242 LAND AND LABOR. 



sity of producing sufficient to supply society with food 

 for body and mind, clothing, and shelter. These wants 

 are the same that compelled Adam to labor, and since 

 the beginning of time a new want has not been dis- 

 covered. All the changes that have occurred in the 

 long ages that have passed since man has been upon 

 the earth, have been in the form and manner of the 

 supply. 



It has been shown that within the present century, 

 since the time of our immediate fathers, our powers 

 of production, in the supply of our physical wants, 

 have increased more than ten fold. That being the 

 case itfollows as a logical conclusion that the concrete 

 man should now be in the enjoyment often fold of the 

 comfort and ease that our fathers could command. 

 But the fact is, that as our powers have developed 

 idleness has increased, and, consequently, poverty and 

 distress have multiplied. Strikes have become more 

 frequent and upon a larger scale, and their failures 

 more significant. Wages, under the power of compe- 

 tition, have been steadily depressed, and the consump- 

 tion and trade of the masses reduced. 



In a purely commercial view we are ultimately 

 thrown back upon the conclusion that it is in the 

 condition of the masses of society that is found all 

 the elements of successful trade or financial disaster. 

 That it is in the consumption of the masses that is 

 found the demand for production ; and that to-day 

 there is a more imperative demand that every man's 

 power of consumption should be cultivated to the full- 

 est extent than ever before. No man can throw into 

 trade, through consumption, a greater amount than 



