314 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



are not thus exterminated, but left to breed more of their own 

 kind in order that future generations of knaves may have a 

 plentiful supply of fools to prey upon, we shall continue to have 

 abundant crops of both fools and knaves to afflict us, unless 

 something is done about it. When modern states awaken to 

 the full significance of the distinction made in Chapter I be- 

 tween the economic and uneconomic ways of getting a living, 

 and try to suppress all uneconomic ways as effectually as they 

 are now trying to suppress some of them, such as stealing, 

 forging notes, counterfeiting, etc., the problem will be solved. 

 Meanwhile we must depend upon the education of the people, 

 especially the rural people, against the methods of knavery in 

 order that they may avoid being victimized. 



However, there is comparatively little spurious capital em- 

 ployed in agriculture; therefore there is less need of qualifica- 

 tion in our commendation of the rural capitalist than there is 

 in the case of the urban capitalist. With practically no qual- 

 ification, one may say that he who increases the supply of 

 agricultural capital, by spending his income for tools rather 

 than for consumers' goods, is rendering a service to society and 

 is therefore earning whatever income he gets from his tools. 

 If he invests unwisely, that is, if he buys tools which do not 

 add to his productive power, he does not render any service, 

 nor does he get any income from the use of his tools. In pro- 

 portion as his tools do actually add to his production, in that 

 proportion does he increase his serviceableness to society, and 

 in that proportion also will he be rewarded by a larger income. 

 This larger income is interest. In agriculture this looks simple 

 enough. There are not many socialists in the country. In the 

 city there are so many uneconomic forms of capital, " spurious 

 capital" as we term it, that it requires considerable judgment 

 and discrimination to see the inherent value of real capital and 

 the real capitalist. There are a great many socialists in the city. 



