RESULTS TO BE EXPECTED 35 



scientific methods were universally adopted in the United 

 States, doubtless one half of those now engaged in agricul- 

 ture could produce the present crops, which would compel 

 the other half to abandon the farm." This is "Engel's 

 Law." 



This " argument " assumes that we are now utilizing all the 

 land possible and that every one is fully supplied with food. 

 But when we consider the great masses of people in the slums 

 of all cities who are always underfed and whose constant 

 thought is about their next meal; when we see hundreds 

 of able-bodied men waiting in line until midnight for half 

 a loaf of stale bread, surely it seems that there is a possi- 

 bility of keeping all of the present farmers at work, if not 

 of finding new fields for others, if we make our conditions 

 such that there will be opportunities for every able-bodied 

 worker to labor at remunerative employment. 



Professor L. H. Bailey, a most industrious and accurate 

 observer, says : " Dr. Engel's argument rests on the assump- 

 tion that agriculture produces only or chiefly food ; but prob- 

 ably more than half of the agricultural products of the 

 United States is not food. It is cotton, flax, hemp, wool, 

 hides, timber, tobacco, dyes, drugs, flowers, ornamental 

 trees and plants, horses, pets, and fancy stock, and hundreds 

 of other non-edible commodities. The total food produce 

 of the United States, according to the twelfth census, was 

 $1,837,000,000. The cost of material used in the three 

 industries of textile, lumber and leather manufactories 

 alone was $1,851,000,000." 



"Dr. Engel thinks that the outlay for subsistence dimin- 

 ishes as income increases ; but comforts and luxuries increase 

 in intimate ratio with the income, and the larger part of 

 these come from the farm and forest. Dr. Engel, in fact, 



