finger to serve his fellows. Because he has the investment,
he has income. The same would hold true if the ten thousand
dollars had been left him by his father or given to him by
his uncle.... The fact of possession is sufficient to yield
him an income."

Now, in all these cases of property income which Dr. Nearing seems to
regard as examples of income received in return for no effort, there
must have been an effort once, on the part of somebody, which put the
maker of it in possession of the property which now yields an income to
himself, or those to whom he has left or given it. First there is the
case of the man who has a title deed to a piece of land. How did he get
it? Either he was a pioneer who came and cleared it and settled on it,
or he had worked and saved and with the product of his work had bought
this piece of land, or he had inherited it from the man who had cleared
or bought the land. The ownership of the land implies work and saving
and so is entitled to its reward. Then there is the case of the man who
has saved ten thousand dollars by labouring for twenty years and denying
himself the necessaries of life. Dr. Nearing admits that this man has
worked in order to get his dollars; he even goes so far as to add that
he had denied himself the necessaries of life in order to save.
Incidentally one may wonder how a man who has denied himself the
necessaries of life for twenty years can be alive at the end of them.
This man has worked for his dollars, and, instead of spending them on
immediate enjoyment, lends them to people who are building a railway,
and so is quickening and cheapening intercourse and trade. Dr. Nearing
seems to admit grudgingly that in a sense he thereby renders a service,
but he complains because his imaginary investor expects without further
exertion to get an income from the product of his past service. If he
could not get an income from it, why should he save? And if he and