r Henry Fawcett (Cambridge), 'Manual of Political
Economy,' p. 13),"[151]

This statement is scarcely honest, for it quotes opinions of Adam
Smith and others which are erroneous, as will be seen in the
following, and which have been generally abandoned. This statement may
impose upon the simple by its show of learning, but it is somewhat
vague, for it only suggests, but does not distinctly assert, that
manual labour is the only source of wealth. However, in most--one
might say in nearly all--Socialist books, pamphlets, and declarations
of policy we find the basic doctrine of Socialism asserted in a form
which leaves no doubt that according to the Socialist theories the
manual labour of the labourer is the only source of wealth.

The founder of modern Socialism declared, "Labour is the only source
of wealth,"[152] and his disciples--at least his British
disciples--support that declaration. "All wealth is due to labour;
therefore, to the labourers all wealth is due."[153] "Labour applied
to natural objects is the source of all wealth."[154] The Socialist
Party of Great Britain declares: "Wealth is natural material converted
by labour-power to man's use, and as such is consequently produced by
the working class alone."[155] The Independent Labour party asserts:
"No man or class of men made the first kind of wealth, such as land,
minerals, and water. Therefore no man or class of men should be
allowed to call these things their own, or to prevent others from
using them (except on certain conditions), as the landowners and
mine-owners do now. The only class of human beings who make the
second kind of wealth are the workers. Working men and women produce
and prepare for us all those things which we use or consume, such as
food, clothing, houses, furniture, instruments and implements, trams,
railways, pictures, books, gas, drains, and many other things. They
produce all the wealth obtained by toil from the land."[156]

Those who maintain that labour, or, as some Socialists assert, the
labourer's labour, is the only source of wealth, look merely at the
mechanical factor, but omit the force which directs and controls it.
The Socialistic argument "We can run the mills without the
capitalists, but they cannot run them without us"[157] is misleading.
Labour is certainly an indispensable ingredient in production, but it
is no more indispensable than is direction, invention, and thrift.
Hence it is as absurd to assert "All wealth i