SOCIAL SUSTENANCE. 741 



training if lie were thoroughly in earnest. Suppose that it were proved 

 beyond his own doubt to be so in the case of any statesman. Would 

 he drop his work and take to the floor-cloth ? Would he even spend 

 his idle bours in that way ? If a proposition to do so were made him, 

 he would reject it on two grounds. He would not hesitate to say that 

 it injured both himself and the woman. It would reduce his own op- 

 portunities for the enjoyment of life, and it would reduce the woman's 

 opportunities for the sustenance of her life. 



He is right. In his own case and in the domestic allotment of spe- 

 cialties he gets at the right principle by instinct as well as by reasoning. 

 It is when he comes to apply the same principle to international allot- 

 ment of specialties that by some strange infatuation he goes wrong. 

 He plainly sees that when the man A leaves to the man or woman B 

 work that he could do with less effort and higher success, both A and 

 B are benefited. Wbat he does not see is that in like manner when 

 the country A leaves to the country B the prosecution of industries in 

 which A might excel, both countries are benefited. 



He is not without some excuse for his mistake. The country A 

 always has in it some men and some capital seeking employment. Why 

 not employ these before we generously leave to others work for which 

 we have greater advantages than they ? Why not domesticate some 

 foreign industry which will give them work ? For the same reason 

 that a man who loses a good job waits awhile and hunts another 

 good one, rather than tie himself to a bad one. There are always dis- 

 placement and transitory idleness for a part of both the labor and 

 capital of a country which is making progress. It may be painful for 

 a time to the temporarily idle and displaced, but it is part of a neces- 

 sary process of readjustment and replacement. Hence, it is better for 

 all immediately better for some, and finally better for even the tem- 

 porarily displaced. This, of course, when the displacement comes as 

 a result of progress, as in the invention of a new machine, the opening 

 of new routes of commerce, or the better organization of industry. If 

 it comes from the exhaustion of mines, a shortage of money, a collapse 

 after over-speculation, or some other cause which is retrogressive 

 rather than progressive, then, indeed, will the idle capital and labor, if 

 given sufficient time, take up industries formerly left to other countries, 

 and will need no government stimulation to do so. Increase of popu- 

 lation has this natural effect. A declining or crowded country is 

 forced into less profitable industries, taking them away from the coun- 

 tries where, while not so profitable, they have been the most profitable 

 within the reach of the unfortunate inhabitants. It thus employs a 

 part of the labor and capital thrown out of work by its decline or 

 crowding. 



The capital thrown out of work by industrial progress will, if not 

 destroyed, soon find better work, and so will the labor, if accompanied 

 by sufficient energy and versatility to seek it. But, so long as there 



