THE FARMER AND HI^^ COMPETITORS. 101 



But there is another way of looking at this matter. The 

 combined kibor of mankind for a given time, together with 

 the use of the accumulations of ages, results in the power to 

 obtain a certain number of satisfactions which those belonging 

 to the race may enjoy during that time or reserve for future 

 enjoyment. Each one of us is struggling to obtain for himself 

 in each year the largest possible portion of this common stock 

 of satisfactions.* In common language we do not use the 

 term "satisfactions," but "money," wliich, so far as they are 

 objects of economic thought, will procure them. What, how- 

 ever, we really seek is the satisfaction wliiuh ^Wt obtajn by the 

 use of money. -' - . ,. . . 



When a farmer who has hay to spaiG' deji-s witli-ono wiio 

 desires to buy hay, we do not usually think of the temporary 

 relation as one of competition, but as an exchange of satisfac- 

 tions for the mutual benefit of both, as in fact it usually is; but 

 the farmer desires to get the highest price possible for his hay, 

 with no thought for the profit which the buyer may obtain for 

 its use, while the buyer desires to purchase as cheaply as 

 possible without regard to what it may have cost the seller. 

 They are competing w'ith each other for the possession of 

 money. 



The economic transactions of modern times have become 

 so inextricably interwoven with each other that they can by 

 no possibility be separated, and the result is that all men are 

 competitors of all other men. This competition which per- 

 vades all nature is called the struggle for existence. Its only 

 limit is that imposed by affection, which leads men to forego 

 personal satisfactions for the sake of their families and friends, 

 and by an altruisticf feeling which impels a comparatively few 

 men and many more women to prefer the general welfare to 

 their personal gain. Economic science recognizes the exist- 

 ence of this influence but does not deal w-ith it. It assumes 

 competition to continue unhampered. 



*" Satisfaction " is a term used in economic science to denote anything 

 which is the object of human desire, even though its use may be actually 

 injurious. 



f Altruism means " regard for others." 



