Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/823

 1869.] The Value of Man. 665 must bear in mind, that this has been the expectation ever since the ten-hour system was recognized ; and, instead of correcting itself, it is daily growing worse and worse. All master mechan- ics will corroborate this fact : That, when wages were low, and work hours long, the workmen did twentj T -five per cent more work in the hour than they do at present. There is an intelligent cause for this ; and, if we discard old theories and search for truth, we shall discover it. Formerly, labor was plenty, and gold was scarce ; now, compara- tively, gold is plenty, and labor is scarce. Suppose a contract had been made with a workman, twenty years ago — when twelve hours was considered a day's labor — for a gold dollar a da}', for thirty years, which, to-day, would be the meas- ure of value, the gold or the labor ? Or, suppose a contract was to be entered into, to-day, to build a house for $20,000, in gold, during the year ; and suppose, that all building mechanics should strike for eight hours per day, and be success- ful in obtaining it, would it not show that labor is the standard ? That is, eight hours' labor would command as much gold, after a successful strike, as ten hours' labor would have commanded previously. Now, reduce the day's work of man, to a smaller number of hours ; or, abolish labor altogether, and allow all men to subsist only on the spontaneous products of nature, or on such materials as each could individu- ally produce — admitting that such a thing could possibly occur — what would then be the value of gold ? No circu- lating medium would be required ; and, consequently, gold would be of no use, except for ornaments, which would have to be worked to the size and fashion fancied by the wearer. But labor would be of value, because on it would depend the production of the means of individ- ual subsistence. Again : Suppose, that a gold mountain should be discovered, where the beautiful metal could be had, in illimitable quantity, without more labor than is required to produce iron, would not its intrinsic value fall below that of either of the baser metals, from the fact, that it is of but little use to mankind, except as a medium of exchange, and the means of ornament ? It would be of no use to build engines, to make agri- cultural implements, or for any other mechanical purpose. If its scarcity is advanced as a reason that it should be the measure of value, why should it still maintain that position, in the face of the immensely increased production of gold compared with other precious metals ? If some mineral, from its scarcity, is required by the world for a standard of value, wh}^ not select platina, or even one kind of precious stones ; as the production of these does not increase in ratio, bej'ond the increase of the world's population, as gold has done, within the last twenty-five } T ears, which increase, from present indications, is likely to become greater, every succeed- ing year. Suppose you engage a man at mining, on the side of a mountain ; and employ another man at raising wheat, in the valley, alongside of the same mountain. Say, the miner can produce fifty dollars in gold, per day, for a season ; and the farmer could only produce one bushel of wheat per day, worth two dollars ; which would be the standard of value, the fifty dollars in gold, the two dollars' worth of wheat, or the labor of the man ? The labor of the man is the standard, as he, by labor, produces the gold and the wheat; and, without his labor neither would have any tangible existence, so far as the human race is concerned. The creature cannot be greater than the Creator, Sta- tistics are always dull reading ; and are, generally resorted to, by writers, to bolster up arguments. I will not refer to them, to show the relative increase of gold, in proportion to the increase of population, as it is a matter that all ob- servant men are conversant with ; but, by referring to the pages of the Bible, I will show, that, in the early ages of the