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hundred years ago. If all the means of labor be common property of the people, accumulation may be as great, or greater, than when distributed into private ownership. We shall prove this assertion beyond doubt. But we concede that the institution of private capitalism was in its day an historical necessity, and at first productive of more good than evil. It is only in its progress to absolute sway that it calls into existence an intolerable host of evils, and thus in the end, to which we are now approaching, works its own destruction.
After these concessions, we will prove to every honest person's satisfaction that private capital cannot exist without robbery, sanctioned by law. Suppose a workman lays up, in many years of labor and self-denial, a sum of $10,000, and the laws of the country did not allow him to loan this sum on interest, or to employ wages laborers at a lower rate than their real product of labor is worth. If he now ceases to work himself, he still owns his $10,000, and this sum may amply suffice to keep him in food, dwelling, and all his wants down to his death, by spending it dollar by dollar. But such sums are not Capital in the usual sense of the word; they do not grow, but decrease. Only what bears interest is called Capital; and interest is the fruit of the labor of others which is but partially rewarded. This example will be still more to the point if we further assume that the workman had invested in a farm the entire $10,000. That farm will abundantly support his old age, provided he is allowed to employ laborers at less wages than their work is really worth. But if there be no law allowing that, and he ceases to labor himself, he would certainly die of starvation on his farm. This example alone is conclusive. But we shall add some more proofs of the truth that only by unpaid labor private capital can come into existence.
Suppose the said workman had invested his $10,000 in a productive business in which he officers a number of wages laborers without doing anything but superintending their work, and buying and selling the incoming raw materials and outgoing merchandise. He realizes within a given time $10,000 profit, and now owns $20,000. If we subtract from this sum a moderate salary which he votes himself for his labor, all the balance of the $20,000 are the proceeds of the labor,—the unpaid labor,—of his employes. For his original $10,000 are gone by investing them in means of labor, raw materials, and wages, and must come back to him by selling the merchandise produced. Not only is the clear profit of $10,000 almost all the fruit of unpaid labor, but the return of the capital itself is
