The Marxian proposition that money is the first form of capital is a discordant and disruptive delusion. Marx declared that all capital was derived from the profits obtained by paying labour less than the value it created. On this hypothesis the capitalist assists in no way in the business of production. He is in the position of reaping what he has not sown. He is a bandit who holds up to ransom the whole world of workmen. He lets labourers off with their lives, that is to say, with wages just sufficient for their subsistence and the reproduction of their species, thus securing the maintenance of a supply of labour, on condition that the labourers hand over to him practically the entire value of their labour. As long as such doctrines are taught to the young worker and are accepted by the old, of what good is it to prate about co-operation? It is about as sensible to advocate co-operation between a host and its parasite, between a vampire and its prey, between a highway robber and his victim. Yet that is the vain task on which so many eminent persons are now wasting their eloquence. The first essential is boldly and openly to challenge this Marxian doctrine of the parasitic character of capital. There will never be, there cannot be, co-operation between capital and Labour until Labour has learned what capital is and the function it plays in production. Labour is ready to learn. I have found it possible to sustain the interest of workmen while explaining that capital consists primarily of things that are not money, of goods upon which people subsist while producing other goods, of factories, machinery, and raw material; that capital is a definite agent in production, capable of application, not merely by the conventional employer, but by every man; that it is something which, when used in production, is consumed, so that he who adventures it must possess such experience and judgment as will enable him to surmount the risk of loss, and obtain a return sufficient to replace the capital that has been consumed, and to recompense the lender for his thrift and remunerate himself for the services he has rendered and the risk to which he has been subjected. These particular aspects of capital, from their very novelty and unexpectedness, catch the immediate attention of Labour, so much so that in some districts the workmen, of their own accord, arranged meetings and invited me specially to discuss with them the character and function of capital in modern industry and the extent to which Labour was dependent upon it.