Then, too, you may take the products of the arts--the books we read and the paintings we admire. Does the amount of labor-time expended in the making fix the value of these commodities? An author may devote years to writing a novel, and yet see it fall still-born from the press, whereas another novelist, in a few months, may produce a story that nets him $25,000. Does labor-time count as a factor in determining the value of our books, our pictures, our musical compositions, or our scientific discoveries? There is still another factor to be considered, John, and that is the productive power of thought. Marx, as you would see were you to analyze the first pages of his book, “Capital,” starts off with the idea that all labor is common, manual labor. Later on, he encounters the difficulty that labor when undirected is usually unproductive. A thousand men, working without direction, will produce nothing proportionate to the amount of physical strength they expend. Put a man with brains and knowledge over them, and he will show them how to make their labor fully productive. Even Marx recognized the fact that he must make some provision for “skilled” and “mental” labor, so he grudgingly bridged over the gap by stating that “skilled labor counts only as unskilled labor, a given quantity of skilled labor being considered equal to a greater quantity of simple labor” (“Capital,” p. 11). Socialists to-day try to deny that Marx intended to imply that the term “labor” means “average manual labor.” They will tell you, if you question them closely, that the term “labor” includes industrial effort of every kind--mental as well as physical labor. This is a worse absurdity than to say that manual labor is the source of all value. If we are to admit that “labor” includes every kind of effort, the assertion that all wealth should go to the laborers who produced it simply means that all wealth ought to go to the human race. And so it does. The only question remaining is: _How can it be distributed more fairly?_ This would take the very cornerstone away from the Socialist’s structure and bring it tumbling about his ears. If we do this, there is practically no room for argument left, for the number of persons who in no way contribute to the industrial progress of the world--the inheritors of wealth who are literally and positively idle--is so small that there is no reason why we should give them much serious consideration. CHAPTER IV HOW THE “ROBBING” IS DONE My dear Mr. Smith,