WEALTH and WAGE by William N. Glenn

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 45.

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WEALTH and WAGE

By William N. Glenn

LABOR REDUCED TO SLAVERY

BY WILLIAM N. GLENN

IN the beginning capital and labor were on an equality. The capital—the land, the air, and the sunshine—needed the application of labor to produce the best results in products; and, of course, labor would have been powerless without the capital. In course of time, however, the principles of selfishness and covetousness wrought a perversion of the true relationship of capital and labor.

These principles were of Satanic origin, and were transplanted in the human heart when man yielded to the influence of the tempter, choosing to be actuated by his nature rather than by the wise arrangement devised by the Creator. Some men imbibed more of a spirit of covetousness than others; and some were endowed with more ability to accumulate, and less scrupulousness as to methods, than others. These traits being dominant gave them an advantage over their fellows in the matter of adding to the natural proportion of capital; and the cultivation of such characteristics added more and more to the disposition to accumulate wealth, and to take advantage of those who were not so disposed, or had not the cunning to get gain for themselves or to resist the selfish methods of others.

Some men were inclined to look forward to future results and possibilities of deal, while others were content with daily necessities. It became necessary for the first class to obtain help, and the second class were deluded by the present gain of a daily wage instead of caring for their own proportion of the God-given capital. Such a lack of appreciation of the capital that came to them naturally, and by the wise providence of the common Father, would soon lead them to dispose of it for what would seem a present advantage. Having disposed of their patrimony, their dependence upon others for the privilege of labor for wages, in order to procure a living, was established.

While labor and capital are interdependent, the laborer, when isolated from his natural capital, realizes a burden of dependence, because his daily bread is dependent upon his daily wage instead of the union of his labor with capital of his own. The wage he can not get without the consent of some "capitalist" or "employer." The employer may be dependent on the labor of others in the care of his accumulated wealth, but as long as he has his original capital and his individual labor he need not be dependent on others for his living. It is this comparison of the two situations that shows conclusively the disadvantage of the man who trusts in wage-earning labor alone for the necessities of life.

The absolute dependence of the man who—by choice or by accident, by education or by instinct—has become permanently fixed as a laborer without capital, is aptly illustrated in the parable of the laborers in the twentieth chapter of the Gospel by Matthew. The illustration of this particular point is merely incidental, but it is forcible, nevertheless. The man who was in search of laborers went to the usual place several times during the day, and found some each time. Even at the eleventh hour he found some standing idle, and said to them, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" And they answered, "Because no man hath hired us." What could indicate a more dependent condition? Nothing to do because no man hired them! no place where they could work without permission!

Such a condition came about naturally when men began to part with their natural capital, and to sell their segregated labor to men who were covetous enough and shrewd enough to gather in the capital of those who would dispose of it. It was but natural for the half-equipped class to become the servants of the doubly-equipped class. The one class being half-armed, and the other class doubly-armed, the result was inevitable. From the condition of hired servants it was but natural to further degenerate into bond-servants.

And this all came about through the want of appreciation of God's gift of capital in abundance for every one. The want of appreciation led to the wanton disposal of it to others, and finally to the slavery of labor thus wantonly bereft of independent occupation. The control that the capital class thus gained over the wage-earning class—over those whose main dependence is wage-earning—resulted in the gathering of the latter into companies, colonies, villages; and eventually there grew the large cities, with the one class in luxury, and the wage-earners grading down to straitened circumstances, and those whom no one hires, or who do not even want to hire, in penury and suffering. Such is the result of selling a birthright for naught in the beginning.