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Chapter 4 - Progress -
From Poverty by James Platt

P79 POVERTY.

value of his goods ; and to obey the economic law of taking it to the "best market." To do this, they must be above the daily wants, they must work harder when trade is good, and they must save all they can when in full employment. There are too many in the present day who argue as if capital is only made by the capitalist being unjust to his co-partner, the labourer; that, for want of justice, poverty is the gaunt shadow that clings to the skirts of progress-the Nemesis at the banquet of Dives. It may be

 
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so, but it seems to me, instead of setting the employe against the employer, it would be wiser to train him so that he may be worth a fair day's pay, and trust to the buyer of labour being as willing to compete for that commodity, and pay the market price of that, as he is to pay for the raw material. If you are forced to sell your labour, the capitalist, to live, is equally forced to buy it; and if properly managed, there is no reason why labour should not, like raw material, fetch what it is worth in the market. No combination can, for any lengthened period, force the price of labour or material beyond what it is worth by nature's law for the regulation of prices, "supply and demand." We want mankind to see that is for their interest for all to work together and in concert-to see the waste and prodigality of a system where the general advantage is endangered by the perpetual occurrence of selfish conflicts. But we want this result achieved by a further extension of the rights of the individual, and not by the privilege of individual inheritance and rights being done away with. The real salvation of society would be an increase of the class of small capitalists. No man with any property will join in the cry for a division of goods. By encouraging thrift and industry, we take the surest means of checking the schemes of agitators.

Progress requires the intelligent co-operation of scientists, inventors, skilled directors, labour and capital. We want the various parts to work together, each doing its part, and recognizing the value of the other parts. In this union is the national strength. To produce cheaply as possible is for

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Poverty - by James Platt

© Peter Smith 2008