CAPITAL 



1173 CAPITALS OF UNITED STATES 



facture, for example, can be used only once 

 before they are transformed or absorbed into 

 some finished product. This distinction was 

 once important, because economists of the 

 eighteenth century and the early nineteenth 

 century believed that wages of laborers were 

 paid out of circulating capital (see WAGES, for 

 an explanation of the Wages Fund theory). 

 Recent economists are inclined to pay little 

 attention to this classification, but divide cap- 

 ital into active and passive classes. Active 

 capital, such as machines, gives or creates 

 utility; passive capital, such as raw material, 

 has utility imparted to it. 



The accumulation and distribution of capital 

 present one of the greatest problems of eco- 

 nomic science. Nearly all economic reform, 

 including public ownership of great public util- 

 ities and regulation of trusts, have as their 

 object the control, in whole or in part, of the 

 means of production. 



Since inventive genius is busy all the time 

 devising new agencies for aiding production, 

 the mass of capital in relation to a given vol- 

 ume of product or in relation to a given force 

 of factory workers continually grows, the role 

 of capital in industry becomes greater and 

 greater, the share of the product deducted on 

 account of the ownership of such capital natur- 

 ally keeps pace with the growth of the means 

 of production, and the question as to the 

 adjustment of interest between workers and 

 owners of capital thrusts itself into the fore- 

 ground as a vital social question. E.A.R. 



Related Subjects. Closely associated with 

 this topic are the following, to which the reader 

 is directed ; 



Interest 

 Rent 



Single Tax 

 Socialism 



Stock, Capital 



Trusts 



Wages 



CAPITAL (in architecture). See ARCHITEC- 

 TURE; also COLUMN, for illustration. 



CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, the severest pun- 

 ishment that can be prescribed by the courts 

 that of death. The word capital means per- 

 taining to the head, and was applied to criminal 

 law from the fact that beheading was the early 

 form of execution. The manner of inflicting 

 the death penalty has greatly varied; the 

 methods of olden times were often barbarous 

 and cruel, but public sentiment in modern 

 days discountenances any but the most humane 

 means for the infliction of this penalty. 



Capital Punishment Offenses. In the United 

 States capital punishment is inflicted for mur- 



der and treason, and in military law for sedi- 

 tion, violence, gross neglect of duty, desertion, 

 or disobedience in vital cases to lawful com- 

 mands. Each state or province has jurisdiction 

 over its own territory, and therefore the laws 

 governing crime differ. The court before which 

 the trial is held pronounces the death sentence, 

 but in many jurisdictions the laws require a 

 warrant from the chief executive before the 

 execution may take place. 



In Canada the death sentence may be im- 

 posed for treason, murder, rape, piracy with 

 violence and "upon subjects of a friendly power 

 who levy war on the king in Canada." 



How Penalties Are Enforced. Sentence of 

 death is executed by hanging in most parts of 

 the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Scot- 

 land, Ireland, Austria and Japan. In France 

 and Germany the sword and the guillotine are 

 the usual means; strangulation by the garrote 

 is employed in Spain. 



Electrocution. The method by electrocution 

 was first adopted by the state of New York, 

 becoming effective on January 1, 1889. Since 

 that time the states of New Jersey, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Massachusetts, Ohio, North Carolina, 

 South Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, Arkansas 

 and Vermont have adopted this method. 



Where Death Penalty Is Abolished. Among 

 the states of the Union, Michigan abolished 

 the death penalty in 1846 'except for treason, 

 and Wisconsin wholly abolished it in 1853. 

 Maine abolished it for the second time in 1887, 

 and it has also been discontinued in Rhode 

 Island, Minnesota, Kansas, North Dakota, 

 South Dakota and Oregon, imprisonment for 

 life being substituted as a penalty for murder 

 in the first degree. Alaska abolished the death 

 penalty in 1915, and Tennessee in 1916. In 

 the European countries Belgium has had no 

 legal execution since 1863. Switzerland abol- 

 ished it in 1874 and though the right of restor- 

 ing it was given to each canton, or state, only 

 seven out of the twenty-two exercised this 

 power. Rumania abolished it in 1864, Holland 

 in 1870, and Portugal has likewise discontinued 

 it. Since 1868 in England all executions are 

 required by law to take place privately, and 

 this plan has also been adopted widely in the 

 United States and Canada. AJS. 



CAPITALS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

 The national legislative body of the United 

 States, since the Declaration of Independence, 

 has met in session and passed laws in nine dif- 

 ferent cities. The Continental Congress, which 

 passed the famous resolution of Richard Henry 



