The "Interests" have only recently become sufficiently united, however, to make a common political effort, and it is only after mature deliberation that the more statesmanlike of the capitalists are beginning to feel confident that they have found a political plan that will succeed.

As long as the business world was itself fundamentally divided, small capitalists against large, one industry against the other, and even one establishment against another in the same industry, it was impossible for the capitalists to secure any united control over the government.
The lack of organization, the presence of competition at every point, made it impossible that they should agree upon anything but a negative political policy.
But now that business is gradually becoming politically as well as economically unified, government ownership and the other projects of "State Socialism" are no longer opposed on the ground that they must necessarily prove unprofitable to capital.

If their introduction is delayed, it is at the bottom because they will require an enormous investment, and other employments of capital are still more immediately profitable.

Machinery, land, and other material factors still demand enormous outlays and give _immediate_ returns, while investments in reforestation or in the improvement of laborers, for example, only bring their maximum returns after a full generation.

But the semi-monopolistic capitalism of to-day is far richer than was its competitive predecessor.
It can now afford to date a part of its expected returns many years ahead.