ng;
it forces us to ask for gold from the inaccessible national mine, rather
than from our national manufactories. All its effect is summed up in
this phrase--_loss of power_.

It must be understood that I speak here of general effects, and not of
the temporary disturbances occasioned by the transition from a bad to a
good system. A momentary disarrangement necessarily accompanies all
progress. This may be a reason for making the transition a gentle one,
but not for systematically interdicting all progress, and still less for
misunderstanding it.

They represent industry to us as a conflict. This is not true; or is
true only when you confine yourself to considering each branch of
industry in its effects on some similar branch--in isolating both, in
the mind, from the rest of humanity. But there is something else; there
are its effects on consumption, and the general well-being.

This is the reason why it is not allowable to assimilate labor to war as
they do.

In war, _the strongest overwhelms the weakest_.

In labor, _the strongest gives strength to the weakest_. This radically
destroys the analogy.

Though the English are strong and skilled; possess immense invested
capital, and have at their disposal the two great powers of production,
iron and fire, all this is converted into the _cheapness_ of the
product; and who gains by the cheapness of the product?--he who buys it.

It is not in their power to absolutely annihilate any portion of our
labor. All that they can do is to make it superfluous through some
result acquired--to give air at the same time that they suppress the
pump; to increase thus the force at our disposal, and, which is a
remarkable thing, to render their pretended supremacy more impossible,
as their superiority becomes more undeniable.

Thus, by a rigorous and consoling demonstration, we reach this
conclusion: That _labor_ and _violence_, so opposed in their nature,
are, whatever socialists and protectionists may say, no less so in their
effects.

All we required, to do that, was to distinguish between _annihilated_
labor and _economized_ labor.

Having less iron _because_ one works less, or having more iron
_although_ one works less, are things which are more than
different,--they are opposites. The protectionists confound them; we do
not. That is all.

Be convinced of one thing. If the English bring into play much activity,
labor, capital, intelligence, and natural force, it is not f