PETITION FOR A MUTUAL BANKING LAW. 45 



value, they speak, not of the labor which an article cost, or ought to 

 have cost, in its production, but of the quantity of labor which the 

 article may purchase or command. It is very well, for those who 

 mistake the philosophy of speculation on human misfortune and 

 necessities for social science, to assume for measure of value the 

 amount of labor which different commodities can command. Con- 

 sidered from this point of view, the price of commodities is regu- 

 lated, not in the labor expended in their production, but by the 

 distress and want of the laboring class. There is no device of the 

 political economists so infernal as the one which ranks labor as a 

 commodity, varying in value according to supply and demand. 

 Neither is there any device so unphilosophical; since the ratio of 

 the supply of labor to the demand for it is unvarying: for every 

 producer is also a consumer, and rightfully, to the precise extent of 

 the amount of his products; the laborer who saves up his wages 

 being, so far as society is concerned, and in the long run, a consum- 

 er of those wages. The supply and demand for labor is virtually 

 unvarying; and its price ought, therefore, to be constant. Labor 

 is said to be value, not because it is itself merchandise, but because 

 of the values it contains, as it were, in solution, or, to use the.cor- 

 rect metaphysical term, in potentia. The value of labor is a 

 figurative expression, and a fiction, like the productiveness of cap- 

 ital. Labor, like liberty, love, ambition, genius, is something 

 vague and indeterminate in its nature, and is rendered definite by 

 its object only; misdirected labor produces no value. Labor is said 

 to be valuable, not because it can itself be valued, but because tlie 

 products of labor may be truly valuable. When we say "John's 

 labor is worth a dollar a day," it is as though we said, "The daily 

 product of John's labor is worth a dollar." To speak of labor as 

 merchandise is treason; for such speech denies the true dignity of 

 man, who is the king of the earth. Where labor is merchandise in 

 fact (not by a mere inaccuracy of language) there man is merchan- 

 dise also, whether it be in England or South Carolina. 



THE WAY IN WHICH THE AFFAIRS OF THE MUTUAL BANK MAY BE 



CLOSED. 



When the company votes to issue no more money, the bills it 

 has already issued will bo returned upon it; for, since the bills 

 were issued in discounting notes running to maturity, the debtors 

 of the bank, as their notes mature, will pay in the bills they have 

 received. When the debtors have paid their debts to t^ie bank, 

 then the bills are all in, every debtor has discharged his mortgage, 

 and the affairs of the bank are closed. If any debtor fails to pay. 

 the bank sells the property mortgaged, and pays itself. Tiie bank 

 lends at a rate of interest that covers its bare expenses: it makes, 

 therefore, no profits, and, consequently, eau declare no dividends. 

 It is by its nature incapable of owing anything: it lias, therefore. 

 no debts to settle. When the bank's debtors have paid their delits 



