The decisive value attributed to presumption, analogy, possession, and doubtful titles in our vindication of the capitalist's claim to interest, is no doubt disappointing to those persons who desire clear-cut mathematical rules and principles. Nevertheless, they are the only factors that seem to be available. While the title that they confer upon the interest receiver is not as definite nor as noble as that by which the labourer claims his wages or the business man his profits, it is morally sufficient. It will remain logically and ethically unshaken until more cogent arguments have been brought against it than have yet appeared in the denunciations of the income of the capitalist. And what is true of him is likewise true of the rent receiver, and of the person who profits by the "unearned increment" of land values. In all three cases the presumptive justification of "workless" incomes will probably remain valid as long as the present industrial system endures.
[143] Cf. Gonner, "Interest and Saving," p. 73; Cassel, "The Nature and Necessity of Interest," ch. iv.
[146] Cf. Hobson, "The Economics of Distribution," pp. 259-265.
[147] Cf. Fisher, "Elementary Principles of Economics," pp. 396, 397. However, he does not discuss in this passage the possibility of suppressing interest on productive capital by a direct method.
[148] Cf. Lehmkuhl, "Theologia Moralis," I, nos. 917, 965, 1035.
[150] Ballerini-Palmieri, loc. cit.; cf. Van Roey, op. cit., pp. 73-75.
[151] Cf. _American Economic Review_, March, 1916; p. 46.
CO-OPERATION AS A PARTIAL SOLVENT OF CAPITALISM
Interest is not a return for labour. The majority of interest receivers are, indeed, regularly engaged at some active task, whether as day labourers, salaried employés, directors of industry, or members of the professions; but for these services they obtain specific and distinct compensation. The interest that they get comes to them solely in their capacity as owners of capital, independently of any personal activity. From the viewpoint of economic distribution, interest is a "workless" income. As such, it seems to challenge that ethical intuition which connects reward with effort and which inclines to regard income from any other source as not quite normal. Moreover, interest absorbs a large part of the national income, and perpetuates grave economic inequalities.[153]