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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 396 



supplies from the factories of Christendom, the disparity in con- 

 sumption between this and other countries must be great indeed. 

 With an average per capita consumption of 17.5 pounds of cotton, 

 8.5 of wool, and a large quantity of silk, linen, and other fibres, 

 the claim of superiority in supply of clothing cannot well be dis- 

 puted. Thus one- twentieth of the population of the world con- 

 sumes nearly a fourth of the wool product of the world. If the 

 people of Europe should demand an equally liberal supply, the 

 earth might be scoured in vain for the requirements of such a con- 

 sumption. As they do not, it may be supposed that a larger pro- 

 portion of cotton would be needed; but a consumption equal to 

 that of this country would not leave a pound for North or South 

 America, Asia, Australasia, or Oceanica. Indeed it would not 

 suffice for more than a supply of 15 pounds per head to Europe 

 alone. 



The satisfaction of the dietetic and sartorial demands of our 

 people is no more imperatire than the urgency of their require- 

 ments for home-making and ornamentation. No able bodied 

 craftsman or skilled laborer, at forty years of age, needs to pay 

 rent for his habitation from inevitable necessity. If he does, it is 

 because of extravagance, mismanagement, dissipation, or peculiar 

 misfortune. There are crowded and unhealthful quarters in New 

 York and other cities, but they are mainly occupied by lower 

 classes of foreigners. Philadelphia, a city of the largest class, 

 with a million of people by no means exclusively native born, has 

 a dwelling-house for every six inhabitants. Washington is equally 

 well provided with homes largely owned hy their occupants. There 

 are log-cabins in the South, board dwellings on the prairies, and 

 even " dug-outs" on the plains of the more distant West; but they 

 are temporary expedients of those too busy in opening farms and 

 growing crops to build permanent houses, and too poor to use 

 their scanty capital in expenditures not immediately and largely 

 productive. A glance at the census records of manufacture of 

 furniture and furnishing, of hardware, of heating and illuminat- 

 ing apparatus, of ingenious devices for saving labor and expediting 

 domestic processes, reveals a wealth of suggestion in the lines of 

 comfort and of luxury in building and ornamentation of homes. 

 The fact is gratifying, as it is indisputable, that a large part of this 

 material goes into the houses of the working classes; if not so 

 much of the costly and elegant, at least a large proportion of the 

 tasteful, ingenious, and comfortable appliances of home equiji- 

 ment and adornment. The evidences of prosperity of the produ- 

 cing classes are not seen alone in well furnished homes, but in 

 many forms of profitable investment in real estate, stocks and 

 bonds, and in money savings banks. 



The American citizen is not content to exist as a mere animal. 

 Physical well-being does not limit his desire or aspiration. He is 

 especially solicitous for the welfare and advancement of his chil- 

 dren, and" freely depletes a limited income in their education and 

 training for a career in life, often upon other than ancestral lines. 

 This tendency may become excessive, and is already to some ex- 

 tent, it must be admitted, creating a distaste for useful industry, 

 and a desire for conspicuous position, for accumulation without 

 labor, and speculative rather than productive occupation. Thus 

 the average American lives upon a high plane, exciting the envy 

 or the emulation of people of other countries, and inducing ex- 

 traordinary immigration. 



A high standard of living requires higher wages. While the 

 wages of European artisans and mechanics, and of farm laborers, 

 have advanced in recent times, they nowhere approach very 

 closely the rate of wa§es received by the same classes in this coun- 

 try. In an extended discussion of the rate of wages in the lead- 

 ing occupations, before the London Statistical Society in 1880, by 

 Mr. J. S. Jeans, it was claimed as a deduction from available 

 statistics that the wages in the United States were 205 per cent 

 higher than in France, 163 per cent higher than in Germany, and 

 84 per cent higher than in Great Britain. His estimate of the 

 agricultural wages of Great Britain was 12 shillings per week, or 

 about $159 per annum. The average wages of white farm labor- 

 ers in the United States, as returned to the Department of Agri- 

 culture in May of the present year, is $276 per annum, which is 

 80 per cent above the rate quoted for Great Britain. According 

 to accepted estimates of the rate of wages of men in the principal 



trades of France, the wages of women in this country are from 

 60 to 80 per cent higher, A report of the Department of Labor 

 makes the income of women from regular occupations, as averaged 

 from 5,716 returns in 22 principal cities, |295.51 per annum, with 

 $40 average additional income in 632 of the returns. 



Land is the freest thing in America. With nine million farmers 

 and farm laborers, cultivating over five milUon farms, but a third 

 of the land is taken up, but a small part of that is under crops, 

 and the area under nominal cultivation is superficially treated and 

 scarcely up to half its maximum production. Within a few months 

 past there has been an expression of dissatisfaction with the profits 

 of farming, made mostly by political farmers, and relating mainly 

 to the prices of cereals. Cotton brings fully the average price of the 

 last decade, and the last crop was the largest ever grown ; still the 

 ferment of dissatisfaction has leavened the whole South. State 

 and national statistics of the last ten years show that agricultural 

 indebtedness has decreased in that region, that the home market; 

 is increasing, and that prosperity is more general than ever be- 

 fore; still fanners appear to be unhappy. It is mainly a case of 

 aroused ambition, and a determination to be felt in business, and 

 especially in politics — and it is in these respects a hopeful indica- 

 tion. 



There has been much said .about farm mortgages, — qiute too 

 much. The most i-eckless exaggerations have been made, and 

 unfortunately have been repeated in legislative halls, and in news- 

 paper interviews and editorials. If the ceusus can obtain the facts, 

 it will show that they have been magnified enormously to mislead 

 the public. All statistical analysis of available data testifies to the 

 truth of this averment. Much the largest proportion of the farm 

 mortgages of the country are for lands and improvements, increase 

 of investment, settlement of estates, and release to sons by wealthy 

 retiring farmers, and are evidences of enterprise and self-reliance 

 and thrift. 



Shall the standard of living be maintained ? This is a grave 

 question. Upon its maintenance depend the future education, 

 enterprise, independence, and prosperity of the people. It is 

 pertinent also to frame the inquiry. Will it be maintained ? for 

 there are influences, from without and perhaps from within, that 

 possibly tend to inevitable lowering of the present standard. Our 

 population has doubled in less than thirty years. There is every 

 reason to believe that it will exceed the present population of 

 Europe before the end of the next century. With five times the 

 present number of people to feed and clothe, can they be fed and 

 clothed as well? It may be, if they continue industrious, if the 

 proportion of non-producers does not increase, if labor shall be 

 distributed harmoniously in production, and if the laborer can. 

 secure a just recompense. If the present disregard of the require- 

 ments of national economy in production shall continue, if we 

 remain idle at home and go abroad to supplement the deficiencies 

 created by our own inertia, a lower level will be inevitable. Some- 

 thing cannot come from nothing. No nation can consume more 

 than it produces. It is useless to ask what natural productions we 

 can profitably grow. What can we not grow? is a more appro- 

 priate question. 



As the scale of expenditure must be limited by income, by 

 wages, the rate of wages must be maintained or the standard of 

 living will inevitably be lowered. Without reduction of wages 

 and decrease of cost of manufacture, is enlarged exportation of 

 surplus products possible? If not, it will be better to live well at 

 home, without a surplus, than to live meanly in order to help for- 

 eigners to better living. 



By comparing our increase of population, to be fed here, with 

 the increase of foreign dependents on our surplus, we find at least 

 twenty new domestic mouths to fill for every one in foreign lands. 

 In the last decade there has been decrease ; in the previous one 

 there was considerable increase. Only crop disaster, threatened 

 famine abroad, can enlarge the foreign demand. While our popu- 

 lation is enlarging at the rate of nearly two millions per annum, 

 our increase of production will be needed mainly at home, and it 

 is an even question whether the foreign requirements will increase 

 or decrease. It is therefore clearly apparent that the demand for 

 augmented production will come mainly from growth of the pop- 

 ulation of the United States. This makes the exportation of the 



