CAPITAL AND LABOR— THE FARMER'S RELATION TO BOTH. 21 



standing iu boldest type, the two great words form the " headlines " of some 

 column in every day's issue of many of the papers of our country, while a 

 number of journals devote their entire space to articles upon the subject of 

 either capital or labor. The political parties of our land incorporate in their 

 several platforms some one or more " planks " that bear expressly upon the 

 subject, the puipose of which is explained by much oratorical ability as being 

 the displacement of capital and the advancement of labor, hoping thereby that 

 the votes of labor will go to the orator's party. The eitizen, whose head-gear 

 is a hive in whi' h " political bees " are often buzzing finds the subject one 

 upon which he delights to discourse, and the wage-worker of to-day is filled 

 with surprise as he listens to the speech of men who are willing to bo sacrificed 

 upon the altar of office only that they may be his public benefactor, and frame 

 laws that shall elevate him beyond the "tyranny of capital." The learned 

 teacher of education, the clergy, the student, the writer upon political economy, 

 men of greatest mind, write and talk upon the subject, and with all of the 

 discussion a conclusion has not yet been reached that shall so assimilate capital 

 and labor as to make an obsolete quantity of that which is to-day rippling the 

 waters on the sea of danger. 



Yet no one can deny that through the discussion by the press and by the 

 people, save where selfish political motives actuate the author, we are coming 

 nearer to an intelliijent knowledge of the causes of the differences between 

 employer and employe. 



In our talk this afternoon no thought is entertained that a great social and 

 political problem will be solved, but if the presenting of thoughts, with a few 

 facts and figures gained in an official way during the year just closed, shall 

 enable any member of this Institute to feel that they have been beneficially 

 informed, then the time consumed will not have been idly taken from you. 



First, let us look into the relations of capital and labor. 



Capital may be money, merchandise, lands, or any kind of property, in 

 treating of it iu opposition to labor, but ia reality it is the accumulated j)roduct 

 of labor and the profits of the savings of labor. It is the ally of labor, without 

 the help of one to the other neither can continue in existence. 



Labor, as spoken of in this talk, is that which is given by A to B for a com- 

 pensation, called wages. B receives from A for a stipulated price that work of 

 the hands which adds to the property accumulation of B. That accumulation 

 is capital. B pays to A money for his labor; is this capital? If the amount 

 paid by B to A is iu excess of the amount needed by A to pay all expenses con- 

 tingent upon his living, that is the supporting of self and dependents in a 

 manner which he has a right to desire, if we say there is an excess over 

 consumption, and that excess is saved, then it is capital. If the labor of A 

 which he gives to B does not receive in return a compensation equal to his 

 needful livmg demands, then we submit that capital has oppressed labor. If A 

 does not receive a profit for his labor, and his labor creates a profit for B, then 

 we submit that capital has wronged labor. 



The oppression and the wronging of labor as just referred to is based upon 

 the proposition that both A and B are striving to the same end — accumiilation 

 of property. Both are denying themselves extravagant or non-essential habits 

 in the desire to accumulate savings. B has an advantage which he secured by 

 previous savings and denials; he has saved a property, he is now an employer, 

 A is his employe. If B, in securing the assistance of labor, which he must do. 

 in order to add to his accumulations, seeks to take advantage of an over-supply 

 of labor by reducing its value iu wages, then we submit that he oppresses labor 



