Interest. . . . . 73-450.
Farming, share of wages 300 ,, . ,, , • ' interest . 8-308 —we have a return to the manufacturer of $398 per operative, and to the farmer of $542". But whereas in the one case there is no important diminution of this net product, in the other WC have the enormous expenditures for repairing and sustaining the vast organism of machinery involved, and the very large stuns annually expended in improved machluery in order to sustain the competition which is a part of the very essence of mechanism. By this time the net return of the capitalist who has invested his money in manufacturing is reduced by a still further percentage below that of the farmer, who also has employed machinery, but has not so abused its use. But giving no consideration to these elements, there is still a difference in the net product per capita employed, as betweeu the farmer and the manufacturer, of more than in fctror of the farmer.
Still another comparison to display the relation of profits with and without the over use of machinery. The number of mining hapds employed in the United States in 1870. was 154,328, their product $152,598,994, or $988 per capita. "Making the same deduction. of wages and interest on capital made in relation to agriculture and manufacturing., we have as a result a net annual return per capita of $471, an increase on that of the mau 1 facturer of 10 per cent, although the miner receives an average of $483 wages to the $377 of nuinufaciuring operative.
Now, as precluding the claim that it is of machinery which produces these. curious results, it is only necessary to refer to the U. S. census for 1860 and 1870 to establish the following facts. (It is very likely to be generally assumed by the uniniti ated that there was no such tremendous addition between 1860 and 1870 to the quantity of machinery previously existing in the country—as the tenor of this paper would seem to indicate. The facts and figures of the construction of machinery during the decade under consideration very clearly demonstrate the inaccuracy of any such assumption.) In 1860 the amount of capital invested in the manufacture of machinery was $35,9.59,06S In 1870 it WRS . . 101,183,597 The number of hands employed in 1860 was. . . 41,172 In 1870. ... ... 83,514
The wages paid in 1860 16,155,416 In 1870 47,866,883 Cost of material in 1860 21,405,673 In 1870 . ... . 60,423,643 Number of establishments in 1860. 1,383 In 1870. 2,897 Gross product iii 1860 51,887,2.66 In 1870.. .... 138,519,246 Thus it appeals that the capital employed, the wages paid, and the material used in manufacturing machinery, had grown in 1870 to three times the amount of these in 1S60; iwhile the gross product on this investment had increased two and seven-tenths times ;during the sante decade. ll'e had 170 per cent more machinery ill, the country in 1870 than we had in 1860.
But now uprise some marvelous phenomena, by which it might be fairly reasoned that the lesson of 1870 should have closed every machine-shop in the land—in the interest of capital. There was a falling off in the gross product in this business, of 30 per cent ; and in the overture net product per capita of each of the hands employed, from $286.80 to $277.14 per annum. "Meanwhile the average of wages had increased from $.392.38 in 1860 to $573.16 in 1870. So that the operative returned to ,the capitalist in 1860 37 per cent less than his wages, and in 1870 less than half his wages. lIere inay properly be quoted the following. statement recently made by Mr. Edward Atkinson: "It is in a quick clittribution and ample consumption of' rather than in the amount of accumulated capital, that the welfare of a community lies." The fact that there may exist and seemingly thrive large business operations involving the employ ment of great numbers of human beings, hundreds of thousands of horse-power in steam -or water, and tremendous capital, proves nothing, either in favor of hiving the human race, concentrating the natural forces, or limiting the movement of the circulating me dium. Any large undertaking, once established, will run itself on its own momentum for a long period of time, without the slightest apparent regard for economic laws or scien tific methods, and yet may fail at last. In such cases the capitalist, instead of living and saving from the profits ot his business, exists merely on the usance of the large sums of money which pass through his lands—all this ending with failures, dishonesty, and general financial disaster.