on of what is properly wealth and
what is properly a part of universal welfare.

The important questions connected with the subject will not be
satisfactorily settled until a reasonable adjustment of all claims is
reached by the masses engaged in production. The modern discussions of the
interests of laborers are proof that the world is thinking more and more
of individual rights in property, and no sweeping assertions as to
inequity of property rights help to solve the questions. It is because
each individual has a distinct equity in what is produced in part by his
efforts that there is need of better adjustment. All reforms, therefore,
must be along the line of fair distribution, or fail of their end.

_Distribution by exchange._--Ordinary observation shows that distribution
is made chiefly in the customary method of exchange. A pound of butter may
find its way from the farmer's dairy to the actual consumer in a distant
country. In its final value, the consumer compensates the retail dealer
for his services in handling it and for advance payments, including every
other handler and every other service, down to the boy who drove the cows
to pasture. If the system of universal exchanges is free and fair, each
has received his fair compensation. In general, then, distribution of
wealth is made automatically in the ordinary processes of production,
exchange itself being one of the steps by which value to the consumer
becomes value also to the producer.

_Fair exchange above laws._--Under perfect freedom of exchange, the general
law of supply and demand already illustrated is more effective than any
laws can be in adjusting wages or profit to efforts in production, and in
adjusting interest or rent or both to the capital employed or to other
means of production controlled. Any customs or laws which interfere with
natural conditions of supply and demand hinder rather than help toward a
fair adjustment. In any progressive community such laws will surely fail,
for the reason that in making such laws human nature is in conflict with
itself. The history of increasing individual welfare in any part of the
world gives a story of more ready and free competition in open market for
all commodities and all services. In perceiving this we must not overlook
the fact that fraud and ignorance, as well as arbitrary power, stand
opposed to fair exchanges. Nor must we be satisfied with any condition
which involves meeting restrictions with