2 THE THIRD POWER 



with it. Yet the old law is sound, and so it will 

 stand. Mr. Morgan has to stand on the earth, and 

 in this sense at least it is the land that supports him. 

 The Chicago gamblers could not speculate in wheat 

 unless there were such a thing as wheat in existence. 

 Mr. W. B. Leeds's railroad could last but a little 

 while if it were not for the crops that have to be 

 carried to market. So it is clear that these men do 

 not create, and can not create anything. All that 

 they do is to change the form of wealth, or to make, 

 not to create, new wealth by the application of capi- 

 tal and labor to the products of the land, in one way 

 or the other. If they make money in any other way 

 they do it simply by taking it from some one else. 

 The middleman, who gets between two people who 

 want to trade, and takes toll of them both, adds 

 nothing to the wealth of the country. The subject 

 then is creation, and the relation of the different 

 factors to it. 



If it be true that the prosperity and material well- 

 being of a country is dependent on the efficiency of 

 these three instruments, land, labor and capital, it 

 follows that we should do all we can to increase the 

 efficiency of these instruments and maintain them 

 at a high standard. We often seem to act as though 

 we did not believe this to be true. For each class, 

 instead of trying to add to the efficiency of other 

 classes as well as of itself, frequently strives to in- 

 crease its efficiency at the expense of the other 

 classes. Labor seeks to extract the last dollar from 



