774 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



organization of labor in such a manner as to secure the greatest 

 economic return. In a word, our jDolitical economy, which, has 

 been unmoral, must be made moral, if it is to be the science 

 which shall direct men into the proper paths for the production 

 and distribution of wealth. 



In determining the character of ethical economics, it is neces- 

 sary that we should have some principle to guide us in directing 

 its course. This has already been hinted at in the suggestion that 

 it is by the survival of the socially fit that economic growth is 

 furthered. Now, society is an organism made up of mutually de- 

 pendent parts, and for its existence a certain social order is neces- 

 sary, and all actions which militate against that order are more 

 or less immoral, according to the degree in which they detriment- 

 ally affect it. Conduct which tends to lower social vitality we 

 hold to be bad, that which tends to raise it we consider good ; and 

 every practical attempt at reform proceeds upon this basis. Such 

 changes involve alterations in the social constitution, and the pro- 

 duction of an organism whose relations to the conditions of its 

 life will differ from that which preceded it, and our test of the 

 morality of the change will be its utility, " in the sense in which 

 utility means fitness for the conditions of life." Hence, our test of 

 ethical economics is social well-being. Let us subject the working 

 of the strongest economic force to this test. 



Industrial competition does not engender a struggle for exist- 

 ence, but rather a struggle for subsistence, and generally a strug- 

 gle for a subsistence of a particular kind. Where the standard of 

 living is high and the wages of the workingmen correspond to 

 it, it is obvious that, other things being equal, the laborer who is 

 well fed and well clothed will produce more than if under-fed and 

 scantily clothed. The human body, like the steam-engine, de- 

 pends upon heat for its motive force, and food is its fuel. A cer- 

 tain amount of food is absolutely essential to life. A small in- 

 crease renders man capable of doing a little work. If, now, we 

 add twenty-five per cent more heat, we get much more than a 

 quarter more work. We probably double the economic energies 

 of man. Let us double his supply of food, give him " a liberal, 

 generous diet, ample to supply all the waste of the tissues, and to 

 keep the fires of the body burning briskly, generating force 

 enough to allow the laborer to put forth great muscular exertions 

 through long periods of time," * and we reach a high degree of 

 economic efficiency. 



There is, of course, a limit to this increase of food beyond 

 which power is not increased proportionately, and, indeed, too 

 great an increase may do harm rather than good ; but it is a gen- 

 eral rule that raising the standard of living in one direction 



* " Political Economy," Walker, p. 49, 



