Again, there is a large number of interest receivers who are entirely dependent upon this kind of income, and who obtain therefrom only a moderate livelihood. They are mainly children, aged persons, and invalids. Unlike the classes just described, they cannot justify their interest as a fair supplement to wages; however, they may reasonably claim it as their equitable or charitable share of the common heritage of the earth. If they did not receive this interest-income they would have to be supported by their relatives or by the State. For many reasons this would be a much less desirable arrangement. Consequently their general claim to interest is supplemented by considerations of human welfare. The difference between the ethical character of the interest discussed in the last two paragraphs and of that received by persons who possess large incomes, is too often overlooked in technical treatises. Every man owning any productive goods is reckoned as a capitalist, and assumed to receive interest. If, however, a man's total interest-income is so small that when combined with all his other revenues it merely completes the equivalent of a decent living, it is surely of very little significance as interest. It stands in no such need of justification as the interest obtained by men whose incomes amount to, say, ten thousand dollars a year and upwards. Still another confirmatory title of interest is suggested by the following well known declaration of St. Thomas Aquinas: "The possession of riches is not in itself unlawful if the order of reason be observed: that a man should possess justly what he owns, and _use_ it in a proper manner for himself and others."[152] Neither just acquisition nor proper use is alone sufficient to render private possessions morally good. Both must be present. As we have seen above, the capitalist can appeal to certain presumptive and analogous titles which justify practically his acquisition of interest; but there can be no doubt that his claim and his moral power of disposal are considerably strengthened when he puts his interest-income to a proper use. One way of so using it is for a reasonable livelihood, as exemplified in the case of the farmers, business men, and non-workers whom we considered above. Those persons who receive incomes in excess of their reasonable needs could devote the surplus to religion, charity, education, and a great variety of altruistic purposes. We shall deal with this matter specifically in the chapter on the "Duty of Distributing Superfluous Wealth." In the meantime it is sufficient to note that the rich man who makes a benevolent use of his interest-income has a special reason for believing that his receipt of interest is justified.