268 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ject of nature unappropriated or unexhausted of its capacity to 
gratify desire, there will be place for human labor to be ap¬ 
plied to natural objects for the increase of wealth. 
We advance a step and come upon another obvious fact. It 
is that in civilized society, all the processes of industry require some 
accumulation of the products of former labor to begin with. The 
blacksmith cannot begin his work without iron to work upon, 
and a forge and its fuel and hammer and anvil to work with. 
And moreover if he is to spend the day in his shop, the food 
which supports him must be provided beforehand. In other 
words he must have materials, tools and sustenance. But these 
all come as the results of previous labor, his own or another's. 
So it is in every branch of civilized industry. To this neces¬ 
sary accumulation of the products of former labor the name 
capital is given. This is the radical idea of capital. 
Now putting these two facts together we have the universal 
fundamental principle that the union of these two elements, labor 
and capital , is essential to the production and to the very existence 
of wealth. Hence comes the obvious inference that the true 
relation of capital and labor is that of partners—coadjutors for 
a common end —sharers in a joint result. Each is indispensa¬ 
ble to the other. Abstractly considered, they meet on an 
equality. Antagonism between them is ruinous to the inter¬ 
ests of both. This view of the subject is fundamental to all 
sound political economy. It is so plain as to seem a truism 
which hardly needs a formal statement. * Sound philosophy 
and common sense both sustain this view. Yet in practice it 
is very generally ignored, and in the sharp discussions of our 
times it seems almost lost sight of on both sides. Amid the 
din of the workshop, and above the din of wordy contention 
this simple truth needs to be continually affirmed, elucidated 
and reiterated. No labor reform movement can avail anything 
which does not start with the proposition that labor and capi¬ 
tal are partners, not rivals, and write upon its banner, “ What 
God hath joined together let not man put asunder.” 
For the better apprehension of the principle in all its bear¬ 
ings let us linger a little on the questions, what is labor? 
