Published: Charles H Kerr Co-operative, 1911;
Transcribed: Sally Ryan for marxists.org, 2000.
If you are a working man or woman, no matter what you do in the shop or factory, or mine, you know that there are two kinds of power used in the plant–human, or labor power, and steam, or water (or perhaps–gas explosion) power.
The owner of a new barrel mill in Indiana decided it would be cheaper to have some company furnish power to run his mill than to install a power plant himself, so he sent for the three representatives of the three power plants in that city.
The first man came from the company that offered to run the machines in the mill by steam power; the second came from a firm which wanted to sell him a gasoline engine to furnish the power by the explosions of gas, while the third came from a great water-power company. This man offered to supply power to run the mill machinery at a lower price than the others asked. Of course, he secured the contract.
By this time the mill owner was almost ready to have his plant opened. He had logs (or raw material) ready to start on; he had machinery and power to run that machinery. Only one thing more was needed to start the plant running and to produce staves and hoops for barrels. This was the commodity which you workers supply. It is human power, human labor-power.
One hundred years ago almost everything was produced by human labor-power, but gradually improved machinery has been invented that lessens the human toil needed to make things. Big machines, run by steam, or water-power, now do most of the heavy and difficult work. But the owner of the mine or factory or mill needs one other commodity to guide the machines, to tend the machines and feed them. He needs your labor-power.
The barrel manufacturer in Indiana said he needed "hands." He meant hands to do things. He meant labor-power. So he put an advertisement in the paper reading "Men Wanted," Of course he did not want to buy men outright, as folks used to buy chattel slaves. He hired some of you to work for him. He bought your human power (to work)–your labor power.
And you sold him your labor-power, just as a stockman sells horses or a baker sells bread. You went to the boss with something to sell. He was in the market to buy human labor-power, and if your price was low you probably got a job.
Some of us work many years before we realize that even we wage-workers have one commodity to sell. As long as we are able to work we try to find a buyer of our labor-power. We hunt for a job and the boss that goes with a job.
Men and women who have no other means of support have to sell their labor-power for wages in order to live.
A commodity is something that satisfies some human want; something produced by labor-power for sale or exchange. A dress made by a woman for herself is not a commodity. A dress made to be sold to somebody else is a commodity. It is not made for use, but for sale.
Sheep are commodities, as are shoes, houses, gloves, bread, steam-power and water-power, when sold by one man to another. And your strength to make things, your human laboring-power (or, as Marx says, your labor-power) is also a commodity when sold to an employer for wages.
Now you know that any man who is selling a commodity asks as high a price for it as he can. The little grocer who runs the small store near your home charges just as much as possible in selling butter to you. The coal dealers raise their prices whenever they can. And when you strike the boss for a job, you ask him as high a price for your labor-power as you think you can get.
High prices for labor-power is what wage-workers want. Low prices for labor-power is what your employer wants.
Are your interests identical?
What happens when there are ten men competing to sell their labor-power? Who gets the job?
What happens when there are several jobs and only one worker? Will he receive higher or lower wages? Will he get a good price for his labor-power?
When workingmen are scarce and manufacturers are forced to pay a high price for labor-power (high wages) in a certain locality, does