DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 



among the factors of production. This illustra- 

 tion is a modification of Fig. 6, and it is assumed 

 that the factors will be brought together in the 

 most productive manner, that is, with the quali- 

 tatively most efficient farmers operating the most 

 productive forms of capital-goods upon the most 

 productive land and that these factors are associ- 

 ated in the proper proportion. Under these con- 

 ditions the composite units which are made up of 

 the most productive grades of the factors, will 

 yield a relatively larger product, in proportion to 

 their productivity even, than the units made up of 

 the less productive grades of the factors, and 

 hence, in the higher grades each factor will receive 

 the necessary minimum and a further differential 

 due to superior productivity and to the coopera- 

 tion of the more productive grades of the factors. 

 When the subject of distribution is viewed 

 from the standpoint of industrial progress, 

 through a long period of years, the most impor- 

 tant fact to be considered is that the other fac- 

 tors usually increase more rapidly than does land. 

 As the farmers and the capital-goods continue to 

 increase more rapidly than the land, some of the 

 better grades of these more rapidly increasing 

 factors are crowded down farther and farther 

 upon the less and less productive land. This nec- 

 essarily results in the driving out of business of 

 some of the lower grades of the farmers and the 

 capital-goods, leaving upon the margin higher 



181 



