594 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



A BUGBEAR OF ECONOMICS 



By Pbofessor HERBERT ADOLPHUS MILLER 



OLIVET COLLEGE 



IT seems to be peculiarly difficult for men, whether in science, poli- 

 tics or religion, to give up a law or doctrine which has become a 

 slogan to them, after it can no longer be justified. This is true of the 

 law of diminishing returns which economists have considered to be 

 fundamental to much of their reasoning. I have been able to find but 

 one prominent economist of the present day who has made any definite 

 attack upon this " law/' 



Simon N. Patten, in the " New Basis of Civilization " says : 



The law of diminishing returns was discovered by the most stupid body in 

 England — a committee of the House of Lords. English agriculture at the close 

 of the Napoleonic wars was so abnormal that any one could see how the high 

 price of food brought poor land into cultivation. A committee, even if it was 

 stupid, could not but stumble on the pertinent facts that formulated the law. 

 But their perception of it does not account for its subsequent vogue. The real 

 question of control is, Why did a nation, naturally optimistic and in a period 

 of rapid industrial advance, accept the hopeless doctrine and permit it to curb 

 their thinking for generations? Why also do teachers in America, where notori- 

 ously it never has been in operation, hold devoutly to it and spend their time 

 expounding a lame philosophy to their classes? 



Professor Patten does not follow this statement with a specific dis- 

 cussion as to his reasons, although his whole book is based on the prin- 

 ciple of increasing returns. 



I have looked through many books of modern writers on economics 

 and find that all lay much emphasis on this law. The following are 

 typical definitions from prominent economists. Seligman in his " Prin- 

 ciples of Economics " says that " The law of diminishing returns is . . . 

 the foundation of the law of rent. A farmer will some time reach a 

 point where it will not pay him to add another laborer or another ma- 

 chine to his land because beyond the margin of profitable expenditure 

 every additional ' close ' of capital or labor will mean a return insufficient 

 to cover cost. . . . The law of diminishing returns is universal and ap- 

 plies to everything that possesses value." Professor Seager in his " In- 

 troduction to Economics " says, " After a certain point has been reached 

 in the cultivation of an acre of land or exploitation of a mine increased 

 applications of labor and capital yield less than proportionate returns in 

 product, it being understood, of course, that no important change is 



