CAPILLARITY 



1172 



CAPITAL 



CAPILLARITY, kapilar'iti. If you drop 

 ink on your paper, and hold the corner of a 

 piece of blotting paper in it the ink will rise 

 into the blqtter, or if you hold a piece of 

 crayon over it the crayon will absorb the ink. 



FIG. 1 



Again, if you take a number of straws of 

 different sizes and place them in a glass of 

 water, the water will rise in the straws above 

 the surface of the water in the glass (see Fig. 1). 

 If a little red ink is added to the water, its 

 height in the straws is more easily seen. This 

 tendency of liquids to rise in small tubes and 

 into the hairlike pores of porous bodies is 

 called capillarity; the word is from capillary, 

 which means hairlike. 



There are many illustrations of capillarity in 

 nature. By it water is drawn up into a plant 

 through the tiny rootlets; wood absorbs mois- 

 ture and thereby swells; and the capillaries 

 of the blood vessels carry the blood to every 

 part of the body. We also make use of capil- 

 larity in various ways. It is capillarity that 

 draws the oil up in lamp wicks; it causes water 

 to enter the pores of sugar and other sub- 

 stances which it dissolves. 



But this sort of capillarity exists only be- 

 tween liquids and solids which have attraction 

 for each other. Among those which repel 

 the action is directly opposite. If a small glass 

 tube is placed in an upright position in a glass 

 of mercury, the mercury in the tube will be 

 lower than that in the glass, and its surface 

 will be convex (see Fig. 2). A greased rod or 

 tube placed in water will affect the water in 

 the same way. Any boy or girl can perform 

 many interesting experiments to illustrate 

 capillarity. 



CAP'ITAL, as usually denned, is that part 

 of the accumulated wealth of an individual 

 or community that is available for the further 

 production of wealth. Capital, therefore, is 

 not necessarily money, although it may be rep- 

 resented by money. As popularly used, it 

 means only the wealth which is used in busi- 

 ness. A manufacturer, for example, does not 



regard his home as capital, but if he owns 

 his factory building he considers this as an 

 important part of his capital. So, too, his stock 

 of raw materials is capital, but the electric 

 automobile which is used by his wife is not 

 capital. 



Theories of Capital. The business man, 

 therefore, regards as capital only the wealth 

 which yields him an income. This is slightly 

 different from the view of the classical or 

 orthodox economist. The classical economists, 

 including John Stuart Mill, regard as capital 

 only the products of past industry which are 

 themselves used as a means of further produc- 

 tion. This definition excludes such things as 

 lands, which are used in production but are not 

 themselves the products of labor. 



Many modern economists defend this latter 

 definition of capital on the grounds of social 

 policy. Capital which is the result of past 

 industry is a saving and represents a sacrifice; 

 some producer has refrained from using up his 

 product. Other producers create things merely 

 for the enjoyment these give, and use them up. 

 The man who saves and sacrifices should re- 

 ceive a reward, which is interest. If a man 

 receives interest or profit on land or some com- 

 modity whose production involves no sacrifice 

 on his part, he receives a profit which he has 

 not earned. This is the argument which forms 

 the basis of the single tax (which see). 



The Socialist has still another theory of cap- 

 ital. He defines capital as any form of wealth 

 which yields an income without any exertion 

 on the part of its possessor. The tools of a 

 carpenter or a shoemaker, in this sense, are 

 not capital. Capital, the Socialist argues, is a 

 monopoly of the essential means of production; 

 the laborer, who creates wealth, instead of re- 

 ceiving the profit of his labor merely receives 

 a living wage. The Socialist believes that cap- 

 ital will finally have universal control of pro- 

 duction; when this stage is reached, he asserts, 

 there will be a revolution, either sudden or 

 gradual, by which privately-owned capital will 

 be taken over by the community and cease to 

 be the basis for a claim to a share in the 

 wealth produced by the workers. 



Fixed and Circulating Capital. The best- 

 known division of capital is into two classes, 

 fixed and circulating. Fixed capital includes 

 all forms which are capable of use more or 

 less indefinitely, such as buildings, machinery 

 and tools. Circulating capital, on the other 

 hand, includes those forms which are used up in 

 a single operation; the raw materials of manu- 



