. He uses practically no steel at all, except a knife or
two. Mr. Rockefeller does not use the oil-wells he owns, nor a
hundred-millionth part of the coal his shares in coal-mines represent.

If one could get Mr. Carnegie into one of the works in which he is
interested and stand with him in front of one of the great furnaces as
it poured forth its stream of molten metal, he might say: "See! that
is partly mine. It is part of my wealth!" Then, if one were to ask
"But what are you going to do with that steel, Mr. Carnegie--is it
useful to you?" Mr. Carnegie would laugh at the thought. He would
probably reply, "No, bless your life! The steel is useless to _me_. I
don't want it. But somebody else does. _It is useful to other
people._"

Ask Mr. Rockefeller, "Is this oil refinery your property, Mr.
Rockefeller?" and he would reply: "It is partly mine. I own a big
share in it and it represents part of my wealth." Ask him next: "But,
Mr. Rockefeller, what are _you_ going to do with all that oil? Surely,
you cannot need so much oil for your own use?" and he, like Mr.
Carnegie, would reply: "No! The oil is useless to me. I don't want it.
But somebody else does. _It is useful to other people._"

To be rich in our present social state, Jonathan, you must not only
own an abundance of things useful to you, but also things useful only
to others, which you can sell to them at a profit. Wealth, in our
present society, then consists in the possession of things having an
exchange value--things which other people will buy from you. So endeth
our first lesson in political economy.

And here beginneth our second lesson, Jonathan. We must now consider
how wealth is produced.

The Socialists say that all wealth is produced by labor applied to
natural resources. That is a very simple answer, which you can easily
remember. But I want you to examine it well. Think it over: ask
yourself whether anything in your experience as a workingman confirms
or disproves it. Do you produce wealth? Do your fellow workers produce
wealth? Do you know of any other way in which wealth can be produced
than by labor applied to natural resources? Don't be fooled, Jonathan.
Think for yourself!

The wealth of a fisherman consists in an abundance of fish for which
there is a good market. But suppose there is a big demand for fish in
the cities and that, at the same time, there are millions of fish in
the sea, ready to be caught. So long as they are in the sea, th