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