gentlemen, follow me. The planet is only so large. There are only so
many countries in the world. What will happen when every country in
the world, down to the smallest and last, with a surplus in its hands,
stands confronting every other country with surpluses in their hands?"

He paused and regarded his listeners. The bepuzzlement in their faces
was delicious. Also, there was awe in their faces. Out of abstractions
Ernest had conjured a vision and made them see it. They were seeing it
then, as they sat there, and they were frightened by it.

"We started with A B C, Mr. Calvin," Ernest said slyly. "I have now
given you the rest of the alphabet. It is very simple. That is the
beauty of it. You surely have the answer forthcoming. What, then, when
every country in the world has an unconsumed surplus? Where will your
capitalist system be then?"

But Mr. Calvin shook a troubled head. He was obviously questing back
through Ernest's reasoning in search of an error.

"Let me briefly go over the ground with you again," Ernest said. "We
began with a particular industrial process, the shoe factory. We found
that the division of the joint product that took place there was similar
to the division that took place in the sum total of all industrial
processes. We found that labor could buy back with its wages only
so much of the product, and that capital did not consume all of the
remainder of the product. We found that when labor had consumed to the
full extent of its wages, and when capital had consumed all it wanted,
there was still left an unconsumed surplus. We agreed that this surplus
could only be disposed of abroad. We agreed, also, that the effect
of unloading this surplus on another country would be to develop the