10 LAND AND LABOR. 



The discovery of metals, the construction and im- 

 provement of tools and machinery of every nature that 

 have so wonderfully increased man's power of produc- 

 tion, have revolutionized all the social and industrial 

 relations of mankind in almost exact proportion to 

 their development and use. Even the moral forces, 

 also, are acted upon and stimulated for good or evil, 

 in like degree, by these material discoveries and 

 developments. This revolution is not confined to 

 Christendom ; it reaches out and extends into all so- 

 cieties and countries possessed of any degree or class 

 of civilization. 



If these premises be true, and they hardly admit of 

 a doubt, it follows as a matter of necessity that we 

 must examine, in some degree, into the nature and 

 extent of these material developments if we really 

 wish to obtain a correct understanding of the causes 

 and tendencies of the world's present material distress 

 and moral destitution. In opening this discussion it 

 appears to be proper to lay down certain economic 

 principles that have become fixed, and are, as nearly 

 as possible, universally accepted as fundamental. 



Alam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, more than 

 OIK- hundred years ago, taught : 



Tlint. "the annual labor of every nation is the fund which 

 inally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences 

 of life which it annually consumes." 



That "the demand for those who live by wages naturally in- 

 creases with the increase of national wealth, and can not possi- 

 bly inm-asr without it." 



That "it is not in the richest countries, but in the most thriv- 

 ing, or in those which are growing rich the fastest, that the 

 wages of labor st." 



