96 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



for the present; it will be elsewhere discussed. Let it be conceded, 

 for the sake of argument, that the United States have no power to pro- 

 tect and punish, will it be asserted before this Tribunal, bound to 

 declare and administer the law of nature and nations — a system of 

 morality — that this constitutes a right f What is it precisely which 



might Lave devoted it to his own enjoyment; he preferred to save it or tnrn it 

 into an instrument for creating fresh wealth. It was his own voluntary act, he gave 

 up some luxury, he finds atonement in improved income from increased wealth. 

 His aim was profit, hut profit, though it enriched him, was no selfish course; luxuri- 

 ous expenditure would have heen the real selfishness. By going in for profit he 

 benefits society. His savings are an advantage to others as well as to himself. * * * 

 Profit is the last thing which should ho grudged, for profit is the creator of capital, 

 and capital is the life blood of civilization and commercial progress." 



From "Manual of Political Economy." Henry Fawcett. London, 1877. Bk. II, 

 ch. v, p. 157: 



" As capital is the result of saving, the owner of capital exercises forbearance 

 when he saves his wealth instead of spending it. Profits therefore are the reward 

 of abstinence in the same manner that wages are the reward of physical exer- 

 tion." 



From " The Science of Wealth." Amasa Walker. Boston, 1877. Ch. VI, p. 288: 



"Interest has its justification in the right of property. If a man can claim the 

 ownership of any kind of wealth, he is the owner of all it fairly produces * * * 

 whoever by labour produces wealth and by self-denial preserves it should be allowed 

 all the benefit that wealth can render in future production." 



From "Introduction to Political Economy." A. L. Perry. New York, 1877. P. 115. 



"The origin of all capital is in abstinence, and the reward of this abstinence is 

 profit." 



From "A System of Political Economy." J. L. Shadwell. London, 1877. P. 159. 



"They (capitalists) desire to obtain it (profit) because the saving of capital implies 

 the exercise of abstinence, as the capitalists might have exchanged it for other 

 things for their own immediate consumption; but if they forego their enjoyment in 

 order to produce commodities they require somo compensation for the sacrifice to 

 which they submit." 



From John Stuart Mill. "Principles of Political Economy." Boston, 1818. Vol. 

 II, p. 484: 



"As the wages of the laborer are the remuneration of labor, so the profits of the 

 capitalist are properly the remuneration of abstinence. They are what he gains by 

 forbearing to consume his capital for his own uses and allowing it to be consumed 

 by productive laborers for their uses; for this forbearance he requires a recompense." 



And again, at page 553 : "Capital * * being the result of abstinence, the 



produce of its value must be sufficient to remunerate, not only all the labor required 

 but the abstinence of all the persons by whom the remuneration of the different 

 classes of laborers was advanced. The return for abstinence is profit." 



From "Manuel d'ficonomie Politique." Par M. H. Baudrillard. 4th ed. Paris, 

 1878. I\ 382: 



"The first element of interest is the privation to which the lender subjects him- 

 self, who surrenders his capital for the benefit of another." 



(Id., -p. 52): " Based upon right, ownership is not- less justified by the strongest 

 reasons derived from social utility. It is useful for the laborer who has fertilized 



