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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



traders. No Napoleon had poured forth Berlin 

 Decrees, or pounced on the goods of a great 

 commercial people wherever he could find them, 

 or cut off from large populations their supplies 

 of articles of the highest importance, or isolated 

 mankind into untrading groups. The cause is 

 simpler and deeper than any of these. 



That cause is one, and one only : over-spend- 

 ing, over-consuming, destroying more wealth 

 than is reproduced, and its necessary conse- 

 quence, poverty. This is the real fons mali, the 

 root of all the disorder and the suffering, the 

 creator of the inevitable sequeuce of cause and 

 effect. Men have acted as a man who farmed 

 his own land, and had consumed not only the 

 portion of the crops which were his true income, 

 and were a surplus remaining over after he had 

 fully provided for all the agricultural operations 

 of the next year, but had, himself and his de- 

 pendents, devoured a portion of the seed-corn 

 and of the breeding-stock, had exchanged a por- 

 tion of the produce which was required for 

 wages in the coming year for foreign luxuries, 

 or had consumed these necessary reserves on an 

 excess of drainage, however valuable in itself 

 and ultimately enriching. Every one perceives 

 the necessary consequences of such conduct in 

 individual life ; but when the general condition 

 of a whole people is spoken of, the complications 

 are so many and so great, the simple, universal 

 process is so sunk under a multitude of intrica- 

 cies, that few retain their hold on the ultimate 

 elements which underlie all conduct, whether of 

 a single individual or of a complex population. 

 But a nation is only an aggregate of individuals. 

 Whether cloth is made by a weaver or by the 

 agency of a machinery which fills large factories, 

 and employs the most diverse and the most nu- 

 merous agents, the methods always remain the 

 same in principle. 



If we bear this governing truth in mind, that 

 analysis will always resolve the action of the sin- 

 gle man, and the combined cooperation of a host 

 of workmen under employers, managers, clerks, 

 foremen, merchants, and others, into the same 

 constituent parts, we shall be able to arrive at a 

 clear understanding of one per cent. The first 

 offender against the law that to consume more 

 than one makes must land man or nation in diffi- 

 culties and impoverishment, was America. She 

 constructed an enormous length of railways, 

 which she carried out into the wilderness. In 

 no country, ever before or since, has such a rush 

 into railway-making been ever witnessed. Nor 

 did the passion fall on railways only ; docks and 



canals, elevators and warehouses, wharves and 

 gigantic stores, were impelled forward by the 

 same whirlwind. Under these impulses she cor- 

 sumed a vast quantity of food and clothing for 

 laborers. She destroyed coals and machinery in 

 making iron. She fed and rewarded with the 

 contents of her shops and stores a large army 

 of promoters, engineers, managers, book-keepers, 

 brokers, bankers, and other functionaries of 

 every kind. What had she at the end of the 

 operation ? Long lines of iron carried over a 

 vast extent of country, holes made in the ground 

 and called tunnels, embankments, and buildings. 

 What all these laborers and functionaries had 

 eaten, drunken, worn, or used up as materials, 

 was gone forever : the rails that replaced this 

 consumption could bring no means of living till 

 after they were in operation for a long period. 

 The nation was plunged into poverty to the ex- 

 tent of what the railways had devoured in con- 

 structing. In the wilderness there was no traffic : 

 and even if the lines had been made in a popu 

 lous district, many years must have elapsed be- 

 fore the shops, warehouses, and factories, could 

 contain the same identical wealth as the rails had 

 destroyed. 



But railways enrich : quite true, but so does 

 drainage. If a man spent all his income in 

 draining, what would become of him and his 

 family ? They must starve, unless supported by 

 the loans or charity of others. So with the rail- 

 ways. If what had been consumed in construct- 

 ing them had been applied to restore the food, 

 clothing, and other things used up by their mak- 

 ers, no one would have been poorer, no one 

 would have had to betake himself to short com- 

 mons. America acted as the landlord who spent 

 more than he could afford in draining ; there 

 was a far smaller quantity of other wealth in the 

 country to support life and to carry on business ; 

 there were long lines of rails, and poverty. 



But railways are constantly made without 

 inflicting any injury on trade or on the public 

 wealth : where, then, is the limit where their con- 

 struction becomes mischievous, and brings down 

 suffering on a people ? This is the very kernel 

 of the question. The explanation is very simple 

 and very obvious ; but it is most difficult to be 

 remembered as a practical truth to govern con- 

 duct. Up to the extent of the savings of the 

 nation, expenditure on railways can do no eco- 

 nomical or financial harm ; and these infaluable 

 developers of wealth may on such a basis be 

 rationally acquired for the public good. Any 

 outlay made out of savings, be it what it may, is 



