234 Mr. Faraday on 



questions which, though they have a bearing on the general 

 question of the distribution of wealth, are not involved in 

 the particular case of the distribution of the wealth 

 produced between those having some direct proprietary 

 right to a share of the product, whether for services 

 effectively rendered or as the lenders of the materials and 

 the implements or agents of production, including land. An 

 increase of capital in a greater ratio than population implies 

 an increased competition for labour and a consequently 

 higher proportionate reward for labour, other things remain- 

 ing equal. This is involved in John Stuart Mill's theorem 

 that " increase of capital gives increased employment to 

 labour without assignable limit " ; and also in Adam 

 Smith's teaching that increase of capital tends to lower 

 the profits of the capitalist. 



Assuming, then, the fundamental "rights" of labour; 

 defining labour as the exercise of personal qualities, whether 

 of mind or body, resulting in production or services to the 

 community; admitting the qualitative differences of services 

 (as for instance between those of the capitalist employer, the 

 opera-singer, the painter, the speculator, or the man who 

 follows the plough) as quantitative differences determined by 

 their respective values in exchange; and even putting the 

 service of the lenderof the agents or implements of production 

 (the landowner or the lender of capital who receives a fixed 

 interest and takes no risk) in the same category ; and 

 granting that free competition, and the unrestricted play of 

 the law of supply and demand tend to an equitable propor- 

 tionate distribution of wealth in accordance with the best 

 interests of each member of the community and of the 

 community as a whole — then it is clear that any excessive 

 congestion of wealth must be due to some conditions which 

 result in what has been described as " an unearned 

 increment." 



I do not think that, after due consideration of the 



