THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MOKTHLY. 



APRIL, 1880. 

 PEOGEESS AND POYEETT. 



By C. M. LUNGEEN. 



THE most obvious fact in the industrial life of to-day is the enor- 

 mous increase of productive power over that of any previous 

 period. Steam and electricity have transformed civilization, endowed 

 us with vaster powers, and altered profoundly the conditions of life. 

 Things that could not have been done at all, things that could only 

 have been done slowly and laboriously by unaided human exertion, 

 have been done with swiftness, exactness, and certainty by the agen- 

 cies created by human thought and skill. Things that were among 

 the undreamed possibilities are now among the commonplaces of our 

 lives. Machinery, dividing labor to an almost infinite degree, has 

 multiplied its effectiveness manifold. The railroad and the telegraph, 

 bringing men into closer and more intimate relations, have incalcula- 

 bly facilitated exchange. As a result of this greatly enhanced power 

 of production, the accumulation of wealth has gone on at an unexam- 

 pled rate. Enterprises, however great, need no longer fail for lack of 

 the requisite capital. Works can now be undertaken that in a former 

 age would have seemed and would have been vitterly chimerical. "We 

 no longer feel that it would be useless to invent railroads because of 

 the immense capital needed to build them. 



With this increase of wealth and productive power great ameliora- 

 tions have been expected. It has been the guiding and dominant faith 

 of this era of remarkable material progress that these new agencies 

 would steadily tend to lift all classes to a plane of greater material 

 comfort. With productive power outrunning consuming power, there 

 would be enough for all. Wealth would become equalized, so that 

 each would receive a share of that produced proportional to his contri- 

 bution to the common stock. The chasm l>etween the very rich and 

 VOL. XVI. — 46 



