62 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



exact tribute from workers. Less capable men can pay and live; 

 the weakest cannot, and hence become dependent, humbly seeking 

 the privilege of being set to work by the stronger, and regarding 

 employment as a boon. 



Society insists on the industry of its members. Society insists 

 that the industrious shall pay tribute to other units. Society has 

 thus created a condition that must cease, or society will be over- 

 thrown. An irresistible force and an immovable substance cannot 

 both exist. If society imagines it is immovable, it will some day, 

 and no very distant day, discover what is meant by irresistible force. 

 Disappointment, Discontent, Distress, must crush all who impede 

 their action and who stimulate their force. 



A collision impends. Everywhere can be seen the signs of the 

 times. The barometer of social peace is falling, the thermometer of 

 diffused prosperity is dropping. We may by artificial methods cause 

 both to rise, but we do not thus dissipate the storm — we do not thus 

 drive back the advancing cold wave. Natural weather is beyond our 

 power to control, but, thank God, the social atmosphere may be 

 cleared and the freeze out of industry may be forever thawed. It is 

 in our power to avert the threatened social cyclone. 



The first business of society in the premises is to establish in 

 practice what is as undeniable as an axiom : Inasmuch as it is man's 

 duty to produce, it is his right to freely perform that duty. 



What is it to produce ? 



It is the drawing forth and adapting from nature, and the trans- 

 portation and exchange of those things which supply man's needs, 

 comforts and luxuries. 



What are the factors of production ? 



Man's own exertion, on the one hand, and the natural material 

 on which alone that exertion can be expended, on the other. The 

 first is called Labor and the second Land. All wealth is the result 

 of Labor expended on Land. 



What is wealth ? 



Natural products that have been secured, moved, combined, 

 separated, or, in other ways, modified by human exertion, so as to 

 fit them for the gratification of human desires. 



All is not wealth that is called wealth. A man who holds in 

 possession deeds of land, scrip, promissory notes, mortgages, bank 



