IQ Jan., 1919.] America and Australia Compared. 19 



workmen. In India, where individual production is small because little 

 machinery is used, the classes are poor. 



High production alone can raise wages very considerably, and high 

 wages need not cause dearness. If doubling or trebling of wages is 

 accompanied by doubling or trebling of production, the commodities 

 made by high wages need not suffer. Henry Ford has realized the value 

 of this principle. He pays the highest wages and produces the 

 cheapest motor cars. 



One of the greatest dangers we have to face in Australia is the 

 spread of the insidious doctrine of slackening of output. Nothing will 

 bring the community more rapidly to a condition of poverty and 

 unrest. 



The nation is a great co-operative society. Some men must produce 

 food, some must make boots, and some clothes, &c. If all workers limit 

 the output they may conceivably raise wages, but there will be little 

 food, fuel, boots and clothes to go round. On the other hand, if all the 

 workers produce with the help of the most perfect machinery vast quan- 

 tities of clothes, fuel, food, the goods will have to be consumed, and 

 they can only be consumed by the many. High production all round 

 leads to high consumption all round. 



As far as agriculture is concerned, we want to develop production 

 and cheapen it by better transportation, cheaper freights, better roads, 

 more extensive use of agricultural machinery, and a higher efficiency 

 among the great mass of farmers. 



(3) The development of leadership. Whatever may be the draw- 

 backs of American higher education as contrasted with European pro- 

 totypes, there is no question that it develops great engineers, architects, 

 chemists, scientists, organizers, leaders, and administrators, on whose 

 activity the future of the nation largely depends. America during the 

 last ten years has spent more on higher education than any other nation, 

 and she is now beginning to reap the benefit in the remarkable develop- 

 met of her industries and her agriculture. 



Australia has undoubtedly great natural resources. "We could un- 

 doubtedly raise sufficient foodstuffs to support a population equal to 

 the present population of America. A bold policy of immigration, 

 developmental railways, improved transportation, liberal land settlement 

 laws, provision of good roads, extension of irrigation facilities, develop- 

 ment of water storages, opening up of new markets, development of 

 minor industries — all these will mightily aid our agriculture — bring 

 new areas under cultivation, and develop this country. These are 

 material aids to settlement and profitable production. But something 

 more is required to make the agriculture of the country permanent, pro- 

 fitable and productive. 



You may increase the agricultural output of a State by all these 

 methods, and you may temporarily stimulate production by fixing prices, 

 bonuses, and other artificial aids; but the only way to secure a genuine 

 and permanent increase in agricultural output is to improve the farming 

 methods of the country, and apply the teaching of science to its agri- 

 cultural practice. 



That is the clear lesson of experience in all the great agricultural 

 countries of the world. 



