Labour and the Popular Welfare

by W. H. Mallock

◆¹ As soon as we realise that this is what the argument means, its apparent plausibility turns into a sort of absurdity which common sense rejects, even before seeing why it does so. We will not, however, be content with dismissing the argument as absurd: there is an idea at the back of it which requires and deserves to be examined. It is an idea which rests upon the fact already alluded to, that though Ability can make nothing without Labour, Labour can make something without Ability; and that thus the labourers who work under the direction of an able man each contribute a kind of exertion more essential to the result than he does. Each can say to him, “I am something without you. You, on the contrary, are nothing without me.” Thus there arises a more or less conscious idea of Labour as a force which, if only properly organised, will be able at any moment, by refusing to exert itself, to render Ability helpless, and so bring it to terms and become its master, instead of being, as now, its servant.

◆1 But in it there is, indeed, a plausible view as to Labour, which must be refuted, not only ridiculed. According to this view, Labour can always bring Ability to terms by refusing to exert itself.

◆2 But Labour cannot refuse to exert itself for long, and never except with the assistance of Capital.

◆3 Nature, not the men of ability, forces the majority of men to Labour.

◆¹ But this idea, which is suggested, and seems to be supported, by the modern development of labour-organisation and strikes, really ignores the most fundamental facts of the case. In the first place, it may be observed that though Ability, regarded as a faculty, is no doubt helpless unless there is Labour for it to act upon, Ability, if we take it to mean the men possessing the faculty, is, whatever happens, in as good a position as Labour; for the average man of ability can always become a labourer. But the principal point to realise is far more important than this. We are perfectly right in saying, as was said just now, that if Labour should refuse to exert itself, Ability could produce nothing; but it seems completely to escape the notice of those who use this argument that to refuse to exert itself is what Labour can never do, except for very short times, and to a quite unimportant extent; and it can only do thus much when Ability indirectly helps it. The ideas of the power of Labour which are suggested by the phenomenon of the strike are, as I shall by and by show more fully, curiously fallacious. ◆² Men can strike—that is to say, cease to labour—only when they have some store on which to live when they are idle; and such a store is nothing but so much Capital. A strike, therefore, represents the power not of Labour, but of Capital.[39] The Capital which is available in the present day for supporting strikes would never have been in existence but for the past action of Ability; and what is still more important, a widespread strike would very quickly exhaust it. Further, a strike, no matter what Capital were at the back of it, could never be more than partial for even a single day; for there are many kinds of Labour, such as transport and distribution of food, the constant performance of which is required by even the humblest lives. But it is not necessary to dwell on such small matters as these. It is enough to point to the fact, which does not require proving—the broad fact that men, taken as a whole, can no more refuse to labour than they can refuse to breathe. ◆³ What compels them to labour is not the employing class, but Nature. The employing class—the men of ability—merely compel them to labour in a special way.

◆1 But Nature forces no one to exert Ability; therefore Ability is, in the long run, in a stronger position than Labour.

But Ability itself stands on an entirely different footing. Whereas Labour, as a whole, cannot cease to exert itself, Ability can. Indeed, for long periods of history it has hardly exerted itself at all; whilst its full industrial power, as we know it now, only began to be felt a century and a half ago. Labour, in other words, represents a necessary kind of exertion, which can always be counted on as we count on some force of Nature: Ability represents a voluntary kind of exertion, which can only be induced to manifest itself under certain special circumstances. Accordingly, ◆¹ whilst Labour can make no terms with Nature, Ability in the long run can always make terms with Labour. It will thus be seen that the set of arguments founded on the conception of Labour as stronger than Ability, because more necessary, are arguments founded on a complete misconception of facts. I speak of them as arguments; but they hardly deserve the name. Rather they are vague ideas that float in the minds of many people, and suggest beliefs or opinions to which they can give no logical basis. At all events, after what has been said, we may dismiss them from our thoughts, and turn to another fallacy that lurks in the socialistic formula.

◆1 Let us now test the socialistic view by examples:

◆2 By the case of an organist and the man who blows the bellows;

◆3 Or of a great painter and the man who stretches his canvas.