Page:The Case for Capitalism (1920).djvu/88

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the Court suddenly and hurriedly goes into mourning.

If, then, even the capitalist who takes his income in the form of rent has a good deal to say for himself before he pleads guilty to the charge of robbing the community, the capitalist who earns interest and profit on other forms of investment has a still stronger case.

"Incomes," says Mr. Ramsay Macdonald (page 61), "derived from invested capital are not so easy to classify. The Ricardian dictum that all wealth is created by labour is not exactly true. It carries one much further than the statement which is true—that no wealth can be created without the service of labour. But there is much wealth which labour cannot create without the aid of capital. A man can go into the forest and tear boughs off trees with his hands for his fires, but he cannot fell trees without an axe of some kind, which is capital. Capital, therefore, has its value, a simple fact which means that under the freest economic conditions, interest will be paid. It may be interest of 5 per cent., it may be of a tenth per cent., but the utility of capital in production will always have an appreciable value which the labourer who uses it will pay without suffering exploitation or injustice. Interest is