SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1201 



put of the United States was more than 

 twice that of the rest of the world; and 

 ■wool was also produced in large quantities ; 

 but for this textile, we were hoth exporters 

 and importei"s. 



Of the most essential mineral products, 

 we were leaders of the world. More iron 

 ore and its products, iron and steel, were 

 produced in the United States than by 

 oiir two chief competitors combined — 

 Great Britain and Germany. 



Similarly the production of copper was 

 more than half that of the world. For 

 lead and zinc we led the world. The pe- 

 troleum production again was more than 

 lialf that of the world. 



Fundamental to all industry is power; 

 and power is mainly produced by coal and 

 falling water. The coal production of the 

 United States previous to the war was 

 greater than that of Great Britain, Ger- 

 many and France combined; and water 

 power was developed on a more extensive 

 scale than in any other country. 



Also the forests of the United States 

 originally surpassed those of any other 

 country; indeed wood was so abundant 

 that except in the cities we are a nation of 

 wooden houses. 



Finally the transportation system of the 

 United States has developed far beyond 

 that of any other country. The railroad 

 mileage of the United States for 100,000,- 

 000 people is 40,000 miles greater than for 

 Europe with 450,000,000 people ; and, aside 

 from Europe, is much greater than for the 

 more than 1,000,000,000 people inhabiting 

 all the rest of the world. Our transporta- 

 tional system furnished rapid movement 

 of commodities at a lower rate than that 

 of any other nation. 



It is not so many years ago that the 

 American people thought that all of their 

 natural resources would last forever. It 

 was frequently said that the deposits of 



iron ore, copper aud petroleum are inex- 

 haustible. While, before the war, we had 

 developed beyond this simple primitive 

 faith in our bigness, at least so far as sci- 

 entific men were concerned, we still took 

 it as a matter of course that each year there 

 would be enough of every essential com- 

 modity — food, clothing, metals, oil, fuel — 

 to meet without limitation any demands 

 that might be made. "While there might 

 be local want in the cities, this was not due 

 to lack of an insufficient quantity of essen- 

 tials in the country, but to our imperfect 

 economic system. Famine was unknown. 

 From childhood the great majority of our 

 people regarded an abundance of essen- 

 tial commodities as the natural order of 

 our planet ; whereas, those who consider the 

 globe as a whole know that a considerable 

 fraction of the people of the world go to 

 bed each night, if not absolutely hungry, 

 at least insufficiently nourished. From 

 time to time, since the dawn of history 

 and doubtless millenniums before, famine 

 has swept over the densely populated por- 

 tions of the earth carrying away the people 

 by hundreds of thousands or by millions. 



Control hy Supply and Demand 

 Under the conditions of abundance in 

 this country, we depended upon the law of 

 supply and demand and competition to 

 control the prices and distribution of com- 

 modities. Indeed these doctrines were a 

 faith with both the great political parties, 

 and without being formulated have been 

 unquestioningly accepted by the people 

 for a hundred years. 



The Antitrust Laws. — When the period 

 of concentration in industry came with 

 modern transportation, and it become pos- 

 sible by combination and cooperation to 

 control the market and thus unduly en- 

 hance prices, a remedy for the trusts was 

 demanded by the people. Congress de- 

 cided upon prohibition with penalties. 



