Nevertheless, it would seem that those business men who obtain exceptionally large profits could be reasonably required to transfer part of their gains to their employés in the form of higher wages, or to the consumers in the form of lower prices. Both of these methods have been followed by Henry Ford, the automobile manufacturer. Neither of them is certainly demanded by the principles of strict justice; they rest upon the feebler and less decisive principle of general equity or fairness.[163] This concept is less definite than those of charity and justice, and stands midway between them. It comes into operation when an action is obligatory on stricter grounds than those of charity, and yet cannot with certainty be required on grounds of justice. Notwithstanding its vagueness, it is sufficiently strong to make the average conscientious man feel uncomfortable if he neglects its prescriptions entirely. It has, therefore, sufficient practical value to deserve a place in the ethics of distribution. And it seems to have sufficient application to the problem before us to justify the statement that the receivers of exceptionally large profits are bound in equity to share them with those persons who have co-operated in producing and providing them, namely, wage earners and consumers. In the field of profits the canon of human welfare is not only sound ethically but expedient socially. It permits the great majority of business men to obtain, if they can, sufficient remuneration to meet their reasonable needs. Whether it requires society to _guarantee_ at least this amount of profit-income is a question that we shall examine presently. It encourages efforts, and makes for the maximum social product by permitting business men to retain all the profits that they can get in conditions of fair competition. Does it forbid any attempt by society to limit exceptionally large profit-incomes? If the limit were placed very high, say, at 50,000 dollars per year, it would not apparently check the productive efforts of the great majority of business men, since they never hope to pass that figure. Whether it would have a seriously discouraging effect upon the activity and ambition of those who do hope to reach, and of those who have already reached that level, is uncertain. Among business men who are approaching or who have passed the 50,000 dollars annual profit-income mark, the desire to possess more money is frequently weaker as a motive to business activity than the longing for power and the driving force of habit. At any rate, the question is not very practical. Any sustained attempt to limit profits by law would require such extensive and minute supervision of business that the policy would prove to be socially intolerable and unprofitable. The espionage involved in the policy would provoke general resentment, and the amount of profits that could be diverted either to the State or to private persons would be relatively insignificant.