"LABOUR IS CAPITAL."

If labour be regarded as capital then, in any given undertaking, such for in- stance as a factory or a farm— Wages of operatives and salaries of superintendents may be regarded as ana- logous to interest on capital.

Provisions for medical care, for bonuses on good conduct, for superannuations, recreation, education, moral culture, &c., may be regarded as respectively analogotth to funds for repairs of machinery, replacement of capital, a re- serve for contingencies, &c,

Division of returns may be made on these principles, and agreements may be entered into accordingly.

The direct tendency of such agreements must be to give to each operative a personal interest in the success of the common undertaking, and to culti- vate in him a habit of self-improvement.

'4 Labour is capital." These words have been often used, especially by those who insist that the State has no right, by abridging the hours of work, to inter- fere with the means of profitably employing what constitutes the only capital of the labourer. But the statement, being viewed as a metaphor rather than a froth, even by those who advanced it, has never been carried out to its legitimate conclusions.

So carried out, it appears to contain within it the germ of a remedy for the double grievance, by a sense of which the labouring population is now rendered unquiet.

The grievance is that the labourer is not treated as an entity; he is not recog- nized as having an existence, either politically or socially. Politically, he has no pert, direct or indirect, in the government of his country. Socially, he has vir- tually no voice in his own disposal, employment, or residence.

But admit only that his capacity for labour is a certain though dormant capital; ascertain its amount by the annual return which it is capable of yielding: consider the labourer as the possessor of a capital to that amount; and give him a vote proportionate thereto, both in the government and in regulating his own remnne- 'ration—the whole condition of his.existence, political, social, and (by consequence) physical, at once becomes changed. His existence is recognized, by the State, and by his fellow subjects. With that recognition come opportunities of self- reliance, motives for self-control, encouragements to self-improvement, hope, and With hope, respect for self and regard for others. For example—politically. Assume that a skilled workman, in a healthy state of the market, can earn in wages 501. a year: admit that such a workman, when not receiving parish aid, has an income to that amount: impose a light tax upon that income, and attach to the payment of that tax a.vote. To meet the objections of the wealthier classes, and remove the apprehension of their being always outvoted by the labouring class, carry out the principle of gra- duated taxation and franchise (the cotnitia centuriata) according to the following or any preferable scale, and guard it by the accompanying or any other better re- gulations. Again—socially. Assume as before, that every skilled workman has an an- nual income of 501.: take any given rate of interest as the standard; consider his capital as the sum which, at the standard rate, will yield an interest amounting to the income above-mentioned; allow him a.proportionate share in the profits or incomings of the undertaking in which he is employed; allow him also, if you wish to educe his best qualities to his own incalculable advantage and yours, a proportionate share of influence in conducting the proceedings of that undertaking, and ofthose engaged in it At a rate of 5 per cent, the capital which yields 501. per annum is 1,0001.: consider every skilled operative in a factory (or a farm) as staking 1,0001. in the common concern; let the several overseers, superintendents, and chief manager, be considered as staking capitals proportioned in like_manner to their respective salaries: let the person who supplies the money-capital, whether he be also the manager or not, receive an interest at the same rate, upon the amount of such money-capital; and let the surplus be also divided rateably,—bearing always in mind this one principle, that, whatever sum is rightly applied to the replacement of money-capital, the repaired machinery,. contingencies, &c., a-similar propor- tionate sum—that is to say, proportionate to the capitals staked, calculated as above—is at all times to be apphed . to the preservation and repair, i e. to the comfort, medical care, superannuation allowances, and to the recreation and mo- ral culture, of those human beings without whom the inanimate machinery can- not be set at work.

Of course it. is not intended that the sums and proportions herementioned are to be taken absolutely, or without modifications varying with. varying circum- stances. But they serve to illustrate the principle.

That principle is, that by estimating at a definite sum the value of a man's la- bour, and treating that sum as the expression of a positive (not merely a possible) fact, you impart to the possessor that degree of political right and social influence which is the just if not the necessary consequence of the maxim—to which you thus give a practical reality—that "Labour is capital."

GRADUATED TAXATION AND FRANCHISE.

Bate of Tax Number

Amount of Anusaal Tnar,ue. per pound of £ £ £ sterling.a. Votes.

•

. 1. 50 and under 1501 { 50 mid Lustier 150 ... 21 2 150.

800 °r 150 SOO ... 45 1

8. 800 „ 5001 f 300 „ 500 ... 6 1 4. 500 „ 7505 s"' 1 500 „ 800 ... 8 j 5. 750

3,

1,0001.n 800 „ 1,200 ... 10 1

4500 4200

2;000 ... 125

6 1;000 a

7. 1,500 is 2,0001f f 2,000 „ 3,000 ... 141

& 2,000 /I 8,000 j I 3,000 „ 5,000 ... 16 9 8,000 I) 5;000 5,05,000„ & ...

D. 5,000 1, 7'5°° or 8,000

}°r apoo m000 ... 205 5. O000 181

11. 7,500 „ 10,000

to 8,000. or 12,000.112;000 „ 20,000 ... 22'1 12. 10,000 and upwards, k 20,000' and upwards 24 j or 12,000 Every skilled labourer or operative to be considered as having an annual in- come of at least SOL No person to be qualified to vote—

who has not been naturalized, if an alien born, for two years immediately preceding the day of voting;

who has nut been resident in the same district for the same period; who has not been registered at the same rate for the same period; who-has received parish aid during any part of the same period; whellasteen under conviction or sentence forany misdemeanour or higher

2 4 6 ,aleiree,,dariag.any part of the same period.