FALLACIES OF MODERN ECONOMISTS. 231 



shape of money of the realm or that for which it is exchangeable 

 — viz., food products— or the capital may take the form of ready 

 manufactured brain, blood, nerves, and muscles. 



No labor is possible without the power to work, and the power 

 to work must be stored up in the human frame, and a sufficient 

 supply of protoplasm housed to maintain human energy, in order 

 to make labor possible. What else is this than capital — " wealth 

 devoted to the production of more wealth " ? 



The definition of labor given by Mr. George " includes all 

 human exertion in the production of wealth." Supposing wage- 

 workers were limited to this definition as the standard for gaug- 

 ing the value of their services, what would become of those em- 

 ployed in unremunerative industries or in those of an experimental 

 nature ? It would mean that the time they had spent in the 

 manufacture or construction of anything which on completion 

 was found to be unsuccessful, could not be classed as labor, and 

 for which they could make no claim — a decision which Mr. George 

 would scarcely be prepared to allow as just. 



I must now call your attention to another fallacy which is too 

 gross to overlook, especially as it occurs in other schools of reform 

 outside of the single-tax party. It is that of ascertaining some 

 law applicable to a rude or elementary society, such as Robinson 

 Crusoe and his man Friday on a desert island, and applying the 

 same law to society in an advanced state. 



Reasoning by analogy is often a very dangerous proceeding, 

 especially when used by the unskillful. In order to show that 

 capital is really a very useless thing and quite unessential to life, 

 Mr. George cites instances where a number of men begin life on 

 an island and commence without capital by picking berries, catch- 

 ing fish, and killing game. This may be all true in a small com- 

 munity, providing there happen to be the necessary game and 

 fish and berries, the possible absence of which Mr. George over- 

 looks. But where can a city like New York provide itself with 

 sufficient game, fish, and berries to support life without the use 

 of capital ? Mr. George tells us that " the fundamental truth, that 

 in all economic reasoning must be firmly grasped and never let 

 go, is, that all society in its most highly developed forms is but 

 an elaboration of society in its rudest beginnings, and that prin- 

 ciples obvious in the simple relations of men are merely disguised, 

 and not abrogated or reversed, by the more intricate relations that 

 result from the division of labor and the use of complex tools and 

 methods." (Progress and Poverty, page 29.) For a complete refu- 

 tation of this "fundamental truth" we have an argument fur- 

 nished by Mr. George himself. In his efforts to demolish the 

 Malthusian theory, he says in Chapter II of Book II : " The globe 

 may be surveyed and history may be reviewed in vain for any 



