a wooden or iron
"inch" be allowed to rot or rust quietly on some shelf, this "inch" does
not represent anything besides this piece of wood or iron. But if we take
the MENTAL value of an inch, this unit of one of the measures of space,
and use it, with other quantities, in the contemplation of the skies for
the solving of an astronomical problem, it gives a prophetic answer that,
in a certain place there is a star; this star, may be for years looked for
in vain. Was it that the calculation was wrong? No, for after further
search with telescopes of greater power, the star is found and the
calculation thus verified.

It is obvious that the "unit"--inch--has no value by itself, but is very
precious as a unit for measuring the phenomenon of length, which it
perfectly represents, and that is why it was introduced.

It is exactly the same with money if the term be rightly understood.
Understood aright, money, being the measure and representative of wealth,
is in the main, the measure and the representative of dead men's toil;
for, rightly understood, wealth is almost entirely the product of the
labor of by-gone generations. This product, we have seen, involves the
element of time as the chief factor. And so we discover how money,
properly understood, is connected with time--the main function of money is
to measure and represent the accumulated products of the labor of past
generations. Hoarded money is like an iron "inch" upon a shelf--a useless
lump; but when used as a measure and representative of wealth rightly
understood, money renders invaluable service, for it then serves to
measure and represent the living fruit of dead men's toil.

For this reason, it is useless to argue who is the more important, the
capitalist who has legal possession of most of the material fruit of dead
men's toil, or the laborer who has legal possession of but little of it.
In the laborer, we do not now really look for his physical muscular labor
ALONE; for this is replaced by mechanical or animal power as soon as it
can be. What we do need from labor, and what we will always need, is his
BRAIN--HIS TIME-BINDING POWER.

The population of the world may be divided into different classes; if the
classes are not here enumerated in the customary way, it is because it is
necessary to classify human beings, as nearly as possible according to
their "power-value." There is no assertion that this is an ideal
classification, but if someone is moved to ex