ALTERNATIVES SEEN AS BASIC ECONOMIC FACTS 197
despised and shunned. He may be locked up or otherwise segre-
gated. Economic values arise early, but social values arise as
early and possibly are antecedent.
These first two alternatives constrain us to abide in society
and to lead an economic life. Their relation to economic theory
strictly defined, however, is relatively remote. Closer to it is a
third alternative, namely: Think creatiwely or accept the
economics of exploitation.
For two thousand years after Plato and Aristotle had found
slavery necessary to civilization slavery and the near slavery of
serfdom persisted in Christendom. To this present hour strong
nations continue to subjugate and to exploit weaker ones,
Economically powerful groups (financial, commercial and indus-
trial) continue to exploit the so-called masses. Humanitarians
revolted against serfdom and against slavery but their efforts
availed little until invention came to their aid. It was neither
preaching nor agitation but the-steam engine and power-driven
machinery that abolished slavery. It is highly probable that
electro-physics, chemistry, and biology will one day be more
effective than pacifist ethics in preventing war, and more effective
than strikes and boycotts in further ameliorating the wages
system.
When Professor Clark and I were actively exchanging ideas
he was formulating his discrimination of pure from concrete
capital.” He went on to work out the implications of his idea
for the theory of values. I became interested in the economic
possibilities of a progressive production of concrete goods,
material wealth. I wanted to discover whether we may hope to
carry further indefinitely nature's processes of assembling, cor-
relating and coérdinating elements into compouds, and com-
pounds into bigger and more complex compounds under conditions
of varying cost. Specifically I was interested in the possibility
(which I could not believe unlimited) of increasing that supply
of unconsumed wealth which Adam Smith had called “stock,”
which the Austrians were calling “present goods,” which Pro-
fessor Clark identified with “concrete capital,” and which I
presently called “capital goods.” * Yet more specifically I sought
an answer to a question which I think had not before been raised,
Association, Vol 11, Nar 38547, Publications of the American. Economic
* Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 1V, January, 1890, D. 178.
