man IS selfish," the Bishop affirmed valiantly.

"Wants all he can get?"

"Wants all he can get--true but deplorable."

"Then I've got you." Ernest's jaw snapped like a trap. "Let me show you.
Here is a man who works on the street railways."

"He couldn't work if it weren't for capital," the Bishop interrupted.

"True, and you will grant that capital would perish if there were no
labor to earn the dividends."

The Bishop was silent.

"Won't you?" Ernest insisted.

The Bishop nodded.

"Then our statements cancel each other," Ernest said in a matter-of-fact
tone, "and we are where we were. Now to begin again. The workingmen
on the street railway furnish the labor. The stockholders furnish the
capital. By the joint effort of the workingmen and the capital, money is
earned.* They divide between them this money that is earned. Capital's
share is called 'dividends.' Labor's share is called 'wages.'"

* In those days, groups of predatory individuals controlled
all the means of transportation, and for the use of same
levied toll upon the public.

"Very good," the Bishop interposed. "And there is no reason that the
division should not be amicable."

"You have already forgotten what we had agreed upon," Ernest replied.
"We agreed that the average man is selfish. He is the man that is. You
have gone up in the air and are arranging a division between the kind
of men that ought to be but are not. But to return to the earth, the
workingman, being selfish, wants all he can get in the division. The
capitalist, being selfish, wants all he can get in the division. When
there is only so much of the same thing, and when two men want all they
can get of the same thing, there is a conflict of interest between labor
and capital. And it is an irreconcilable conflict. As long as workingmen
and capitalists exist, they will continue to quarrel over the division.
If you were in San Francisco this afternoon, you'd have to walk. There
isn't a street car running."

"Another strike?"* the Bishop queried with alarm.

* These quarrels were very common in those irrational and
anarchic times. Sometimes the laborers refused to work.
Sometimes the capitalists refused to let the laborers work.
In the violence and turbulence of such disagreements much
property was destroyed and many lives lost. All this is
inconceivable to us--as inconceivable as another custom of
that time, namely, the hab