A Solution That Does Not Solve

Liberty Vol. I, No. 16
March 4, 1882

Mr. Charles H. Barlow of Michigan is a reader of Liberty, but he cannot read it to much purpose; otherwise, he would not write to the Boston "Herald" that "the only way to disentangle the Gordian knot of capital vs. labor" and practically solve the labor problem is to "take the axe" and strike out for the wilderness. This seems to us little better than nonsense. Not that we object to the spread of agriculture, if more agriculture is needed. The axe and spade are good tools, and as many of them should be used as necessary to supply the people with the articles which they are instrumental in producing. But the same is true of all useful tools. Why "take the axe" more than the saw or the lathe or the steam-engine? Let all of them be used in their proper proportion. But what has this to do with the labor problem of to-day, which is to give to each producer an equivalent for his product? It is of little consequence where we use spades or saws, if both our crops and our houses are to be stolen from us by the userer. Mr. Barlow's remedy, to be a remedy at all, requires each man to produce entirely for himself. But this means and abandonment of the immeasurable benefit of modern commerce for the sake of getting rid of its evils. Consequently his remedy is not the true one, for the true one must not only preserve, but increase, these benefits by eradicating the evils. The solution offered by Mr. Barlow means either nothing at all or the abolition of the division of labor, and is strictly on a par with those multitudinous other solutions which propose the abolition of machinery, competition, credit, and all other industrial and commercial forces by which modern civilization has been developed. The real solution lies not in the destruction of these forces, but in the discovery and application of new principles that shall regulate their action beneficently. These principles, according to Liberty, are Free Men and Free Money, which can be had only by the abolition of the State. The cry, "Take the axe," is a very specious one. It has a sturdy sound and so captivates the unthinking, but little examination reveals its hollowness.