127 



slightest inf ormatioa as to the distribution 

 of the fruits of the various producing 

 agencies, among which naan's current 

 directing as well as current nauscular ser- 

 vices play a prominent part ; and it must 

 not be forgotten that the latter, together 

 with the "anterior labor " and skill of man 

 now currently stored or incorporated as 

 de' ached claims in auxiliary producing in- 

 struments, constitute the main elements 

 which give price or monetary value to the 

 current wealth in exchange, produced, 

 whether for consumption or for fixed uses 

 of future production, 



From such obvious considerations we 

 are able to detect the common fallacy 

 among Socialistic writers and others, who 

 invariably measure the distribution of the 

 wealth created purposely for human con- 

 sumption and personal satisfaction among 

 the wage earning classes by the propor- 

 tion which the ownership of fixed or 

 monopolised capital-producing instru 

 ments, etc., show among the people 

 generally. 



The fallacy, however, is so thorough^ 

 interwoven in the literature and sayings 

 of the mass of the people that it is almost 

 impossible to expose its absurdity ; but 

 when we consider that man lives by 

 current or annual productions per se, and 

 not upon fixed capital or their nominal 

 values, whether annual or capital, and 

 when, moreover, we discern that services 

 currently rendered, whether by instru- 

 ment, skilled mind or hand, constitute the 

 base of what forms the purchasing power 

 or claim over wealth being produced for 

 consumption and personal satisfaction, it 

 is only then we are able to perceive that 

 the distribution of real wealth, so far as 

 man's needs and satisfactions are con- 

 cerned, is determined, ^not as fal- 

 laciously assumed by the proportion of 

 ownership which each man holds of the sta- 

 tistician's wealth — i.e., the fixed non- 

 pereonally-consumable instruments, and 

 which the owner no more consumes than 

 the servants who control them — but 

 strictly by the [express measure which 

 services of various degrees of exchange 

 value have enabled each worker to consti- 

 tute a claim upon the aggreg'ate of all 

 such services whose values are con- 

 tained and incorporated in the current 

 production of actual wealth. 



It is not here contended that the time 

 labor of each individual laborer or instru- 



ment has the power to create equality oE 

 claim in correspondence with time effort ; 

 that ia too obviously unequal ; but it is 

 contended that every such effort, usefully 

 directed, constitutes a definite claim, and, 

 therefore, the true distribution of wealth 

 in the community — wealth in consumption 

 being the major factor — can alone be 

 accurately determined by the average 

 annual earnings or claims upon wealth. 

 The proportion of fixed wealth owned 

 by individuals affords no clue to current 

 distribution of total wealth. It can 

 merely show how the 24-60 per cent, de- 

 voted to fixed instruments is distri- 

 buted. 



If the proportion be large it insures 

 probably a claim to the extent of 4, 5, or 

 6 per cent, of his (f ) capital upon real 

 wealth, upon which the owner exists, and 

 which may give a considerable purchasing 

 power to the individual without any cur- 

 rent personal exertion ; but it must not 

 be forgotten that the fixed capital of a 

 manager may be almost nil, while his 

 skilled directmg services may enable him 

 to create a yearly claim of £1000 value 

 upon wealth produced for immediate 

 human uses, while the fixed instrument 

 of a helpless widow, owner (say) of 

 £10,000 capital value, may only afford her 

 a claim of half the amount (or J6500) 

 falling to the manager, whose fixed capital 

 is reckoned as nil in the usual Statis- 

 tician's estimates of the capital wealth of 

 a country. 



It will be seen, therefore, that what is 

 termed " the enormous accumulations of 

 wealth in our times," " the riches of 

 capitalists," do not consist of fine houses, 

 luxurious equipages, money, or grand 

 parks, or, if so, it only forms a most in- 

 significant portion of it. The great bulk 

 of the nominal and real wealth of 

 capitalists consists of land improvements, 

 mines, railways, tramways, ships, canals, 

 stores, warehouses, manufactories, 

 machines, tools and instruments, etc., 



(f) The State in itself in the .Common- 

 wealth of Australia is already in the 

 possession of its lands unalienated, its 

 railways, telegraphs, roads, and public 

 buildings ; and therefore is now the 

 largest owner of fixed capital wealth, and 

 would, if extended, become the sole 

 owner, if the more practicable programme 

 of collectivists were possible. 



