CO-OPERATION. 11 



by litigation, must kill off its rival or else combine and divide. 

 In either case, full payment for skill has defeated itself. 

 As competition prevails, it will be entirely lost in labor cost. 



Skill cannot be compensated, it is its own reward. Compen- 

 sation means to weigh back, it is a conservation of force. Skill 

 is natural adaptation, ease of execution. Instead of being com- 

 pensated, its possessor should be congratulated. Xot so with 

 labor, its nature is to lose, lapse, die. That of the body in ex- 

 posure and fatigue; that of the mind, in anxiety, responsibility 

 and care. These should be compensated. The reason the be. 

 lief so generally prevails that skill should be rewarded, as the 

 latest refinement of slavery, arises from the fact that through 

 tricks of trade and cunning legislation it is too often rewarded. 

 But the skill of the artist, the ai'tisan, that of the scientist and 

 the inventor, we rarely ever see culminate in a bonanza king, 

 even the Savior of the world had not where to lay his head. 



Labor then, is tlie data from which all just price must be 

 reckoned. That which costs much should bring much; that 

 which costs little should bring less; that which costs nothing 

 should bring nothing. All profit that cannot be calculated in 

 tei'ms of labor is something for notliing. Under no circum- 

 stances can skill be preferred before labor in determining price, 

 and after equal liberty has been realized, nothing but labor 

 will ever permanently enter into it. 



COMPETITION, THE REGULATOR OF PRICE. 



But this is not saying hoio mxich labor shall enter into it. It 

 is natural and proper that the seller should endeavor to get for 

 his labor its full natural product. It is also the privilege of the 

 buyer to get his goods with the least labor. This gives rise 

 to competition, which function is to equalize prices and lower 

 the cost of production. But, that competition may work be- 

 neficently, it must be free all round. If the highways are to 

 be blocked by freebooters, if the currency is to be controlled, if 

 a tariff is to destroy private contract, if business is to be run 

 by legislative Philistines, then, all the competition will be 

 among laborers themselves, nd woe be to their lot! Supply 

 and demand will now become advantage and necessity, 



