44 WORLD-POWER AND EVOLUTION 



facturing industries of France cannot be expanded anything like 

 so easily as those of the United States. This is partly because 

 the French population is stable and there is relatively little oppor- 

 tunity to draw labor from abroad. We talk about the value of 

 free immigration in stimulating industry, but we might more, 

 wisely talk about the harm done by free immigration in stimu- 

 lating hard times. As H. P. Fairchild points out, immigration 

 helps to rob us of that stability which is so valuable in France. 

 When good times are upon us immigrants flock to our shores. 

 They are so eager to work that they keep wages low. Thus at 

 times when undue expansion is under way the condition of the 

 labor market does not act as a check as it ought. During the 

 Great War we saw that scarcity of labor checks many enter- 

 prises. At that time the scarcity was harmful, but at times of 

 ordinary industrial expansion our most urgent need is some 

 agency that will prevent overproduction. In France the fixity of 

 the labor supply provides such an agent. If factories and other 

 productive works begin to expand, wages go up because there are 

 not enough workmen and there is no great foreign supply waiting 

 eagerly for a chance to fill the gap. Hence the tendency to over- 

 production is checked instead of being stimulated as it is by our 

 unreasonable system. 



France possesses still another stabilizing influence in its pro- 

 verbial thrift. Almost every French family considers that savings 

 are as necessary as earnings. Hence there is always a large body 

 of capital ready to be drawn upon in every community. This 

 obviates the danger of contraction of credit which does so much 

 to accentuate hard times in America. Another effect of the 

 thrifty habits of the French is, that when there is a slight tend- 

 ency toward depression, the expenditures of the general public 

 do not fall off so rapidly as with us. If people's incomes decline 

 a little they either save less for a while or draw on what they have 

 already stored up. Many Americans, on the contrary, especially 

 the recent immigrants, have nothing stored up and have not 



