These implements are like a race of iron negroes, and are producers as truly as live negroes would be • 314 Indirectly, wage capital is also a producer in the same way • 314 And indeed, till they saw that this argument could be turned against themselves, it was strongly urged by the socialists • 315 Practically, however, the justification of income from capital • 316 rests on the fact that the power of capital to yield income is what mainly makes men anxious to produce it; • 316 since if income-yielding capital could not be acquired and amassed, wealthy men could make no provision for their families, • 317 nor could wealth give pleasure to those who might at any moment be beggars • 318 Moreover, if incomes were not heritable, wealth would produce none of those social results, such as continuous culture, etc., which make it valuable • 319 The wealth that ceased with the men that actually made it would produce a society of beasts • 319 Wealth is desirable because it is the physical basis of an enlarged life; • 320 and there must thus be continuity in the possession of wealth • 320 Hence the great wealth-producer demands the possession not only of what he produces directly, but of what he produces indirectly through his past products • 321 The majority not only may, but do, acquire a share of the increment produced by the great man; • 322 but whatever this share may be, it can never be such as to make social conditions equal • 322 CHAPTER III EQUALITY OF EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY The wealthy class, owing to inheritance, is always much more numerous than the great men actually engaged at any given time in production • 324 But though inheritance gives a certain permanence to the wealthy class, the families belonging to it are constantly, if slowly, changing, • 325 and new men are constantly forcing their way into it • 326 Indeed the wealth of the country depends on the men potentially great as producers actualising their talents and producing the wealth that raises them • 326 It is therefore obvious that the wealth will increase in proportion as these potentially great men have the opportunity of actualising their productive powers • 327 It is impossible, however, to make opportunities absolutely equal • 328 The question is how near we can approach to equality • 328 In a country where these opportunities have been made artificially unequal there will be room for a great deal of equalisation • 329 But removing artificial impediments is only a negative kind of equalisation • 329 It is probable, however, that for the development of genius of the highest order this is all that is needful, • 330 and will secure the development of all the genius of the highest kind that exists • 331 But genius of a lesser kind, which would else be lost, may, no doubt, be elicited by positive educational help from the State; • 332