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Show A friend writes us explaining that all the changes of this world from original wilderness have been wrought by labor; then asks us to give the reason, if reason there is, why it is not fair for laborers to expect and obtain a larger proportion pro-portion of the worlds' gathered wealth. The general answer to the question is that the value of anything is what it will bring in the market; that is, it is regulated by the demand, de-mand, and one man cannot claim very much more for doing a certain order of work than other men are willing to perform the work for. This has been the rule from the beginning; it probably always al-ways will be. In reality, when men through the press, or from the hustings, or in private conversation, assert as-sert that tho world's changes from barbarism have all been wrought by labor, and while what they say is literally true, it is not true in the sense in which it is generally used. The average aver-age man, when making that assertion, confines the meaning of the word work to men who with lusty labor fell the forests, till the fields, sail the ships, run the trains, etc. In truth that order of work never begins until another order of work has been performed. The only manual labor work that has ever counted has been directed by superior brains. About a century ago England was filled with manual laborers. The names of all of them except one have been forgotten. There was one who spent his days and nights working upon a rude machine. Very possibly he was the pity or scorn of his neighbors. But at length he had incorporated so much of his mind into the irresponsive iron that within it life was awakened and the worker was thrilled by hearing the first deep respiration of the first steam engine. That one man's work was in , J volume, then and since, vastly more than all that , ? j jH of all the other workers who lived in his day. j 1 I jfl Its work, too, was absolutely perfect. It never ' r ''B grew weary; it never went away for a holiday; if ' ' mH it was not diverted by its loves or by the hates. ! P Jfl Today in all civilized lands it performs half the j I ' ,fl work of the people because the brain that Watt i' j . - JH fused with the iron was immortal and still re- fl? ! 'i?jfl mains. ill 'ifl When Whitney invented the cotton gin, he did 1 jj , , ' fl something which has secured to many thousands v''fl of men profitable employment every season since iff j ;:H the discovery was made and put in working form. I'i ') fl Morse was another of those workers. Men had if' ifl been building ships for thousands of years, but 1 Yhl jfl at a time of great national anxiety, Ericsson, in fSfw sixty days, built a little ship on new lines which I f 4 ' til in effect sank the world's navies. Turn where I ' V", 'fl we will, watch as we may the world's laborers, 1 W ; mB and we find that the work that counts most is' " !f V H the one in which the most brain is mingled. ii'tulB Hence no working man, no laborer, skilled or 1 j) ji -'IB unskilled, can claim for himself and his fellow i 5 j" ;J 'Jfl workers independence of capital, unless in the SitHlfl act of tilling the soil and making for himself his 1 ft I'l )jffl bread in that way. The man who gives employ- 1 j 4 r-jlfl ment to many of his fellowmen, who keeps the i fj ' Jjfl work before them and pays them in full, week- 1 'L ' j I Jfl ly, for their labor, is bound to be the hardest 1 $ Ifl worker of the whole company. Still to make IXY" hB his brains available as a producer, he must em- ! ' It ffl ploy all the way from a few to thousands of la- ; 1 I fl borers. Hence, it is true that capital and labor ,f Jjr jfl are inter-dopendent and it is a calamity when ; jf t .ijfl they clash. As to the pay of laborers, the old ! I I I JH rule will have to remain in force, the pay will j M Sfl be according to the demand until a new adjust- j I'M' $H ment comes, and it will be impossible for ac- ! f'hdfl cumulated wealth to work injustice upon the j J j d ifl world's dependent poor, for wealth itself will be f ' Ifl shorn of its power and the thirst -for gold will jtf $ f,fl cease, for mere gold with nothing to work upon ly jjjfl is as valueless as dross. $j 1 )'' jifl I wM |