142 TWELFTH REPORT. 



fliiential eloment in Aiiiciican national life which stood for "})laiu living 

 and high thinking." But since the sons and daughters of these families 

 have moved west, and in the majority of cases become a,!fliiant, there 

 is reason to fear that the element just referred to has become more or 

 less lost in the multitude of the merely rich. These western sons and 

 daughters, if they have contributed any influence, have done it by so 

 combining wealth and refinement as to cast doubt upon the exclusive- 

 ness of the relation of "high thinking" to "plain living." And so a 

 relaxation toward luxury is a characteristic recent national tendency. 



There are some matters of a more technical charaeter which may be 

 dwelt upon for a moment. People judge each other by all kinds of tests. 

 In the lumber camp the best chopper is an aristocrat. In an agricultural 

 neighborhood the farmer with the largest farm or the biggest barns nuiy 

 be so. Where the process of wealth production is tangible, mastery of 

 it is likely to be given Aveight in the determination of positions in the 

 social scale. In modern society where the labor of so many men is labor 

 of the mind alone and Avliere through the existence of corporations the 

 property connections of individuals are difficult to trace, the tendency 

 is increased to judge ]>eoi)]e by the manner and the amount of their ex- 

 penditure rather than by their characteristics as producers of wealth. 

 As everyone is anxious to stand well in the opinion of his fellowmen 

 the tendency of this is obvious. The brain workers in corporate relations 

 are not a- large class to be sure, but then they are important in setting 

 the tendencies. 



The conditions of city life intensify comparisons of a materialistic 

 sort. The very neighborhood in which one lives is classified on the basis 

 of the value of the real estate, and the typical city list of calling ac- 

 (piaintances must quickly judge by the tangible means most ready at 

 hand. 



I have spoken of the partial emancipation of woman from household 

 drudgery. The leisure thus produced 1ms in part been devoted by her 

 to such elaboration of the art of living as has quite naturally called for 

 increased expenditures here and there, and in this she has been efficiently 

 aided by magazines and newspapers which now familiarize each class in 

 society with the manner of living of other classes as never before. 



It may be an error to say that we have come into a period of years 

 which will prove a turning point in our national civilization but it is 

 difficult to imagine any economic reaction more fundamental than that 

 between a nation and the land upon which it lives. If we are really 

 through Avith the easy expansion of our agriculture, as the population 

 increases we shall need to review our entire national economy and elinii- 

 mate wastes rather than give up precious utilities. There is the cost 

 of two or three hundred thousand unnecessary retail stores, the cost 

 of a considerable part of our advertising, the cost of fire losses, the cost 

 of doing without a reasonable element of vocational training in every 

 man's education, the cost of violating the i)rinciples of conservation, 

 and many other great wastes which are a part of the economic problem 

 of reorganizing our industries and our habits of consumption, which will 

 be thrust upon us if we are passing out of the pioneer stage into that 

 of a mature national economy. 



Ann Arbor. April, 11»10. 



