[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPEOTATOR."] his letter which
appeared in the Spectator of October .8th, his Grace the Dnke of Argyll points out that the reviewer of Mr. Mallock's recently published work on " Labour " is in error when he gives the latter credit for a discovery in emphasising the influence of thought and intelligence in wealth-production. His Grace believes that such credit is .due to himself. May I be allowed to say that his Grace, as well as Mr. Mallock, have been anticipated in a work entitled -6‘ The Function of Labour in the Production of Wealth," by Alexander Philip, LL.B. Edin., published by Blackwood in 1890. The keynote of this work is not merely the influence of thought and intelligence in wealth-production, but the 'very impossibility of wealth-production and the futility of labour without them. Labour without intelligence to direct it, it is insisted on again and again, is an expenditure of 'wealth, a consumption of energy as much so as in the case of a conflagration or an avalanche. It is probable that this idea has occurred to a number of thinkers independently; but when your reviewer on behalf of Mr. Mallock, and his Grace for himself, claim the credit of priority, it is only .common justice to draw attention to Mr. Philip's earlier appearance in the field with the same views.—I am, Sir, &c., H. W. G. M.
Previous page
