In the doctrines of Marx there are three fundamental propositions: the first, that money is the primary form of capital; the second, that the value of a commodity is measured by the amount of labour expended upon it; the third, that the capitalist buys the use-value of a day’s labour in exchange for its market value, pocketing the surplus value, which is the difference. As long as we allow these theories to remain victorious, industry to-day is merely a process by which the capitalist constitutes himself the conduit-pipe to the sale-room for the workman’s labour, and as the latter passes through his hands filches for himself the “surplus value.” Some Workshop Applications As I write I have beside me a mass of leaflets, pamphlets and writings, which came into my possession during my recent industrial work, all reeking with this pernicious Marxianism. Some extracts from the _Red Catechism_, handed to me by way of argument in a shipyard, will give an idea of the doctrines: Who creates all wealth? The working-class. Who are the workers? Men who work for wages and receive only a portion of what they earn, the other part going to keep the idle classes. Who creates all poverty? Our capitalistic society. What is a wage-slave? A person who works for a wage, and gives all he earns to a capitalist. What proportion does a wage-slave On the average about a fourth. receive of what he earns? What is an exploiter? One who employs a man and makes him produce three or four times the amount he receives in wages. How do capitalists become rich? By employing labour and exploiting it. The question of merit does not No. It is only used as a hypocritical enter into the reward of subterfuge to hide the robbery of capital, then? labour. These are only a few quotations, the list could be amplified enormously. The Marxian Fallacy of the Origin of Capital