276 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
duction. The greater part of the present capital of England 
was produced within the last twelvemonth. The growth of 
capital is like the growth of population. Every individual 
who is born dies, but in each year the number born exceeds 
the number who die. The population increases while the in¬ 
dividuals pass away. So with capital; out of the productive 
consumption of one year comes a greater product available for 
the next. 
4. What supports and employs labor is the capital which sets it 
at worlc , not the demand for the completed product. The demand 
for commodities determines the direction of labor, but not the 
amount of labor itself. That depends upon the amount of the 
capital devoted to the sustenance and remuneration of labor. 
One does good to laborers not by what he consumes on him¬ 
self, but by what he does not so consume. This corrects the 
very v common error that the lavish expenditure of the rich is 
n benefit to laborers. The destruction of wealth h in itself 
an injury or loss. The only qualification of this view needed 
is in the case of a class of rich persons, who have no disposi¬ 
tion themselves to turn their wealth into capital. Their lav¬ 
ish expenditure may bring their wealth into other hands so 
that it may be used productively. The whole community, 
laborers most of all, are interested in the accumulation of 
wealth as capital. Saved and so employed, it is multiplying 
ever the the sum of comforts in the world. 
It is very obvious that the principles stated confirm the 
general view with which we started, that the true relation of 
labor and capital is that of partners. We are prepared now 
in a few words to define the conditions most favorable to their 
harmonious union. They meet most advantageously in the same 
person, i. e. when the laborer is owner of capital enough to 
employ his labor.- This brings both elements under the con¬ 
trol of one and the same will, to be governed by one self-inter¬ 
est. All rivalry and antagonism is excluded, and according to 
the measure of his capital and his capacity, the man will mul¬ 
tiply products. 
But this adjustment cannot be made universal, because— 
