t.

_Forms of Wealth produced by Labor._--Few useful goods are presented
to man by nature in a finished state, and it is therefore necessary
for man to exert himself in order to get the goods that he needs in
the condition in which he can use them. He must make raw substances
more useful than they naturally are, and as he does this the things
become partly products of his labor. Of course the supply of them is
limited, since labor is so.

_Labor a Wealth Creator._--Labor is a wealth-creating effort, and
there is no labor that is successful in attaining its purpose that
does not help to bring into a serviceable condition something that can
be identified as an economic good or a form of wealth. Some effort,
indeed, fails in what it attempts to do and therefore produces
nothing. We may build a machine that will not work, or make a product
that no one wants; but labor that attains a rational purpose is always
economically productive.

_Protective Labor and the Attribute it imparts to Useful
Matter._--Labor may be classed according to the particular result that
it accomplishes. In saying that the banana grove in our illustration
is wealth to the savage who resides in it, we had to insert the
proviso that he is able to keep other persons out of it. Exclusive
possession or ownership is necessary in order that things may continue
to be effectively useful to any particular person or persons. If they
are superabundant, as we have seen, no part of the supply is
important; but it is also true that if they are scarce and a man is
not able to keep any of them, they will not serve him. In order that
an economic good may be effective, it must be appropriable, and where
claimants are numerous and lawless it may take much of the owner's
time and effort to keep the article in his possession. The savage must
personally protect his goods, and to some extent the civilized man
must do so; for however well policed a city may be, it will not
do to leave purses or portable goods by the wayside. Protective
labor is necessary in all stages of social advancement. In civilized
life, indeed, we delegate much of it to a special class of
persons,--policemen, judges, lawyers, and legislators,--and this is
the most fundamental division of labor that civilization entails; but
the work has to be done in any stage of social evolution. Crusoe's
goods would have been worth nothing to him if he could not have kept
them from the savages who, in time, appear