December 30, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



899 



markets of the world are known every day, 

 are the direct result of scientific discovery 

 and of the application of the laws of 

 nature. 



Of course, Malthus depended upon the 

 dogma of the older economists, that labor 

 is the basis of all values, a doctrine which 

 constituted the ground-rock on which Marx 

 and his associates builded their socialistic 

 structure. Science is steadily, and rapidly 

 too, ridding the world of this doctrine, for, 

 in connection with the Malthusian theory, 

 it shows that labor, while the origin of 

 values, is not and can not be the sole basis 

 of all values. 



In the light of present-day conditions 

 there is little place for either the theory of 

 the pressure of population upon the food 

 supply or the theory that labor is the basis 

 of all values. We are now having a wheat 

 crop of nearly 800,000,000 bushels, a corn 

 crop of nearly 3,000,000,000 bushels, an oat 

 crop of close upon 1,000,000,000 bushels, 

 and other crops in proportion. This is for 

 our own country alone, and it gives us the 

 privilege of feeding the world and of re- 

 lieving it of the fears of starvation or of 

 the conditions of abject poverty ; these are 

 conditions which now affect few and excep- 

 tional cases, and not the masses. 



Closely allied to the doctrine of the pres- 

 sure of population upon the food supply is 

 the law of diminishing returns, a law which 

 holds now in all works on political economy. 

 Science has not destroyed the law, but has 

 modified it. It is fundamental and all- 

 embracing, but is usually applied to the 

 agricultural industry, although it extends 

 in its principles to all industries, as that 

 law of physics that increased speed is at 

 the expense of power applies to all mechan- 

 ical contrivances; and yet the law of 

 diminishing returns, through scientific dis- 

 covery and investigation, has been so far 

 modified as to invalidate largely its relation 

 to the Malthusian theory of population. 



Volumes might be written relating to the 

 influence that machinery has exerted in this 

 respect — machines whose construction re- 

 sults in processes that parallel the work of 

 the human brain and the human hand. 

 Modern science shows that such machinery 

 does not have the efliect outlined by Doctor 

 Smith in his story of the pin machine. To 

 these machines we apply steam, compressed 

 air, water, electricity. All the great forces 

 of nature are brought into play, and 

 through the ingenious contrivances of man 

 supply the forces by which the law of dim- 

 inishing returns is modified. In all direc- 

 tions this influence is observed; in a thou- 

 sand directions we see the doing awaj' with 

 the rule of thumb and the application of 

 distinct, positive scientific principles. The 

 factory itself is a scientific structure, in- 

 volving the highest naathematical skill. 

 Through these things and the application 

 of new principles in agriculture science 

 overcomes the influence of the seasons by 

 l^reserving products, by equalizing prices, 

 and by all the other means by which the 

 world is brought into closer contact, one 

 nation or people with another. 



The latest discoveries are, of course, the 

 most effective in modifying the law. A 

 gentleman in one of the eastern states has 

 about seven acres under glass. He raises 

 cucumbers, lettuce and other things for the 

 winter markets. A few years ago he found 

 that all the plants on the northern side of 

 his houses grew slowly, lacking that de- 

 velopment attained by the plants on the 

 southern side. He alternated by trans- 

 planting. Still he found the plants on the 

 northern side developed slowly and unsatis- 

 factorily. Of course, he attributed this to 

 the lack of sunlight on the northern side. 

 AVhen he had about given up the idea of 

 securing any evenness in the growth of his 

 plants the town inaugiirated a system of 

 electric lighting, and established along the 

 northern side of his houses several powerful 



