ry small fraction. The
rest is divided between the landlords and the capitalists. This
happens in the case of every man among the thousands employed by the
company. Only a small share goes to the workers, a third, or a fourth,
perhaps, the remainder being divided among people who have done none
of the work. It may happen, does happen in fact, that, an old
profligate whose delight is the seduction of young girls, a wanton
woman whose life would shame the harlot of the streets, a lunatic in
an asylum, or a baby in the cradle, will get more than any of the
workers who toil before the glaring furnaces day after day.

These are terrible assertions, Jonathan, and I do not blame you if you
doubt them. I shall _prove_ them for you in a later letter.

At present, I want you to get hold of the fact that the wealth
produced by the workers is so distributed that the idle and useless
classes get most of it. People will tell you, Jonathan, that "there
are no classes in America," and that the Socialists lie when they say
so. They point out to you that your old chum, Richard, who is now a
millionaire, was a poor boy like yourself. They say he rose to his
present position because he had keener brains than his fellows, but
you know lots of workmen in the employ of the company who know a great
deal more about the work than he does, lots of men who are cleverer
than he is. Or they tell you that he rose to his present position
because of his superior character, but you know that he is, to say the
least, no better than the average man who works under him.

The fact is, Jonathan, the idle capitalists must have some men to
carry on the work for them, to direct it and see that the workers are
exploited properly. They must have some men to manage things for them;
to see that elections are bought, that laws in their interests are
passed and not laws in the interests of the people. They must have
somebody to do the things they are too "respectable" to do--or too
lazy. They take such men from the ranks of the workers and pay them
enormous salaries, thereby making them members of their own class.
Such men are really doing useful and necessary work in managing the
business (though not in corrupting legislators or devising swindling
schemes) and are to that extent producers. But their interests are
with the capitalists. They live in palaces, like the idlers; they
mingle in the same social sets; they enjoy the same luxuries. And,
above all, they can