70 Teachings of Thomas Huxley 



CAPITAL AND LABOR. 



In an address on "Capital — the Mother of 

 Labor/' Huxley made plain the lack of an- 

 tagonism which should exist between these two 

 because of their mutual dependence. "Of all 

 political delusions which are current in this 

 queer world the very stupidest are those which 

 assume that labor and capital are necessarily 

 antagonistic; that all capital is produced by 

 labor and therefore by natural right is the 

 property of the laborer; that the possessor of 

 capital is a robber who preys on the workman 

 and appropriates to himself that which he has 

 no share in producing. . . . Capital and 

 labor are close allies; capital is never a product 

 of human labor alone, it is the necessary antece- 

 dent of labor, and it furnishes the materials 

 on which labor is employed. There is no in- 

 trinsic relation between the amount of labor 

 bestowed on an article and its value in ex- 

 change." 



This is the very essence of truth in any dis- 

 cussion on the relation between capital which 

 makes the establishing of a business possible, 

 and labor which simply makes the establish- 

 ment capable of production. The working- 

 man's argument that he ought to receive more 

 wages because his employer is making more 

 money is the basest sophistry. His work is 



