he quotes, in the first letter, an example given in a Cambridge Manual of Political Economy of a carpenter called James who made himself a plane, so as to be able to earn more from his customers, but was then persuaded by a friend, William, to lend the plane to him for a year. William promised to give James at the end of the year a new plane exactly like the old one (for the rather surprising reason that the plane was certain to be worn out in the year), also a new plank as a compensation for the advantages of which James was to be deprived, by lending the plane instead of using it in his own business. "The plane," says Ruskin, "is the symbol of all capital, and the plank is the symbol of all interest. . . . James makes a plane, lends it to William on 1st January for a year. William gives him a plank for the loan of it, wears it out, and makes another for James, which he gives him on 31st December. On 1st January he again borrows the new one; and the arrangement is repeated continuously." This arrangement he holds up to scorn as being entirely unfair to William.
How will the ordinary capitalist feel after all this dose of condemnation? His withers will probably be unwrung. He will see that in Mr. Bernard Shaw's example the people who
