The dialectics of the schoolmen or their equivalent are useless in Social discussion.  Social phenomena do not lend themselves to the rigorous formulas of mathematics and logic, for the human intellect is unable to discern and grasp all the factors of these problems.  My travesty of Plato was intended to illustrate the difficulty of close reasoning on such topics.

Neither, on the other hand, are we to blindly follow the impulses of emotion which lead us to jump at a conclusion, support it with what reason we can, but reach it in any event.  Emotion is the source of Social power, but power unrestrained and undirected is dangerous.  Energy created by the sight of distress must be controlled by reason or it will not relieve distress.  And by reason I do not mean Social syllogisms, of whose premises we are always uncertain, but conclusions half unconsciously formed in the mind as the result of human experience operating on human feeling — the practical wisdom which we call common sense.  Human conduct, individual and aggregate, must be regulated and determined by the consensus of the judgment of the wisest made effective through its gradual acceptance as the judgment of the majority.  Private ownership of land, with its accompanying rent, is justified, not by an imaginary inherent right in the individual, which has no real existence and so cannot be conveyed, but because the interests of Society require the stimulus to effort which private ownership and private ownership only can give.  And here I shall leave this point without the further illustration and elaboration with which I could torment you longer than you could keep awake.  And with the other two points I will confine myself to the most condensed forms of statement.

Interest — Socialists and non-Socialists agree that what a man makes is his.  Socialists and I agree that every man is entitled to his just share of the Social dividend.  I believe, and in this I suppose the Socialists would agree with me, that when a man gets his annual dividend he may use it, or keep it for future use.  If, while he does not use his dividend, or the product of his labor, he permits others to use it to their profit, it seems to me that he is entitled to some satisfaction in compensation for his sacrifice.  I believe it to the interest of Society that he have it.  By individual thrift Society accumulates, and it is wise to encourage thrift.

If I build a mill and, falling sick, cannot use it, it is fair that he who does use it shall pay me for my sacrifice in building it.  If I forego possible satisfactions of any kind, those whom I permit to enjoy them should recompense me.  And that is interest.  Its foundation as a right rests not only on those natural sentiments of justice with which the normal man everywhere is endowed and behind which we cannot go, but on the interest of Society to encourage the creation of savings funds to be employed for the benefit of Society.