THE GRASSHOPPER 



333 



a very serious silk-worm disease causes thousands of yards less of 

 silk to be produced than would otherwise, thereby raising silk prices. 



To make this clear to the student, suppose you are employed for a 

 certain number of days each week and a certain number of weeks in the 

 year, and are paid $5 a day for such work ; it follows that your employer 

 must receive enough money, when selling the product you produce, to 

 pay you $5 each day, plus a proportionate amount of the rent he pays 

 for the use of the building, taxes, bookkeeping, salesmen's salaries and 

 traveling expenses, as well as allowing interest on the investment. That 

 is, what you get $5 for, will cost the ultimate user at least $10, for, it is 

 just as difficult to sell and to deliver goods as it is to make them. But 

 now suppose a storm comes up and destroys the plant, and you still 



Fig. 216. Head and Foot of Fly. 

 The Foot shows hooks, hairs, and pads. (Head after Herms). 



work, receiving your $5 each day, the traveling salesmen still work, the 

 bookkeeper, stenographer, foreman, engineer, fireman, night watchman, 

 all still are kept on the job, and receive their stated pay, but the work 

 is all put into clearing away the debris and in rebuilding. It follows 

 that all of this expense of keeping these men employed must be added 

 to the cost of the article. This loss may be spread over a great many 

 years, it is true, only a penny or two being added to the selling price 

 of the article, but it must nevertheless be paid. 



Now, suppose for a moment, that such a fire takes place regularly 

 every year, and that therefore one must work one-tenth of the entire 

 year without producing anything. This is equivalent to taking your 

 salary away for this tenth of the year though still obliging you to do the 

 work. Here is a parallel to the financial loss caused by insect pests 

 alone, to you. For this is your loss. You must work an extra five weeks 

 each year to pay for the fact that men at large rank so low in the intel- 

 lectual scale that they refuse to pay out $10 a year for each $1,000 they 

 receive to prevent tremendous food and clothing losses. 



But this mere working of about five weeks each year for nothing 



