September 5, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



133 



surplus of agriculture a matter of small comparative importance, 

 and of manufacture a minor consideration. 



But the record of the growth of exports of domestic manufac- 

 tures does not warrant the assumption that higher wages are an 

 inevitable bar to exportation. Such exportation in the last twenty 

 years has much more than doubled, while the increase of popula- 

 tion was only seventy per cent. There is a constant tendency to 

 greater effectiveness of labor by the acquisition of skill, and es- 

 pecially by inventions and ingenious appliances for the saving of 

 labor. 



In certain manufactures, in which the cost of labor has been 

 double that paid by foreign competitors, exports have increased 

 beyond the advance in population, in some cases ten, twenty, even 

 thirty fold. This ability to export, notwithstanding the higher 

 rate of wages, is not as yet general, but there is a possibility, yea, 

 a certainty, of gradual enlargement of the list and especially the 

 volume of exportable goods, partly through superior ^kill, and 

 eflBoiency of labor, and perhaps in larger part from labor-saving 

 machines and processes, and from the distinctive peculiarities and 

 marked availability for their intended uses in the manufactured 

 goods. The ability to export, therefore, is less a matter of muscle 

 of the mechanic than of inventive power and of cultivated intel- 

 lect in the forms and adaptations of the thing manufactured. The 

 higher wages may thus be neutralized by the aid of mind far more 

 than of muscle. 



An analvsis of the facts that illustrate the standard of living in 

 the United States leads to the inevitable belief that the people, the 

 worker in all the hives of industry, the constructive forces of the 

 nation, exist upon a higher plane than those of any other country. 

 The following results of this investigation are presented: — 



1. The American citizen is free from the bondage of feudalism, 

 from the domination of kingly or aristocratic mastery, and from 

 the control of caste. He is an independent individual, a sovereign 

 in his own right, voluntarily submitting to laws of his own making, 

 to limitations of natural rights for the general welfare. His aspira- 

 tions are checked only by a wise judgment of his capacity, and his 

 elevation in the walks of life is limited only by his ability and 

 opportunity. He is the master of his own career and the maker 

 of his own fortune. 



3. Inducements to action lead to activity in effort; intense and 

 persistent application causes waste of tissue, of nerve and muscle; 

 and a liberal ration becomes necessary for repair of waste. The 

 opulence of nature makes rich provision for the largest alimentary 

 liberality. Therefore large consumption of all the elements of 

 nutrition is assured, fully fifty per cent more than that of the 

 average in Europe, and more than twice as much as that of the 

 less favored peoples of the world. 



3. The variety and abundance of vegetable and animal fibres, 

 by the favor of soil and climate and the energy of man, are no less 

 remarkable than the range of species and ease of cultivation of 

 the grains and fruits. The development of taste and the effort to 

 rise in social life conspire to create an extraordinary demand for 

 clothing, so easy to gratify, and so increased by the facility of its 

 gratification. 



4. It is a natural corollary of these facts, as stated heretofore, 

 that " the satisfaction of dietetic and sartorial demands of our peo- 

 ple is no more imperative than the urgency of their requirements 

 lor home-making and ornamentation." Liberal demands in food 

 and clothing are only consistent with a high appreciation of com- 

 fortable housing. Bed and board are indissolubly joined. 



5. Such a scale of expenditure presupposes a higher rate of 

 wages, a larger income than that of average peoples. The facts 

 show that our wages are from fifty to one hundred per cent higher 

 than those of the workmen, in their several classes, of the most 

 favored nations, twice as high as the average of certain countries, 

 and three times as high as that of certain others. 



6. With seventy acres of land for every farm worker, three hun- 

 dred and fifty bushels of cereals for each, with abundant indus- 

 trial or surplus crops, meats, fruits, and vegetables in equal abun- 

 dance, and markets greedy for the surplus, the farmer is in condi- 

 tion to live and thrive, or know the i-eason why his profits do not 

 meet bis expectations. 



7. The question arises. Shall the present standard of living be 



maintained ? It is a point upon which hang " the future educa- 

 tion, enterprise, independence, and prosperity of the people" of 

 the United States. It depends on the industry of the producing 

 classes,— their wisdom in the distribution of then- labor towards 

 a production that shall meet their wants. If idleness shall be 

 encouraged, production limited, importation enlarged, and de- 

 pendence on foreign countries fostered, wages will be reduced, 

 and the ability to purchase, as well as the volume of production, 

 will decline. If the advice of public and private teachers of re- 

 pressive economy, to buy every thing abroad and sit down in the 

 enjoyment of the luxury of laziness at home, shall become the 

 law of the land, short rations will follow, and high prices will 

 only be abated by the inability of our people to purchase for con- 

 sumption. 



8. If, on the other hand, we determine that there shall be no 

 decline in production, agricultural or other, we must provide for 

 it manfully by our labor, realizing that no nation can live beyond 

 its income, or consume more than it produces. 



9. Unless the largest variety of production shall be encouraged, 

 and the highest skill shall be stimulated in the endeavor to meet 

 all the wants of our people by the results of our own labor, it will 

 be impossible to have a surplus for export. The example of Spain 

 and India, in contrast with that of England and Belgium, or of 

 France and Germany, enforces this conclusion. But in view of 

 the fact that high wages must co-exist with a high standard of 

 living, as the histoi-y of wages in all countries shows, can we 

 export a surplus produced by high wages ? Our experience of 

 the last twenty years shows that our exports of domestic mer- 

 chandise, produced by the highest wages of the world, have in- 

 creased much faster than population, some a hundred, some a 

 thousand fold — not because of the fact of high wages, but in 

 spite of it ; not so much by the force of muscle as by the creative 

 power of mind. The creations of invention, in the lines of taste 

 and utility, adaptation and expedition, can nullify the obstruc- 

 tion of high wages far more than advance in skill and manual 

 dexterity. It is a matter of time, of determined effort, of high 

 endeavor, to render high wages consistent with large exportation 

 of surplus; but the future will accomplish it, if the present scale 

 of living and rate of wages of the American people shall be main- 

 tained. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



At a meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society, New 

 Zealand, Mr. Hulke exhibited a spider that carried its young on 

 its body without web or filament until they were able to run. 



— Sponge would seem to be an unpromising material for a 

 sculptor to work upon ; but that a work of art may be chiselled, 

 or rather scissored, from it Is proved by a life-size statue in sponge 

 now in the sponge department of McKesson & Eobbins, whole- 

 sale druggists, on Fulton Street, this city. The statue represents 

 a Greek sponge-gatherer standing in the bow of a boat, pole in 

 hand, gazing intently through a water- telescope at a piece of 

 sponge which he is supposed to be endeavoring to secure. The 

 figure is composed of numerous pieces of what is known as 

 leathery potters' sponge, carefully matched as to color, texture, 

 and shape, so that the statue appears to be cut from one large 

 sponge. The artist has done his work well, the face especially 

 being an excellent piece of carving. 



— Professor T. Hirsch, reporting for the Committee of the Me- 

 chanic Arts of the " Societe d'encomragement pour I'Industrie 

 Nationale " of France, at the meeting of July 11, states that the 

 committee has analyzed the work of M. Dwelshauvers-Dery, and 

 finds that " the method of calculation proposed by him is at once 

 original, and fruitful of results. In its application to the experi- 

 ments of Mr. Donkin, its author demonstrates the course to take 

 in computation, and thus facilitates the work of all those who de- 

 sire to study such questions. It constitutes an important advance 

 in the study of such complex phenomena as those of which the 

 steam-engine cylinder is the seat." The committee proposed very 

 hearty thanks from the society to the author of this work; they 

 were accorded, and the memoir of M. Dwelshauvers-Dery was di- 

 rected to be inserted in the bulletin in extenso. 



