to afford to give his son.

Now this expense of training is highly relevant not only to "what is,"
but to "what should be." It includes, it should be observed, a
negative as well as a positive element; a long period of waiting
before income begins, as well as the actual outlay on educational and
other charges. When the burden both of the waiting and the positive
costs must be borne either by the individual or the family, there are
few people who would seriously dispute that this goes to justify, on
grounds of fairness as well as of expediency, a higher level of annual
remuneration later on; though many people would doubtless argue that
the amenities and dignities of the professions should be taken into
account on the other side. But the same consideration makes it a
matter of legitimate doubt whether it would be desirable, even as an
ideal, that the community should provide so completely the costs of
training and of maintenance in the waiting period, as to make it no
longer "fair" that the individual should be remunerated more highly
than workers in less expensive occupations. For this would mean that
more labor would be absorbed in the former employments than in
principle would be socially desirable, for reasons which the argument
of the next chapter will make plain. But the most desirable number of
doctors, barristers, teachers, etc., is not a thing which can be
settled on purely economic grounds, and it is unprofitable to carry
further this particular line of thought. Few people would advocate, as
an ultimate ideal, that the remuneration of the professional grades of
labor should exceed that of lower grades by _more_ than the extra
expense of training and waiting they involve. That the excess is
usually greater than this at the present time seems very probable:
though it is a matter on which it is very hard to generalize. But it
would certainly be far greater than it is if the principle of
_laissez-faire_ ruled supreme in these affairs. Fortunately it does
not, and has never done so. Even before the days of free elementary
education, the endowment of education was not unknown. The ancient
public schools and universities, which have come down to us from the
Middle Ages, are a standing witness to what in this field a far poorer
community thought fit to do. Their systems of scholarships and
exhibitions, no less than their courts and towers, deserve our
notice. For these were designed to form what we now call "a ladder"