PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 465 



These illustrations show unmistakably that the economic advan- 

 tages secured by man's improved auxiliary instruments and forces 

 have been the principal cause of the present much higher social 

 standard of living of the people, as compared with that of the 

 period prior to the introduction of steam and electricity, as 

 auxiliary aids to the productive powers of labour. 



Gunton, in his earlier work Wealth and Progress, states that — 

 " In proportion as wealth is produced by human labour, it is 

 scant and dear, and the masses are poor and barbarous; and 

 according as it is produced by (auxiliary) natural forces (steam, 

 &c.) it is abundant and cheap, and the masses are materially 

 prosperous and socially civilized." " Thus, in India, where wealth 

 is produced mainly by human labour, the annual earnings are 

 about £2 per capita of the population, as against £33 per cajnta 

 in this country (United States of America), where human labour 

 supplies the smallest per cent, of the productive power of any 

 country in the world." Mr. Gunton further observes: — "It is 

 thus clear that the labourer is not robbed by (auxiliary) capital, but 

 that he always gains by the use of (auxiliary) capital, not because 

 of any generosity of the greater capitalist (i.e., by the owner of 

 auxiliary steam and other forces), but by the inexorable operation 

 of economic law, which prohibits the use of (auxiliary) capital 

 except upon the condition that it will yield increasing returns. 

 In other words, that it will give more wealth to the community 

 than it takes away from it." " Were it otherwise, social progress 

 would be impossible, as the productive power of the human hand 

 cannot, to any great extent, be increased. Hence unless some 

 other forces can be harnessed to the production of wealth, man 

 would be doomed to eternal barbarism." Mr. Gunton also affirms — 

 "That human labour (except under the most primitive state of 

 savagery) does not create all wealth, and that the social condi- 

 tion of the labourer is not necessarily the best when he gets the 

 whole produce ; but, on the contrary, wealth is produced by the 

 combined effort of labour and capital, and that, according as the 

 proportion of the total wealth produced by human labour 

 diminishes, the actual amount the labourer receives increases. In 

 other words, the social well-being improves in proportion as nature 

 (meaning natural harnessed forces) instead of man, is made to do 

 the work of producing the world's wealth." 



General Effect of the Rapid Growth of Steam and other 

 Natural Auxiliary Forces since 1840. 



Dr. David A. Wells, in his admirable history of "Recent 

 Economic Changes, and their effect on the Production and Distri- 

 bution of Wealth, and the Well-being of Society," published in 

 the year 1891, makes the following notable observation: — 



" When the historian of the future writes the history of the 

 aineteenth century he will doubtless assign to the period embraced 



