Money, without brains, always is dangerous. Properly used, it is the most
important essential of civilization. The simple breakfast here described could not have
been delivered to the New York family at a dime each, or at any other price, if
organized capital had not provided the machinery, the ships, the railroads, and the
huge armies of trained men to operate them.
Some slight idea of the importance of ORGANIZED CAPITAL may be had by
trying to imagine yourself burdened with the responsibility of collecting, without the
aid of capital, and delivering to the New York City family, the simple breakfast
described.
To supply the tea, you would have to make a trip to China or India, both a very
long way from America. Unless you are an excellent swimmer, you would become
rather tired before making the round trip. Then, too, another problem would
confront you. What would you use for money, even if you had the physical
endurance to swim the ocean?
To supply the sugar, you would have to take another long swim to Cuba, or a
long walk to the sugar beet section of Utah. But even then, you might come back
without the sugar, because organized effort and money are necessary to produce
sugar, to say nothing of what is required to refine, transport, and deliver it to the
breakfast table anywhere in the United States.