80 



SCIEJS'CE. 



[Vol. IX., ]So. 208 



time of its appearance. In the present paper Mr. 

 Atkinson considers the sources of the weakness 

 of nations governed by dynasties, and presents 

 some conclusions that must sound strange enough 

 to the adherents of the ' blood and iron ' policy. 

 The writer also indorses Professor Seeley's con- 

 clusion that nearly all the European wars of re- 

 cent times have originated in the desire of one 

 nation to dominate a continent, or part of a con- 

 tinent, in order to build up colonies the commerce 

 of which might be controlled by the mother- 

 coiintry. Mr. Atkinson points out that the funda- 

 mental fallacy here is economic, and consists in 

 regarding commerce as a sort of war in which 

 what one nation gains, others must lose. It "was 

 the international jealousy arising from pursuance 

 of this policy that gave us for a mere song the 

 vast territory embraced in the Louisiana purchase. 

 This war-waging policy has resulted in the raising 

 of funds by mortgaging the future through the 

 medium of a national debt ; and this, says Mr. 

 Atkinson, has now become the chief source of 

 the weakness of nations. He shows that the 

 same century that has seen the European national 

 debts increase from $2,600,000,000 to over |22, 000,- 

 000,000 has also seen Spain, Portugal, Austria, 

 and Greece become bankrupt, and Russia with- 

 out credit. 



Large as our national debt seems, and is when 

 compared with our financial history previous to 

 the rebellion, it is small in comparison with the 

 national debts of Europe. Indeed, as Mr. Atkin- 

 son says, when at its highest point in 1865, it was 

 $84 per capita, an average which is equalled by 

 the debts of the commercial and manufacturing 

 states of Europe to-day. And while we have, 

 omitting Alaska, 32.7 acres per head of population. 

 Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Holland, 

 and Belgium have only 2.8 acres per capita. On 

 the other hand, while our national debt is only 73 

 cents per acre, that of the above-mentioned coun- 

 tries is $30.06 per acre. The force under arms in 

 those countries, omitting the reserves, is at the ratio 

 of one man to each two hundred acres, and the an- 

 nual tax for his support averages $1.10 per acre. 

 With us the ratio is one man to fifty -one thousand 

 acres, and the annual tax for his support and 

 for all other military purposes is something over 

 three cents per acre. The war- waging countries 

 have obtained, however, one advantage over us, 

 which is probably due to the extent and perfection 



of their military systems ; and that is, that while 

 it takes $1,600 a year to sustain each man in the 

 army and navy of the United States, — including 

 the cost of ships, fortifications, navy-yards, and 

 so forth, —the continental nations do it for $223 

 per man. 



Mr. Atkinson next proceeds to establish a com- 

 parison between the product per capita of European 

 countries and that of the United States, at its 

 measure in money. In this problem he takes the 

 known factors to be the relative rate of wages 

 paid in the countries considered, the relative 

 amount of national taxation per capita, and the 

 assumption that the value of the per capita annual 

 product of the United States is two hundred dol- 

 lars' worth. From these data Mr. Atkinson figures 

 out the value of the product per capita of other 

 countries by adding to the original elements of 

 cost — the sum of the current rates of wages and 

 the per capita taxes — from five to fifteen per 

 cent as the corresponding profit. As a specific 

 example of this computation, we have the follow- 

 ing : " Assuming that one person sustains two 

 others in France as well as in this country, we 

 know first that the average wages in France are 

 not more than sixty per cent the rate of wages in 

 this country. We also know that national taxes 

 are eighteen dollars per head in France, and less 

 than five dollars here. We need, therefore, only 

 to establish the rate of profit which will induce 

 the employment of capital in the arts which can 

 be established in France, in order to reach an ap- 

 proximate estimate of the average value of the 

 product of each person employed in productive 

 industry." Then, taking any group of skilled 

 artisans in this country who earn two dollars a 

 day, each supporting two other persons, the final 

 value of the product of one such workman, fol- 

 lowing the method above outlined, would be six 

 hundred and sixty dollars, divided into, profits, 

 sixty dollars ; taxes, fifteen dollars ; net wages, 

 five hundred and eighty-five dollars. The gross 

 value of the French workman's product, similarly 

 computed, is found to be four hundred and four- 

 teen dollars, of which fifty-four dollars is diverted 

 for taxes, and fifty- four dollars for profits. 



Many of the other statistics and conclusions are 

 of equal interest with the above, but we have not 

 space to quote them all. For example : if the 

 "product per capita of the United States may 



