"A decline in prices, by reason of an impairment of the ability of the people of any country to purchase and consume, through poverty or pestilence or by reason of the misapplication of labour and capital, _i.e._ waste, ... is certainly an evil. But a decline in prices caused by greater economy and effectiveness in manufacture and greater skill and economy in distribution, in place of being a calamity, is a blessing and a benefit to all mankind." With growing knowledge, and the advancement of the arts and sciences, there is a continual improvement in methods of production and distribution, enabling the same amount of labour to produce and distribute to consumers a far greater amount of commodities in general than it formerly could. This has been conclusively shown in detail by a mass of statistics in Mr. Wells' book. The question arises, to whom should this increased product properly belong? For the purpose of this inquiry the community may be considered as divided into three separate classes, according to the source from which their principal income is derived; viz.-- (1) Labourers,--including all whose income is principally derived from their work, of hand or brain, whether as wages, salaries, or products directly created. (2) Employers of labour,--including all whose income is mainly derived from investments of capital directly in productive enterprises in the widest sense of the term,--those who take the risks of business incident to the doing of the work of the community. (3) Money lenders,--those whose income is derived from interest on loans; who, not wishing to take the risks and cares of active business, prefer to loan their capital to others who will do so, accepting as their share of the profits a definite amount as interest. The incomes of many people are derived, of course, from all three of these sources, but they may be considered as belonging to the class determined by their greatest revenue. It is evident that labourers should have a share of the increased product that greater skill, improved methods, machinery, etc., create; since labour is the direct cause of such increase, and not only the greater skill but the improved methods are due to labour. Equally evident is it that the capitalist who has taken the risks of business and whose wealth and enterprise have contributed to the results, should also share in the increased product. But all considerations of justice and equity forbid that those who, declining to take any risk themselves, prefer to loan their capital to others at a fixed compensation, should receive any share of the increased product which labourers and employers may succeed in creating, beyond such fixed compensation. Justice is satisfied when to them is returned the _value_ they loaned with the interest agreed upon for its use.