76 American Economic Association [874 



any machine, is the production of utilities at a less ex- 

 penditure of time, energy, and money. 1 But this is 

 only another way of saying that, when aided by ma- 

 chine power, a given expenditure of time, energy, and 

 money will produce a greater quantity of utilities. 

 Utilities are the means of satisfying wants ; and the 

 satisfaction of wants is essential to life and happiness. 

 The use of machinery, by supplying wants, does there- 

 fore, one of two things ; either it "enables a larger 

 number of persons to get a living", or it enables a 

 given number "to get a better living." 2 Anyone will, 

 I think, admit that the utilities supplied by machine 

 power have not all been consumed in better livings. 

 A very great part of this additional means of satisfying 

 wants has been devoted to the maintenance of a more 

 numerous population. That this is true must be self- 

 evident when we consider how greatly the supply of 

 utilities has been increased by the use of machinery, 3 

 and how utterly impossible it would be for the labor 

 force now in existence, unaided by machinery, to pro- 

 vide even the ordinary necessities of life as we now count 



1 " Les outils ne sont que des machines simples et les machines ne 

 sont que des outiles cotnpliqus que nous ajoutons a nos bras pour en 

 augmeuter la puissance ; et les uns et les autres ne sont, a beaucoup 

 d'egards, que des moyens d'obtenir le concours des agens naturels. 

 lyeur resultat est e"videmment de donner moins de travail pour obtenir 

 la meme quantit d'utilite", ou, ce qui revient au uieme, d'obtenir plus 

 d'utilit pour la uieme quantite de travail humain." J. B. Say, Traite 

 d'Economie Politique, p. 85. 



2 Powers: L/abor Making Machinery, p. 27. 



3 See pp. 22-23. 



4 " Selbst der Aermste hat in unserer Arbeitstheilung doch mehr zu 

 geniessen als wenn er im ungeselligeu Zustand lebte : die bei uns am 

 iibelsten gestellt sind, Krankliche ohne Vermogen, Familienvater 

 mit allzu vielen Kindern, etc., wiirden im Urwalde einfach verhun- 

 gern." Roscher : Grundlagen der Nationalokonomie (edition of 

 1900), p. 166. 



