Page:The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/261

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needed is that this process should be continued to save the country from the internal enemy that sets class against class. We want a financial organization by which wage-earners' savings, that now go into Government securities, can go into industry without having to face the risk that is attached to investments in any particular industry or company. This is a problem that financial ingenuity should surely be able to solve. The workers have already shown that they can become capitalists, but what is wanted is that more of them, and ultimately all of them, should be capitalists. Then, if the wealthy continue to perceive in a widening circle that it is not good for their younglings to bring them up to idleness, we shall begin to be within sight of a state of things in which every worker is a capitalist and every capitalist a worker.

In the meantime improvements in education should give to all a better chance of material success in life, and open the chance of a career to all who have the necessary gifts of courage, honesty, initiative and readiness to take responsibility. Though, owing to the weaknesses of Capitalism, baser qualities too often earn big rewards, these are the gifts that most surely