THE ANTAGONISM OF SOCIAL FORCES. 137 



of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." But a portioM of the race now 

 enjoy incomes which exempt them from toil, and with every 

 guarantee, so far as our laws and customs can guarantee anything, 

 that such exemption shall continue to the end of time 



What are the inevitable conclusions from these two considerations 1 



First. — Since no man or numl)er of men can produce sufficient 

 supplies to maintain them for all time without further toil, therefore, 

 that part of society wiiich enjoys everlasting incomes that require no 

 toil from their recipients for their maintenance, possesses the power 

 of appropriating an amount of wealth that could not by any possi- 

 bility be the result of its own productive effort. 



Second. — All society cannot jiossibly live for all time without toil; 

 some now po.ssess that power. Therefore some enjoy a privilege from 

 which others by inexorable physical law must be for ever excluded. 



Whence comes it that we see this extraodinary division in society 1 

 One pai't empowered to live without toil, another part doomed to 

 evei'lasting toil. This I shall now tr}'^ to make plain. 



Let us first try to ascertain what is the law of distribution of the 

 products of laboui'. Two men settle on the j)rairie, each taking a 

 section. One section continues to be a farm, the other becomes a 

 town site. After thirty years the farmer has a jn-operty worth, say, 

 three or four thousand dollars, while the land-owner's property is 

 worth, say, three or four hundred thousand dollars. The toil of the 

 farmer has exceeded that of the land-holder a thousand fold ; the 

 reward of the land-owner has exceeded that of the farmer a thousand 

 fold. Reward is inversely as service. The distribution is not 

 according to production, but it depends mainly on the increase of 

 value. To understand, therefore, the laws of distribution we must 

 examine the nature of value. 



Why has a fresh egg value and an unseasonable egg none? Be- 

 cause the foi-mer possesses that quality called "utility;" the latter 

 does not. 



Why has air, which has much utility, no value, while a diamond, 

 with littlo utility, has very great value] The air is super-abundant 

 and immediately accessible, while diamonds are scarce. 



Value, therefore, may arise in two wuys. First, it may come by 

 the production of utilities that are scaice, or, second, it may arise 

 from the scarcitv of certain utilities. 



