Page:Alexander Jonas - Reporter and Socialist (1885).djvu/49

 this respect—but I am convinced that supply and demand will be made to correspond with each other, and that the possible waste of material and labor will be reduced to almost nothing. Speculation by which prices are unnecessarily raised would be done away with altogether. Prices would be simply limited by the cost of production.

And what is the cost of production? What elements compose it?

It is composed by the cost of the raw material, of the aggregate wages paid to the producer, of transportation and sale, and finally of the amount to be charged for the repair and renewal of the means of labor, tools, machinery, houses, factories etc.

And the question, whether anything be scarce or plentiful has nothing to do with prices?

Only as far as the natural limits are concerned, i. e. as far as the raw material is produced by nature in larger or smaller quantities; also the greater or lesser skill necessary to produce a certain commodity is a factor in fixing the price of anything.

Then the amount of wages is the principal basis for fixing prices? For, the raw material is produced by nature gratuitously. For, according to your plan, a ton of iron taken from a mine and carried to some iron works, would cost not more than the wages of those who raise it from the earth and carry it to the place of its destination, to which would be added the amount necessary for repairing and renewing the machinery of the mine and of the carrying road; the iron would cost nothing as it belongs to society at large.

You are perfectly right.

And how are the wages to be fixed?

The mode of determining the amount of wages will be different in different periods. If we take the period to immediately follow our present state of affairs, all labor would be divided into four classes according to its quality, or the skill and time necessary to produce and to learn it. Of course, this is only to illustrate to you how the principle might