"
The PROTECTIONIST: "But all its _value_ is in the labor it
has cost. I admit that Nature has assisted in the material formation
of wheat. I admit even that it may be exclusively her work; but
confess that I have controlled it by my labor; and when I sell you
some wheat, observe this well: that it is not the work of _Nature_ for
which I make you pay, but _my own_; and, on your supposition,
manufactured articles would be no more the product of labor than
agricultural ones. Does not the manufacturer, too, rely upon Nature to
second him? Does he not avail himself of the weight of the atmosphere
in aid of the steam-engine, as I avail myself of its humidity in aid
of the plough? Did he create the laws of gravitation, of correlation
of forces, of affinities?"
The RAW-MATERIALIST: "Come, let the wool go too. But coal is
assuredly the work, and the exclusive work, of Nature, _unaided by any
human labor_."
The PROTECTIONIST: "Yes, Nature made coal, but _labor_ makes
its value. Coal had no _value_ during the thousands of years during
which it was hidden, unknown, a hundred feet below the soil.
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