188 SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION OF MECHANICS AND ARTISANS. 



tlie rauk of a liberal profession ; for this is what the various depart- 

 meuts of mechanical art ought to be, and they will be thus called and 

 recognized, so far as their professors show themselves men of liberal 

 nurture. 



The third part of the cost of a commodity, is the reimbursement and 

 profits of the capital expended in buildings, machinery, and raw mate- 

 rials. Capital is, in fact, the accumulated savings of the wages of skill. 

 Labor creates all values. But, as we have seen, mere hand-labor can 

 no more than support the laborer ; it leaves no surplus to be saved. 

 Skilled labor, on the other hand, creates more value than the laborer 

 consumes, and the surplus remains in hand — in the ruder states of so- 

 ciety, in such wealth as can be locked up in coffers, ward-robes and 

 granaries; in a more advanced community, in such forms as admit of 

 its expenditure in industrial operations. By laws, which I have not 

 time to expound, but as inevitable as those by which the little streams 

 of a valley lose themselves in the river that drains it, small cajntals 

 tend to run together, and thus to form the large capitals, which are the 

 object of so much senseless jealousy and hostility. These large capi- 

 tals are indispensable to the stability of industrial operations ; for even 

 in the most lucrative descriptions of business there are not unfrequent 

 seasons of stagnation and reverse, which would be ruinous, were there 

 not capitals ample enough to keep the wheels of industry in motion 

 without immediate revenue. 



Capital ought to earn much more than the mere su^jport of its holders 

 and managers. It ought to have such profits as will lead to its own 

 large annual increase, which is needed, in part, to replace the immense 

 amount of property annually destroyed by fire, storm, shipwreck, and 

 disaster, and, in part, to meet the essential outlays for the industrial 

 demands of a population grovring rapidly, both in number and in wants. 

 Here let it be remembered that all capital, in order to yield a profit, must 

 be used for industrial purposes. The hoarding of it is a mere fiction. 

 It must all be worked over, and the labor and skill which it employs 

 must be paid for before the capitalist receives the first dollar of his in- 

 come. It will be observed, also, that large capitals, so far from super- 

 seding, utilize, protect, and cherish small capitals, ho\Yever invested, 

 whether directly in industrial enterprises, or iiulirectlj- through banks ; 

 and while the absorption of small capitals is constantly going on in a 

 healthy condition of societj-, their creation is more rapid than their ab- 

 sorption, as in a rainy season the brooks and streams receive from the 

 heavens more water than they can carry into the river. 



Now the point which I wish to urge is this: By the education given 

 nere, the mechanic or artisan is enabled to secure for himself at once 

 the wages of labor which will feed and clothe him, the wages of supe- 

 rior skill which Vvill yield him a surplus revenue, and the profits of 

 capital, by the investment of his savings year by year, and of the con- 

 stantly increasing income of those savings. This, indeed, is the proper 



