ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 129 



ered truth to the millions whose minds it can never reach? Why 

 produce useful commodities which those who need them are unable 

 to obtain? For while all producers are also consumers, and nearly- 

 all consumers are at the same time producers, yet few can satisfv 

 their wants, however capable they may be of producing an equiva- 

 lent in value of other forms. Inventions in the practical arts by 

 which the power is acquired to multiply the products of labor, in- 

 stead of working the rapid amelioration of the laboring classes, 

 actually injure their prospects by throwing skilled artisans out of 

 employment ; and instead of resulting in greatly increased pro- 

 duction they do not appreciably affect production, but reduce 

 the amount of labor to the disadvantage of the laborer. The 

 plea of over-production in periods of financial depression is the 

 sheerest mockery, since it is just at such times that the greatest 

 want is felt. It may be true that more is produced than the 

 consumers can obtain, but fer less is produced at all times than 

 they actually need and are able to render a full equivalent for. The 

 eager manner in which every demand for laborers is responded to 

 sufficiently proves this. It proves also that the industrial system is 

 out of order, and that we live in a pathological state of society. The 

 vast accumulations of goods at the mills avail ^nothing to the half- 

 clad men and women who are shivering by thousands in the streets 

 while vainly watching for an opportunity to earn the wherewithal to 

 be clothed. The storehouse of grain held by the speculator against 

 a rise in prices has no value to the famished communities who would 

 gladly pay for it in value of some form. 



Yet in all this the fault cannot fairly be said to lie with individ- 

 uals nor with corporations, with manufacturer nor merchant, with 

 producer nor consumer. These do but act the nature with Avhich 

 they are endowed. This defective circulation of industrial pro- 

 ducts is the result of the state of society. It is in one sense normal, 

 since it is due to the operation of natural laws governing social 

 phenomena. The enormous inequalities of both the classes named 

 and the evils resulting, constituting the major part of the woes of 

 mankind, are simply due to the fact that the agencies for distribu- 

 ting knowledge and wealth dixefree in the politico-economic sense, 

 /. e., not regulated nor controlled by intelligent foresight. The 

 contrast between moral and material progress is the contrast be- 

 tween Nature and Art. Nature is free. Art is caged. The forces 

 of Nature play unbridled among themselves, until choked by 



9 



