he is violating the fundamental principle underlying the
use of money. He is, in short, an economic outlaw."

"I am afraid I don't follow you."

"Let me illustrate by my own experience, and that of my family. My
father was possessed of a piece of land which at one time had little or
no value. Eventually it became of great value, not through anything he
had done, but as a result of the natural law that births exceed deaths.
Yet he, although he had done nothing to create this value, was able,
through a faulty economic system, to pocket the proceeds. Then, as
a result of the advantages which his wealth gave him, he was able to
extract from society throughout all the remainder of his life value out
of all proportion to any return he made for it. Finally it came down to
me. Holding my peculiar belief, which my right and left bower consider
sinful and silly respectively, I found money forced upon me, regardless
of the fact that I had given absolutely no value in exchange. Now if
money is a medium for the exchange of value and I receive money without
giving value for it, it is plain that someone else must have parted
with money without receiving value in return. The thing is basically
immoral."

"Your father couldn't take it with him."

"But why should _I_ have it? I never contributed a finger-weight of
service for it. From society the money came and to society it should
return."

"You should worry," said Transley. "Society isn't worrying over you.
Some more of the roast beef?"

"No, thank you. But to come down to date. It seems that I cannot get
away from this wealth which dogs me at every turn. Before enlisting I
had been margining certain steel stocks, purely in the ordinary course
of affairs. With the demands made by the war on the steel industry my
stocks went up in price and my good friend Murdoch was able to report
that it had made a fortune for me while I was overseas.... And we call
ourselves an intelligent people!"

"And so we are," said Mr. Squiggs. "We stick to a system we know to
be sound. It has weathered all the gales of the past, and promises to
weather those of the future. I tell you, Grant, communism won't
work. You can't get away from the principle of individual reward for
individual effort."

"My dear fellow, that's exactly what I'm pleading for. I have no
patience with any claim that all men are equal, or capable of rendering
equal service to society, and I want payment to be made according to
s