Let us go back to
a point insisted on in the previous chapter. It was there shown, in
connection with the question of abstract justice, that those who attack
interest on the ground that it is essentially income for which its
recipients give nothing in return, fall into the error of ignoring the
element of time, without reference to which the whole process of life is
unintelligible. It was shown, by various examples, that in a large
number of cases the efforts which ultimately result in the production of
great wealth do not produce it till after, often till long after, the
original effort has come altogether to an end. Let us now take this
point in connection, not with abstract theories, but with the concrete
facts of conduct. Here again those who attack interest fall into the
same error. For example, in answer to arguments used by me when speaking
in America, one socialistic critic eagerly following another called my
attention by name to persons notoriously wealthy, some of whom had never
engaged in active business at all, while others had ceased to do so for
many years; and demanded of me whether I contended that idlers such as
these are doing anything whatever to produce the incomes which they are
now enjoying.
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