378 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



occupations. The old idea of the school of French economists, known 

 as the physiocrats, that land is the source of all wealth, undoubtedly 

 served a useful purpose at the time, but was long ago abandoned. 

 To-day we readily recognize that any person engaged in any occupation 

 which adds to the total enjoyment of mankind is a truly productive 

 laborer. The drygoods clerk, the manufacturer of shoes, the bank 

 president and the opera singer all make additions to the wealth of 

 society, just as truly as do the farmer and the dairyman. We even go 

 further, and assert that the greatest total wealth of society can be pro- 

 duced only when the efforts of the agricultural classes are supplemented 

 by a certain proportion of laborers in industrial, professional and mer- 

 cantile fields — the avocations of the city. But there comes a point in 

 the economic development of a nation when the number of those en- 

 gaged in city occupations — including the occupation of spending time, 

 indulged in by the idle rich and the unemployed poor, who throng the 

 cities — becomes excessive, and overbalances the number of country 

 workers. Have we reached this point in the United States ? 



The price of food stuffs, like that of every other commodity, is gov- 

 erned by the laws of supply and demand. Assuming stable conditions 

 of fertility of soil, of climate, and of methods of production, the price 

 of agricultural products depends on the proportion between those who 

 produce them and those who consume them. Broadly stated, this is the 

 proportion between the country dwellers and the city dwellers. This 

 proportion in the United States has been rapidly changing within the 

 last century in the direction of the preponderance of the urban class. 



When the first census was taken in 1790, there were only six cities 

 with over 8,000 population each, containing in all 131,472 persons, or 

 3.4 per cent, of the total population of the United States. In 1840 the 

 percentage in cities of the specified size was still only 8.4. But in 1900 

 there were 545 cities of over 8,000, in which dwelt 33.1 per cent, of the 

 total population. The significance of these figures becomes more evi- 

 dent if we consider the proportion between the urban and rural popula- 

 tions at different dates. In 1790, for every inhabitant of the cities of 

 the specified size, there were 28 persons living in the smaller towns and 

 in the country districts. Fifty years later, there was one city dweller to 

 every eleven country dwellers. By 1880 the proportion had reached 1 

 to 3.4 and at the last census, in 1900, for each inhabitant of the cities 

 there were only two dwellers in the country! Is it any wonder that 

 the cost of agricultural products has gone up? The marvel is that 

 prices did not go up long ago, or that they have not reached a much 

 higher figure. 



It may appear that the foregoing explanation is inadequate to 

 account for the suddenness of the rise in prices within the last year or 

 two. To this objection, there are two or three replies. During the last 

 half of the nineteenth century the tendency of prices to rise was offset 



