THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 727 



natural course of trade. When the circulatory system of the body 

 politic is complete, the evolution of the body is complete. And, if the 

 discovery of some Keely motor or of some practicable method of 

 navigating the air is made, we shall probably enter on another period 

 of transition as violent as the last. But there is very little expecta- 

 tion of anything of the kind. Unless a " negative gravity," like that 

 in Mr. Stockton's clever story, is discovered, it is not easy to see how 

 even the navigation of the air would effect much change in our sys- 

 tem of transportation, for air-ships could hardly carry coal or heavy 

 merchandise. The probability seems to be, therefore, that we have 

 approximated our limit. Subsequent improvements will be matters of 

 detail, such as the extension of existing lines or the perfecting of eco- 

 nomical railroad operation. A system under which a piano can be 

 shipped a thousand miles for less than the price charged by the dray- 

 man who takes it to the final destination, is hardly susceptible of revo- 

 lutionary improvements. Producers at any one locality are already 

 practical competitors with the rest in their line of business. No sys- 

 tem of transportation, however perfect, can accomplish very much 

 more. 



2. When will the violence of the transition brought about by 

 steam and electricity subside ? When will the industrial population 

 become adapted to the new environment ? When will society cease 

 to pay such high premiums on organizing ability ? Clearly when the 

 necessary organization is approximately complete. So long as wealth 

 can be more advantageously employed in unaccustomed amounts or in 

 unaccustomed ways, this premium will be paid and the present phe- 

 nomena will continue, for owing to the inertia which possesses capital 

 as well as everything else, the demand for it in the particular direc- 

 tions will be greater than the supply, and a rise of price will be the 

 result. Now, it may be said with some confidence that the crisis is 

 already past. In England the year 1845 may be taken as the highest 

 point of the disturbance in departing from the old homogeneous sys- 

 tem to the modern division-of-labor system ; and in America, probably 

 the year 1869, which witnessed the completion of the Union Pacific 

 Railroad, is a corresponding period. The severity of the financial 

 crises which overtook both countries near the years mentioned seems 

 to indicate the substantial accuracy of this estimate. If this conject- 

 ure is valid, we are justified in saying that men are now running a 

 more even race for business success. Differences between individuals 

 in the common business qualities are, of course, quite great ; but no 

 one person and no hundred persons so far surpass all others as to cause 

 such results as those seen in the past twenty years. 



If, then, we may take the view that the great modern inventions 

 have spent the greater part of their disturbing force, we may conclude 

 that we are passing from a period where " multiplication of effects," 

 or divergence, has been the rule, to one of segregation and equilibra- 



