232 EDWARD SHERWOOD MEADE 



history has man increased his conquest over nature at such 

 a rapid rate and simultaneously in so many fields. 



These opportunities for production of wealth are oppor- 

 tunities for the investment of money, since the investment of 

 money is, in the vast majority of cases, either directly or in- 

 directly the production of wealth. The investor buys $50,- 

 000 of railway bonds. With the proceeds the railroad re- 

 places a wooden trestle with a steel bridge. Over this bridge 

 it can run a heavier train load, which it obtains by the lower 

 rate which the decrease in operating cost resulting from that 

 heavier train load makes possible. The lower rate enables 

 the farmer to turn a part of his grazing land into wheat, and 

 so eventually and indirectly the $50,000 which was invested 

 in the railway bonds has increased the supply of wheat on 

 the world's market. This increased production of wealth, 

 therefore, was made possible by the purchase of the bonds 

 which the investor bought; because of its increased earnings 

 the railroad could pay him 4 per cent. Without the invest- 

 ment of money increased production would be impossible. 

 Upon the investor rests the responsibility of increasing the 

 wealth of the world. As he directs his funds, this way or 

 that, to railroads, cotton mills, irrigation or shipbuilding, the 

 productive energy of society is exerted in this or that field 

 of enterprise. 



This office of investment is variously performed. Men 

 may invest or capitalize their own savings. The farmer de- 

 votes $1,000, half the proceeds of his last wheat crop, to the 

 purchase of nitrate fertilizer. The New England cotton manu- 

 facturer invests his surplus earnings in a South Carolina mill 

 where cheap power, labor and material invite development. 

 The Bessemer steelmaker adds an open hearth furnace to his 

 equipment and takes advantage of a large supply of scrap 

 iron. The Pennsylvania coal operator or lumberman buys 

 the cheap coal and timber land of the south. Every pro- 

 ducer is continually devoting his surplus funds to enlarge his 

 enterprise along lines with which he is familar as the oppor- 

 tunity presents for greater profits or as competition forces. 

 He may occasionally branch out into other fields, as when the 

 farmers of a locality erect a flourmill or sawmill or open a 



