248 The Dangers of Cutting Loose 



copies of the result will be so cheap that our 

 books of to-day will seem extravagantly dear 

 in comparison. With music it will be the same 

 thing, only that the phonograph will do in this 

 field what it has never been possible to do be- 

 fore. To provide for the intellectual food of 

 man was formerly more difficult than to pro- 

 vide for his physical sustenance. To-day it 

 is the other way. In the future, thanks to 

 electricity, that great power of coming ages by 

 which the forces of nature are to be harnessed, 

 food and clothing and everything that ma- 

 chinery can make will be inconceivably cheap. 

 Some thinkers believe that even by the year 

 2000 one hour's work a day will suffice to give 

 a man more comforts and luxuries than he now 

 earns by eight or ten hours' work. It will be 

 argued, of course, that what man considers his 

 necessaries will grow faster than his means for 

 supplying them : in those favored days to come 

 the day laborer will deem himself unfortunate 

 if he cannot dwell in marble halls and eat off 

 gold plate. Nevertheless there is a point when 

 we can say that a man is well sheltered from 

 the elements, well clothed, well fed ; intellectual 



