256 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



cattle, has assumed the place of chief economic importance among 

 garden products. Twenty-five years ago the European crop of potatoes 

 exceeded in value the entire wheat crop of the world. In the United 

 States in 1912 the increase of potato production over the average of the 

 preceding ten years was 100,000,000 bushels, an additional bushel for 

 every person living within our borders. 



A bit of statistics may emphasize the fact of our increasing surplus. 

 The increase of rural population in the United States between 1900 

 and 1910 was 9 per cent. In the same period the production of wheat 

 increased 31 per cent. ; of corn 47 per cent. ; of rice 82 per cent. ; and the 

 value of all farm property over 200 per cent. Paralleling the rapid 

 advance in agricultural production has been the increase of mineral 

 products. In the decade the production of copper increased 40 per 

 cent; of zinc 7 per cent.; of iron 69 per cent.; of petroleum 131 per 

 cent.; and of coal 140 per cent. At the same time, the products of 

 manufacture increased far faster than the population. While the latter 

 went forward 21 per cent., the former advanced 84 per cent. How 

 directly this bears on living conditions appears in the fact that the man- 

 ufacture of food products and textile articles constitute more than a 

 third of the total and show an increase in ten years of 83 per cent. To 

 see how manufacture tends toward the food surplus, one needs but to 

 look at the grocer's shelves. There safely packed away in cans, bottles, 

 cartons, are the seasonal surpluses of widely distant zones. Vegetables, 

 fruits, fish, meats hide behind attractive covers and await the capricious 

 appetites of purchasers. Here one sees also how transportation by 

 rail and boat has eliminated zonal boundaries. Australia, South Amer- 

 ica, Europe, Asia, and the farthest corners of our own continent are 

 here brought together. The typical American epicure knows no season 

 and no territorial zone. On Christmas day he eats fruits his progen- 

 itor of a half century earlier could have had only in June, and in New 

 York he pleases himself with foods available to his ancestors only after 

 ten thousand miles of travel. 



To think of a near world famine in the face of these modern wonders 

 of production and distribution is to be disturbed by a dream. The 

 world can now produce more than it can properly consume and the 

 production is increasing at a faster rate than is the population. If 

 there is still hunger in America, it is not due to the scantiness of food. 

 It is due to the inequality of distribution, an inequality, however, that 

 is not static or necessary. We can rest assured that as soon as society 

 has partially recovered its feet after its headlong plunge into wealth, 

 it will set itself to rights and care for every man as he needs. At the 

 present time there are searching efforts being made to ascertain the 

 adequate standard of living for men of various occupations. That that 

 standard will be met out of society's rapidly accumulating surplus is as 



