Page:The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/121

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Chapter VI
The Achievements of Capitalism

So far we have seen that the claim of the capitalist to interest on his money and profit in return for risks which he takes, is fully justified on economic grounds and in equity, and that the claim of some champions of labour that labour is entitled to the whole of its product, is more than fully satisfied,—because already and as it is labour gets out of industry a great deal more than it could provide for itself if it were not supplied by capitalists with machinery, plant and organization by which its output is enormously increased.

Capitalism, then, is not based on injustice. Let us look now at the question of its practical success. A glance at the progress of mankind since the Industrial Revolution brought modern Capitalism into being, shows at once that its achievements have been enormous, one might