794 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and take him in as an equal partner ? This is substantially what all 

 ask for who insist that labor shall have all it produces, without regard 

 to the part which capital plays in j^roduction. It would not be just ; 

 there would be a radical and far-reaching wrong in rewarding improvi- 

 dence and shiftlessness equally with risk and enterprise. To do this 

 would be to outrage moral government, by which an action of any 

 kind should be followed by its fitting sequence. The practical results 

 of such a course could not be good. We must reiterate that if, in the 

 event of giving all to labor, there were no immediate falling off in the 

 amount of capital, such falling off would nevertheless soon come about 

 through mistaken investment, since the shrewd and enterprising, into 

 whose hands capital now usually falls, are precisely those who are best 

 qualified to discover the fields in which investments may be made to 

 the best advantage ; for it is by the utilization of such fields that 

 the greatest amount and variety of productions are had, and most is 

 added to the general wealth of the civilized world. Profit and utility 

 thus go along hand in hand. But the greatest loss from the indis- 

 criminate reward of economical misdoing would be in the actual re- 

 duction of savings and diminution of capital. 



Then, what is the economical function the rich man performs ? 

 He conserves the surj)lus of production, holding it in trust for the 

 good of all, and without him there woiild be no civilization. The ac- 

 cumulator, the self-made rich man, usually expends only a percentage, 

 often a small percentage, of his income, on his own gratifications. 

 What he retains beyond this can not go to his own behoof, and, if it 

 helps anybody to more of the goods of life, it must, as a rule, help 

 others ; and it is precisely this surplus, thus saved and used as the 

 basis of every industrial and commercial enterprise, that makes him 

 rich and keeps him rich. So bound up is he with the system of civil- 

 ized methods that he can not add to his wealth by successful enter- 

 prise on the methods which legitimate business requires without hel])- 

 ing others. The worthy rich man is, indeed, a self-exalted prince of 

 civilization, who holds his wealth in trust for the maintenance and 

 further advancement of that civilization. Surely he is entitled to our 

 blessings rather than to our curses. 



Still, when we see wealth in the hands of the worthless who live in 

 idleness, but to exemplify the vanities of life, while many a one who 

 is a useful member of society, with capabilities of still greater useful- 

 ness, is struggling in the battle of life with odds against him, we may 

 impulsively curse the lottery that favors the one and dooms the other. 



" It's hardly in a body's power 

 To keep, at times, frae being sour, 



To see how things are shared ; 

 ITow best o' chiels are whiles in want, 

 While coofs in countless tliousands rant. 



And ken na how to wair't." 



