But will you show me a single article in use, in existence, or an object in the process toward use and existence, which does not represent the energy |THE WHOLE ARTISTIC WORLD IMPLIES EXPENDED HUMAN ENERGY.| of the laborers in need of some of the necessaries of mere existence? Show me a brick or a stone in its use, an iron-bar, a steel-rail, a machine or an engine, a steamer or cable, or whatever you please, which has not been washed with the sweat of the brow of their makers in need? Show me that building, that palace or mansion, a house or home, which does not directly imply, or does not testify of the energy of the propertied poor and the homeless?
Or show me that article, a heavy stone in a structure, a lump of iron or coal, a coin of silver or gold, or show me anything in the world, which should prove to have been only stained with the sweat of the brow of a mere speculator in motions of values, in rentable farms and homes, or in products of the workers in need? I am sure you cannot.
While as facts I can show that the crystallized energy of the homeless, the poor and the landless, in possession of others, floats on the rivers, the seas and the oceans; it |IT HAS NOT BEEN JUSTLY PAID FOR.| fills up the land, builds up the towns and cities, heats them in winter, lights them at night. In possession of others, their energy is sold on the markets, and is laid in the stores and the banks of others. Further, their energy stands in the forms of the plants and the factories working in speed throughout the country; and it burns in the stoves, in the furnace of the various works; it steams in the boilers and moves the machines of its own making; and it pulls on the cables and the cars upon the roads made by its muscle and bone. It crystallizes in goods and all objects of use; it then moves on in masses upon the lines of rails, and runs on from cities to cities, obeying speculators’ commands. So, having been shaped into millions of different forms, and having escaped from the working hands of its genuine owners, the energy quickly changes into more and more durable forms; and after several motions, it finally rests in the clean hands of the speculators, as if it were their righteous net profit and wealth.
Even this picture indicates the true basis where one should look for justice and rights, for losses and profits.
“The profits of the Wall street kings the past year were enormous,” says Dr. Josiah Strong,[[77]] about January, 1880. “It is estimated that one of them made $30,000,000; another, $15,000,000; two, $10,000,000 each; one, $8,000,000; and four, from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 each; making a grand total for 10 or 12 estates of about $80,000,000”[[77]] in one year.
While “Mr. F. C. Waite, special agent of the Eleventh Census, in charge of True Wealth, makes the following statement as to the gross and net earnings of important natural monopolies for the census year 1890.”[[78]]
| Items. | Gross Earnings. | Net Earnings. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Railroads: | |||
| From operation | $1,051,877,632 | ⎫ ⎬ ⎭ | $331,373,057 |
| Other sources | 126,767,064 | ||
| Unreported roads (about) | 50,000,000 | ||
| Express companies[[79]] | 53,000,000 | 11,000,000 | |
| Street railways | 90,000,000 | 28,000,000 | |
| Water transportation | 191,000,000 | 31,000,000 | |
| Telegraph companies | 25,000,000 | 7,000,000 | |
| Telephone companies | 16,404,583 | 5,260,712 | |
| Insurance Companies: | |||
| Life | 90,000,000 | 59,000,000 | |
| Fire, etc. | 54,991,613 | 19,000,000 | |
| Banks: | |||
| National | 144,614,053 | 72,055,564 | |
| All others (estimated) | 200,000,000 | ||
| Artificial Gas Companies: | |||
| (Estimated) | 25,000,000 | ||
| Total earnings[[80]] | 2,118,654,945 | 553,689,333 |
Now, these totals show what an enormous amount of the people’s crystallized energy accrues to the monopolists in one year, and in every year, besides covering all yearly expenses. No wonder, then, why we find that the highly productive people, of which Mr. Atkinson speaks and which could even in 1880 put upon the market, “at final points of consumption,” the annual surplus of $9,000,000,000 worth of various kinds of products, appeared in 1890 to be in possession of only about $10,000,000,000 worth of aggregate wealth, belonging to more than 55-millions of individuals. Whereas, on the other side, there appeared less than 7½-millions of individuals in possession of more than $55,000,000,000 worth of wealth.[[81]]
It is certainly understood that all products, while reaching the “points of final consumption,” rise in their value, on account of the enormous earnings derived from them by the speculators in the products of human energy, while they move these products by the cheapest possible labor of millions of employees, under the principle of dividogenesure. The rising of their value is, of course, inevitable from beginning to end. For as the raw materials, or the products of any kind, continue to acquire their consumable state in the hands of the operators, more and more energy is being spent upon them or added to them. And it is just and meet that the persons who thus add their energy to the products should be paid for it, whether engaged in the factory, in the plant, in transportation or in the final distribution among consumers.
Yet what do we find? We find that the 38,837,849[[82]] slaves of dividogenesure, who work in the whole field of production and distribution, are losing a great amount |THEY LABOR FOR LESS THAN THE DUE.| of their energy in favor of about one million[[82]] families that employ them for less payment than these families finally derive from the results of the labor energy of these employees. By “less payment” I mean that net profit which is called the undue concentration of the producers’ wealth in the employer’s hands; and I mean what is absolutely due to the laborers and not what is undue. The facts of the undue concentration of wealth in the hands of these few families will be shown in chapter VI.