746 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



objection that it would greatly increase the difficulty of main- 

 taining a proper balance between the annual income and the 

 expenditure of the nation. 



The principle which lies at the basis of a bounty upon agri- 

 cultural exports is, furthermore, antagonistic to economic and 

 social progress. It looks with disfavor upon the introduction of 

 improvements, whereby production is cheapened and human wants 

 are more easily satisfied, and places the interest of a class above 

 that of society in general. Carried to its logical conclusion, the 

 principle would justify some kind of state aid to those in every 

 industry, who, through being under-sold, are subjected to financial 

 loss. Within the past fifty years the machinery employed in the 

 iron, cotton, and woolen industries has several times been rendered 

 worthless, save for use as old iron, by the introduction of cheapen- 

 ing appliances in production. Nor has the process stopped. The 

 owners of machinery that is, so to speak, invented out of ex- 

 istence suffer loss ; but society, being enabled to satisfy its wants 

 more easily, gains. That the advantage to the mass warrants 

 disregard of the detriment to the few is a familiar idea in 

 respect to other industries than agriculture. Society welcomes 

 cheaper transportation, cheaper clothing, and lower prices for all 

 of the products of city life ; and when such changes occur the 

 public looks on with unconcern and even with some degree of 

 pleasure especially if those upon whom such economic prog- 

 ress entails financial loss are the stockholders in some corpora- 

 tion. Certainly, then, the process which cheapens food a prime 

 necessity of life is not to be judged by a different standard. 



Finally, we have to consider the policy of bounties in its 

 bearing on the fact that, considering their efficiency, too large 

 a percentage of the people of the United States are engaged in 

 the production of food. Bounties upon agricultural exports would 

 simply be an inducement to men to engage in an industry that 

 is already overdone. Nearly 40 per cent of those ten years of 

 age and over employed in various occupations in the United 

 States are engaged in farming pursuits, while . in the highest 

 development of agriculture 20 to 2 5 per cent at most could furnish 

 food for all. 



