Page:The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/110

 So far it has been easy to show a good case for the reward earned by our capitalist, Crusoe. Everything that he has earned had been either from the work of his own hands or by the efforts of other people working on his own past work, or being fed out of the proceeds of his own past work, or working under his own direction, or being fed out of the proceeds of the organization which his work and directive ability have built up. He made the original axe, and fashioned the original boat, which were the beginnings of the community's capital. Thus the "concrete fact" of the existence of surplus value on which Mr. Philip Snowden laid stress, brings us to a different conclusion from the one which he drew from it. He saw in the existence of a rich class who do no work, "conclusive proof of the claim that labour does not receive all that labour creates," echoing Dr. Anton Menger's view that under our present arrangements no attempt is made to give every labourer the whole produce of his labour. With all deference to Mr. Snowden, whose earnest and devoted work on behalf of the wage-earners all must respect, it seems to me that the existence of surplus value is proved not merely by the existence of the rich class that does no work, but also by the fact that the wage-earners secure