event men being handicapped
out of the race at the start," she answered. "They know as well as we
do, that men are not born equal in mind or body; but rightly and
reasonably, they want them all to start equal as far as conditions go.
The race is to the strong and the prize is to the strong; but all, at
least, should have power to train for the race and start with equal
opportunities to win. There's such a lot to be done."

"There is," he admitted. "The handicap you talk of is created for
thousands and thousands before they are born at all."

"Think of being handicapped out of the race before you are born!" she
cried. "What could be more unjust and cruel and wicked than that?"

"Very few will put the unborn before the living, or think of a
potential child rather than the desires of the parents--selfish though
they may be. It's a free country, and we don't know enough to start
stopping people from having a hand in the next generation if they decide
to do so."

But her enthusiasm was not quenched by difficulties.

"We want science and politics and good will to work together," she said.

He returned to the smaller argument.

"It's a far cry to what you want, yet I for one don't shrink from it.
The better a man is, the larger share he should have of the profits of
any enterprise he helps to advance. Then wages would take the shape of
his share in the profits, and you might easily find a head workman of
genius drawing more out of a business than--say, a junior partner, who
is a fool and not nearly so vital to the enterprise as he. But, you see,
if we say that, we argue in a circle, for the junior partner, ass though
he is, represents oil and fuel, which are just as important as the
clever workman's brains--in fact, his brains can't work without them.
Capital and labour are two halves of a whole and depend upon each other,
as much as men depend on women and women on men. Capital does a great
deal more than pay labour wages, remember. It educates his children,
builds his houses and doctors his ailments. Soon--so they tell
me--capital will be appropriated to look after labour's old age also,
and cheer his manhood with the knowledge that his age is safe."

"You don't grudge any of these things, Ray?"

"Not one. Every man should have security. But, after all, capital cannot
be denied its rights. It has got rights of some sort, surely? Socialists
would kill the goose that lays the golden eggs; but though they lack
power y