232 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



So skill, once acquired, is combined with all future efforts in the 

 same line, or even in slightly different lines. 



Care must be taken not to confound our sixth combination with 

 the ideas conveyed by the word " capital." Cotton produced, and not 

 yet woven or worn, is called capital. It is not necessary for us to 

 quarrel with that use of the term. We may use it in the same way 

 without detriment to the clearness of our ideas, or the force of logic. 

 For that matter, we may call anything capital which has been produced 

 and not yet consumed. We shall have only incidental use for the term, 

 and in most cases the ordinary business sense of it will do. 



These six forms of the combination of human efforts for the pur- 

 pose of securing an increase of results more than commensurate with 

 the increase of effort are, like the simple elements in chemistry or 

 the three forms of the lever in mechanics, generally found united or 

 co-working, and in an infinite variety of ways. Thus, as between 

 themselves, the actors in a play exemplify the second combination ; as 

 between them and the audience, the combination is of the fifth form. 

 So, in the production of cotton cloth, there is combination in the sec- 

 ond form as between the different classes of operatives in the factory, 

 and combination in the third form as between all the factory opera- 

 tives and all the employes in the cotton-field. 



But we plainly see that the sustenance of civilized human beings 

 is the work of a mutual-aid society of stupendous proportions and 

 well-nigh inscrutable complexity. To a rapidly growing extent it 

 takes in the whole world. But the greater the civilization the greater 

 the complexity, and the greater the proportion of mutual helpfulness 

 to immediate self-helpfulness. Hence the greater difficulty, but at the 

 same time the greater necessity, of a thorough study of the methods 

 of this mutual helpfulness, and of the terms on which it is rendered. 



To this study I hope to contribute something, and I shall not be 

 disappointed if it is something very far short of a revolution. It may 

 be nothing but the discovery, or selection, or utilization of a new point 

 of view. But even this may enable some fellow-student of taller 

 stature to catch a glimpse of some landmark, or alignment of land- 

 marks, which will prove a key to the whole situation. Political econ- 

 omy has been termed the science of wealth ; in order to widen the 

 field, " wealth " has been called " weal " ; again, it has been called the 

 science of exchanges, and again the word "exchanges" has been 

 widened to admit of an evidently needed expansion of treatment. I 

 propose to let these words shrink back to their every-day meaning, 

 and adopt a treatment and a definition of the science which will take 

 in every effect of social relations on individual sustenance of every de- 

 gree of amplitude. For want of a better term to express this broad 

 view, I have translated "political economy" into "social suste- 

 nance." The new term is intended to interpret, and not to supersede, 

 the old one. 



