232 LAND AND LABOR. 



Inasmuch as the great market for all products must 

 be found among the masses ; and inasmuch as the 

 masses are composed of the working people of society, 

 in all and every occupation ; and inasmuch as not only 

 is all the wealth of the world the product of their la- 

 bor, but, also, as it is in and by the use and con- 

 sumption of these products by the working classes 

 themselves that trade is created and a demand for 

 distribution is made, which give to the nonproducer, 

 or capitalist, the opportunity to obtain any portion 

 of these products, or of the profits of their use and 

 distribution, the smallest exercise of intelligent self- 

 ishness should teach them that it is to tlieir direct 

 and immediate interest that the masses should be 

 enabled to buy and consume the greatest possible 

 quantity of all of their own products ; that the in- 

 dustrial goose should be well kept, well fed, that it 

 may freely lay its golden eggs. These propositions 

 are not hard to understand. 



It must always be remembered that it is the labor 

 of the workingman that produces everything, and that 

 the laborers are also the great consumers. Hence it is 

 that between these two points of production and con- 

 sumption that the nonproducer and capitalist find 

 their only opportunities for gain or profit. By tak- 

 ing the products from the hands of the producers, 

 and distributing them among the consumers, they 

 perform the service which yields to them their gains, 

 and it is their only function. Consequently the high- 

 est interest of the capitalist requires that the masses 

 should be in the most prosperous condition, to the 

 end that their ability to consume may be in every way 



