested my | language toieicrve." " I now come to an important addition which I should like to attach to the gos pel of wealth. I see no reason why, in the list of admissible or desirable objects for the dedication of funds, we are not to Include their direct dedication to the service and honor of God. The money spent in the erection of our cathedrals and our great churches, hardly inferior to cathedrals, has been large, and has in my judgment been very well laid out. What I have said as to the endowment of offices and places has some application to the great province of religiou ; but apart from this, and apart from the marvellous and noble works, such as cathedrals, the institutions of religion and the woi k9 of devotion, learning, mercy, and utility connected with it are numerous and di versified. Religion is a giant with a hun dred hands, whose strength, however, is not for rapine, but for use. I should wish to bring its claim, proportionate, and therefore large, under the consideration of the open-handed and open-minded philanthropist." NOT ENOUGH THERE NOW. llortiue Greeley's Iteuson* lor Declining to Tii'.cca Subscription. From the Buffalo Kxpress. To interrupt Hotacc Greeley when lie was m the throes if bringing fotlh an [editorial an editorial which hns never been EQUALED in HID journalism cf Anie ica, an editorial wnicli was a Slogan for his pa'.ty, a thunderbolt for his foes, was a danger v. h.eh ho frie..d, no enemy, none hut a fool dared encounter. I was once in his editorial sanctum when the fool was there, said Chauncey Depew in a speech to the Buffalo Press Club. To relieve your appreliensious I was not the fool. But lie was one of those itinerant and per sistent gentlemen with a subscription book. He kept presenting it while old Horace was writing—ns most of you re member, with bis pen away up to his chin, like this, (illustrating)—and Horace had a habit when anyone would interfere of kicking and so he kicked at the sub scription fiend. Finally, when he saw lie could not. get rid of the intruder by this means lie stopped in the middle of a sentence, 'timed round and said rnspingly in that sin ill voice of his : "What do you want? State it quick and state it in the fewest possible words." " Well," said the subscription fiet.d, " I want a subscription, Sir. Greeley, to prevent thousands of my fellow human beings from going to hell." Said Sir. Greeley : " I won't give you a cent. There don't half enough go there now." TO MAKE MURKY OVEII. She—Sir, what do you mean by putting your arm around my waist ? lie —Do you object ? She—Mr. Arthur Gordon, I'll give you just five hours to remove your arm.— Beacon. " What's the trouble here ? " he said to a crowd assembled in front of a Third avenue table d'hote restaurant. " An Italian Count has just died," vol unteered on of the crowd. " While eat ing his macaroni he got some of it wound nround his neck and strangled to death." —Epoch. Miss X.—That Italian Count seems to lead a rather monotnous life. Sirs. Y.—Yes ; I notice he never has any change.— Life. Fair Bostomau (to her Kansas cousin.) —Always sip soup from the side of the spoon." Kansas Cousin (desperately.) —Yes; but I can'r get it in sideways.— Puck. " You ask for the hand of my daugh ter? What expectation have you? "Why—none at all." "Neither has my daughter. Take ( r and be happy.— Fliegcnde Blactter. Anxious Mamma (of six daughters, o eldest)— Ethel, you really must exirt yourself more. Here it is the middle of your second season, and you haven't bad a signle good offer yet. You know I must bring Clara out next season and Maud the next, and there are three to come after them. Ethel—Yes, mamma, I have been con sidering the matter, and I think the only way is to persuade papa, to buy us all a machine, and let us learn typewriting. —Fvtk.
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