stronger could overcome the weaker
and satisfy desire, a combination of the weaker units acting together
could always wrest the prize from the individual. To equalize things,
the people got together and made for themselves rules and regulations
governing the conduct of their lives and their relations with one
another. This was invention No. 1: _Law_. Presently it developed that
the physical barter of the commodities of labor was not a satisfactory
basis of exchange; so to the statutes already in existence a new one was
added providing an interchangeable token of value. This was invention
No. 2: _Money_. The statute insisted that the money be of a fair and
just standard, by which all the people should receive the equivalent of
their labor, and no more. As conditions became more settled, there grew
up a realization of the value of a man's life to those dependent on him,
and of the fact that when he died his wife and his children were
deprived of the livelihood his labor won for them. A new regulation was
added to the code, providing that men contributing to a fund during
their lifetime should be entitled at death to leave to their heirs a sum
in proportion to the amount of their contribution to the fund, less the
actual expense of caring therefor. This was _Life Insurance_--invention
No. 3. But there were other calamities less distant than death to be
guarded against, and a common fund, also based on the contributions of
individuals, to aid and relieve in case of fire and kindred calamities,
was organized. Hence invention No. 4: _Fire Insurance_.

And thus the fabric of civilization grew, each addition to the structure
being made to cover a want which experience developed. As time went on,
some of the people accumulated the fruits of labor, money, in greater
quantity than was requisite for their own needs, but which less thrifty
or less fortunate brethren could so profitably employ in their own
affairs as to be able to pay for its use a fair proportion of what it
could be made to earn. Thereupon provision was made for a common place
of safety for this surplus money, a place where experts in the handling
and putting to use of money could employ their talents, first,
safeguarding it and, then, loaning it to others. And the law was made to
say that all money put into this common place should be so guarded as to
be ready for its owner when he demanded it; that its owner should
receive all it earned less the necessary expense o