762 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



choice, require more urging, and all the orders begin to accumulate 

 during the last days preceding the opening of the season. 



In the agricultural world, fashion has produced transformations 

 no less serious, some of them unfortunate. The abuse of ornamental 

 feathers has brought about the destruction of all sorts of birds which 

 had protected the crops against the ravages of various insects. It is 

 to the democrac}^ of fashion, as well as to its instability, that we must 

 attribute the conditions in textile manufactures, where we find a 

 reduction in the use of flax, an enormous increase in cotton, and the 

 displacement of vegetable dyes by the more brilliant though less 

 serviceable dyestuffs derived from coal tar. In the animal world 

 certain species of fur animals are on the verge of extinction, and 

 there should be either attempts at domestication, as in the case of 

 the blue fox and the opossum, or hunting regulations by the creation 

 of open districts with complete prohibition during a certain period. 

 In Siberia a recent law suspends the hunting of the sable from the 

 1st of February, 1913, to the 15th of October, 1916. Likewise an 

 international agreement between England, Canada, Russia, Japan, 

 and the United States prohibited May 11, 1911, the hunting of fur 

 seals in the open sea of the North Pacific.^ 



The present democracy of fashion is the great social factor to be 

 emphasized. It has encouraged a great consumption of products; 

 a depreciation in quality and prices ; it has induced a very great in- 

 stability, which disconcerts both producers and buyers; manufac- 

 turers must make the same classes of products for all markets; 

 fashion is followed at the same time by all classes of society. The 

 wheel turns quickly and ceaselessly. On the other hand, these rapid 

 changes do not take place without a slack season for the workman, 

 without quick fluctuations in salaries, or without change of speciali- 

 zation. 



"To follow the fashion" becomes not only a pastime, but even a 

 duty ; " intellects are made frivolous thereby ; those who pride them- 

 selves in appearing elegant are obliged to make the clothing of 

 themselves a veritable occupation and a study, which assuredly does 

 not tend to elevate the mind, nor does it render them capable of 

 great things." ^ 



To this moral and social evil an economic difficulty is also added. 

 Fashion is a waste; "it has the privilege of casting things aside 

 before they have lost their freshness; it multiplies consumption 

 and condemns that which is still good, comfortable, and pretty for 

 something that is no better. Besides, it robs a State of that which it 



1 On this subject see our work, L' exploitation lationelle du globe, 1 vol., Doin & Son, 

 1912. 



^ E. de Laveleye, quoted by E. Picard. Le luxe et les grandes fortunes. Revue 

 ficonomique Internationale, July, 1905. 



