rrowing of which and
the paying of interest on which, form one of the most constant features
of the modern industrial world; and he evidently assumes, even if he
does not say so, that for all this borrowing and paying there is some
constant and sufficient reason. Now, the only reason can be--and
George's own criticism implies this--that in order to produce the
machine-capital borrowed certain faculties are needed which are not
possessed by the borrowers; and though this may not be true of a simple
hand-plane itself, it is emphatically true of the elaborate modern
machinery of which Bastiat merely uses his hand-plane as a symbol. In
order to produce such implements of production as these, the exertion of
faculties is required which are altogether exceptional, such as high
scientific knowledge, invention, and many others. Let invention--the
most obvious of these--here do duty for all, and let us consider, for
example, the mechanism of a modern cotton mill, or of a boot factory, or
a Hoe printing press, or a plant for electric lighting. All these would
be impossible if it had not been for inventive faculties as rare in
their way as those of a playwright like Mr. Shaw.

No one will deny that when a play like "Man and Superman" first acquires
a vogue which renders its performance profitable, the royalties paid to
the author are values which he has himself created, not indeed by his
faculties used directly, but by his faculties embodied in a work which
he has accomplished once for all in the past, and which has
thenceforward become a secondary and indefinitely enduring self; and if
this is true of the royalties resulting from its first profitable
performance, it would be equally true of those resulting from the last,
even though this should take place on the eve of the Day of Judgment.
With productive machinery the case is just the same. If Mr. Shaw,
instead of writing "Man and Superman," had been the sole inventor of the
steam-engine, and the only man capable of inventing it, every one will
admit that he would, by this one inventive effort, have personally
co-operated for a time with all users of steam-power, and been
part-producer of the increment in which its use resulted. And if this
would have been true of his invention when it was only two years old, it
would be equally true now. He would still be co-operating with the users
of every steam-engine in the world to-day, and adding to their products
something which they cou