Gass. THE SCIENCE National Life. ORIGIN, FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT WkaIvTh ok Nations SCOTT F. HERSHEY, Ph. D. "aPR 2! 1884 ', : BURLINGTON, IOWA: J. R. RUPERT AND COMPANY. 1884. ^^% Copyright, 1883, By J. R. Rupert and Company. DoNOHi-E & Hkkxrp.krrv, Printrrs anu Binders, Chicago. PREFACE The nineteenth is emphatically a century for the develop- ment of science. Each age of progress has shown special attention to some one great movement, which in that age seemed to have been born to struggle, and take its place with the forces of civilization. Philosophy, art, literature and com- merce, each had its age when it engaged the supreme attention of the world. And in the march of progress the period has arrived, and on the dial of time the hour is marked, when science, keen eyed and slow footed, with enthusiasm of heart, but with the knife of severe analysis, has taken possession of the world's thought. In other centuries men studied the phi- losophy of life, now we must study the science of life. Every great and important study, which is worth the attention of either the student or the busy man, must now be treated in the best methods of science. There is a science of government — of national life! No- where is it written in that fullness and popular style which is the claim of this work. Many books have been written on special departments of this broad science, but none which covers the whole field of national life as a science. There is an interest, that attracts the mind, about the origin of the early forms of government, their development into the great leading forms of nationality, and the rise and magnifi- cence of modern ideas of government. And there is a grandeur, unfound elsewhere, connected with the formation of our Amer- ican national life. To understand the long and marvelous movements which began in the Old World centuries ago and worked their way, unstopped by the rise and fall of nations, to the culmination of the new civilization; to know the story of IV PREFACE. oppression and persecution which prepared Huguenot, Holland reformer, and Quaker heroes, who as martyrs of right became founders of the greatest commonwealth of the world; to learn what are those sources out of which has sprung our peculiar industrial, political and social life; to comprehend the more simple rules and principles according to which the individual and nation shall prosper ; to do this is to acquire a valuable scientific education of national life. The object of this work in aiming to do this is twofold: First, to make every man a good citizen, for every good citizen is one more patriot who feels charged with the welfare of his nation; and in a second place, to show every man how success for himself and his country is due to wise attention to the science of political economy — the science of personal and national prosperity. It is a hope of the author that through this work American Citizenship may better understand and better love the genius of our National Life. CONTENTS. PART FIBST. FORMATION AND GROWTH OF NATIONAL LIFE. CHAPTER I. Preliminary View of National Life. - - 17 Likeness Between Personal and National Life— The Romance of Nationalities — Ultimate Human Destiny a Factor in all Human Government — The Necessity of Government — Divine Life the Authority for National Life. CHAPTER II. The Social Order ; or, the Basis of Government. 21 Origin of the Spirit of Sociability — Society a Primitive Gift — The Social Order the Profoundest Fact of History — Civil- ization Rests Upon the Social Forces — Society a Blessing, Not an Evil — Society, Man's Charter for Liberty — Equality and Fraternity — The Cause of Anarchy — To Destroy the Social Order is to Introduce Social Libertinism — Origin of Society Not a Conventional Act — Relation Between Social and Religious Life. CHAPTER III. Abuses and Restrictions of Society. - - 27 Selfishness — Self Love, the Idol of Selfishness — Free Love — Communism — Caste —The Right and Necessity of Restrict- ive Laws. VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. Government. - - - - -35 Three Theories for Origin of Government — Natural Growth of the Germ of Government — The Hunter and Shepherd Chief — The Different Forms of Government: Monarchy, Oligarchy, Aristocracy, Tyranny and Democracy — Parlia- ment and Cabinet of the Republic — The English System — The American System — Three Simple Forms: the Mon- archy, Aristocracy and Republic- — Design of Government — Three Functions of Government: Legislative, Judicial and Executive. CHAPTER V. Special Movements Affecting National Life. - 4S The Rise of the Power of the Clergy — Feudalism — Decen- tralization Setting In — Benefits of Feudalism — The Cru- sades — Their Benefits — The New Impulse in Art, Litera- ture and Invention — Religious Liberty the Main Spring of Modern Civilization — The Most Remarkable Reform of the Ages — The Guiding Arm of its Genius — The Spirit of Freedom Among the Swiss — The Common Law of Eng- land — How the Common Law Differs from the Statute, Civil and International Law — The Common Law Produces the Magna Charta — Origin of the Magna Charta — Origin of Trial by Jury — Great Use of The Jury System in Main- taining Justice. CHAPTER VL What Led to the Discovery of America. - 69 Sources of Modern Liberty — The Fifteenth Century — The Northmen — Decentralization of Religious Power — Mov- able Type — The New Force in Commerce — Mariners* Compass — The Polarity of the Magnet — Columbus — Isabel — The Greatest Wonder of the World — Prehistoric America — The Indian — Early Discoveries — The Glory of Columbus in Civilization. CONTENTS. vii CHAPTER VII. Elements Forming Our National Life. - 75 What Induced People to Come to the New World — What Kind of Elements Found their Way to the New World — The Huguenots — Louis XIV. and the French Industries — Their Settlement in America — The Acadian Farmer Exiled — The Landmarks they Left — The Moral Mystery of Modern His- tory — The Pilgrims — Origin and Views — Romance of their Migration — The Mayflower Compact — The Pilgrims and Persecution — Their Character and Belief — The Hol- land Reformers — The Skill of Holland — Holland in Com- merce — The First Free-Trade Nation — The Cradle of Great Reforms — Character of Industry and Ingenuity — - The Quakers — Origin — Their Persecution — The High Qualities of their Views — The Perfection of their Moral System — The Quaker View of Government — Scotland and the Stuarts — The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians — Why they Left Scotland for Jersey — The Founders of Carolina — The Age of Persecution — The Grand Elements Entering Into the Formation of America. CHAPTER Vin. Influence of Great Characters. - - loi Personal Influence a Known Quantity — Zoroaster — Con- fucius — Moses — Solon — Homer — Caesar — Alfred the Great — Peter the Great — Relation of Men and Circum- stances — What Directs the Course of Empire — Bacon — Joan of Arc — Penn — His Moral and Political Code — Allen and his Mountain Boys — John Adams — Burke — Franklin — First Society for the Abolition of Slavery — Washing- ton — Jefferson and American Statesmanship — Patrick Henry — La Fayette — Robert Morris, the Financier — Pu- laski the Pole — Putnam — Montgomery — Wayne — Greene — Moultrie and Heroic Patriotism. CHAPTER IX. Formation of Our National Life. - - 121 The Greatest Enterprise of the Age — The Contribution of the Ages — The Chief Glory of the Revolution — The Origin of Nations — The Review of a Century — France and Napo- viii CONTENTS. leon — Greece, and New Life — Austria Demolishing Her Throne — Hungary and Parliament — Russia and Emanci- pation — China and Progress — Belgium and Equality — Internal Resources of Our Country — The Three Great Doctrines of the Age — Internationality — The Destiny of the Nation under these Doctrines — Three Most Beneficial Results — The Wisest of All Nations — Value of the Study of National Life. PART SECOND. Political Economy. - - - - 129 The Meaning of this Great Industrial Science — The American Boy and Industry — The Grand Work for this Science — Ultimate Object of the Science — A Social Science — An Experimental Science — The Advantages of Reading this Science — The Three Elements of the Science. CHAPTER I. Outlines and Divisions of Political Science. 140 Production and Consumption — Branches Growing Out of These — Distribution and Exchange. CHAPTER II. Labor. ._---- 142 Facts to be Considered in the Study of Production — What is Labor — How Labor must Complement Nature — The Two Grand Divisions of Labor — Four Principal Classes of Physical Labor — Three Classes of Mental Labor — How Discovery must Go Before Accomplishment — Commercial Value of Brain Work. CHAPTER III. How TO Increase the Productiveness of Labor. 151 Two Vital Elements of Labor — Animal Force as an Agent of Labor — Why Animal Strength is More Available for Some Purposes than Steam — Natural Agents — The Problem of the Division of Labor — Peculiar Adaptation of American Industrial Life to Economic Principles. CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER IV. Natural, Human and Mechanical Agents of Labor. . . _ . . j^g Land as the Principal Industrial Agent — The Two Things on which its Value Depends — Cost of Animal Strength — The Bicycle in Rivalry with the Horse — The Inanimate Natural Agents — The Most Powerful Natural Agents — What is Meant by the Sustaining Period of Human Strength — Why Machinery will not Drive Men Out of Labor — What is Skill — Why Skilled Labor is More Costly than Mere Phys- ical — The Accuracy and Power of Machinery — How the Lowlands of Holland were Drained — History of the Manu- facture of Cotton Goods — The Danger of Extreme Com- petition. CHAPTER V. Centralized Labor in Great Industrial Estab- lishments. - - - - -171 Requirements of Large Establishments — How to Attain the Highest Productive Power of Labor — Labor follows Capital — Increased Productiveness is a Benefit to the Consumer — The Cotton Cloth — The Greatest Consequence of the Introduction of Labor Saving Machinery is that of Intellectual Cultivation. CHAPTER VI. Restrictions Upon the Policy of Centralized Labor. ..... lyy Pin Making — The Restriction of Limited Capital — The Restriction of Limited Demand — Glass Manufacture — High Cost of Producing a Restriction — Why Division of Labor is a Benefit to the Lower Classes — How Transporta- tion Affects Centralized Labor CHAPTER VIL The Labor Question in England. - - 182 England, the Battle Field of Industrial Sciences — The One Favorable Prospect — Cheapness of Money — Iron Indus- try — The Agricultural Strike — Cooperation in England — The System of Piece Work — Friction Between Labor and Capital. CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. The Labor Question in Germany. - - 191 Causes of Discontent among German Laborers — Disadvan- tages in Industry — Condition in Prussia — The Cry for Re- lief — The Resort to Socialism — Present State of Socialism — The Lesson of Political Science in this Labor Trouble. CHAPTER IX. The Labor Question in the United States. 196 The Labor Problem Easier to Adjust in America than in England — Freedom in Labor — Labor is Better Paid in America than in England — Interest of the Laborer in his Labor — View of the Great English Economists — Advan- tages of Diversified Industries — The Problem of the Age. CHAPTER X. Strikes. ..... 201 The Rights of Laborers to Strike — Effect upon Labor — The Boomerangs of Industry — The Telegraph Operators' Strike — The Railroad Strike — Fisk, the Pirate King of Industry — Enormous Destruction of Property — The Strike and the Commune. CHAPTER XI. The Moral Feature of the Labor Question. 207 How Morality and Intelligence Affect Industry — No Surplus Men in the World — A Cabin Home Better than a Mansion Tenement — Labor and Justice — Labor and Benevolence — The Labor Interests and Intemperance — Labor and Econ- omy — Labor and Health — Manhood the Basis of Eleva- tion — The Law of Sympathy. CHAPTER XII. Paid and Cooperative Labor. - - 216 Two Pen Pictures — The Manufacturing Village in the Val- ley — Low Wages — The Pinch of Distress — A Cooperative Village — How the Community is Managed — Success of the Enterprise — The Manchester Silk Industry — A Solution of the Question of Labor and Capital. CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER XIII, Capital. - - - - ■ - 225 Capital, Wealth, Money — Where Capital Comes From — Sev- eral Forms of Capital — How Capital is Increased — How- it is Limited — How Capital Depends on Reproduc- tion — What Credit Is — Importance of Capital as an Economic Force. CHAPTER XIV. Use of Money in Production. - - - 232 The Use of Barter — Commerce — Object of Money in Com- merce — How Money is Produced — The Object of Coining Money — What Proportion of Capital is in Money. CHAPTER XV. Capital and Labor. - - - - 235 The Twin Giants of Civilization — How Laborers May Acquire Property in the United States — Peculiar Advantage of Laborers in the United States — The Claim of Labor upon Capital — Why Labor Cannot Disconnect from Capital — How Capital is Dependent Upon Labor — The Investment of Capital in Western Lands — No Divorce of Labor and Capital — Relative Growth of Capital and Labor. CHAPTER XVI. Effect of Legislation on Capital and Labor. 242 The Principle of the Government — Protection the Chief Aim of Legislation — Internal Improvements — Use and Abuse of Monopolies — Two Classes of Legitimate Monopolies — How Nature Indicates the Policy of Monopoly — The Ground on which a Monopoly can be Justified — The Wrongness of Interest Laws — The Question of Protection. CHAPTER XVn. Obligation of the Rich to the Poor. - 254 The Law of Being — The Crime of Idleness — What Class Cannot Work — Why is it Wrong to Help the Indolent — How Paupers Increase — The Property Question — The Correct Policy by which to Deal With the Idle — Prison Labor. Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVIII. Children's Labor. .... 259 A Serious Problem in Political Economy — Some Chips from the Laws of Massachusetts — Ignorance of Factory Chil- dren — Wrong for Children to be Among the Bread Winners of the State — How Factory People Live — Bad Effect of Children's Labor. CHAPTER XIX. Consumption. ..... 263 Consumption the Ultimate End of Production — What is Destroyed by Consumption — Involuntary, Natural and Accidental Consumption — Destruction by Insects in Eng- land — Evil Effects of Fashion — Notional and Voluntary Consumption. CHAPTER XX. Productive Consumption. ... 267 Skill, Labor and Capital — The Rule of Economy — How Heavy Loss is to be Avoided — Every Particle of Material to be Used in Production — The Amount of Labor to be Con- sumed in a Given Production — How Labor is Wasted — The Story of Say. CHAPTER XXL Consumption for Gratification. - - 273 The Expense of Gratification — Moral and Intellectual Gratifi- cation Should Never be Stinted — Time Spent in Moral Culture and Thoughtless Dissipation — Advantages of In- tellectual Pleasure — Importance of Domestic Economy. CHAPTER XXII. Public Consumption. .... 279 By Taxation — Peculiar Methods of Taxation — Venice — Ham- burg — Switzerland — Four Principles of Adam Smith Relative to Taxation — First Purpose of Public Consump- tion — Internal Improvement Sustained by Public Con- sumption — Value of the Storm Signal — Pauperism, How to be Supported — The Cheapest Defense of Nations is Justice. CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER XXIII. Distribution — Property. ... 286 The Origin of Ownership in Land — Three Theories Concern- ing Ownership in Land — Equal Distribution of Land — Communism and Socialism — Greeley and his Benevolent Fancy — Serious Objection to this Theory — Theory of Government Owning the Land — Theory of Private Prop- erty — Principle at the Bottom of this Theory — The Right of a Father to Distribute his Property at Death — Who shall Own the Land — A Prospective Industrial Revolution in England and Ireland — Gladstone's Irish Policy — Civil Protection. CHAPTER XXIV. Distribution — Public Lands — Land Laws. 294 How the Public Domain was Obtained — The Provision for Schools — The Area of Public Lands — How to Procure Them — Laws Regarding Tenancy — Laws of Usury — Mort- gage Laws — Mechanic's Liens — Management of the Public Domain. CHAPTER XXV. Distribution — Wages. ... 302 Conditions Affecting the Price of Labor — The Cost of the Children Affects the Wages of the Parent — The Considera- tion for Old Age Affects Wages — The Lowest Possible Price of Simple Labor — Why so many Children Die in Infancy — Effect of Climate on Wages — Why Skilled Wages are Higher — The Career of Stephenson — Change of Employment as Affecting Wages — Character of the Em- ployment — Certainty or Uncertainty of Success — Com- petition — Evils of Labor Unions — Wages of Women — Effect of Taxation on Wages. CHAPTER XXVL Distribution — Interest. . . - 315 The Advantage of Skilled Labor with Borrowed Capital Over Simple Labor Without Any Capital — What is Interest — Four Things Affecting the Rate of Interest — The Risk of Losing Money — Convenience of Investment — How Profit Affects Interest — Injustice of Usury Laws. xiv CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXVII. Distribution — Rent. - - - 320 What is Rent — On What the Amount of Rent Depends — Fer- tility of Soil — The Desert of Arabia — The Orange Land of Florida — Situation of Land an Important Element in the Value of Rent — Renting Water-Falls and Mines — Relation of Insurance to Rent. CHAPTER XXVIII. Distribution — Profits. - - - 325 To Whom Does Profit Belong— What is Profit — Why the Profits are More in a Large than a Small Business — How Profit is Affected by Risks — Why Educated Labor should have Larger Profits than Uneducated — Distribution of Prof- its — How to Avoid Antagonism Between Labor and Capital. CHAPTER XXIX. Exchange. . • . - - . 331 What is Exchange — The Greatest Problem of Political Science — How Value is Determined — The Process of Exchange a Useful Industry — Intelligence, Wealth and Morality Impor- tant Aids in Exchange — Bad Effect of Business Stagnation — Depressing Effect of Duties. CHAPTER XXX. Money as an Instrument of Exchange. - 344 Different Articles which have been Used for Money — Why Metals were Preferred — The Origin of Coined Money — How Money Represents Value, but Does Not Establish It — The Object of Trade — Money Not Wealth — What is a Scarcity, and What an Abundance of Money — Why this Does Not Show the Adversity or Prosperity of the Country — How the Country is Affected by Too Little or Too Much Money — Why Little Money is Used in International Trade. CHAPTER XXXI. Specie as the Basis for Money. - - 359 The Necessity for Money — Why the Metals Have a Special Fitness as a Circulating Medium — Universal Desire — Val- uable — Durable — IJnder What Condition the Commerce of the World Must Cease — Why Money Should be Easily Verified — Why Over Production will not Hurt the Money Market. • CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER XXXII. Specie and The Government. . . . 366 The Legitimate Agency of Government with Respect to Money — Establishing a Legal Tender — The Coinage of Money — History of Coinage in the United States, and Description of the Mint— Shall Gold and Silver Both be Made Legal Tender — Has Government the Right to Raise the Denom- ination of a Coin. CHAPTER XXXIII. Credit an Instrument of Exchange. - - 379 What is Credit — The Leading Forms of Credit — Book Accounts — Bank Accounts — How Bills of Exchange Came into Use — The Promissory Note — Stocks — Bonds — How Credit is Abused — How a Commercial Crisis is Produced — Advantage of Credit. CHAPTER XXXIV. Banks and Banking. .... 3^0 Origin of the Words Bank and Bankrupt — Origin of Modern Banking — Banking in Greece, Rome, Venice — Invention of Banking Money — Introduction of Banking into Eng- land — Origin and History of the Bank of England — The London Clearing House — Banking in Scotland — Banking in the United States. CHAPTER XXXV. Different Kinds of Banks. . _ . 406 Four Leading Classes of Banks — Banks of Deposit — The Advantage of the Draft — The Famous Bank of Amster- dam — Banks of Exchange — Banks of Discount and Loan — Savings Banks — Banks of Issue and Circulation — The Amount Which a Bank May Safely Circulate — Four Ways by which Banks Make Profits. CHAPTER XXXVI. The United States National Bank System. - 418 The National Bank Act — How a National Bank is Estab- lished — What Becomes of Worn Out Bills — How a Bank is Closed Up — Splendid Record of the National Banks — How our National Banks Originated. Xvi CONTENTS. ^ CHAPTER XXXVII. Paper Money. . . . - - 424 The Advantages of Paper Money — Economy of Paper Money — How it Has the Advantages of Convenience — The Disad- vantages of Paper Money — How it is Liable to Forgery — Fraud in Banks — Fluctuation the Most Dangerous Ten- dency of Paper Money. CHAPTER XXXVIII. Bank Notes and Greenbacks. - - 435 The Issue of Bank Bills a Paying Enterprise — A Bank Bill is Not Money — The Chief Reasons for Bank Bills — Superi- ority of the United States National Bank System — What is a Greenback — Should there be More Greenbacks — Inter- nal Improvements. CHAPTER XXXIX. International Trade. - - - 439 What Has Developed International Trade — The New Spirit of Science — International Trade in Ancient Times — Two Main Theories of International Trade — The Protective Tariff — Theory of Free Trade — The Doctrine of a Low Tariff. CHAPTER XL. The Liquor Traffic. . . . . 446 Two Plain Propositions of Political Science — Magnitude of the Traffic — Consumption of Liquor in United States and England for One Year — Liquor Destructive of the Working Powers of the Bodies — How Shakespeare Plays the Role of the Philosopher — The Economic Wisdom of Jefferson — Effect of Liquor on the Brain — How Booth was Prepared to Assassinate the President — Seventy Cases Examined After Death — Average Life of Temperate and Intemperate Persons — The Bill of Indictment put by Political Science Against the Traffic — Industrial Losses Caused by Liquor — Liquor the Cause of Crime, Insanity, Pauperism — Methods of Restraint — The License System — Doubtful Wisdom of Prohibition in All States — Justice of the Permission or Local-Option Policy — America in the Future. CONTENTS. xvii CHAPTER XLI. The Malthusian Theory. .... ^^q Thomas Malthus — His Picture of the Future — Unmeasured Humanity — The Earth to Become Overpopulated — Dis- proval of this Theory — Grave Problem of Population — Land Growing Less Productive — Population Increas- ing — The Only Hope. CHAPTER XLIL Tabular Analysis of the American System of Government. - - - - 466 Completeness of the System — Reasons for Efficiency in Gov- ernment — Table. CHAPTER XLIIL State Government. - . . 463 Analysis of State Government — Rights and Powers of a Governor — Functions of the State Departments — The Legislative Branch — How a Measure Becomes a Bill and a Bill a Law — The State Judicial System. CHAPTER XLIV. County and Township Government. - 474 Analysis of Local Government — Origin of the word County — Origin of Sheriff. CHAPTER XLV. City Government. - . . . 475 Analysis of City Government — Why it is Difficult to have an Honest Municipal Government — Responsibility of the Mayor. CHAPTER XLVI. The Rights of Citizenship. - - 480 What Rights Belong to a Citizen — How these Rights rest in the Constitution and in the Common Law of the Land. XVlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XLVII. Territories, Public Lands, Colonies and Mani- fest Destiny. . . . . 482 Features of Our Commonwealth — The Advantages of Landed Possession — How a Territory Becomes a State. CHAPTER XLVIII. Natural Resources of the United States. - 486 The Mineral Garden of the World — The Valley of Gold — Pro- duction of Gold and Silver in the United States; in the World — The Greatest Copper and Lead Deposits in the World — Iron the King of Minerals — Production — Its Use in Manufacturing Industries — Coal — Yearly Produc- tion — Zinc — Tin — Nickel — The Salt Industry — Petro- leum — Timber. CHAPTER XLIX. American Production. ... 4^8 Agriculture as the Pursuit of the American People — Corn — Amount Produced in 1880 — Wheat the Staple Product of the World — Rice — Crop of 1880 — Potatoes — Tobacco — The Revenue from Tobacco — Sugar and Molasses — Cot- ton — Yield of Cotton — Table of Products — Cattle — Ex- ports — Manufacturing Interests. CHAPTER L. Development. .... 609 American Development — The Centre of Population — Growth of Our Commerce — Boats — Railroads — Telegraph. CHAPTER LI. Ultimate America. . . . . 524 The Nineteenth Century — Financial Condition of Europe — Of the United States — America's To-morrow. CHAPTER LII. Wealth and Commerce of Nations. - 528 Farms and their Value — Farm Products — Live Stock — Fish- eries — Gold and Silver Production in the United States — Newspapers — Number of Persons Unable to Read or Write — Debts, Revenues, Expenditures and Commerce of Nations. The Science of National Life. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY VIEW OF NATIONAL LIFE. MAN is like "grass which groweth up and flourisheth in the morning; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth." So says the old Hebrew sage concerning the life of man. Like unto this a political sage has said con- cerning the life of nations : " Empires are only sand hills in the hour-glass of Time ; they crumble spontaneously by the process of their own growth." The story of the origin, construction and development of nationalities is a romance in real life, working through the centuries. It is the plaintive story of a strong tide in which moves the progress of the human race. Political and personal disquietude, producing periodic ferments on the surface of society, ordinarily prompt us to contemplate the events composing it, apart from the essential forces in the stream of progression which rises from immutable laws ; but amid the perplexities which surround the ever}^ move- ment in the growth of the race, the link is never broken, and the affinities are never lost, but are inseparably bound up with the functual mass of causes which connect this well-connected story. Ultimate human destiny is a factor in all the tendencies of human government; man is. everywhere and at all times practically the same in a world of vanishing forms, though unchangeable laws. He fails in directing governmental forms by the practical wisdom of his personal experience, or in giving them the solidity of immutable laws ; so while nations and states may make constitutions and compacts, 2 17 1 8 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. and declare codes and ordinances, and while men dream of the permanency of their statecraft, the temple falls, and anon the crumbling remnants are molded into new forms^ alike to be subject to the fatuity of never-ending change. National life is constitutional unrest. Conscious of its imperfections and vices, it is dissatisfied with its nature and is in a condition of internal conflict ; it breaks over barriers which these imperfections interpose, and pushes away from what is to what is hoped for; the march of its career may be checked, even turned for awhile, but it is a forward march. It tramples upon obstacles and confronts difficul- ties and disasters and survives them, though vastly changed by them.. In theories it is changeable ; in principles it is immutable. It dissolves forms ; it never abrogates ideas. It submits to political fashions and cringes before political intrigues; it never altogether repudiates justice, or stifles that virtue of the right to exist, which is inherent in all forms of government. While it may be deaf to entreaty^ it is never dead to the internal sentiment of truth. While selfishness and tyranny may give it the authority of cruelty, its divine sense of equality cannot be crucified. It is time's endless stream of divine justice threading its way through the generations of human life, and when lifted from earth can only be taken back into eternity. An undoubted necessity for man, an indispensable bless- ing to society, it saps the energies of its people while pretending to serve their interests. Pretending to support industries which enliven trade and develop commerce, and thereby produce the consequent comforts of life, it may, under the sophistry and self-interest of its engineers, stag- nate these very industries which are its intent to encourage,, and create a commercial famine. Expressing its intention to secure the safety of life and enhance the values of prop- erty, it may under unwise legislation jeopardize life and decrease values in property. Instigating movements of education to establish higher grades of enlightenment, it may by wrong methods and by false opinions as to what THE NEED AND RIGHT OF GOVERNMENT. I9 constitute the right aims and objects of education, direct a people's intellect into a vicious channel, where the moral sense and spiritual integrity might be suppressed. It may be a people's best protector and preserver; it can be their worse tyrant and oppressor. A nation's life may have the outward form of the mon- archy or the republic ; it may take the shape of despotism or democracy. It may allow tyranny to wield its scepter, or republicanism to direct its functions ; it may vest its author- ity in kingcraft, or exercise it through political equalities. Government itself never becomes extinct ; its form fre- quently undergoes changes. The slow growth of an age may perish in a single moon. The poet expresses this: A thousand years scarce serve to form a state, An hour may lay it in the dust. Ofificial outrage and wild mobism kindled the torch of revolution in France to burn, in one hour of trifling with principles, the settled forms of centuries of slow growth. The foundations were disturbed. The monarchy founded by Clovis the First away back in the fifth century, memor- able for thirteen hundred years of imperial sweep, was, like a potter's vessel, shivered to atoms and swept away as the rubbish of worn-out forms. The anarchy of the many and the tyranny of the few vied with each other to terrorize mankind with their rivalry of atrocities, as they tore the fragments of the commonwealth to tatters, which in turn were to coalesce in the Napoleonic dynasty. The need and right of government are of the immutable things of time, and may be looked upon as the evidences of divinity's ways in the affairs of men ; but the form in which national life asserts itself is either subject to the whims of fickle opinion or to the changing views of growing state- craft ; as the things which are determined and ordained by the very essence of right and justice are a part of the great providential scheme of the universe. National life is to be regarded as an element of the social compact that has been projected into the human intellect by God. Paine deserves 20 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. the censure of all thoughtful men when he says: "Govern- ments at best are but a necessary evil." In form they may be; in fact, never. As human nature is now constituted government is not only a necessity to control, regulate and limit, but a blessing to unify and harmonize. It is not only regulative, but it is fraternal and fatherly; desired by the better, as well as necessitated by the worse, elements in our nature. By tracing any form of government back to its origin it will be noticed that its elemental laws were pro- duced by either the traditional or revealed authority of the divine law. From this it is quite clear that the right to govern is divine; but it is a right that cannot be clairned by men as vested in them, nor is it inherent in forms, but alone resting in the very essentiality of right and wisdom. Government, then, finds its first right to be — its highest claim to exist — in the permission and arrangement of God. National life fundamentally rests back upon the divine life. God is the beginning of law as well as "the basis of liberty." He has put the law of eternal right into the dictates of the human conscience. This law of the conscience, springing out of God into the law of the right of private opinion, the right of private judgment, and the right of personal action ; the right of each respecting the same right in others; and all together necessitating the union of rights, is that out of which has grown the principle of equality. The elemental principles, as well as the organic functions of human law^ which are primarily the germs of national life, are ordinances from the supreme lawgiver of the universe; and in the original settlement of the race on earth were impressed in the feeling and reason of heart and mind. When God con- stituted human happiness subject to association, or union, he not only gave man the inherited privilege, but qualified the need for government. The scene on Sinai is one instance of many where God wrote laws for man. The laws of divinity impress the laws of humanity in spite of their often grotesque forms. Human government is an offspring of the divine government. CHAPTER II. THE SOCIAL ORDER; OR, THE BASIS OF GOVERNMENT. MAN is fitted for the enjoyments of national life as well as individual. His social life is the basis of both. It does not seem that God has made man by mere chance with accidental qualities, for we find mankind to possess certain definite faculties and desires which move and rule them, whether they are savage or civilized, and whether they are in color red, white, black or brown. In national life as well as personal the spirit of human destiny is no respecter of persons. When God animated man with the breath of life He also shed in his soul light and justice — the light of truth and the justice of charity. The natural conceptions which man would form of this truth and charity developed socia- bility. In fact, the mystery of creation was not complete until God stamped that nature, which had, under His creator- ship, become sensible and reasonable, with the seal of a higher perfection, when He saw that it would- not be good for man to be alone. Society is one of the early primitive gifts with which God has endowed us. It is the first institu- tion ordained for man. No beirfg stands alone, not only in number, neither alone in selfishness. Whether above or below us, in God or in nature, association is on every side observable. God, who is one, is not alone and solitary ; He includes three persons in the unity of his being. The inferior world, divided into a multitude of different groups and conditions, presents none in which the condition and law of the creature is solitude. At each stage of existence there is number and union ; that is, society. When beings distinct by individuality, alike by nature, approach and give each other their life, blend together reciprocally, act upon each 21 22 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. other by mutual relations, then there is society. Such is the state of all creatures inferior to man ; such is the state, under a more perfect union, of the divine persons in the deityship. Number without unity is positive disorder. Wherever num- ber and union exist society is a settled necessity. Man's social state is one of the profoundest figures in the world's histoiy, one of the strongest qualities in his nature. It has covered the centuries of time with its institutions. Stronger than time it has resisted all disasters, and has con- stantly recovered itself in the ruins under which degenerate movements buried themselves. It is human society which has led our infancy through the hazards of the primitive migra- tions which divided the earth, and, after dispersing us upon all the habitable shores, drew us together in spite of the jealousy of the desert and the tempest of the ocean. It is human society which has built our celebrated cities, devel- oped resources, encouraged arts, founded sciences, propa- gated letters, raised the mind of man to almost infinite intel- ligence, and given to his heart the glory of all virtues and a willingness to bear all sacrifices. In fine, human society is the permanent mode of earthly life; and if in the depths of the forests or on the rocky shores of unfruitful isles, the traveler finds groups of people deprived of all civilization and enlightenment, still he finds among them some rudiments, rough though they be, of the social state, certain vestiges or outlines of conditions and relations showing how incapable man is of living distinctly apart and alone ; and these pri- mary elements that compel his association are the evidences of his capability for civilization, for civilization rests upon the social forces. Without society there could be neither civilization nor government. Society is a blessing, not an evil ; though Voltaire was as willing to decry society as Paine to disclaim government. Society of a necessity entails burdens; but for these we should not hate it. We may deplore dependence and labor in society. Dependence first, for society exists only by unity , unity is formed by ties ; those ties, when intelligent OBJECTIONS TO THE SOCIAL ORDER. 23 beings are concerned, change into obligatory laws for the conscience, and are maintained by the double authority of public power and opinion. This is a yoke accepted by the virtue which does not separate its condition from the condi- tion of others, but which is a burden to the life that lives only for itself; and therefore, as solitude is destructive of all laws, because it destroys all relations and recognizes no obli- gations as binding, selfishness seeks solitude in order to escape from dependence. In no less a degree we may hate labor, another conse- quence of society. A few men scattered over an immense territory live at little cost. Nature, abandoned to herself, supplies their wants, and separation, lessening in them the attraction which reproduces life, their number increases so slowly that it does not disturb their indolence. The man of society on the contrary has a fraternity as prolific as is his heart; he sees under the blessing of God the family changing into a tribe, the tribe merging into a community, the community into a nation ; tent-grounds changed into cities ; territories are defined by boundaries ; nature willingly increasing her products before the increase of mankind. The industries of man exercise a mastership over the resources of nature. The grace of art must supplement the vigor of nature, and assiduous labor must second the inventions of art. Numberless employments solicit the arms of men, and the arms of men in their turn solicit employment. Our veins are filled with the fruit of our toil, and each drop of blood is purchased at the price of some labor. This is quite enough to persuade some that the social order is either a mistake or an imposture. But notwithstanding this, society is man's primitive char- ter for liberty, equality and fraternity. But it is a liberty which is not only necessary that he may remain a moral creature, that he may not be subdued by exaggerated and unjust forces which spring from self-interest; but in which obedience becomes a duty, that he may keep his place, by the help of a common and sacred law, in the home which a 24 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. nation makes for him. It is an equality which not only reveals to him his just and common rights with all men, but which holds him in the rank in which God has placed him by a common origin with all his fellow creatures. It is a fraternity which not only strengthens the confidence and love — which are the surest guarantees of a correct form of the social order — but produces a veneration to acknowledge the authority of truth, the magistracy of virtue, the power of laws, whether in the subject, the legislator or the ruler. A true social order which will establish durable institu- tions is possessed of a liberty which recognizes the duty of obedience, an equality which recognizes the duty of right to others, and a fraternity which recognizes the duty of ven- eration. Above the imposing symbols of rights is the divine symbol of duties. This is the only way to insure that devotedness and disinterestedness by which alone virtue will triumph over the ardent passions of greed and selfish- ness which, since the origin of society, have never ceased to conspire for its ruin. Human society in its better form is not only hated on account of the duties it imposes, but also for another reason. God being the founder of society is also its preserver. He maintains it by the power of His name, which is perpetuated by the guardianship of His truth. No nation has been able to exist without that sacred and venerated name ; no com- munity of political or moral faith has been built up without that cornerstone of the eternal temple ; and vain the impious hope to abolish the memory of God until that society be abolished which is its depository, and which lives upon this inherited treasure. The social quality and the religious quality are attributes of mankind born on the same day of the divine work, the one having regard to time, the other to eternity ; distinct in their domain and end, but indissolubly united in the heart of man, sustaining one another, falling together, braving together by their common grace the hatred that pursues both. Here is discoverable the opening cause of the leaven MAN S ADAPTATION FOR SOCIETY. 2$ of anarchy which rouses the irresponsible classes against society. Society is no other thing than order, and order has in God its invulnerable root. Whoever does not love God has a natural cause for hatred toward the social state, which is one of the divine products. To deny the reality of the religious sentiment is to destroy the integrity of the social sentiment. The effect of this, shown quite often, would be to destroy social order and produce social libertinism. From this it naturally comes that anti-religious move- ments invariably produce anti-social views and agencies. This was observant in France, where a crusade against God terminated in a crusade against human society. It is not surprising that a Voltaire, ridiculing divine truth, found his compliment in a Robespierre, writing with a pen no less bold against all social order. The savage state was exalted as the primitive state of man, and incomparably the best. It is clearly demonstrated that society is in conformity with the essence of God's truth; it is just as clear that it is in conformity with the constitution of man, since everywhere and always he has lived in society. He has never been observed in any considerable number, living without some form of the social order. Within this order are all the elements for civilization and culture. Any man, or any tribe, leaving society can return to it only by means of inducements from society itself, bringing from the common center truth, justice, order and devotion. Whoever by ungoverned passions rejects the social order is a voluntary savage; so much the more degraded from having felt the virtue of truth and goodness and forsaken its ways of peace and beauty. Those who fall by their fault below civilization are worse than those who are not yet drawn up to it. Man lives, then, socially, because of the aptitude of his constitution for intercourse and association. It is not, nor was it originally, a conventional act that resolved him into society; he was born in it. It is a condition of his instinct, as well as his moral necessity. Plants of a species group together; animals of a kind herd together; man to man is 26 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. bound by those same peculiar laws, but more by the higher brain and heart forces of thought and emotion. Man is fitted for society, because in giving him being God initiated him to the social order, and deposited in human hfe truth and love as social germs out of which grow right and justice, the germs of law and government. Truth and love are the basis of social order; whenever souls meet, having received these gifts, the principle of society meets in them, and tends to unite them for common weal. These two things are equally true, namely: that society is natural to man and that it is of divine institution. It is natural to man, because an intelligent and moral being has received in his creation the intelligible germs of truth and love; it is of divine institution, because it is God who first placed man in active possession of truth and love, and who gave him the impulse to apply these principles of truth and love to the many-sided duties of life. Then the social order, adapted to man and as the providential arrangement of God, is the reason as well as basis of national life. CHAPTER III. ABUSES AND RESTRICTIONS OF SOCIETY. MANKIND are so formed that they naturally and unavoidably cling to a social system for mutual protection as well as general happiness. This being the end, as well as occasion, of the social arrangement, and the provision for protection suggestive of something against which protection is sought, and happiness being modified by prevalent evil, abuses are constantly arising which tend to reduce the comforts and break up the harmony of society. Abuses against law and order; against virtue and justice; against peace and tranquility; abuses which persistently invade private rights and attack public privileges prevail to an alarming extent, and always have prevailed. Self-interest is the worst abuse of a well-regulated social order, because it converts the opportunities for service to society into chances for service to self. It prevents a will- ingness to relinquish and sacrifice some things which are of advantage to the individual, for the general interest. It makes personal advantage paramount to the general welfare ; and in so doing it subverts the exercise of the purest motives and most patriotic virtues, thereby making impos- sible the best condition of society, and consequently obstructing the ways of happiness, the very thing desired. It prevents a well ordered subordination of the personal to the general good, which permits the common good of the community to have only an accidental care, exposing it to every chance error and vice. It exposes the common interest to another danger. The development of society depends upon self-development. If the individual character be developed in self-interest, it follows that a long list of ill-fated elements will work into his nature. Greed, pernuri- 37 28 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. ousness, hard-heartedness and envy will produce a pernicious effect upon his individuality, which will entail a like vice upon society. The relation between the member and the community is reciprocal, so also is the action of the indi- vidual upon the general, and self-interest in the individual will soon find additional reason for continuing so in the treatment he receives from society. Self-interest here cre- ates a sphere of influence that is practically unbounded, and its evils run as far as its influence. It is a personal fault, that in society becomes a vice and crime. The lower and more loose the social order, the greater this is notice- able. It is the most observant in the savage. Service to any being or object we love, is the fruit of that love. Love begets service ; we serve because we love. Service also engenders love ; the being long and well served is loved in like proportion. The person who in self-interest lives for himself and consults only his personal welfare in all the affairs of life, and is utterly- unconcerned for the well- being of society, soon and readily falls into a love for himself. Self-love is an abuse produced by, as well as pro- ducing, self-interest. It is the idol of selfishness. To be able to appreciate one's own merits and place a legitimate value upon them is morally right and socially equitable, but to raise them into objects for self-worship lowers personal merit to the mere sycophancy of vanity. It unmans social manliness and disqualifies for social progress or reform. Self-love is one of the disintegrating forces in society which prevents unity of spirit, or purpose, in any movement for the common weal. In no two persons can it prompt to identical thought or action, as self-interest, which is its ground, is not only opposite in different trades and callings, but in different classes and even persons. One of its griev- ous faults is, that it is independent of duty and cannot be touched by responsibility. It is blind to all the paramount relations in the social sphere, and seems utterly unconcerned as to the elevation or decline of society, so it may thrive unhurt upon its own self-consideration. It reduces to a ABUSES OF THE SOCIAL ORDER. 29 condition of secondary importance all public affairs and elevates to prime significance the unimportant matters of the individual. Though a quality only possible in an intel- ligent creature, it is a brute passion. Where it is raised to the maximum, social anarchy is the result. Of all the abuses growing out of wrong opinions and theories of social order no one is more disastrous to society or vitiating to the individual than that of free-love. It entails every horror and engenders every vice current where moral- ity is not looked upon as a virtue, and where purity and licentiousness are distinctions made only in name. It is the firstborn of self-love, which, rejecting all sense of duty and right but its own standard of self-interest, puts neither bridle nor bit on passion or appetite. It rejects alike the legality and divinity of the marriage relation, invades with careless step the domestic circle, and, treating affection with positive contempt, it sees no difference between virtue and sin. With this a leading trait, there can be no progress, civilization, or perfection in society. Organized beings are low in the scale of chastity and refinement in proportion as free love is dominant. The free-love notion teaches that the individual has the right to act in the love relation at his or her own cost and risk, without any of the restraints thrown around society by the tested wisdom of the past; it makes no provision against inconstancy and abandonment, but, going back to the methods of barbarism, it makes women the helpless victims of man's selfishness; it ignores duty to childhood, and in this is a crime against helpless ^innocence; in essence free-love is free lust, in one result it is sure to be free hate. The only wise freedom in the love relation is self-government. Nobody in the social order is free to violate her laws, because violence destroys freedom. Philo, the Alexandrian Jew, defines virtue as that strength and manliness of soul which has conquered evil and which does right from deliberative choice. Like the ray of starlight that vibrates across the depth of space, and brings us knowl- edge from some far-off luminary millions of miles away, so 30 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. the words of Philo have pulsated across the gulf of eighteen centuries of time ; and they say to us in the tones of an immortal voice: "The virtuous alone are free." Communism is a consequence of free-love, and is an abuse of the equality privilege in the social arrangement. Starting with the attempt to overthrow the institution of private property and arrange for all to share alike in prop- erty, it runs to the consequent extreme of carrying the theory of equal and common possession to all the affairs of society. In domestic matters it entirely suspends indi- vidual liberty, and the smallest details of the daily life are regulated without any attention to either the comforts or the desires of those most concerned. An authority which decides at what hour its subjects shall retire at night and rise in the morning; which prescribes the color, shape and material of the dresses worn; the time of meals and the quality of food ; the daily tasks apportioned to each mem- ber; which enforces a rule that each member shall post a' notice stating where he or she will be each hour during the day; which determines that all amusements, comforts, vir- tues and indulgences, as well as all property, are common to all — a theory which can do all these things is one which certainly has subverted all rights in society to a low and brutal sub-barbarism which entitles it to the hatred of all who have at heart the best interests of society. The caste spirit in society is an abuse of the family circle extended to trade clubs and labor divisions. It breaks society up into classes and social tribes, originating in prej- udice against color, servitude, or social distinctions. Its function appears to be to engender strife and bickering, and set persons of one caste or guild against another, where envy and small jealousies create a vast amount of social disturbance. Whether it be the native religious-caste spirit of India or the race prejudice shown in America against the Chinese, it is a spirit wholly foreign to a normal condition of the social life. The spirit of caste is incompetent to measure matters of importance to the general good, and is RESTRICTIVE LAWS IN SOCIETY. 3 1 set most bitterly against any class or movement which may arouse its prejudice. This finds a painful illustration in the dealing of this nation with the Chinese. There was a time when American industry almost fell on its knees before China, and prayed for thousands of workmen to come from the Orient and help develop the resources of the great West. They came, a few hundred thousand strong. In a short time American industries were developed five hundred per cent ; and as a consequence of the treaty, which grew out of the inducernents to Chinese immigration, a valuable com- merce was opened up with China. Notwithstanding this able showing, an American congress, under a narrow caste prejudice, was worked up where it could say: ''We must draw the line somewhere, you know," and the treaty that was thought sacred, and the compact that was thought to savor of the generous spirit of an improved social order, had to go. As the organization of society rests upon law and order, and as it has its right to exist inherent in itself from God, it has the right to regulate itself by restrictive laws. Lib- erty and restrictive law are bound together. A person enjoys liberty when he says and acts as he may please, and yet not as to injure other persons. If every human being were endowed with infallible judgment as to the effect of his acts on others, and had strength of purpose to avoid every- thing that could injure his fellowmen, restrictive laws would be needless. But as man's jucdgment is fallible, and his spirit of greed and self-interest often encroaches on the rights of others, it has always been considered necessary to have laws declaring what shall be held wrong and injurious, and to declare penalties for such injurious acts. Men must be regulated by laws of restraint. The abuses of society can only be reduced to a minimum and held under control by wise restrictions. Most, if not quite all, the reforms of society are only possible when expressed in laws of curtailing poAver, and of judicious infliction of punish- ment for crime against the social order. These laws of 32 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIP^E. limitation should not interfere with rights or privileges, but simply act as forces of restraint on the evil propensities of society. These laws should be few in number and simple in structure; they should never interfere with the liberty of men to move about peaceably from place to place ; to discuss freely public affairs and questions of public interest ; to engage in any honest occupation they may please ; to produce by labor and skill whatever seems to them most suitable; and to exchange what they have produced for what they please and where they please. The laws of restraint should themselves be limited in power, else there would be produced a despotic condition of government. Such is the reckless disregard for duty among some per- sons that restrictive laws are one of the first necessities which society feels. Crimes will be committed, laws will be violated, and feelings of anger and revenge will be the consequence; which would turn the administration of justice into the administration of revenge were it not for restraining laws. A healthy condition of society can only be found where simple but well-timed restrictive laws hold vice and crime in check, and thereby serves the cause of justice and contributes to those solid, positive virtues upon which depends the hap- piness of mankind. CHAPTER IV. GOVERNMENT. THE necessity for laws and the need for order in the social arrangement presuppose a governing power, the duty of which should be to execute laws and preserve order. Government, far from being a necessary evil, as Paine thought, is a benefice ; in the progress of the race in all the arts, the moral uplifting of humanity in education and national harmony, and in the material growth of the people, it could not be dispensed with without subverting all the forces upon which, when united, depend the advancement of mankind. We will define government to be the ruling power in society. As it is the source of all law and authority in the social order, this definition will cover the use of the term as it is used in this work. A question of considerable interest would be. What is the origin of government? To answer this question, a vast research would have to be made ; indeed it is doubtful if it could be answered satisfactorily to a majority of intelligent minds. The answers which have most nearly satisfied are three. The first would express the opinion that government owes its existence in each of the earlier nations to the energy and mind of a single lawgiver. This view is formed upon legendary and mythological accounts. According to this theory the Spartan government was the invention of Lycur- gus. This ancient lawgiver visited many foreign lands and studied plans to effect a remedy for the evils of Sparta. He made devout pilgrimages to Crete and studied the laws of Minos, and to the Egyptian priests and Brahmin leaders of India ; then returned to establish, on an immutable basis, laws relative to civil and military affairs, property, com- merce, education and domestic life. The Athenian govern- 3 33 34 THE SCiE^XE OF NATIONAL LIFE. ment is attributed to Solon, who, after half a life of study, perfected a plan for a half republic rule for Athens. Moses and Numa, according to the same theory, gave government to their respective countries. It is quite true to say that these benevolent founders of the commonwealth gave distinct forms of government ; but it is far from correct to assume that they originated govern- ment for their people. We know that Sparta had a form of government, though inferior, prior to Lycurgus; for his study of other governments was prosecuted during a volun- tary exile, undertaken to avoid conflict with a nephew who was prince of the realm. The Athenian government before Solon's wise legislation does not have the contempt of scholars even to-day. Both Israel and Rome had low forms of government before they fell to the royal leadership of Moses and Numa. These men did not originate govern- ment, though tradition puts them as the first source of settled laws for the respective tribes to which they belonged. No more than this can be claimed for the nations of Confu- cius and Zoroaster, even in moral government. The plodding pilgrim through history who has respect for the teaching of fact, will not hurriedly accept the theory of the origin of government which attributes it to single human lawgivers. A second attempt to account for the origin of govern- ment is on the theory of agreement. Society without any organized government resolves itself into a number of individ- uals, each following his own aims, and acting without respect to the aims of any other ; as the aims of one would conflict with the aims of others, strife is the result. To avoid this strife and preserve peace, men agree to establish certain laws. This supposition leads to very diiTerent views as to the cause of the attempt to establish these laws. With Hobbes it is a condition of war, and government is the result of an agreement among men to keep the peace. With Locke it is a state of liberty and equality. Though men are all free to do as they please, they are equal in that freedom ; and government is the effect of the voluntary agreement of DIFFERENT THEORIES OF GOVERNMENT. 35 individuals to surrender a part of their individual liberty and submit themselves to one supreme government for the good of all. Locke says : " Men being by nature all free, equal and independent, the only way whereby anyone divests him- self of his natural liberty and puts on the bonds of civil society is by agreeing with other men to join and unite into a community." This is the social compact theory, and its heavy fault is that it presupposes a condition of the race which was naturally without government or society. A third theory for the origin of government may be called the logical account. This view contains no reference to any particular form of government. It aims to give a reply to the question. How did government in general come into exist- ence? and it answers it by a logical analysis of the elements of society. The original basis of government is also the basis of society ; the civil laws find their reason in the social laws ; the principles of government depend on the afifinities of society. A historical study of government will reveal this as the most plausible view to be taken. The very needs of society produced the necessity for civil authority to bind the divergent' forces and harmonize the discordant elements among men. Variety had to be reduced to unity, else civilization would be impossible ; out of this unity of the many and varied elements of primitive society was produced the strength which impelled the race to advance. This early and rude state of society holding each man to be free, nat- urally felt the need for some power to check the passions of those vi^ho would infringe on the rights of others. When the necessity for a ruling authority was felt the family easily suggested a hint for some head power that could issue com- mands and enforce obedience to those commands. Later investigations have shown the importance of the family in primitive society, and the belief in family descent is fully established. The government of a tribe resembled the gov- ernment of the household ; only the head of a family could be ruler of a tribe. But it is very doubtful if there can be expressed a formula 36 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. for a law by which government is born. To discover a plain origin of government would be a dif^cult task. All that can be done is to trace governmental forms through various conditions and states of social development. Primitive society exhibits the germs of government ; to get a true historic idea of government it is helpful to trace from this primitive condition of society these germs through many stages of growth up to the most practical and best form of modern government. The original form of government was the monarchical. In its embryo state, very limited in extent, it consisted in a mere chieftaincy over a small tribe or clan which prevailed in the early condition of society. Such a chief was always the head of a family. In this form men were mostly hunt- ers. And so long as they remained in the hunter state there was no enlargement of this embryo monarchy beyond a recognition of the superior authority of some chieftain, which he, more than oJ-dinarily energetic, may obtain from a number of clans in the same vicinity and unite into a con- federacy of which he is considered head. Such was the con- dition of the aboriginal tribes of America whose largest tribes hardly embraced more than three or four thousand persons, and whose most powerful confederacies formed for mutual protection in wars against distant clans, though often occupying immense territories, did not reach over thirty thousand. On those broad steppes, savannas and prairies, which compose a considerable portion of the surface of the globe, where the small supply of wild game afforded insuf^cient food, men were driven ; or, finding it more convenient, were led to the breeding of animals capable of being domesti- cated. Changed from hunters to shepherds these tribes became masters of large herds of cattle, sheep, goats, horses and camels. These animals, domesticated and appropriated, constituted wealth, a thing unknown in a savage state, and an important element in the life of any nation. In this state the authority of the chieftain not only had to do with the CHANGE FROM PASTORAL TO AGRICULTURAL LIFE. 37 actions of men, but with the control of property, and is the germ of slavery. A chieftain having large herds would secure the time of some less favored person to watch them, and from the control of the time it was an easy step to the control of the person of the servant. The shepherd father possesses in his flocks and herds and in his right of regulating the distribution of them among his children during his life, or at his death, a new means of controlling their actions and of keeping them obedient to him. He also has the means, which the hunter father has not, of employing the services of his children in a manner profitable to himself. He becomes a master as well as father. With the accumulation of wealth and the desire to increase in wealth, labor acquires an exchangeable value. The prisoners taken in war are now enslaved, and as such have a commercial value. Domestic slavery here instituted was at first mild. The accumulation of wealth in herds and slaves tends to increase the power of the father as head of the family, also as chieftain of the tribe. The accumulation of wealth cre- ates occasion and gives opportunity for the exercise of authority as well in peace as in war, and he who was first leader only in war by virtue of being chieftain of a tribe, in peace becomes judge and arbiter for the settlement of dis- putes and executioner in the punishment of criminals ; a per- manent and regularly organized form of government has its establishment. In a pastoral state man has advantages over the hunter state, but falls far below the agricultural state. The step from shepherd life to agricultural was not hard. When any of the shepherd tribes, either from necessity for food or desire for commerce, found it expedient to engage in agriculture, the labor was principally done by slaves. From the early morning of history until recently the soil of Europe has been cultivated almost entirely by slaves or serfs. In the development of agriculture the desire to hold property in land is early felt. This increases the power and influence of the chieftain to such a degree that from his 38 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. authority there is no appeal when he becomes virtually a king, and monarchy takes on its complete form. After wealth begins to be accumulated {n the shape of flocks, herds, slaves and lands, war opens a constant means for the arbitrary growth of a tribe; in this work of plunder the king has depotic power, and the conquered tribes are mostly reduced to slavery. These agricultural tribes in turn sometimes fall into the hands of shepherd conquerors, and it frequently happens that amid the quarrels of contending dynasties, and the dis- order and insecurity which these barbarian conquerors bring with them, that wealth, civilization and population gradually decline and agriculture is abandoned. This happened to the western part of the old Roman empire, where the shepherd tribes from Germany and Sarmatia made repeated invasions and conquests. Different forms of secondary monarchy sometimes grew out of the kingcraft of absolute monarchy. When, in the course of its wanderings, one of these pastoral tribes becomes possessed of a mountainous and defensible country where, by the advantage of its surroundings, it is able to maintain itself against great numbers, and where the fertility of the soil, mildness of the climate and a maritime position favora- ble to commerce afford means for civilization, a new move- ment in political thought is observable. Naturally encour- aged in civilization and becoming more enlightened the spirit of freedom and feeling of equality work like a leaven among the members of a tribe against the unlimited authority of the king. If the line of direct descent in the families of chieftain or king comes to an end, and if there be no one person upon whom position, tradition or heroic distinction unite to confer the successorship, the government falls into the hands of a number of persons. This new form of the monarchy in later Grecian history became known as the oligarchy; a government by a few. When these few ruling families having full control, not only of the tribe but of the disposal of the government, from reasons of social distinc- THE CAUSE OF SECONDARY MONARCHY. 39 tions or friendly favors admit other families which have acquired wealth and influence to share the power with them, the aristocracy is produced, which literally means a govern- ment of the best. And best either in point of birth or wealth. In fact this is theoretically at least the most unrighteous form of the ancient monarchy, as neither birth nor wealth has merit. When this aristocracy or government of the well-born and wealthy is so extended as to admit all the free citizens to share in the administration of the government, it is known as a democracy. But the ancient democracy included only a favored few of the more influential citizens, as it excluded not only slaves, but freedmen who had been slaves, strangers and mere denizens. It would sometimes occur that some individual citizen of great wealth, warlike skill, sagacity or eloquence in pleading before the people, was able to secure such an influence over the people as to centralize the whole administration of the government in his hands. This would restore a hateful monarchy, equally opposed to the oligarchy, aristocracy and democracy. Usurpation and violence had to be resorted to to produce it, hence it was known as tyranny. Dionysius of Syracuse was one of the noted tyrants of ancient times. In the run of political events it frequently happened that the oligarchy and aristocracy and democracy had each its advocates and adherents ; this gave rise to broils and party discord which often called out armed men to decide which should prevail. Sometimes the military itself became infatu- ated with the current ambition for power, and would over- ride the civic authority and usurp the government. The Greek kingdoms from the days of Alexander for several cen- turies furnish an example of this military tyranny, which is frequently denominated secondary monarchy. The different forms of the government of early Rome were like those of early Greece: from monarchy to an oligarchy of patrician families; from oligarchy to aristoc- 40 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. racy, into which the plebeians were at first admitted, but which gradually expanded into a republic, then back to an oligarchy of a few powerful persons ; from this new oligarchy to tyranny, which slowly changed into secondary monarchy. With the establishment and spread of the Christian church through Rome a new line of influence is traceable in the character of the empire. And when this hitherto unfelt power was found to be too potent to be resisted it was availed for the support of the empire, and under Constan- tine was adopted as a state religion. From thence on the Christian religion must be regarded as a clear, strong element in European politics. Prior to this, mysticism, mythological teaching and augury effected somewhat the respect for gov- ernment, but had not much to do with tangible changes in the form of government. The teaching of the Christian religion so greatly changed the whole current of human thought that government itself was vastly leavened by it. Many steps were required to change any or all of the ancient forms of government, either monarchy or aristocracy into representative government. It required centuries of time, revolutions in thought, great development in art and science, wide spread commerce through which means the views of one people were carried to another, and a general diffusion of knowledge and intellectual elevation of the masses before representative government was practicable or even possible. The lesson of just government, showing equal chances and bestowing equal rights upon all citizens, independent of wealth, birth or class distinction, is a lesson hard to learn. Not only does truth have to be prepared for nations, but nations qualified to receive the truth. It comes first as a prophecy or promise; then revealed as an expecta- tion; then taught as a political philosophy; then proclaimed as a doctrine, and after slow and tortuous persuasion is accepted. The race moves slow in the reform of law, as in other movements of civilization. After it grows weary from the oppression lashed upon it by the taskmaster of tyranny; learns that the weakness of the tribe was the sure pledge for THE ENGLISH SYSTEM. 4I its slavery; how political misfortune led to political bondage ; only when it was felt that the government of monarchy was operated by the few and for the few, and it was dis- covered that government could be broadened out to wield its healthy protection over all, only then was the republic ready to be born. In the free republic where the will of the people should be the voice of the government the parliament and cabinet are the real powers of the government. In the English sys- tems, which in fact under the high demand of an enlightened people is a representative republic, but in form is a limited monarchy with a tendency of the legislative will to revert back to original monarchy in this system, the two cham- bers of parliament are the house of lords and the house of commons. The real sovereignty lies with the house of commons which is the only safeguard for the people against the mon- archical will of the upper house, or the throne. It is only in legislation that the house of commons shares its power with the house of lords. The constitution is on the side of the lower house and possesses almost unlimited power in making nominations, and is a balancing power in case the house of lords refuses important measures demanded, by the people's representatives. In the American system the parliament rests in the house of representatives and the senate, of which the latter body is the more important in all matters of general legislation, as well as in its control over and sanction with the executive. In the English system the actual strength of popular government lies in the ultimate supremacy of the house of commons. In the American, in the unselfish wisdom and accurate judgment of the senate. A peculiar feature of the English system is the cabinet. It is not merely a body of the chiefs of the different depart- ments. It is the inner council of the empire, shaping the national policy, foreign and domestic, controlling the finance and holding general supervision over all the affairs of the commonwealth. The actual power of the house gf commons 42 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE is resting- in it, yet it has no recognition whatever in the constitution. It has no constitution of itself, fixing its num- ber or shaping its work ; nor does it keep any record of its proceedings. It is a secr^, private body with the premier at its head, and is of doubtful utility. A power behind the throne, it is questionable if it could exist only where a worthless conservatism lends favor to things simply because they savor of antiquity. In the American system the cabi- net is only a council of the heads of departments for advisory purposes gathered around the chief of the nation. Without any authority but that of council, and being sub- ject to the opinion of its leader, it conserves the interests of the nation by representing to the head of the nation the condition of affairs in all the principal departments. From the foregoing analysis of the forms of government, it may not be difficult to reduce all forms to three sim- ple conditions: The monarchy, the aristocracy and the democracy, or republic. There are three ways in which nations can be governed by one man (monarchy) ; or by a few (aristocracy) ; or by a representative many choosen by the people (republic). Each of these three leading types exhibits a number of branch forms produced by conditions of location, climate, society and commerce. The best gov- ernment is one in which much is left to the law and little to the will of the executor of the law. We may now consider the design of governmet. What is the purpose and mission of government, is a question of no less interest than importance to all who would entertain right notions of the powers and limitations of the state. The mission of government is of high order. It is no polit- ical expediency, created to establish offices and furnish employment for the mercenary or provide a field of action for the aspiring. Its end is man's temporal interest. In a high sense it is God's appointed power for the education, instruction, moral culture and perfection of the human soul. Truth is the agent for man's liberation' from sin and evil. Government has a great part to act in this elevation and THE DESIGN OF GOVERNMENT. 43 purification; its aim to be right must be in this direction ; its mission should be guided and shaped so as to bear onward and co-operate in this holy work. The mere accu- mulation of wealth should not be a part of the mission of government. It should look mainly to material progress, the progress which works the conquest of labor, which ena- bles labor to economize its time, to save time for mental and moral progress. It should be a benefactor to inventive genius. Men laboring in invention, discovery or science should be encouraged, assisted and rewarded. These are the men, who, under God, are struggling at the means by which human labor is to be economized and material production increased, until the whole race shall have acquired sufificient leisure for its highest intellectual and moral culture. This is a high interpretation of the mission of statecraft, but it is the true one. It would, in this, be meeting its duty toward material interests ; it would be laboring for progress, working to save work, aiming to produce day by day the same material results by a less amount of time and labor, whereby the people would become better sheltered, better clothed and fed, while more and more time would be left free to use for intellectual and moral education. In this way government would ever hold up to view the paramount value and importance of the intellectual over the material, and elevate the moral in public opinion as the final end of all labor, until man should regard the object of his business as having a higher aim than the mere enlargement of the magnitude of commerce and the accumulation of wealth. It should, from its high position and by its potential influence, teach people wisdom, and rightly guide the mate- rial interests so as best to subserve the welfare of society. It should protect public virtue and private integrity, and support all movements and institutions contributing to these essential graces. Among these institutions, powerful in influence for weal or woe upon public morals, is the family. Government should protect this relation, and throw around it the environments of sanctity and honor. Happy homes 44 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. are the earnest of pure society, and this the assurance for a contented people. The family receives every human life on its entrance into this world, and in the family every human being receives its earliest teachings and impressions ; there receives a bias or bent which no after influence can wholly eradicate ; there character, good or bad, is largely determined for the whole earthly career, so that the virtue or vice of public morals have their germs started in the family. The state should then watch over the family as the foundation of national prosperity and happiness. Here, then, lies the mission of statecraft: to keep the peace, and enforce order by holding in check all disposed to violate law and disturb order. It lays its hands on the wicked, the evil, the criminal, while it lends its vast influ- ence, and applies its large income to the material, intellect- ual and moral progress of the nation. Looked upon in this light, government is something exalted and noble. Besides this domestic mission, government has foreign relations. The character of the nation, here, should be of the highest order, never marred by low and dishonest deal- ings, or by force wielded for the promotion of injustice. It should in its dealings with other nations utter only language and propose measures of truth and honor. National life thus pure will ever be dear to her patriot citizens, who will be proud of her name on other shores and distant lands, for they will be proud of its unsullied fame to overshadow and protect wherever its citizens may roam. To effect this mission of national life there must be at its head men of broad intelligence, large experience, tried integrity, and unsullied and known character; who are led by no mean and selfish ambition, but inspired with love for the right, the true and the good ; who loathe cunning, and meanness, and injustice, whether in the conduct of indi- viduals or the action of government. National life, to stand out in all its relations as consecrated to loyalty, truth and justice, must exercise its functions through the loyal, the true and the just; for such only will preserve their own and THE THREE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 45 their country's honor, keeping it in a condition where it will hold the respect of the foreigner as well as the love of the citizen. Then the weak shall be safe under the shadow of its power and the strong shall confide in its honor and justice. In any form of national life the functions of government are exercised in three different ways : the law is to be made ; the violation of the law is to be determined ; and the penal- ties attached thereto are to be enforced. The powers of government have to do with legislation, judicature and administration. In the monarchy the despot makes the laws, decides their violation, and orders their execution In a better state of the social order national life takes on a higher form, and these three functions of government are kept entirely separate. In no case have a body of men who make laws anything to do with pronouncing penalties under those laws, or of administering those penalties, and in this way a higher sense of justice is maintained. The first function of government is to make law. Law is a rule of action by which men are to act. We have noticed how humanity is subject to the arrangement of the social order; that government is the outgrowth of this social order, hence law must conform to the nature of man in demanding man to obey it. In making law the first respect of the legislative power should be to reverence the natural rights of men. Without this legislation becomes tyranny, and government violates its very right to exist. National life cannot claim the right to enforce obedience to the law of private property until it first exercises its right of legislation by declaring the existence of the law making the possession of property a private right. The judicature of government declares the rightness of law and the guilt of its violation. When the legislature has declared laws, rights become vested and wrongs will prevail. When legal rights have been violated the wronged are entitled to redress; always entitled to have the wrong righted. This redress involves the inquiry: first, what are 46 THE SCIENCE i)F NATIONAL LIFE. the facts in the case? secondly, what consequence does the law attach to these facts ? To make this investigation and declare the law upon the case constitute proper judicial action, and national life provides for the exercise of this power, in free government by the judicial department of the administration of justice. Without this judicial func- tion of justice in some form the law would be powerless, wrongs would not be redressed, and rights would go unre- spected. It is by the instrumentality of the judicature that a peaceable remedy is found for the righting of all wrongs, and it is an immense consideration in government. The next classification of power is the executive. Laws must not only be made, their violation determined and the right under them declared, but they must be executed by adjudging compensation and enforcing penalties. Without the laws are executed anarchy will prevail, and revolution will vie with mobism to degrade all government. It is the duty of the executive to see justice and right enforced between man and man. The judicature determines what these rights are, and the executive must see that they are carried into effect. Another duty of the executive function is to enforce such laws as look to the support of the gov- ernment itself ; laws which affect neither citizen with citizen, nor citizen with state, but which have reference to the machinery of the national life. Such are all revenue laws; laws providing for the sustenance of public institutions, construction of roads, and in all cases where public money is to be expended. Yet another duty of the executive is to represent the government in its foreign relations. There are rights and wrongs between nations which bring up a con- stant need for national action, and which belong to the executive. Government falls naturally into these three departments. In rudely organized society the chieftain assumes all these functions ; he gives orders, which are laws ; he enforces these orders, and he sits in judgment in disputes among his sub- jects. In order to maintain a free and popular form, of A WISE ARRANGEMENT. 47 national life it is important that these powers shall be lodged in different hands; that the body which makes the laws shall have nothing to do with their enforcement, and that the judicial shall be a body distinct from both the legislative and executive branches of the government. Where this division of powers is well established and care- fully guarded, and there be intelligence and virtue among the people to respect the rights of each, the liberties and rights of the people are secure, and tranquility and pros- perity will continue to abide with the nation. CHAPTER V. SPECIAL MOVEMENTS AFFECTING NATIONAL LIFE. TO rightly apprehend the formation and character of modern national life it is necessary to make a short study of some leading movements and agencies which have now and then worked powerfully on society; which vastly changed the thought of the age, and which colored all government since. The philosophy of government cannot be understood without understanding these movements in society and morals, and which seem to have been God's supremacy of control over the ways and affairs of nations. The first of these special forces that we notice as wield- ing a powerful influence on the national life of the middle ages, and the ultimate effect of which is not yet, is the rise of the power of the clergy. The obscure rise of Christianity among the hills of Palestine during the first century and a half of our era ; the heavy persecution to which it submitted ; the sore struggle against immense difficulties which seemed to combine to crush the new teaching ; the gradual rise over armies and empires, at last subduing all the western world to its views, and this under the teaching of the clergy, furnishes one of the many astonishing revolutions of thought to be traced through the centuries. The clergy of this Christian faith, which pretended to leaven all life, domestic, social and political, by the very force of their energy, aggressiveness and belief in divine succor, had, by the end of the fourth century, acquired social recognition, literary influence and political power to an extent that made them henceforth a known factor in civilization. The successive hordes of bar- barians which overran Europe were, at first, all pagan, except the Saracens, and began by plundering and murdering the clergy, but always ended by being converted and baptized, 48 RISE OF FEUDALISM. 49 and in turn to exert their Christian influence upon other barbarous tribes. At the opening of the fifth century the clergy had both the power and the opportunity to effect the poHtical regeneration of the world. The laws were made, offenses under them considered and acted upon, and they were executed in accordance with the wish of these church leaders. Following the flag of the army was the banner of the cross; the teacher of science was the preacher of the gospel, and by the ruler on the throne was the priest of the temple. No enterprise could be undertaken, no movement pushed to its finale without the sympathy of the clergy. Their views upon social and state questions, as well as the- ological, were the most dominant and mostly led the masses. Under their teaching the humane truths of liberty for all alike ; equal rights to all ; the faith that of one blood were all nations ; fraternity ; the wrong of treating slaves in any sense as lower than domestic servants ; the supremacy of the moral over the social order, were features which gradually became incorporated in government, and which must be attributed to the clergy. Feudalism was one of the strongest elements that ever affected European government. It was virtually the owner- ship of land in tenure from the lords, and requiring in return military service and defense of the lord's military rights even unto death. It became a great social organization, based on the ownership of land and personal relations grow- ing out of this landed privilege. During the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries the arable lands of France, Italy and Germany were mostly held in feudal tenure. In the ninth century, when the Carlovingian dynasty was rapidly declin- ing, local chieftains had to bear the heaviest brunt of the invaders, whether Saracens or Northmen ; and these chief- tains, or leaders of small bands, soon learned to make wars and enter into terms of peace upon their own responsibility. The centralization of government was breaking and decen- tralization had set in, in which each local tribe had to look after its welfare and plan for its own defense. The chief- 4 50 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. tains divided their estates among their warriors upon a con- dition of military service. If several tribes were banded together for mutual protection, the great vassal, or tenant for a whole tribe, would each year kneel, and placing his hands between those of his lord, would vow to serve him with life, and in faithful and loyal devotion, in consideration of the lands conferred. Beneath these great princes, or lords, who held provinces directly from the king, were under- vassals, who in turn granted estates to smaller tenants, the whole system being intended to secure service in time of war; and as society depended upon vigorous defensive war, the under-vassals were as much concerned in preserving this system as the princes or lords. Originally the feudal grants of land were made only for a term of years, or during the lifetime of the vassal, but gradually they became hereditary. The serfs who cultivated the soil were given away with it,, and could claim nothing except protection for themselves and families and cattle in time of invasion. In this way- feudalism aided in the establishment of a hateful slavery, and succeeded in pushing its recognition into the European system of government. This is but one of the evils created in national life by the feudal system. It became an oppres- sive social tyranny; it had widened the distance between the vassals and serfs, which created caste sectionalisms in society. The head vassals gradually developed into a mili- tary aristocracy, very unjust and dangerous to the general welfare of society. With these evil effects many strong and good elements were born by the feudal system, which developed into such wonderful privileges that the very principles of sovereignty were forever crippled. It introduced reciprocal duties be- tween the vassal and his lord. The vassal was bound to give military service; the lord to defend the personal and property rights of the vassal. It did much to restore loy- alty, truth and fidelity among rude men and tribes, and in this promoted chivalry; it ennobled friendship, and spread the graces of gentleness and urbanity among rough men of BENEFITS OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 5 1 war. It taught tribes the ease with which they could resist the invader by combining their tribal forces, and from this was learned the principle of strength through unity. Com- binations of masses took place ; free cities were established ; ■free farmers were beginning to cultivate the soil, and political liberty was conceived as a practical thing, if not actually born. Among the many free privileges which grew out of the natural conditions of the feudal system were some of known value in making a review of the causes which led to the character of modern national life. The right of coining money without the stamp of royal authority was claimed and used by the vassals as early as the tenth cen- tury. This was a useful privilege in helping to establish the rightness of private liberty, but dangerous in jeopardiz- ing the finances of any country. France was nearly ruined by it. A second right granted and used during the age of feudalism was that of urging private war. The right to resist any invading enemy was considered sacred, and every man who owned a castle and had a body of retainers was at liberty to take the field against any injuring party. This did much to develop a sense of private justice between man and man, which is one of the safeguards of free government. Another right born in these feudal times was that of being free from all legislative control except in such things as were for the general good ; and yet another was the exclu- sive right of judicature which each vassal had in his domin- ion, except the mere matter of military service, where the will of the lord was supreme. These rights were too high for the period, and as a consequence they were all grossly abused ; yet they served a vast purpose in turning the mind to the higher and supreme rights of full equality, fraternity and national good-will. The strange and rapid growth of the feudal system, until it became the sole power in all South Europe, owes its existence to the invading hordes of the North and East, which overran the whole South and West and necessitated some mighty resistance in each sec- tion. To offer this resistance, feudalism was the best thing 52 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. that grew out of the turbulent condition of affairs. It was the three hundred year struggle between monarchy and democracy to offer the best method for government. It was a long, selfish, and yet manly and noble, struggle ; and out of it came monarchy manacled and democracy self- equipped for growth and improvement. The crusades, undertaken for the overthrow of Turkish rule in the East and to preserve Jerusalem free as a pilgrim shrine for the Western Christian, resulted in the promise of modern civilization. The first leading cause which hurried on the crusade spirit was the conquest of the holy land of Palestine by the Turks, whose zeal in establishing the faith of Mohammed made them treat Christian pilgrims with ferocious cruelty. For a long while previous the feeling had been growing throughout Europe that there was spe- cial virtue in visiting the scenes of the life of Christ. The Christian converts were pagan worshipers at first, who believed in making pilgrimages to the temples where the gods were supposed to preside over sacrifice and worship. In becoming Christian the feeling was natural that a pil- grimage from the grotto of Bethlehem to the tomb of Aramathea would specially endow with the virtue of Christ, the divine head of the church. When the Turkish invader with his Islam faith, drove the Christian pilgrim from the Palestine plains, a storm of hot indignation broke over Europe, which was to burn for two centuries, and which was to absorb the whole attention of the world. In the latter part of the eleventh century seven thousand pilgrims were led by the Primate of Germany to brave the Turks of Jerusalem; but they were glad to return by a Genoese fleet. Hildebrand, with wonderful zeal, proposed to lead fifty thousand Christian soldiers to the relief of the resident Christians at Jerusalem, but he, too, failed. It was reserved for Peter the Hermit of Picardy, to effectually kindle the crusade spirit in such a strong manner that no power of state or church could quench it. He preached the duty of wrenching the Holy Land from the infidel Turk throughout THE BEGINNING OF THE CRUSADES. 53 Italy, France and Germany, in streets, highways and churches ; in the palace and the cottage; the market place and on the hillside, and was everywhere received with rapture and enthusiasm. An immense mass meeting was held at Cler- mont, where an appeal was made to the chivalry of Europe to retake Jerusalem, the only bulwark of Christianity in Asia, from the infidel. The crowd responded with shouts of approval. Dieii le vent (God wills it) became the battle cry of the crusaders. Thousands of every rank and age placed the sword by their side and the red cross upon their shoulders, and vowed to gain the Holy Land to their zeal- ous faith. The mountains of Scotland, Wales, Norway and the land of the Swiss heard the summons, and answered it by sending forth swarms of Christian soldiery. Europe gave up the petty wars which had produced the feudalism ; nobles sold lands and castles, farmers their implements of husbandry; monks exchanged their convent for the open field ; serfs and slaves were freed on the mere condition of assuming the cross, and robbers, pirates and criminals of all classes were induced to fill the overflowing ranks in the belief that they could wash away their guilt in the blood of the infidels. Six millions of men, women and children took the cross and faced toward the land usurped by the hated Turk. The first start was made in August, 1096. Walter the Penniless and Peter the Hermit led an unorganized army of one hun- dred thousand men, followed by an irregular host of two hundred thousand more. Months later their bones were found bleaching on the borders of Hungary, and in a pyramid on the plains of Nice. In the late autumn the very chivalry of Lorraine and the flower of northeastei'n France were led by Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine. The Turks were defeated at Nice, the Turkish capital of Roum ; at Edessu, where the first Latin colony was founded, and at Antioch, where the Turks were almost annihilated. The eastern plague and summer heat devoured over one hundred thousand of the crusading army. In the early summertide 54 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. of 1099 the crusading host appeared before the Holy City. After three years of weary pilgrimage, famine, war and wasting disease, the first view of Jerusalem over the Pales- tine hills was hailed with shouts of joy. Eight hundred and fifty thousand had fallen by the way, and only forty thous- and pitched their tents on the north and west of the city. The forest of lichen thirty miles away furnished the wood for the assaulting engines. Forty days the siege went on, during which the besieging crusaders suffered for want of water. Gihon's brook and Kedron's branch were dry, and all the cisterns were broken by the stubborn Turks. At length, four hundred and sixty years after the Saracen con- quest the crusade standard was put on the walls of the city. Ten thousand Mohammedans were slain in the mosque of Omer. Then, washing their hands of the blood they had so mercilessly shed, they went in solemn procession to the tomb of Joseph's garden. One of the crusade leaders was left with a few hundred men to guard the Holy Land, and the remainder returned to the West. By this and succeed- ing conquests the Latin kingdom was extended east of the Euphrates and south to the borders of Egypt. French law, language, thought and customs prevailed over the land once reigned over by David and Solomon. When the capture of Jerusalem was told in Europe it electrified four hundred and twenty thousand more pilgrims, who set forth in iioi ; but nearly all fell in Asia Minor from plague, famine and the arrows of the Turks. In less then half a century later several crews combined to start for the East another crusade. The imperial eloquence of Bernard, the Abbot of Clairvaux aroused all ranks and classes to save the Holy Land from falling again into the hands of the in- fidels. Towns were now deserted, while communities were left desolate of industries, and in many places only women and children were left to cultivate the land. This fresh swarm of victims to religious frenzy gradually perished by the intrigue of the foe and the pestilence of this strange country. Bread sold to the hungry beings was mixed with THE CHILDREN S CRUSADE. 55 chalk ; the guides, themselves bribed, led the crusaders into the desert to perish with hunger and thirst. The remnant wearily returned to Europe, and the second crusade ended a failure. Near the close of the twelfth century Jerusalem was retaken by the infidel Turk. This spread grief through- out Europe, and plans were soon concerted to start a third crusade. Through all Europe a one-tenth of all movable property was levied upon Jews and Christians for the expense of the wars. The only result of this attempt was to force the Saracens to guarantee safety to all Christians who wished to make a pilgrimage to the holy sepulcher. A fourth crusade was proclaimed in 1200 A. D., and a tax was imposed on the clergy to defray the burdensome expense of the expedition. The conquest of Constantinople was the only enterprise of note which occured during this crusade, and but very few of the deluded host ever reached Palestine, This fanatical spirit reached a climax in producing the children's crusade. From the towns and hamlets ninety thousand children assembled and led by a mere boy pushed their way as' far as Genoa, when they were perplexed by finding themselves confronting the sea ; some took ship only to fall into the hands of Moorish pirates, some were sold in slavery, and some perished from hunger or fatigue ; while it is not probable that one of the deluded host ever reached either Palestine or home. Several crusades followed in quick succession, until in all quite a dozen of these attempts to break the Turkish rule in Palestine had been made. The distress of the armies in the East was only excelled by the dessolation of the fields and the stagnation of industries at home. Business of all kinds was neglected, commerce was weakened, the consuming women and children left at home exceeded the producing population, and famine was the consequence. Complete panic, commercially and politically, threatened all Europe. These crusades closed in time to save the whole West from being depopulated. Though in the end the greater part of Palestine was surrendered to the Christians, the walls of 56 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. \ Jerusalem were rebuilt, and the churches reconsecrated, these results alone would have poorly compensated for the extravagant sacrifice of life, property and vast commercial interests ; for the perpetuity of the Christian faith, and the stability of the Christian truth never depended upon Christian or Islam rule in the little and commercially insig- nificant country of Palestine. Though the immediate results of this crusading war against the East were wholly bad, yet the ultimate outcome was vastly for good. Close intercourse between the East and the West grew out of the crusades, and this was the opening of that long series of events and movements which have finally resulted in a somewhat settled system of international law, which is one of the chief glories of modern civilization. Eastern ideas and inventions were engrafted on the West, and eventually changed the whole current of European life. The narrow circle of European ideas was widened to embrace the art and language of Asia, and the two henceforth had to be neighbors, if they did refuse to be friends. Feudal prin- ciples were introduced in Jerusalem and Constantinople ; the power of the Turk was held in check if not broken, and the tide of Mohammedan conquests was turned back more than once, giving Europe time to prepare herself for the possible emergency of a general Turkish invasion over the whole West. These crusades doubtless saved the Italian, Teutonic, and possibly the Scandinavian, lands from Turkish tyranny, which had blasted the fairest lands of earth. They broke up the feudal systems for Europe, opened the way for an exchange of thought and manners ; the widening out of the spheres of learning, which had a wholesome result in a revival of letters, and finally in the religious revival which followed that revival. The breaking up of the feudal systems resulted in the abolition of serfdom, and the common object for all who participated in the crusades, whether bard, vassal or serf, did a great deal to overthrow that hateful caste charac- ter which grew out of the feudal order, and with the down- A NEW CIVILIZATION. 5/ fall of this was the growing supremacy of a common law over the independent jurisdiction of chiefs and vassals. The effect of all this on the national life of Europe was to make it more energetic, open the way for new and bene- ficial elements, create in the masses a desire for self govern- ment, and a general breaking down of old and hateful tyrannies. Several hundred years of bold adventure had made men daring in all kinds of enterprise, and the energy of the West seemed to have received a new impulse. A few bold thinkers had been making studies based on the spherical form of the globe ; movable type were first used in the fifteenth century, and did much in spreading inspiring books ; the polarity of the magnet, followed by the discovery of America; the new birth of fine art at Milan, Florence, Venice and Rome, where Angelo, Correggio and Raphael made such splendid creations in marble and on canvas as to arouse the intelligence of Europe from the work of war to the work of trade, discovery and science : the Flemish artists^ led by Rubens of Antwerp, being scarcely behind the Italian ; the radical change in domestic art, better houses and churches, improvement in mechanical and agricultural instruments; linen and woolen goods supplanting the coarse fabrics of the Middle Ages — these were rapid strides for a new civiliza- tion. In the more refined fields of thought the growth was rapid. Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and Chaucer dis- played before the world such rare and rich genius, as to kindle a love for poetic literature, and did a great deal in the revival of learning and the admiration for the songs of love, romance, virtue and truth ; the generally diffused spirit of investigation that was inquisitive in all directions, and which was one result of the crusades ; the growing disposition with a few able scholars and reformers to ponder and reflect upon the higher duties of life and the moral side of man, the pro- found meditations on the existence of God, the nature of the mind, the faculties and future of the soul, — all these agencies and causes began to produce a strange ferment in. 58 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. social, moral, intellectual and commercial Europe, which was the promise for a new life for the West ; these causes acted upon each other in various ways to make improvement the passion cry of the age. This spirit was rapidly giving birth to the most prominent event of modern times, and the most momentous in its results — the Reformation of the sixteenth century. It is connected directly with some of the higher rights and privi- leges of modern national life. It contributed to bring about the moral struggle of the Huguenots and Puritans against civil wrongs. It had much to do with the wider dilTusion of knowledge, and with the progress of civil and religious liberty in Europe. It is indeed the mainspring of modern civilization. It would be impossible to form an intelligent view of modern free government, without considering the Reformation as having a master hold in the equal rights and general intelligence which now belong to the masses. The general breaking up of old feudal laws and customs, and the new life infused by the crusades ; the luxury and corruption of the papal court, the notoriously evil lives of such popes as Sixtus IV. and Alexander VI., and the vices of the clergy; the wars of Julius II. and the bitter animosi- ties among the leaders of the Roman faith ; the wonderful spirit for research and the growing disgust for the old forms, and the prevailing desire for purer men and purer things: these were a few of the many causes which contributed to produce the most remarkable and far reaching reform which has ever worked its way into the settled convictions of the ages. If God works in history that event was heaven's greatest inspiration to earth, and the most magnifi- cent display of divine grace, giving power and direction to the movement, which is to be traced through the annals of the world. The suddenness of its action is one of the peculiar traits of the Reformation. The great revolutions which have drawn after them the fall of a monarchy or the change of an empire, or launched the business mind into a new career THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION. 59 of development, have been slowly and gradually prepared ; the power to be displaced has long been studied and gradu- ally undermined, and its supports have given way almost imperceptibly. But nothing of this is seen in the Reforma- tion. The causes reached far back in the conditions of Europe, and in the unseen armory of the Diety were forged the instruments that were to hew down the moral evil of the age ; but in the opinion of men, and in the expectation of society, nothing could be more unexpected. It is true there was that general disquiet which in the philosophy of natural life is always indicative of coming revolution of some kind, but in the horoscope of the times there is discoverable no sign by which either scholars or the masses foresaw the radical and universal changes which should come in all channels of life. It came in all its terrible force like the mighty belching of a great moral Vesuvius, unexpected, almost unannounced. It was scarcely heard in the near distance, until it broke like a hidden cloud, lapping up papal chair and political throne in its seething waters. What do we see? The Church of Rome, in all its strength and glory, swaying its sceptre over empires and waving its pontifical cudgel over the heads of scholars in the universities ; its influence reaching over Europe, its power apparently as firm as the Alps barricaded with the eternal hills. A monk speaks, and in the half of Europe this power and glory suddenly crumbles into dust; and before the surprise is over, the religion and politics of Europe are revolutionized. Many circumstances which have frequently escaped obser- vation, gradually prepared men and nations for the great transformation of this amazing sixteenth century; so that,, though it was known not, the human mind was ripe when the hour of emancipation came. The mystery of all this is that, hidden in the movements of the hurnan mind, is ever the divine mind. The philosophy of the world's progress clearly shows that the guiding star of civilization is the simple but powerful truth — GOD IS IN HISTORY. On the wide stage on which men and nations meet and struggle, 60 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. there is a concealed actor, masked behind the form of things, which is the power of God. So that the work of ages, instead of being a confusing chaos, is a splendid temple which the invisible builder of worlds erects above the changes of passing generations. Shall the arm of this unseen power not be acknowledged as guiding those great men and mighty nations which give a new hfe, a new form, a new destiny to human affairs? Shall we not acknowledge the divine influence in those great heroes, who spring up among men at special times of need or danger; who display activity and ability beyond the limits of human genius; around whom men and nations gather, as if to a superior person, for help and safety? Those revolutions and movements, which in their wild career precipitate nations and gigantic evils to the dust; those heaps of ruins with which we meet in the sands of the desert ; those strange remains piled along the buried path of the past, and coming to our reflection, like the wisdom of the sepulcher, all — all speak the truth that God is shaping the destiny of national as well as personal Hfe. Gibbon, seated on the ancient capital and contemplating its noble ruins, acknowledged the intervention of a superior destiny. This superior destiny has taken firm possession of the gates of nations, hovers over all the tribes of earth, and to which is indebted all those remarkable movements which tend toward, but often result so different from, what is expected of them in their incipiency. This law, of a higher than human force, is certainly recog- nizable in the Reformation. This is admirably expressed by Luther, the head figure of those times, when he says : " The world is a vast and grand game of cards, made up of emper- ors, kings and princes. The pope for several centuries has beaten emperors, princes and kings. They have been put down and taken up by him. Then came God : he dealt the cards; he took the most worthless of them all, and with it he has beaten the pope, the conqueror of the kings of earth. EFFECTS OF THE REFORMATION. 6 1 There is the ace of God. He has cast down the mighty from their seats, and has exalted them of low degree." Luther and Zwingle will likely continue to be regarded as the two most significant leaders of the Reformation. So far as the political effect of the Reformation is concerned the Swiss reformer was of more direct consequence than the Ger- man. The reformation of morals was the great aim of his life, and being an enthusiast in liberty as well as religion, he took a live interest in correcting abuses of the state. The town of Zurich became a republic under his emancipating touch, and was the first of the little republics of Switzerland, which have been so highly complimented by all lovers of liberty. Without a doubt Zwingle was the greatest political reformer ever produced by the Swiss. He organized a strong party which believed in representative government in opposition to the oligachy of the church, and which in many cantons obtained the ascendency and gave birth to civil liberty in the mountains of Schoffhausen. The spirit of the Reformation had now become a factor in civilization, and all civilized government was henceforth to be effected by it. It had given the nations a sense of the right of the most humble before God as equal to the right of the most kingly or scholarly, and in consequence equal rights before rulers and in government. People were begin- ning to love freedom, pant for liberty and feel the high need of adopting better forms of government. As the crusades had changed social life, the Reformation changed moral life ; and as life is purified morally, it will be elevated politically. It is easy to see how the Reformation contributed to dignify the better elements in national life. By the teaching of this Reformation every man felt him- self directly*responsible before the Almighty; with no other mediator than Christ, with no absolution from sin but repent- ance and a new life. There could be no higher expression of the liberty of the individual over against his fellow men. The claim to the right of freedom in private judgment is a feeble and partial doctrine in comparison ; for the former 62 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. declares the individual man under God alone, not the keeper of this judgment only, but independent of pope, bishop and priest, the keeper of his reason, affections, conscience and character; of his whole being now and hereafter. In this Reformative age such preaching as this pointed to the gate, through which the more intellectual were to pass to free- dom. So that, in political philosophy, the Reformation became an expression of the right of the human intellect to freedom. Under its inspiration tyranny over mind became hateful, monarchy lost its sanctity, and representative gov- ernment was anchored in the heart of humanity. Slowly and with hesitation the rights of all men asserted the privilege to be represented in national life. The growth of old English common laws, the general basis of the Ameri- can government, played an important part in the distribu- tion of the powers and government. England deserves no credit for giving this law of general opinion to all free gov- ernments, for she used the whole force of the crown to crush it ; but being a necessity in the developement of civic society it, like many great truths, came into favor in spite of the upper and lower houses of the crown's authority and the nation's ignorance, where it has now broken to fragments. That truth crushed to earth will rise again, finds an interest- ing instance in the rise of English common law. It was considered by the English people that England's glory and stability were all lost at the battle of Hastings. It is true that a great kingdom was thrashed outright by a single prince ; but England then was painfully destitute of great men, and men great in the breadth of their intelli- gence, the range of their knowledge and solid in the right- ness of their principles are always the security of a people thrown into danger. When weak and insipid characters lead a people to defensive war their cause is lost ; because of the very lack of intelligence and moral power to lead and com- mand. When brain and heart are infirm the hand is weak. It was a brave army that fell at Hastings, but domestic fac- tions exposed the country to the invader. In the defeat of GROWTH OF THE COMMON LAW. 6^ the English at Hastings the first step toward the common law was made, though England could not see it. From Hast- ings William of Normandy proceeded to literally take Eng- land, and then riveted such fetters upon the conquered people as to make all resistence seem impracticable. The very nanie of Englishman was turned into reproach, no one of the race was given a position in church or state. Their language was considered barbarous and they were forced under pen- alty to use the French language in all legal instruments, in church services and in the schools. Within twenty years from the time William the Conqueror camped at Hastings the ^ whole English soil belonged to the Normans. The tyranny of the Norman conquerors heavily oppressed the con- quered English. The Norman laws show no provission made which was calculated to maintain private liberty or pub- lic honor. This had produced such a cry of despair and com- plaint, that, when finally Henry H. succeeded to the throne, the needs of the common people were begining to reach the ears of the throne with some little effect. A king's court was established to hear the cases of complaint for personal wrong. But as few could have recourse to so distant a tri- bunal as the king's court, and perhaps also on account of the attachment which the English felt for their ancient right of trial by their neighboring freeholders, itinerant justices were estabhshed, to decide civil and criminal cases within each county. And to this is due the uniformity of the common law. Gradually from this grew the common law, to have a a place in the laws of the nation. It was simply the law of the people. It is contrasted with the statute law, as a law that was not declared by the throne, but which grew out of the very breasts of the people ; it is different from the law of equity, as in law prevailing between man and man ; it differs from local law, as it is a general law designed for the whole realm. It is different from civil, common, or inter- national law, which were systems recognized as having their functions only in certain courts, and always restrained by the limits of the common law. In contrast with all these laws it 64 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. may be considered broadly as the universal law of the realm, and was intended to apply wherever they did not prevail, and was expected to have a rule for discussion for every pos- sible case that might arise in all the perplexing emergencies of misdemeanor. Blackstone divides the civil law of England into statute law and common law. The legality or validity of these usages is to be determined by the judges who are the depo- sitories of the law, who must decide in all cases of doubt, and who are bound by an oath to decide according to the law of the land. Their judgments are preserved in records, and it is an established rule to abide by former precedents when the same cases again come in litigation. The high respect paid to precedents is the source of most of the peculiarities of the old English common law. It was never a fixed or rigid system. In the changing conditions of society, and the rise and growth of new principles, new cases would constantly spring up, which demanded new treatment, which gave great elasticity to the law, yet wonderful ingenuity was dis- played in preserving its integrity and honor to meet the wants of justice. Pre-eminently a national system of un- written law, founded upon custom and legalized by prece- dents, it in time became the source for more equality in law and government. By the oppression thrust upon England by the Norman conquerors was produced the common law, and out of this common law grew the Magna Charta, the palladium of Anglo-Saxon liberty. The rights of the people were despised by overbearing and tyrannical Norman princes ; and when the cry of defense was raised, and it was sought to secure redress, a state of anarchy was produced that was never still. Under the growing favor given the people by the common law, they aimed to assert in some tangible and lasting man- ner the rights which were felt to be inborn in the Saxon race. This was at last obtained by the people, sword in hand, from King John, on the meadows of Runnymede. His reign had been one outrageous abridgement of the DEMANDS UPON ROYAL SOVEREIGNTY. 65 rights of the people. He was the strong representative of royal oppression, completely under the influence of the pope. From the very exhaustion of patience the people rose to speak a rebuke. The blood of the old Saxon and his Nor- man conquerors had flown together for years, and Saxon sentiment had modified the Norman rule to harmony with English ideas ; and the barons and yoemen united, felt the indignation caused by kingly wrong, determined on measures of liberty, and sent word to King John that they desired to meet him, and should meet him, outside the sovereign's castle. And while this people, warmed by the breath of freedom's prophecy, are assembled on the field of Runny- mede, the door of Windsor castle opens and John obeys the voice that comes from offended manhood. It was royalty riding down, with herald and guard, to man to do him hom- age. It was a virtual acknowledgement that man's rights are higher than kings' prerogatives. The people had written their demands on parchment and John had to sign his name to the document and stamp his seal upon it. The Magna CJiarta is signed and sealed by the king. Never did com- monalty make and carry such demand upon royal sover- eignity. This charter, later confirmed in parliament by Henry III., declared the principal grounds upon which should rest fundamental laws for England. Long after came in the petition of right, which was a parliamentary acknowl- edgement of the liberties of the people, asserted by Charles I. This was followed by the habeas corpus act under Charles II. Then the bill of rights granted by the lords and commons, which granted free rights to the people, and free government had its birthright, not from royalty but from the common people. So much for the rise of these rights and liberties which constitute the full Magna Charta. They are not the rights of all mankind, but, restrained by tyranny and oppression, were a long while working their way to the front in national life. The rights secured by the Magna Charta may be reduced to three principal or primary articles : the right of 5 66 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. personal security, the right of personal liberty and the right of private property. From this it is seen that the highest power in government is not the desire of king or noble, but the opinions of the people. In the Magna CJiarta the right of trial by jury is fre- quently referred to as the principal balance of English liberties. It must be esteemed as one of the highest and most beneficial ways of holding sacred the personal and property rights of citizens. It is very difificult to trace a clear origin for the trial by jury. It has been a prevailing^ opinion that it had its origin in the early Saxon age of Britain ; but there are signs of its Roman, and again of its Norman, origin ; while some writers trace it through the Norsemen to a Scandinavian source. The true idea is that this, like so many of the best rights of man, grew up by the very necessity of his needs, and reached by many different channels its ultimate high state. One most significant custom which contributed to produce it was the Norman practice of sworn inquest, and which the Norman princes found such frequent need to use after the conquest. They had to rely on this method for accurate information. In disputed cases they needed a true account of the points and facts under controversy, and such an account was sought for by sworn evidence. Hence it is safe to conclude that the Norman conquest fostered these germs of the early jury. By this jury no citizen could be harmed in property or person with- out the unanimous consent of twelve of his neighbors, sworn to carefully consider all the evidence touching every controverted point, and then impartially and with conscien- tious regard for their honor, return an honest verdict. No method was ever designed by which justice can better be attained. It is the chief glory of modern law. In regulat- ing civil and deciding criminal cases it has an advantage over other methods. It is certainly the most eminent priv- ilege which any citizen can wish, that he cannot be affected in property or person without the unanimous consent of twelve of his peers. It has given constitutional law its best THE RIGHT TO TRIAL BY JURY. 6/ and surest tranquility. Had Rome, Sparta and Carthage had the trial by jury, their Hberties, which went down under conditions of unjust and unequal laws that produced an- archy, might have been safe. The great object of civil society is to secure our persons and property by the impar- tial administration of justice ; but if this administration be left to an official body elected or appointed for the purpose, their verdicts, in spite of the effort to decide just, would frequently have a bias in favor of those of their own rank or position. If the power of administration were placed at random in the hands of the multitude, as did the democracy of Greece, the decisions would be loose and unreliable ; but a competent number of faithful and upright jurymen, chosen by lot, will be found the best to weigh impartially the facts in evidence, will -be the surest custodian of the law's power and of justice. For here the most powerful person will hesitate to involve the rights of another when he knows that his wrong will be examined into by twelve persons not selected until the time for trial, and that the facts once ascertained by them the law must avenge it. This then preserves in the hands of the people a large part of the administration of justice, and prevents the power of the law from being contested by the wealthy or designing. Every new tribunal created to decide upon facts, without the intervention of the jury is a step in direction of aris- tocracy. In every attempt in Europe to drop the trial by equals, the nobles have increased in power to the danger of the commonwealth. In Sweden, where the trial by jury was preserved until the middle of the last century, as the bulwark of northern liberty, it was finally lost and the rights of the commons was extinguished, and government has degenerated into a mere aristocracy. The intrinsic value of this political institution is prac- tically unlimited. It is the highest security against an unequal administration of justice ; as it is no respecter of persons it is provided to deal to all alike, in the same measure, the judgments of the law. It is a positive guarantee that 68 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. before a man can be wrongly dealt with by the law, or escape without the penalty of a broken law, twelve men good and true in the estimation of the court must themselves do wrong. A duty, than which there can be few higher, is that of every man, to maintain by all his honor this invaluable constitution of human rights ; to strive to prevent it from being lowered in dignity or lowered in stringency ; to guard it against civil innovations of method and to sacredly keep watch over its character, that it in no way may be subverted from its natural and old time prerogatives. As it is the chief thing American law has inherited from the old English law, Americans especially ought to gratefully preserve its place and rank in our laws and courts of justice. CHAPTER VI. WHAT LED TO THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. WE now approach the origin of American national Hfe. The preHminary ground over which we have gone has shown the wide range of sources from which modern free government has been born. It has been a long and circuit- ous route which liberty has taken to reach its highest and most gifted form ; and if tracing its tortuous way through these revolutions and reforms of the past has been interest- ing, we may fairly hope still greater interest in now beholding it in a high state of worth and beauty. American national life displays the most benign and per- fect system of society in the world ; just as the American government affords the best example of a free and popular form of government. The causes which led to the organization of the Ameri- can national life are as interesting as to trace the progress of the life of the American people. It was an opportune age when the New World was uncovered from the hiding place of the past. The general upturning of old forms and in- stitutions, created by the feudal system ; the barbarous tribes of the north over-running Europe, and the birth of modern maritime enterprise, resulting from the crusades ; the great impulse given to popular rights, and the stress laid upon personal opinion by the Reformation ; the revival of learn- ing and the fresh interest taken in scientific research and philosophical discussion, all combined to usher in what may be regarded as the most remarkable period of civilization — the far-reaching fifteenth century. At least it has so far proven to be the most far-reaching in its mighty influences. In politics every settled form, which had been in power through all time, was breaking up. First, the Northmen, caring 70 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. nothing for the few ties which bound them to their wild fastnesses, and having no government except what was vested in the chieftain and his council, bore in uncalendared num- bers down through the countries of the south. To resist this invasion the feudal system grew up, which gave the first effectual blow at despotism by creating a mutual relation between lord and vassal. In religion the world was equally unsettled and indicated a thorough change. The crusades resulted in causing a profound interest in religious thought, and in customs and forms among the masses, and began the process which finally tore religious power and exclusive privilege from the papal leaders. Mediaeval priestcraft became as hateful as mediaeval kingcraft. Close on the crusade spirit came the reformation spirit, and centralization of religious power and favor heard its death knell. The religious world was emancipated, and all civilization gave an unusual bound forward. Learning was again a thing of interest, and taken from the monks it kindled into a light that lit up a nev/ intellectual period. The crusades, breaking into the secluded schools and libra- ries of the Orient, gave circulation to the seeds of knowledge, and the enthusiasm of the West was soon energized by the thought of the East. Movable type was invented, printed works followed, and the poorer classes could afford to read and study. Soon they began to think, and the thought of the brain touched the key-board of Europe's industries at the bidding of a new enterprise. The commerce of the world had been stagnated for centuries ; the products of one clime found no demand in other climes. As a result of this, internal trade was dull, and all life was dull with it. The crusade epoch changed all this. Men went over into Asia and to Palestine the first time to fight for a religious idea ; they came back to prepare to go the second time to trade in commerce. Navies were built; ships were ladened with cargoes ; great highways were opened ; shops and factories were erected; agriculture again became a business; the mariner's compass was invented ; and on the discovery of the PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 7 1 polarity of the magnet, and modern civilization, the Ameri- can era, was brought in with the hum of machinery, the clang of hammers, the noise of commerce and the grand anvil chorus of the world's busy industries. Columbus took up the spirit of the age and gave the sublime courage of his faith ; Isabel caught the spirit and gave the jewels from neck and hand, and America was born. One of the wonders of the world, greater than either of the seven reputed ancient wonders, is that this land of the high hill, the great prairie, the broad savannah, the deep forest and the mighty river, should have lain hid behind the curtain of the known world, and disclose itself just in time to mark the first great age of reformation and invention as being also the age of discovery. A volume might be written concerning pre-historic America — that period which hes prior to the discovery by Columbus. Those dusky men of the hillside and the river bank. From whence did they come,, and when? What their connecting link with the rest of mankind, and when and where did they break with the brotherhood of man, and how did they lose their identity? The long centuries they lived and roamed over this great land, migrating from hill to hill, or river to river; the wild and awful romance of their hunting, trapping and fishing, as well as taking the bison on the plain or the bear in the deep woods; their sports and games, their very simplicity bespeaking innocence; their rude home life and still ruder forms of government ; their strategy and cunning in war ; their plain but lofty words of eloquence by the council fire, lofty as the eloquence of the wild wind's shriek when lashed by the arms of the forest, or the clear bell-notes of the waterfall when cut by the ragged rock ; their thoughts of mind and strange aspirations of soul, like half glimpses of inspiration from the God of nature — these headings could be drawn out into long chapters to fas- cinate the mind. For the mythological period of a people's history is of the strangeness and mystery that holds our interest. To lift that curtain which conceals all Indian hfe 7^ THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. back of the discovery would be a task which many would hail with fond delight, for it would open a new field of pas- tures fresh for the antiquarian to revel in the luxury of medi- tations upon the early life of a strange confederacy of tribes. But it is given only to the hand of mere speculation to raise that curtain. Speculation is of but little service in tracing the philoso- phy of history, or in studying the science of national life ; hence we dismiss the temptation to linger here with the muse of mere fancy, leaving to the antiquarian and legend- ary student the pleasure of writing under the inspiration of the wigwam smoke and by the council fire, with the single reflection, that we hope some American Homer, or Chaucer, more elaborate than Schoolcraft or Longfellow, will dip the oar in this limpid sea of America's mythical past and light the torch by which the night mantled waters of early Indian life may be fully seen. America's boys would call such a one great. No less uncertain, are the records of discovery prior to Columbus. A few traditions, made unreliable by their im- probable proportions, a town or two, and a long line of mounds from north to south throughout the country are the most conclusive evidence of earlier discoveries and settle- ments. The fact of discovery to which they point is con- clusive, but to designate any trait of civilization, or stage of enlightenment, or the proportions to which the settlements attained, is impossible. It would be interesting to know whether European sail or Asiatic prow first threw a shadow on the New World's shore. It would be interesting to know from where the mound builders came, to understand their very peculiar customs and the cause of their evident migration southward, and whether the civilization of Peru and Mexico, which reached such marvelous architectural skill, was built by them. The Northmen were great colonists, having settled Ice- land and Greenland during the middle ages. And there is a mere possibility of some adventurous party having extended ANCIENT TRADITIONS. 73 their voyage to Labrador, and, passing it, explored the coasts below. But the supposition that such was the case rests upon very uncertain mythological narratives. No historic evidence is extant showing that the Northmen ac- complished such a feat. The generally accredited tale that an Icelandic colony was planted on the American coast in the tenth century, is equally uncertain ; and no plain vestige of their presence on this continent has been found. The marts of England were frequently entered by the Lombard traders and the story tellers among the adventurous North- men told of Scandinavian legends which hinted at a conti- nent lying hid beyond the blue wave of the Atlantic. The extensive fisheries of the north had called to the sea the merchants of Bristol, who eventually opened a commerce with Iceland. This made the North Atlantic not altogether unfamiliar to the daring boatmen of the sea. From this grew up a vague story about Icelanders making remote discoveries in Greenland toward the northwest, " where the lands must meet." But these traditions only served to confirm in the minds of bold explorers in science the old Pythagorean teaching that the earth is a sphere, and that the water which washes Europe on the west, touches Asia on the east. It was left for Columbus to reduce these stories to the ground of faith, and who, by the instruction he received from the verierable Tarcanelli, the Florentine astronomer, who made a map of the world with Asia close against the waters that skirted Europe, grasped the keys of the ocean and ventured to open a short path to the wealth of the Indies. The genuis of God had touched that man. And through him, just as kingcraft had driven men from their last personal rights, God opened the gates of a new continent, and bade oppressed millions enter, to breath an air whose freedom was sung by the birds and by the woodland breeze. It may be taken as one of those Providences, which now and then in the progress of events, when the whole world was burdened with shackles upon the brain, wrist and 74 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. heart, and the humanity of the race was in danger of being lost 'neath the menial and cringing life of the lost estate of manhood, that just then, the very thunder crash of renewed vigor crushed the wall of a concealed continent and the alluvial valley and sun-crowned mountain invited man once more to toil and be free. Civilization walks by faith and not by reason alone. And it is suggestive of the lines of divinity woven through the woof and warp of humanity that the discovery of America was an incident in the ways of God, rather than an accident happening in the ways of man. To trace man's struggle and God's design in forming and coalescing the elements of American national life will form a most interesting chapter. CHAPTER VII. ELEMENTS FORMING OUR NATIONAL LIFE. IF some of the worst elements of European society found their way to the New World, because compelled to leave to escape punishment of crimes, or from a mere spirit of adven- ture, the great moral elements moved far in excess of the evil. It is to these original elements of stern and severe morality, honest industry, conscientious scruples and relia- bility of purpose that we owe chiefly the grandeur of the American republic. They were elements of character that were born in the day of oppression and in the night of per- secution, and for this very reason partook of that peculiarity of sternness and narrowness which has called forth so many criticisms against the colonial fathers. But their spirit, dis- position and religious convictions were such as mighty empires are ever made of. They were tested at every pos- sible point of life's compass, and were found to be the only principles upon which the state and society could safely and securely rest. Driven by the oppression and tyranny of the rulers to the extremity of despair, these old founders and prophets of our country took refuge in God. Here they found a peace of mind and quiet heart which gave them an intense desire to flee to some land unfrequented by the despoiler of personal liberty and right, where they might enjoy their convictions of mind unmolested and worship their God without any other dictation than that of their conscience. They sought and found refuge in the land where religious persecutions and political oppression had lifted no voice of tyranny. The first of these exile people for conscience-sake to be noticed are the Huguenots. The part they contributed to the morals of American national life has generally been 75 ^6 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. underrated. They were the rehgious and political reformers of France. Simple in dress and living, they were frugal and thrifty, and among them were the more intelligent classes. They were greatly oppressed, and when they peti- tioned for equal rights in the government they were so persecuted that they were led to be satisfied with mere toleration. They were a devout people, meeting in quiet to sing Morat's psalms, to listen to earnest prayer, and to be inspired by a practical discourse to bear suffering and show charity. It was an heroic career, this of the Huguenots, in France, striving under the power of the court and before the sneer of the proud and fickle populace, to live the sim- plest ideal of Christian faith. They contributed immensely to the material wealth of France, the principal industries of the land owing their flourishing condition to them, and a sorrowful day it was for the material welfare of France when Louis XIV. rooted up their homes and destroyed their industries. When he evoked the edict of Nantes, which was somewhat in their favor, it drove a full million of the thriftiest citizens from their fatherland, and fully one-half the commercial and manufacturing industry of the country was crushed. The throne was largely responsible for the Huguenot massacre on St. Bartholomew's Day. At two o'clock in the morning, when the bell gave the alarm agreed upon, bands of assassins rushed upon the unsuspecting Huguenots and slaughtered without pity. Five thousand falling in Paris, and twenty thousand in the land, was a blow heavy enough to make these despised people, who were the true saviors of France, fly for safety to America. These French Huguenots settled in large numbers in the Carolinas, New York and Acadia (Nova Scotia). South Carolina was their chief resort, where their arts, ingenuity and industrial skill made a settlement yet celebrated for its affluence and hospitality. The oppressed Huguenots of France became enfranchised citizens of South Carolina, and the broad liberality and sterling character they gave the colony yet attest the high esteem in which the common- THE FRENCH HUGUENOTS. 7/ wealth is held. In Acadia they settled, a quiet, orderly peo- ple on the rich farms, and they loved their simple churches and customs. Here, as in France, they suffered every indig- nity; then from the French, now from the English king. At last the English, to secure their farms, determined to banish them from the Acadian shores. A day was ap- pointed upon which, at the ringing of the bells, the Hugue- not farmers should assemble to hear a proclamation from the English governor. They assembled as directed in their village churches, the doors were closed, soldiers filed up the aisles, and the poor, distressed martyrs of truth for two hundred years again heard the voice of persecution. Torn from home and farm and family they were driven on ship to be exiled to strange shores. As husbands and fathers sailed out over the sea, mothers and little ones were left desolate on the beach, and in the holes in rocks, or in the sand to shiver and weep. Here cruelty descends to bru- tality. These Acadian exiles went to Massachusetts, Con- necticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Georgia, and the broken families never had a reunion in this life. Their frugal life, mechanical genius and liberality of opinion acted like a leaven on all the colonies through which they were scattered. In this way the national life showed abundant evidence of the Huguenot influence, and the early history of the coun- try bore ample praise to their many noble deeds and to their generous disposition and character of magnanimity. Judith Manigault was a young wife who suffered with her family the wretchedness of disease, pestilence, famine and poverty, going six months without tasting bread. Yet out of the struggle with British tyranny came the son of this woman of noble sacrifice, who gave a vast fortune, he had acquired, to the service of the country which had given nothing but free air and unmolested opportunities to his mother. The Boston hall in which New England eloquence aroused the spirit for independence, was the gift of the son of a Huguenot. When the cause of our independence was being pleaded at 78 THE SCIE^XE OF NATIONAL LIFE. Paris, before the astonished gaze of the world, the grandson of a Huguenot, knowing from boyhood the bitter wrongs of his ancestors, aided to secure the recognition of France, and did a strong part to secure the extension of American terri- tory. Institutions of learning were founded by descendants of Huguenots, and far and wide the landmarks of the heroic reformers are noticeable in the past of American progress. Faith was a leading peculiarity of the Huguenot charac- ter. And faith in human progress is one of the essential qualities of national as of individual life. When justice is torn from the pedestal of authority, and right lays down its sceptre at the bidding of tyranny, human advancement appears shackled beyond a peradventure of disenthrallment. It requires a strong faith in the inherent strength of human right and God's truth to see that humanity has not lost its honor, and to escape the waters of despair. In man or nation this is a sublime trait of character. It has saved many a life from making wreck, and proven many a time a pillar of support in national disaster. And the nation, in a majority of whose people this moral foresight is pre-eminent, is harbored safe from the wild beatings of those storms in which so many empires go down. This trait of character seemed like a special gift in the Huguenots. The very dis- asters they passed through appeared to strengthen them. In the Acadian Huguenots faith was the power that gave courage to the Acadian prisoners, patience to the Acadian mothers, resignation to the Acadian wanderers, and hope to the Acadian lovers. They 'became contented and prosper- ous wherever their lots were cast, and at once set about refin- ing society, liberating the people's views, and equalizing and elevating the laws. The Huguenots are the moral mystery of modern history. Their habits, customs, views and simple life are impressed on American life, and American industries owe them a debt of gratitude. Among all the English settlers who built the log-cabin on the American frontier, there were none more brave, persever- ing or manly than the stout old Pilgrims. TRIALS OF THE PURITANS. 79 In England they had the name of Puritans, out of con- tempt for pretentions to living pure lives. It was first ap- plied in 1564, to those who refused to conform to the dead formality of the state church, and was continued during the reigns of Elizabeth and the first of the Stuarts. They arose to assert themselves against the despotic authority of the king, as well as the pretentious power of the established clergy. When they came to power in parliament they worked hard to secure measures more favorable to the hus- bandry of the country, and to set men free in religion and politics ; and asserted their liberties with such tenacity and vigor that King James grew bitter toward them, declar- ing he would live a hermit in the forest rather than be king over the pack of Puritans that overruled the lower house ; and that they were insufferable in every well-governed commonwealth. He issued a proclamation demanding all non-conformists to assent to the regular forms of religion without complaint, or leave the country; and as a result, thousands were imprisoned, deprived of their rights as citi- izens, or exiled. It brought about a struggle between the established church and the Puritans for absolute monarchy or free representation of the people, and limitation of the power of the throne. The former believed the king was superior to the parliament and the laws ; the latter, that the throne itself was subject to law, and had the doctrine of pop- ular rights. Hallam says that the stern Puritans, exasperated at the religious formality and political persecution, rebelled so man- fully that they were the depositories of the sacred fire of lib- erty. Hume says that the authority of the crown was so absolute that the precious spark of liberty had been kindled and was preserved by the Puritans alone, and to this sect the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution. They looked upon liberty as the political gospel which was every man's right. They asserted the duty of men in spiritual and political affairs, to hold themselves open to every impression of truth, and that it was a never-ceasing right to make ad- 80 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. varices in truth ; conservative only in virtue, they were agres- sive in rehgion and government ; fanatics in their austere views of the mere concerns of the world, they were broad and liberal in all the leading principles of a progressive church and state. They were the very evangels of freedom. They were the faithful prophets of constitutional govern- ment. Being under the ban of the crown, and subject to all sorts of indignities of bigoted ofificers, they were treated as social and religious foes, and when oppression began to change into persecution, they kept their meetings in secret, which still more subjected them to the inhumanity of bigoted treatment ; and at last despairing of welcome or peace in their own native land, they voluntarily went into exile; but they were welcomed to Holland, where they had heard there was freedom in religion for all men. The Puritan outcasts became Pilgrim wanderers. England lost the most heroic element of her citizenship, but the world, and especially America, gained the eloquent presence of the best advocates for uni- versal liberty. Evil is sometimes turned into good, and lamenting the suffering to which the Puritans were needlessly exposed in England, we thank England for virtually driving them from her inhospitable shores ; for America has gained an imperial force of great magnitude, which shall help mould the greatest nation of all time. After less than a decade of years in Holland, the Pilgrims, as the Puritans were now called, bethought themselves of still further migrations. In England they had been agricul- turists, in Holland they were forced to learn mechanical trades. The language of the Dutch never became pleasant to them ; and their closely confined lives in shops and facto- ries resulted sadly, in connection with their sorrows, in break- ing down their health. Discontent set in, and they were in danger of becoming a feeble, decrepit colony in a strange country, Besides, they were conscious of their ability to act an important part in the new religious and political move- ments of humanity; which prompted them, like all true re- reformers, to push to the front of the stage and take a LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS. 8 1 position where they could act the part they had chosen. America was that stage. The determination was made. Many and long meetings, for consecration to their new pur- pose, were held. Freedom of opinion and independence of action were declared to be their doctrines, and such advanced ideas of right and truth were not elsewhere known in the world at that time. In the late autumn of 1620, the Mayflower vessel, freighted with the Pilgrims, grounded against Plymouth Rock. Before landing, they formed a compact which should regulate their future government. That compact was a great commonwealth in a bud. It was one of the most posi- tive and suggestive papers which was ever framed to estab- lish a body politic. This is the sublime paper of govern- ment which was written and signed in that Mayflower cabin : " In the name of God, amen : We, whose names are under- written, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign. King James, having undertaken for the glory of God and advance- ment of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and coun- try, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together, into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid ; and, by virtue thereof, to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitu- tions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most convenient for the general good of the colony. Unto which we promise all due submission and obedience." This instrument was approved by the whole company. This ship cabin was the birth-chamber of popular constitu- tional liberty for America. While this paper acknowledges King James of England as their sovereign, it declares that under him they are all equal, and that in colonial legislative affairs the opinion of all shall be heard, and the vote of one shall have the same force as any other. Equality was established, 6 'siiiL. 82 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. Free speech was at last, after centuries of waiting', ordained as a privilege to all men. The middle age of the world had known charters and ordinances ; but they were only instruments for partial enfranchisements, protests of nobility, or mere limitations of despotic power. But in this Mayflower cabin humanity had its rights acknowledged, and government was instituted on the basis of equal laws and for the general good. The shackles were beginning to fall,, and it seemed encouraging to the people of the New World. This Pilgrim colony at Plymouth was the first successful attempt to plant a colony in New England. A grateful people have marked the rock on which these Puritan reform- ers first put foot. The civilization of the land owes a credit mark to that first effort at constitutional liberty in this coun- try. The institutions of New England, the boast and pride of her people, take their rise from the Plymouth landing. When they landed the commonwealth was in germ already, and liberty for all men and freedom in religion were started into being. The system of government growing out of this Pilgrim compact was of a simple character. A governor was chosen by general vote, and who was subject to the general will through a council of five. There could be no law without the con- sent of freemen. When the population increased, represent- atives were chosen by the whole people to make laws. They established schools and enacted a law to compel the education of children. They printed a newspaper as early as 1639. Harvard College, the morning star of science in the New World, was started by Puritan legislation, and it is largely in their encouragement of learning that New England has the chief secret of its success and solid character. Puri- tanism was full of life, activity, intelligence and thrift, and prosperity followed as a natural sequence. The Puritans have been much blamed for persecuting- those who differed with them in religious views. The tyranny of their circumstances must be their only excuse, while in this they can have no defense. They established a settle- MOTIVES OF THE PURITANS. 83 merit in the wilderness of the West for the only purpose of escaping the servitude of the religious and political oppres- sion of the established church in England, and to build up a perpetual asylum for their posterity to enjoy religious free- dom without the molestations to which they had been so long exposed. When that same established church planted its congregations in the New World also, and began to grow in influence and power, they naturally regarded it with sus- picion ; and fearing its growing strength, and determining at all hazards to protect themselves against any future contin- gency, in case this power should beget the old spirit of per- secution, they in simple defense deemed it a duty to them- selves and their posterity to protest even unto persecution. It was a great wrong, and for it they ought to be blamed ; yet blamed from a knowledge of their perplexing circumstan- ces. It must always be said to their honor that their persecution was always directed by expediency; to protect themselves, not to injure others. It was a pure love for truth and freedom, rather than a cherished hatred for their old enemies. Their sojourn in Holland had given them impressions of other religious views, just as free as their own, and as mag- nanimous, too, and this happily left a salutary effect upon them ; so that whatever they did against the dead formality of the established religion, in its allegiance to the crown and its dislike for all progress, must be accredited to their intense desire to preserve their liberty and spirit of progress, and a readiness to frown upon every attempt to subvert their character. For this they are rather to be honored. A chief glory that settles around the Puritan colonists, is, that it was a great moral idea that prompted them to locate in America, and neither an adventurous spirit nor desire for wealth. " He that made religion as twelve, and the world as thirteen, had not the spirit of a true New England man." They were the most free from credulity of all the sects of their day. In every reformatory movement in Europe there had grown so many superstitions that the ages have not dis- 84 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. lodged them. But the Puritans had at once freed them- selves from all their observances which were fatal to prog- ress. Their laws were the most humane in the world, and in all social and domestic afTairs they were far in advance of their age. They had not had a single instance of a divorce. They lived more for posterity than for themselves. So care- ful were they in guarding against all temptations and evils, that they were strangers to the sight of a drunkard, and in the midst of all their distress they could furnish no instance of a beggar. As a result of this careful and pure living the average duration of puritan life was double that of the cotemporary life of Europe. Those pure-minded, stout- hearted Puritans accomplished for mankind untold good, and in America they did more than all other colonies combined, to prevent the land from being a mere bedlam place for adven- ture and trade, without law or order; for they fixed their system of schools in the desire of the people, and founded national character in universal learning. They gave to the country solid and definite laws and kindled in the hearts of the people the emotion of undying liberty. It was not merely as pioneers that these Puritans deserve to be highly thought and spoken of, but as reformers, founders, moulders, legislators ; but more especially still for their pure love of freedom and pure character of life. The world has seldom seen a better class of men. At one of the most discouraging periods of history they suddenly arose with their unflinch- ing courage and sublime devotion to conscientious right, and rebuked the fickleness and tyranny of their age. Upon the measures which they defended they brought to bear as high qualities of mind as any age ever witnessed. Their elevated piety, enlarged views and nobility of purpose made them a great moral figure in the new civilization which they came to help mould. They made sacrifices which the world has never been able to appreciate. For in their great wisdom, unfailing endurance, elevation of sentiment and devotion to the instincts of liberty, they gave up wealth, influence and the favor of England ; assumed exile with all the hardships. RESULTS OF PURITANISM. 85 poverty, sickness and distress, consequent upon life in a new- country. And such are always the men whom providence appoints to control great reforms and become the prime movers in the progress of every great truth. If praise be given chivalry for its devotion to righting the wrong and defending the weak, puritanism deserves still greater praise for its devotion to the idea of right and its defense of truth irrespective of persons. These Puritans were the parents of one third of the whole white population of the United States as it was in 1834. From this fact, and from a knowledge of their char- acter, it is seen that the Puritans had an immense influence in the formative period of our country. Their ideas in education, religion, industry and government are inseparably connected with the history of our national life. From these sentiments, as held by the Puritans, grew the independence of the colonies. From puritanism we have inherited three great institutions of unmeasured value: constitutional lib- erty, universal education and the true- theory of industry. The two former have become widespread. Our representa- tive system of government, assured forever by the sacred power of the constitution, is an outgrowth of puritanism. Our school system — every country side with its common school, every section with its college — is a blessing from the foresight and provision of puritanism. The Puritans settled in the most barren spot on the Atlantic coast. The soil was thin and unproductive, and the bleak winds and severe climate stunted and dwarfed vegetation. Yet their toil soon made their country noted for its productiveness, and with all the close and hard labor needed to bring their land to a condition of plenty they found time for mental training and culture ; and they used the fruits of their toil to purchase books, employ teachers and start colleges. This is the true theory of industry: not to accumulate money to lay unused in bank or chest, but to be employed in procur- ing mental, moral and social comforts. In this, as in other 86 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. respects, puritanism has endeared itself to the country of its adoption. It is a queer truth, as Bancroft says, that the history of the American colonies is the history of the crimes of Europe. The tyranny and injustice of the Old World peopled the New with men prepared for great things by being nurtured in suffering and adversity. When the commerce of Holland was struck at by the English parliament, and by which act it was driven from English trade, it flew to America and strengthened its trade there. While the potentates of the thrones of Europe were occupying their time in theological quibbles, or in devising plans to suppress the growing spirit of liberty among their people, there grew up a little confederacy in the west of Europe which had been cut from Spain. It was unknown as possessing a nationality, and while nations around it were engaged in their own troubles, by skill and energy it rapidly took up the commercial traffic of the seas. This was Hol- land, which, by enterprise and freedom, had planted the Dutch flag on almost every coast, after carrying it over almost every sea. Their ships were sent to the harbors of Virginia, and were seen in the Indian Archipelago; they crept lazily under the sun of Africa, and pushed their way to far-ofT China and Japan. They went up the Hudson, and along the coast of South America. This little republic challenges the admiration of every person who loves to trace the echoes of truth and progress as they fly from age to age and land to land ; for, when the world was not looking, it took the ship of commerce, and with the aristocracy of skill summoned the trade of all climes to exchange. When Cromwell came to power in England he desired to make his country the greatest maritime nation on the globe. His first effort was to cripple the commerce of Holland. He was the means of having passed through parliament the famous navigation act of 165 1, which was an indirect stroke at Holland. According to it, the commerce of England with her colonies, and with all the rest of the world, was to UNWISE LEGISLATION. 8/ be carried in English ships, manned by EngHshmen. When protest was met by sneer, brave Httle Holland turned from trade to war, and in an incredibly short time some of the most daring naval engagements of history were following each other in quick succession. This was the war in which the glorious Tromp, when about to sail into an engagement, fired his countrymen with enthusiasm by fixing a broom to his mast, as indicating how Holland would sweep English commerce from the seas. If this figure was not fully car- ried out, neither did England drive Holland from the high- way of the ocean ; and if she succeeded in keeping Dutch ships from British ports, it was only at the heavier chagrin of seeing them push up the Hudson, settle in its fertile valley, and carry on an amicable trade with Virginia. In this, England showed the foolishness of her legislation. The very measures she constantly adopted to restrain, always resulted in enlarging the powers and privileges she desired to crush. The weapons the crown and parliament lifted to strike liberty and paralyze progress, God turned to fall with crushing effect upon the tyranny of the crown and' the big- otry of parliament. Holland was ambitious to establish the freedom of the seas. She was the first free-trade nation of modern times. While England and France were striving for the highway to America, as well as the monopoly of trade with the colonies, Holland gave no attention to either, but plied her boats along the entire eastern coast of the New World, from the Florida morasses to the Maine pineries ; showing that she believed in free trade by entering the very provinces over which England announced exclusive control. Under the Dutch company Hudson discovered the river which afterward bore his name. The Dutch from Holland made the banks of the Hudson a location for a thrifty com- mercial people. What the Puritans were to Massachusetts the Dutch were to New York, and the Hudson colony had a primeval and novel beauty as well as rich soil and favorable harbors along the river where to try the experiments of free trade. A distinguished writer has drawn a most beautiful 88 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. pen-picture of the Hudson country as it appeared when occupied by the Holland Dutch : " Sombre forests shed a melancholy grandeur over the useless magnificence of nature, and hid in their deep shades the rich soil which the sun had never warmed. No axe had leveled the giant progeny of the crowded groves, in which the fantastic forms of withered limbs, that had been blasted and riven by lightning, contrasted strangely with the verdant freshness of a younger growth of branches. The wanton grape-vine, seeming by its own power to have sprung from the earth and to have fastened its leafy coils on the top of the tallest forest tree, swung in the air with every breeze, like the loosened shrouds of a ship. Trees might every- where be seen breaking from their root in the marshy soil, and threatening to fall with the first rude gust ; while the ground was strewn with the ruins of former forests, over which a profusion of wild flowers wasted their freshness in mockery of the gloom. Reptiles sported in the stagnant pools, or crawled unharmed over piles of mouldering trees. The spotted deer crouched among the thickets, but not to hide, for there was no pursuer; and there were none but wild animals to crop the uncut herbage of the productive prairies. Silence reigned, broken, it might have been, by the flight of land birds or the flapping of water-fowl, and rendered more dismal by the howl of beasts of prey. The streams, not yet limited to a channel, spread over sand-bars tufted with copses of willow, or waded through wastes of reeds, or slowly but surely undermined the groups of syca- mores that grew by their side. The smaller brooks spread out into sedgy swamps that were overhung by cloulds of mosquitoes ; masses of decaying vegetation fed the exhala- tions with the seeds of pestilence, and made the balmy air of the summer evening as deadly as it seemed grateful. Vegetable life and death were mingled hideously together, and the horrors of corruption frowned on the fruitless fer- tility of uncultivated nature. "And man, the occupant of the soil, was wild as the savage PRIMEVAL BEAUTIES OF NATURE. 89 scene, in harmony with the rude nature by which he was sur- rounded ; a vagrant over the continent, in constant warfare with his fellow-man ; the bark of the birch his canoe ; strings of shells his ornaments, his record and his coin ; the roots of the forest among his resources for food:; his knowledge in architecture surpassed both in strength and durability by the skill of the beaver; bended saplings the beams of his house ; the branches and rind of trees its roof ; drifts of forest leaves his couch ; mats of bulrushes his protection against the winter's cold ; his religion the adoration of nature ; his morals the promptings of undisciplined instinct ; disputing with the wolves and bears the lordship of the soil, and dividing with the squirrel the wild fruits with which the universal woodlands abounded. " The history of a country is always modified by its climate, and in many of its features is determined by its geographical situation. The region which Hudson had discovered pos- sessed on the seaboard a harbor unrivaled in its advantages, having near its eastern boundary a river that admits the tide far into the interior; extending to the chain of the great lakes, which have their springs in the heart of the continent ; containing within its limits the sources of large rivers that flow to the Gulf of Mexico and to the bays of Chesapeake and of Delaware ; inviting to extensive internal intercourse by natural channels of which, long before Hudson anchored off Sandy Hook, even the warriors of the Five Nations availed themselves in their excursions to Quebec, to the Ohio or the Susquehanna ; with just sufificient difficulties to irritate and not enough to dishearten. New York united most fertile lands with the highest adaptation to foreign and domestic commerce. "The manner in which civilized man can develop the resources of a wild country, is contained in its physical charac- ter ; and the results which have been effected, are necessarily analogous to their causes. And how changed is the scene from that on which Hudson gazed ! The earth glows with the colors of civilization ; the banks of the streams are enam- go THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. eled with richest grasses ; woodlands and cultivated fields are harmoniously blended ; the birds of spring find their delight in orchards and trim gardens, variegated with choicest plants from every temperate zone, while the brilliant flowers of the tropics bloom from the windows of the green-house and the saloon. The yeoman, living like a good neighbor near the fields he cultivates, glories in the fruitfulness of the valleys, and counts with honest exultation the flocks and herds that browse in safety on the hills. The thorn has given way to the rosebush ; the cultivated vine clambers over rocks where the brood of serpents used to nestle ; while industry smiles at the changes she has wrought, and inhales the bland air which now has health on its wings. "And man is still in harmony with nature, which he has subdued, cultivated and adorned. For him the rivers that flow to remotest climes, mingle their waters ; for him the lakes gain new outlets to the ocean ; for him the arch spans the flood, and science spreads iron pathways to the recent wilderness ; for him the hills yield up the shining marble and the enduring granite ; for him the forests of the interior come down in immense rafts ; for him the marts of the city gather the produce of every clime, and libraries collect the works of genius of every language and every age. The pas- sions of society are chastened into purity; manners are made benevolent by civilization ; and the virtue of the coun- try is the guardian of its peace. Science investigates the powers of every plant and mineral, to find medicines for dis- ease ; schools* of surgery rival the establishments of the Old World. An active daily press, vigilant from party interests, free even to dissoluteness, watches the progress of society and communicates every fact that can interest humanity; the genius of letters begins to unfold his powers in the warm sunshine of public favor. And while idle curiosity may take its walk in shady avenues by the ocean side, commerce pushes its wharves into the sea, blocks up the wide rivers with its fleets, and sending its ships, the pride of naval architect- CHARACTER OF THE HOLLAND PEOPLE. 9 1 ure, to every clime, defies every wind, outrides every tempest and invades every zone." The emigrants from Holland were the manufacturing" prophets of the land. Their mechanical skill was proverbial throughout the world. Their honesty, and industrial lives laid the foundation for the manufacturing and maritime wealth of New York. Wherever Holland has planted a colony for the last three hundred years, it has been distin- guished for its success. In all their colonies the Dutch had been noted for their equity of laws, industrial instinct and simple piety. Succeeding in transforming Holland from a lowland of marshes and bogs to fertile fields of remarkable productiveness, and all by their indomitable patience, skill and toil, they seemed to have acquired the genius for sub- duing all barriers to progress, and overcoming the difficulties standing in the way of civilization. This character of the people reacted upon their moral composition. They were positive in the faith and evidence of a religious heroism of sterling quality. Holland had long been a fostering place for the unfortunate and oppressed of other lands. They came to Holland from the German states, from beyond the Rhine, and from Italy. Following the sad Bartholomew's eve of France, many Huguenots passed into her welcoming arms. When England was no longer a home for the Puri- tans, Holland bid them welcome. In this way the country became a nursery for the infant reforms of the world, and Holland deserves the praise of rocking the cradle of more than one great idea until it could stand mature before the world and fight its own right to live. This general character given the Holland people by these various classes pouring upon them from the oppressed of other nations, broadened their views and gave them a dis- position mild and generous. The rights of others came to be as dear to them as their own, and they learned that laws for the whole people must be so made as to infringe on the rights of none. No people that settled in our country were less influenced by the spirit of persecution than the Dutch. 92 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. The same rights they claimed for themselves they accorded to others. As they welcomed the distressed of the world to Holland, so when they spread their commerce over the world they could see without a feeling of envy or bitterness the flags of other nations in the same harbor with their own. When they settled in the Hudson valley they regarded alias their friends until they had shown themselves foes. They invited the persecuted of every clime and creed to their new colony. They gave special inducements to mechanics, recognizing that manufacturing should early become a marked feature of the new country, in order to be independent of the rich monopolies in manufacturing in the Old World, and in a few years New Amsterdam was an industrious town ; lumber shipped over the sea ; the whale caught off the coast ; the vine, mulberry and grain planted ; flocks- raised ; and brick, so long shipped from across the ocean, was now made at home. And so this Dutch people came not only with correct ideas of law to impress upon posterity, but in an especial manner endowed to start the new country in the channels of productive industry. To the Dutch is largely due the gratitude that New England is the great manufacturing section of the land. While the poisoned arrow, the blazing torch and the blood-seeking tomahawk of the Indian held the first settlers of our country in constant fear of life, it is an old saying to which there has appeared no contradiction, "that not a drop of Quaker blood was ever shed by an Indian." This is cer- tainly a commentary on the gentleness and kindness of the Quaker character, and no pictures pretending to show the different figures which moved with force in the first great act of American nationality could be complete without that of the Quaker, with his simple garb, mild eye, and benign bearing. No people so well practiced the teaching of charity, or in times which were calculated to stir men's blood kept themselves more serene and peaceful. Surrounded by injustice, they were ever just. At a time when wrath was QUAKER PECULIARITIES. 93 almost a virtue, they were as tender as a gentle woman. When revenge was almost a part of justice, the mercy of the Quaker was proverbial. When war and strife opened the way for massacre, the Quaker went around only with his bible. When harmed themselves, they never demanded redress but sent a message of kindness. When struck upon one cheek, they veritably fulfilled the letter of the Saviour's command, if not the spirit, by turning the other. The Quaker character is an anomaly in the moral history of the race. They stand out before the moral philosopher a mystery of the turbulent times which produced them. Cruelty, tyranny and oppression were the forces that brought out the amazing kindness of spirit, gentleness of manner and sweetness of disposition which made the Quaker people. The rise of the Quakers was one of the unlooked for results of the revolution, produced by the spirit of persecution which reigned for two centuries. It was a consequence of the effort of the mind to fully emancipate itself from obnoxious restraint and unjust laws. It was a protest against the long reign of the bigotry of tyranny made by men and women who were justly impatient with the slow process of liberty and the tardy advances of right and truth. It was an extreme movement in that it demanded at once the bestowal of man's full rights. All reforms move slow around the dial of progress, and it requires a long while for any one idea or truth to become fully emancipated. In England the original Quakers were extreme in peculiarity of dress and manner, as well as in ideas. They, unlike the Puritans, first considered it wrong to engage in politics and avoided all political conversation ; their reform being rather of a social and religious character than political. Spirituality of mind and careful deportment seemed to be the principal things for which they strived. When they were persecuted beyond even passive endur- ance in England, they repaired to Massachusetts where the persecution against them was made still more intense. Under the general law against heresy they had their trunks 94 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. and chests broken open, and though nothing but suspicion could be found against them, they were imprisoned, whipped, holes were punched through their tongues, while three or four were actually killed. But it must be said in partial mitigation of this persecution, that the Quakers by their extreme and fanatic manner and conduct at this time pro- voked Puritan wrath. They seemed to solicit persecution by their persistent efforts to put themselves in its way. Wher- ever the oppression was the heaviest, there would flock the largest numbers, holding congratulatory meetings that they were permitted to become martyrs for the truth's sake. This was the foolishness of vanity. They thought more of their fanatic opinions than of the cause of truth and justice. This was the unheroic age of the Quakers. Their leaders were mostly ignorant men and fanatic women, full of preju- dice, but it is to their everlasthng glory that they shortly outgrew this provincial vanity of opinion, produced better leaders, and entered upon a career of unexampled honor, integrity and purity. By oppression, Spain expelled the Moors; France the Huguenots, and England, by the force of her tyranny, the Puritans ; so Massachusetts, inheriting too large a leaven of the old spirit of the persecution of opinion, banished the Quakers, when she could not control their faith by law. Unable to subdue them by statute or by threat, she could stoop to drive them from her province by the sword. Ignoble procedure ! But it was a remnant of the old despotism of former centuries; and which shows how extremely dif^cult it is to entirely, except by slow degrees and after long efforts, free the mind of all predjudice and disenthrall it from all narrowness of opinion. Having fled from England, and being driven from Massa- chusetts, the Quakers finally took up permanent residence under Penn in Pennsylvania, and here was tried successfully the experiment of a community, on the individual con- viction of moral right. Here the measures of equality were put to a correct test. Intellectual freedom, unfettered by A SIMPLE MORAL CREED. 95 school or tenet, was claimed as the inalienable right of every man. The one final resort of authority on the rightn€ss of \ ideas, activities and motives was the inner light, or the voice of God in the soul. This inner light is believed to be in every heart, therefore gives equal rights to all and is to be the only guide to virtue and conduct. This is only in another form the wisdom of Plato and the teaching of Socra- tes ; and the latter from his ideality of belief and life may not unfairly be looked upon as the ancient brother of Penn. This inner light is the constant standard of right and good- ness, hence the freedom of the conscience is man's most sacred privilege, and no power can justly throw a shackle around it. Upon this freedom of the conscience rests the progress of society; hence the Quakers were true champions for the freedom of mind. They claimed emancipation from the hootings of superstition, disavowed any belief in ghosts or witchcraft, and perhaps stand forth at this period as the most free of all the early colonists from all those narrow prejudices of old beliefs, which cling in some direction to nearly all reformers. In the best period of Quakerism it was as near perfect as any moral system ever known in the world. Judgment upon opinion or conduct was not to be formed by the partial mind, but from the eternal light which never can be wrong. Their creed was as simple as their faith ; they did not fetter them- selves with the mazes of controverted and vague doctrines, but only with those plain duties revealed to them by the inner light. They were a people who honored truth, not men ; who fol- lowed principles, not passing opinions; who sought virtue and honesty, not power or position. Cromwell paid them the tribute that he could not win them with gifts, honors, offices or places. They stood most supreme in their fixed allegiance to a life of purity and simplicity. Given to frugality, they were not addicted to accumulating money. The charity of giving was a grace among them. They thought it best for men not to be very wealthy, for wealth 96 THE SCIE^XE OF NATIONAL LIFE. brings luxury, and luxury tyranny. The supremacy of mind over all other powers was to them a cardinal teaching; but the supremacy of conscience over mind a greater still. Here they made a reform in education, where before they despised learning. Opposed to war, they believed in the ability of justice to defend itself. They objected to take the sword, and looked forward to a civilization so fully under sway of this inner light of truth as to right its own mistakes, correct its own vices, subdue its own crimes — and all without resort to war. The Quaker had a firm faith in progress, and this was an effectual cure for all feelings of despondency during seasons of distress and persecution, and produced a moral courage which hasiDeen the admiration of every student of Quaker history and philosophy. All this anticipates the Quaker view of government. All law based upon God's inner life was supreme for all men. God is in the conscience of every man. Hence all distinc- tions of birth, blood or rank are unjust and tyrannous, and every man is equal to his fellow-man. The Quaker would not take off his hat to any man ; he held himself to be the peer of any other man by the divine right of being a man. On such views as these the Penn colony was easily estab- lished. Peace was made with the Indians; the colonists were contented in their freedom and equality. When a form of government was to be determined upon Penn called a general convention, with equal privileges to all on the floor. The people proposed to assemble by representatives. In three days the legislation was completed. The Inward Light dictated a code ; God was declared lord of the con- science ; the rule of equality was adopted ; an honest man's word was as good as his oath; the Swedes, Finns and Dutch were vested with rights like unto themselves, and the simple form of government was effected. Lawrence Cook said : " It is the best day we have ever seen." It was a red letter day in the progress of the human race. J SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIANS. 97 The Scotch Presbyterians found a retreat and a refuge in east New Jersey. A dark page of Scotland's history is that on which is given the sad tale of the cruelties by which the Stuarts aimed to extirpate the pure faith of the Scot- tish people. James II. must be regarded as a character of cupidity, selfishness and brutality. The Covenanters were hunted down like beasts of prey. Gibbets were erected in all the villages to frighten the people ; the overflowing jails were emptied to sell their inmates as slaves, and at last, when not a foot of Scottish soil was free to Scotland's men and women of virtue and honor, and maddened by the murder of their friends, driven from caves to morasses, and from them to the mountains, the outraged Presbyterians turned upon their persecutors like dogs driven to bay. But they were too weak. They were ferreted out by spies and were shot on the highways, in the fields, or as they were at prayer. Fugitives were tried by a jury of soldiers, and executed in groups on the roads ; women, fastened to stakes below the tide-water, were drowned by the rising waters ; dungeons were crowded with people famishing for want of water and air. The humanity of the government was lost, and Scotland was well-nigh ruined by the pestilence of outrageous oppression. Under such an intolerable regime it is not strange that the Scottish Presbyterians, blending a love for liberty with a love for their religious faith, should leave their native high- lands and take refuge in the New World, which was well understood to be ah asylum for the downtrodden of all nations. To east New Jersey they hurried and gave a character to the state, which is not yet effaced. When the lives of the Boston people were threatened by the British hirelings, the Philadelphia Presbyterians were the first to cry a protest, claiming that it was a religious duty to resist tyranny. When British arms clanged in the Baltimore streets, the Presbyterians were warm in their denunciation, and preached that resistance to tyrants was obedience to God. 7 98 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. England was dear to South Carolina for commercial rea- sons. The exports of the colony to England were worth a couple of millions a year. Her people, avoiding city life, lived in elegance, and plenty on their large estates, rapidly grew wealthy, and looked upon England as a benefactor. Yet these Scotch-Irish Presbyterian planters, loving their civil rights more than their large trade with England, pre- pared for a defense of their liberties. Reduced to the dilemma of holding their liberties at the disposal of the British will, and continuing their happy commercial relations, or to hold freedom's dear right, as vested in them by the God of their faith, upon which no man had claim, their choice was soon made and soon announced. They knew they were to decide the old question of their religious rights which had been rudely taken away from them in the Low- lands of Scotland. These Scotch-Irish Presbyterians had not only the courage of their convictions, but the heroism to defend them ; and without waiting, as did the other colonies, for Boston's appeal, they determined to deliver themselves from the des- potism of parliament. Well informed in both moral and civil law, honest and fearless in expressing their views, and Avithal taught by their former experience that it was right to maintain the truth with the sacrifice of property and life, these people set their indomitable will for a settlement of the vexed question of their religious and civil rights, and that at once. For a century and a half this burning idea of personal rights had been trying to work its way to the front in Germany, France, Holland and England, and so far Hol- land was the country where it was realized ; England, going^ yet farther than France, passed through a period of perse- cution that will forever disgrace her records. Pushed to desperation, her persecuted subjects in America, the sons of persecuted and murdered fathers and mothers, thirsted for an adjustment of these wrongs. And the first voice for independence raised in public came from the Scotch-Irish POWERFUL MORAL FORCES. 99 Presbyterians of South Carolina ; and South CaroHna's course afterward in the field showed that her boast was not an idle one. The impress of character given this commonwealth by the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians is felt yet, and is of a most posi- tive nature. They were a people of a stout purpose, moral conviction and undoubted courage. Trained by cruel treat- ment to hate oppression and tyranny, inheriting from their fathers the spirit of the martyr, learning to depend upon themselves and to trust in God, they were regarded as the most unflinching in their position. They were among the true builders of nations, the founders of states. The true legislators of a new country are the citizens of the realm, and nowhere in the history of the rise of nations is this more observable than in the manner in which the early laws of South Carolina were shaped by the Presbyterians. From this reference to the different people who emigrated to the western world, it will be seen what were the controll- ing forces entering into our national life. An analysis of these powerful moral forces has been important, in order that a correct estimate may be made of the national character. From France came the distressed Huguenots with their spirit of murmur against the tyranny that would persecute the conscience of men, when dictating religious duty. The free spirit of the New World developed them in this right- eous complaint, and the sentiment of the Huguenots was engrafted on the germ of the coming commonwealth. From England came the Puritans and Quakers, each leav- ing the fatherland for conscience-sake ; loving truth more than home, respecting God more than the king. Their ideas of civil and moral freedom can be traced in all the constitu- tions of the colonies. From Holland, for purpose of trade, came the Dutch merchants and artisans, men of moral principle as well as business thrift, with the fire of the old Zwinglian and Calvin reformation burning in their hearts. They were true reform- ers, believing in progress and humanity. They gave a spirit 100 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. of integrity to the country that insured universal honor abroad. From Scotland came the Covenanters, and with their un- flinching heroism and moral purpose they greatly elevated the social order and gave insurance of right principles to the political order of the new nation about to be born. No such elements of moral strength, political wisdom and personal freedom ever before entered into the formation of a nation. CHAPTER VIII. INFLUENCE OF LEADING CHARACTERS. THE influence of great nainds in forming national life is immeasurable, yet it is a known quantity in forming a correct view of the birth of a nation. Here and there in the progress of the race a figure comes to the front just when needed, and by personal force or superior talent leads thought and action. Such are not only interesting to study, but may be regarded as blessings. The manner and firm- ness with which they impress their thought upon their age is of such a character that it sometimes lingers through centu- ries. Zoroaster, the great Persian teacher and reformer, impressed his moral teaching so well upon his people that thirty centuries have not been enough to efface it. Confu- cius gave lessons to China which yet shape Chinese legisla- tion and direct Chinese morals. The laws of Moses will never lose their influence, nor Avill those of Solon or Lycur- gus be forgot. The Grecian philosophers of the Socratic age yet hold the imperial respect of all thinkers. Homer is remembered equally with the prosperity of Greece. Rome cannot be in the mind without thinking of Caesar. Italian civilization was glorified by her Dante and Tasso in poetry, Angelo, Raphael and Parmegiano in painting and sculpture. The formation of the early English civilization was greatly due to Alfred the Great, and the justice of his laws, in a rude age, was a compliment to his generous character. Peter the Great was a benefactor who lifted Russia almost to the dignity of a great people in a single age. Napoleon's mili- tary career will never cease to affect the nations of Southern Europe, and the peculiar and unlooked for tendencies he shaped will never return to their starting point. Circumstances make men, but men in turn direct circum- 101 I02 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. stances ; and the course of empires is the path of ideas and motives held by leading men and women. The American nation is no exception, but, in its origin, shows the influence of leading minds in civil, moral and commercial affairs. Bacon had introduced a system of philosophy which led men largely away from the speculative custom of the schools, and produced the habit of experimental reasoning. This brought men to considering facts and conditions already existing, and how to manage present conditions to aid progress. Bacon was one of the few who, combined together, broke the age of myths and theories and introduced the practical age. Luther, Calvin and Zwingle taught the world the needed lesson that religion concerned this life quite as much as some other: Luther successfully circulating the scriptures among the people ; Zwingle purifying politics with morality; Calvin founding the common school system of the world; three men, who, through their influences, worked powerfully upon the American nation during the days of its growth. The Huguenots of France", hunted down by tyrants at court, had an example of virtue and liberty which gave them assurance that virtue, faith and perseverance would bring victory. This was a true apostle of liberty, though only a girl. Li the village of Domremy, on the borders of Lor- raine, was born and raised Joan of Arc. Inclined to silence, she spent her time in prayer and meditation. At this time England had, in the spirit of unwonted conquest, extended her power over the whole north of France. The sad condi- tion of the country under English rule first aroused her pity, then fired her energy. She lingered awhile in planning, then with patriotism and piety shining in her face she begun the deliverance of her country. At the head of the army on a black charger, clothed in a coat of mail, carrying a white standard of her own design, embroidered with lilies, and hav- ing on the one side the image of God seated on the clouds and holding the world in his hand ; possessed of grand, mel- ancholy eyes, she led to victory by the force of an inde- scribable charm. At the gates of Orleans the brutal Endish WILLIAM PENN. IO3 learned that the French hberties were safe in the keeping of the maid of Lorraine. Her spirit never died out and her influence never waned among the Huguenot peasantry of Lorraine, and by them her name was carried and cherished in the New World. Among the great characters who had to do with prepar- ing the germs for the American nation, William Penn, the Quaker, was great in motive, principle and life. Inheriting from father and grandfather preferences for the sea, he was filled with a restless spirit, which moved him to long for a career in the western world. At Oxford he was converted to the Quaker faith by listening to their preaching. Expelled from college and driven from home, he wandered in other lands. In France he was infatuated with the religion and philosophy of the Huguenots; in London he became skilled in English law. Because he spoke in favor of the right of free- dom Df speech, he was indicted for trial. His own just plea before the jury secured his acquittal, but he was returned to prison. This trial became memorable in judicial annals. While in Newgate prison Penn addressed to parliament and the nation a plea for liberty, which was strong in language and argument. He says of the Quakers: "If we cannot obtain the olive branch of toleration, we are resolved by patience to out-weary persecution." When the trial of Fox, the founder of the Quakers, came up, Penn was again heard in the court room. Bigotry had come to be cruelty; and Penn, in denouncing it, exhibited a profound sagacity and gave a deliverance on the question of the rights of the conscience in relation to the peace and happiness of the state, which England was not soon to forget. The sta};esmen of the world soon learned to know Penn as a constitutional lawyer of great merit. When Penn despaired of English liberties at home, he determined to try an experiment in the New World. He was by this time a man of wide experience, versatile learning, deep and broad in his spirit of freedom, and withal a most cheerful disposition. He was conversant with 'the I04 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. struggles of the peasanty in France, Germany and Holland and felt himself directed to establish a civil community on great moral principles. The praise due this great man and benefactor is, that in an age when selfish and bigoted leaders turned tyranny and ridicule loose to hunt down the liberties of the forsaken and downcast; when no home was known for freedom ; when no asylum was secure for the distressed to seek refuge in ; when popular rights were seen to be ship- wrecked — William Penn did not falter or hesitate, but in a greatness of energy and magnanimity of purpose, unknown in all the world before, he cherished still the idea of man's destiny resting in popular liberties, and determined to build "a free colony for all mankind." His greatness consisted in his wonderful approach to absolute perfection as a moral and political philosopher. Nearer right than Plato, his plan was not fanciful or impracticable, but rested on the simple idea that truth was the common inheritance of the race, therefore all men were entitled to its full illuminations. He saw freedom, not as a political license, but as a blessing to be sought after for its intrinsic loveliness. Pennsylvania was founded by Penn in an effort to realize his holy experiment, and it stands before the gaze of the political world as the most magnificent monument, ever testifying of individual worth and merit. It was a great commonwealth founded on the two principles of liberty of conscience in religion and civil freedom. His treaty with the Indians at Shakamaxon's elm tree, was not for the purchase of land, but, was to recognize the equal rights of all men. He was the greatest peacemaker of all time. This treaty of peace and fraternity had no witnesses but river, sky and woods, without signature or seal, with no record kept of it, yet the simple men of the wilder- ness returned to their wigwams to tell the covenant around the council fire. And for generations the Indians kept sacred the tradition of William Penn and his gentle words. While all the colonies were in perpetual war and strife with the Indians, and every cabin had to act as a fort, not a drop INFLUENCE OF A MAGNIFICENT MAN. 105 of Quaker blood was ever shed by the red men during the Hfe of Penn. Penn's speech to that ignorant people was a gem of charity. "We meet," he says, "on the broad path- way of good will and good faith ; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be openness and love. I will not call you children, for parents sometimes chide their children too severely ; nor brothers only, for brothers differ. The friendship between me and you I will not compare to a chain, for that the rains might rust, or the falling tree might break. We are the same as if one man's body were to be divided into two parts; we are all one flesh and blood." As a legislator in the new province he had the rare good sense of carrying his principles into effect without any com- promise with persons of ambition, or becoming inveigled with fortune hunters. His eminent piety led him to make religion the corner stone of his polity, while his strong humanity influenced him, right in an age of bigotry and prejudice, to extend impartially to all races and creeds the same and equal rights. In this sense he was the most cosmopolitan man of modern times. Penn's political code was more influential, perhaps, than that of any other one man, in the formation of the federal government. His colony bound the northern and southern settlements in strong relations. While Philadelphia became the birth place of American independence and the pledge of union, the spirit of Penn seemed to dispatch humanity to gather the children of misfortune and invite them to settle in this asylum for the oppressed. Peter, the great Russian reformer, said of this commonwealth : " How happy must be a community instituted on these principles!" When Frederick of Prussia, a century afterward, read the history of Penn's colony he remarked that it was perfect. We have devoted this space to Penn because we have felt that he was one of the most magnificent o-f men, and that his influence was strong in forming the character of American national life. He has been too much ignored ; he cannot be too highly estimated. Io6 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. In the New World, shaping the course of a mighty revo- lution in government, were many men great in wisdom, purpose and the management of affairs, and who deserve a passing notice in reviewing the great characters of influence, from whose minds and hearts the ingenious commonwealth of America sprung. In the middle of the last century, teaching the village school of Worcester, for sixty dollars for the season, was the son of a farmer, who in the shady thickets and gloomy grottoes mused upon America becoming a great empire. This young dreamer was John Adams. After one of these spells of meditation, he said : " I always consider the settle- ment of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design of providence for the illumina- tion of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth." He had a remarkable grasp of intellect and keen foresight. His character was noble and his manner was dignified. As a patriot, he surrendered his time, energy and scholarly ability to the service of his coun- try. His influence was the greatest among pre-revolutionary statesmen. Prior to the war for independence, declaring that when the time for the colonies to set up for themselves came the united force of all Europe would not be able to subdue them ; before the French nation explaining the American principles of liberty; at the court of England representing the federal government of America; or seated in the presi- dential chair of the new republic, everywhere the force of his great intellect made him respected, admired and revered. Ethan Allen had reduced heroism to a principle of patriotism. When war was seen in the distance, he boasted not a vain boast in declaring that the regiment of Green Mountain Boys would greatly assist the cause. That he should be remembered as capable of doing great deeds was amply shown at Ticonderoga. With a hundred of his moun- tain men he crossed the lake, and in the shadow of the fort made by the first beams of the morning sun, Allen addressed his men : " Friends and fellow-soldiers, we must this morning VALOR AND ELOQUENCE. lO/ quit our pretensions to valor, or possess ourselves of this fortress." As he met the commander, asking him by what authority the surrender was demanded, he replied : " In the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." And the fort, which cost the British forty million dollars, several campaigns and many lives, was won in a few minutes by this intrepid man whose greatness consisted in the rare quality for meeting emergencies and commanding sudden and unexpected forces, so as to gain where failure seemed more natural. Brave Ethan Allen preached patriotism by the example of a chivalrous life, and through the Vermont hills and valleys his name was a battle cry for freedom. A great man for both England and America was Edmund Burke, the man of most imperial eloquence and the most splendid debater of modern times. He was conservative enough to be classed with the old school of statesmen ; he was progressive enough to be regarded by the apostles of the new times just opening. His argument against taxing the colonies was never surpassed in parliament. He spoke for the rights of America in such terms and power, that the distressed in the colonies thanked him and took courage. America never had, in an Englishman in the British parlia- ment pleading for just laws and privileges, such a defender as Burke. Demosthenes before the Athenian citizens, plead- ing for the liberty of the Grecian cities, was not a superior to Burke, standing with the dignity of one conscious of being in the right, and with his peers, the greatest of the realm, frowning upon him ; yet, with his boundless wealth of thought and language asking that justice be done the weak children across the sea, lest the day come when they grow strong enough not only to ask for justice, but to take it. Apostles of liberty in America became more bold when they saw the greatest parliamentary orator England ever produced lift his hand in their behalf. The full liberties of America can never be fully admired without knowing the half-liberties of England in the last century. And whoever would study the half-liberties of I08 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. England in their best aspect ; the wonderful intermixture of privilege and restraint ; of aristocratic prerogative and popular freedom ; of rights declared, but curtailed by bigots and tyrants on throne and in parliament ; of the gradual rising of constitutional authority ; of the fixed adherence to old forms and methods, yet liberal tendencies in the government ; of the growing respect for the common people — whoever would study these half-liberties and form a just estimate of them, must spend some time in the fascinating study of Edmund Burke. The grace of his manner, the imperial bearing of his style, the power of his logic and the justice of his arguments entitle him to the rank of the greatest jurist of the world. Among the most influential men who shaped the course of the new empire, none were more potential and impressive in manner and force of character, and none more noted than Franklin. He was the best political philosopher of this time. The common sense of his sayings and writings have become a part of the political wisdom of the past. One of the most practical men of the world, he shouldered the great questions which burdened the colonists, and showed how to bear them. He was the first to propose a plan for confeder- ation. His plan of union contained the true fundamental parts of the federal government, viz: the domestic rights of the states and sovereignty of the general government. He was the busiest man of the many who were assisting the new nation into life. He was sent to England to effect a com- promise, and when compromise was impossible, he took a scat in the continental congress, where he served on the committees. He was appointed superintendent of the postal usystem ; prepared the appeal to France ; was appointed com- missioner, with two others, to Canada; was delegate to the general congress which called a constitutional convention ; was one of the committee which drew up the declaration of independence ; and was president of the Pennsylvania con- vention to draft a constitution. He was selected by con- gress to treat with Howe, and when France was inclined to favor the cause of the colonies, he was sent to the court of THE PHILOSOPHER FRANKLIN. IO9 Louis XVI. to solicit his aid, and he became the most popu- lar man in France. No American ever did as much as Franklin to secure the recognition of America in the family of nations. On returning to America he was elected several years in succession governor of Pennsylvania. He was also a member of the national convention of which Washington was president, and which convened to frame a constitution for the new republic. To the influence of Franklin and Washington may be ascribed the final adoption of the con- stitution, which is still the fundamental law of the land. One of the most able and ingenious parts of that constitu- tion, in view of the perplexing inequalities of population in the different colonies, was the feature which gave the states equal representation in the senate, and in the house repre- sentation according to population, and it was a thought of Franklin. Franklin was active in organizing, and was president of the first society formed in the world for the abolition of slavery, and as its president, wrote and put his signature to the first remonstrance against slavery addressed to an Amer- ican congress. In the many different capacities in which he ably aided in the formation of the new confederacy, his energy was the strongest and his wisdom the most sensible brought to bear. Whether as a statesman or philosopher, a legislator or printer, a diplomat or constitutional reasoner, a commercial councelor or moral teacher, his judgment was final, as his logic had been unanswerable. The country he helped to start in its ways of progress and prosperity owes much to his vast ser- vices, in all of which he seemed to be actuated by motives of humanity and the promptings of patriotism. His efforts to dignify toil by his proverbs and maxims concerning labor, and by his most conclusive example in laboring himself, did a great deal to impress the nobility of work upon the grow- ing generation, which long and well cherished his life of service to his country. No man has ever lived whose life and character have been more generally studied and admired. no THE SCIE^XE OF NATIONAL LIFE. Among our nation's founders none can stand higher in love than Washington. No man of pubhc service has shown to the open eyes of an admiring posterity such splendid qualities of character and ripeness of wisdom ; no other man whose fame seems to grow faster than the flow of years, and whose honor it seems " Time with his own eternal lips shall sing." The life of Washington stands foremost among the front leaders of American progress. It was pure, unselfish and earnest. It was not a life that showed the ripple of shallow waters, but the heavy swell that exhibited the flow of deep waters. Not one dishonoring charge has ever been cast against his life, except it be by his country's enemies. This is a eulogy on a public man that has never been sur- passed. It throws a lustre of the brightest light upon an excellent character. That character after the trying ordeal of public scrutiny for one half century presents an unmoved front to the world's admiration. It was put in the severe crucible of the effort to revolutionize human government, and came out unscarred. That effort was pronounced right by the second sober thought of the world. It was put to hard test in camp, battle and council chamber and never discovered to his critics a mark. That character was elevated. It was worthy, and equip- ped with all the qualities requisite for a leader of principles and men. From the outset, his honor and his country stood fore- most in his affections ; the first he guarded with scrupulous care, and for the last he offered up his life and fortune. His devotion to liberty, as assailed by British tyranny, was so pure, so unmixed with any selfish feeling, that no suspicion or wrong could weaken its force. On the nation's heart, let it beat never so wildly, he leaned with solemn trust. Love of country was sure to rule every hour in his life. Taking side irrevocably with the right, he was ready for any sacri- fice, prepared for any trial. In moral elevation no warrior of ancient or modern times approaches him. The principles of religion were engrafted WASHINGTON. 1 1 1 deeply in his heart, and as there was no stain on his blade, he could go direct from the hot battle-field to the commun- ion table. In the darkest night of the countrj^s adversity, its highest hope was Washington's trust in the power of divine right and the confidence unshaken that the truth would eventually prevail ; because truth was right and just. It has been given to but few to hold in such well-balanced proportions the traits and principles of a high moral char- acter. If called to the chair of an exact standard of what we may conceive to be an upright character for a public man, and examined, not one of the great masters of civilization perhaps would pass with such high credit. None but what show a weakness in some direction, either private or public, or both. But Washington had fewer inequalities of character, and a more choice union of virtues, than perchance ever fell to the lot of any man. His spirit of sacrifice for his country is unequaled in history. It was no sudden burst of enthusiasm, or outbreak of indignation against oppression, but a calm, settled purpose to save his country or perish with it. Patriotism was not merely a feeling or emotion with him ; it was a principle. It was a mighty undercurrent in his being. His love to his country was the measure of his success. He was loyal to her truths and always true to her rulers. No matter if the plans of his superiors displeased him, he never faltered. He was never known to raise to power any one, because a relation or friend. During his long service, when he had so many opportunities to render favor, he never gave a position to a friend if he knew one better qualified. The most magnanimous and republican spirit perhaps that our country has ever had in her halls of power. In his home life he never lost sight of his duty as a citi- zen and friend of his country, or his still nearer relations of • family and servants. Many of the most important improve- ments of the country in after years are traceable to his wise foresight. The welfare of the country was ever a matter of careful solicitude to him. Prompt in responding to every 112 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. call made on his time or his means in rendering any service required, he measured his far-reaching intellect with every movement, and with a mind which we are almost inclined to call more than human found a place of release from every difficulty. Nowhere did he show this to better advantage than in extricating his army from dangerous localities. In maneuvering a large body of men, while penned in by a strong enemy, and successfully retreating without loss, he often amazed the military scholars, and almost turned defeat into victory. The two great needs during the Revolution were money to carry on, and a central wisdom to direct, the war; Morris largely supplied the first and, at times, Wash- ington wholly the latter. The imperative claims of his country and duty to his God constituted the highest duty he knew to himself. After a careful examination and a minute analysis of character as derived from the best sources, we must honestly render the conclusion that prudence, firmness, a wise judgment and an immovable justice — each controll- ing, neither subverting, the other — made Washington the greatest leader America has known thus far in her history. In the study of his life and character the verdict must be given : he was truly a great and good man. As the country which he saved grows older, and the government which he attended in its infancy becomes matured, the genius of a high standard of right, lofty idea of human privileges and impulsive, fiery scorn for human wrong will be more and more perceptible. According to the opin- ion of an eminent English statesman, the veneration which we pay to Washington " will be a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and virtue." Jefferson was the athlete of early American statesmen. He was bold and radical in thought, hopeful in tempera- ment, laborious in application to business, and of a philo- sophic cast of mind. Magnanimous in purpose, hating all cant, he was a warm advocate of political equality. He early formed the idea that the colony of Virginia was no more under the control of England than were the early A JEFFERSON'S SUMMARY VIEW. II3 Saxon settlers in that country under their former rulers. He saw the coming conflict between British bigotry and intolerance and American freedom and liberality, and he threw his solid influence to shape the course of the colonies in the fray. He was the greatest of all the American lead- ers in council. He had a wonderful aptitude in grasping and seeing the relation of general principles. In work he was methodical, painstaking and thorough. When the Virginia house of burgesses set apart a day for fasting and council, over the passage of the Boston Port Bill, it was dissolved by the colonial governor ; whereupon the members met and selected delegates to provide for a general congress of the colonies. Jefferson was chosen a delegate to the state convention which was called to arrange for the general congress. The interval of time he passed in drafting a paper of principles, which were to act as instruc- tions to the delegation which was to attend the congress in Philadelphia. In these principles, which he prepared for the convention, he maintained " that the relation between Great Britain and these colonies was exactly the same as that of England and Scotland after the accession of James, and the same as her present relations with Hanover — having the same executive chief, but no other necessary political con- nection ; and that our emigration to this country gives no rights of local legislation over us." This paper of principles was too radical, and after being read was laid on the table. But its friends and advocates secured it, and published it under the title of "A Summary View of the Rights of America," which was extensively circulated. This paper placed Jefferson at the head of the leaders of the movement to break from England. Its novel and liberal doctrines were rapidly confirmed by the logic of events. The Declaration of Independence was little more than a transcript of this paper. He tried to hasten the life and death struggle that was felt to be impending. His plan was, to entirely cut loose from England and from old forms and doctrines of govern- 8 114 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. ment. He introduced a measure to provide for the gradual emancipation of the slaves, and to estabhsh a general system of education. He was designated by the committee on the declaration of rights to draft the paper, which he presented for action on the second of July, and which was finally endorsed in the evening of the fourth of July, 1776. And this Declaration of Independence gave a guarantee of fame to its author which shall never diminish. Subsequently Jefferson secured the adoption of the system of coinage, which is still in use. He drafted the plan for the territorial government of the vast district lying northwest of the Ohio. At his suggestion it was resolved that "after the year 18 10 there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said states." It was an attempt to settle this resolution that led to the war of 1861,, and which was forseen by the sagacity of Jefferson as early as 1783. He was the great and worthy founder of democ- racy as known in America. A patriot born of the freedom of the forest, was Patrick Henry. The king had authorized the Virginia clergy to be paid in tobacco, levied on each planter. In court, Henry made it the cause of the American people ; declared that the colony held the natural right of self-direction in all her affairs, against the perogatives of the crown, and the civil establishment of the bigoted church of England. In the Virginia assembly he maintained that the people inherited equal franchises with the people of Britain, and that the assembly alone had the right to lay taxes. Hearing of Hawley's prophetic words, "We must fight," he said; " I am of that man's mind." He spoke in favor of preparing a means for defense ; and when the time had fully come for action, he made on the floor of burgesses a speech that rang the alarm-bell of the continent, and kindled to white heat the feelings for liberty. Henry was great in the intensity of purpose, the pure and simple love for freedom and the forces of impetuous energy and prompt action. As an orator, he was made for the time LAFAYETTE THE PATRIOT ; MORRIS THE FINANCIER. 1 1 5 by the very spirit of the times, bold, aggressive and full of the consciousness of being entitled to all the freedom of the bird in the woodland. LaFayette had the old-time spirit of chivalry to which he added a devotion to liberty. When scarce out of boyhood, he listened with avidity to the strange tales told in France of the rising of the New England yoemanry. He resolved to strike a blow for fame and freedom. He was strong in integrity, and nothing could shake his unalterable devotion to the concerns of humanity. Enthusiastically wedded to republican institutions, he was a useful patriot in the great- est struggle ever created by the pure spirit of patriotism. He rose to distinction more by his virtue and love for liberty than by his intellect and ability. His devotion to the prin- ciples of the new republic, marks him a leading force among the splendid galaxy of men who went into the breach of death to form that republic. Robert Morris was the financial savior of the country. A Welshman, with the peculiarly honest qualities for which that people are distinguished, he possessed that integrity and sagacity which enabled him to see the financial embar- rassment of the country. An army without arms, clothing or food, and a congress without money, were the troubled problems which bothered but did not dismay him. Possess- ing a princely fortune, he borrows money on his private credit and forwards it to Washington ; when that is exhausted he draws upon himself, and at last lays his entire fortune on the altar of sacrifice, and becomes a bankrupt himself to save his country from bankruptcy. For this magnanimous act, without a parallel in our history, his memory ought never to die out in the gratitude of the American people. His sterling principles of devotion, leading him to give his wealth to save the credit of congress, designates him as one of the greatest benefactors of the country. Afterward becoming minister of finance,' he induced the federal con- gress to issue a charter for a national bank. His whole life Il6 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIP^E. was devoted to the effort to initiate a strong and well- equipped government. Pulaski, the Pole, covered with the scars of Poland, gained American gratitude in the single battle of Brandy- wine. Filled with bitter hatred for tyranny and wrong as he had seen them perpetrated against the liberties of Poland, he was equipped with the right qualities and in right degree to be a mighty warrior for the cause of freedom. His valor and the heavy death swing of his sword saved the day at Brandy wine. His form sank in the smoke of that battle not to rise again ; but his fame rose until it properly shines in the same constellation with that of Washington. A pioneer warrior who fought well and hard in the cause for which humanity had been waiting for centuries was Israel Putnam, who hastened over the Boston common fired by the news of Lexington's blood. His famous qualities of prowess and patriotism made him an heroic figure upon which men looked and were inspired. Montgomery's brave sweep through the streets of Quebec, where the snowbanks were reddened with patriots' blood, with the long and weary march through hundreds of miles of unbroken woods which preceded the night attack on the Quebec garrison, entitle him to a place where we group the great characters who built our nation and created a grand asylum for earth's oppressed. He was of chivalric courage and magnanimity of heart which made him a devotee to liberty as well as a favorite with the men who fought and fell with him for the same blessed cause. Clear in judg- ment, accurate in plan and full of enthusiasm, he was a per- fect specimen of a great military leader. The daring and brilliant qualities of Wayne made him one of the most successful leaders in the war for principle^ right and freedom. His chivalric bearing in battle, his promptness, decision and headlong courage, and blunt, straightforward manner, made him a master-spirit over the soldiers. With all his impetuosity, the most striking quality in his character was self-possession. Intensely excited in MEN OF IRON NERVE. II7 battle, he would tear like a madman through the ranks ; but his strong feelings, or the smoke, carnage and confusion of the battle could not unsettle his judgment. This mastery of self, which in critical situations is one of the chief elements of a great commander, Wayne, like Washington and Bona- parte, held in the midst of the highest excitement. He toiled in battle nobly for country and glory, maintained his honor to the last and holds a well-won place with the defenders of the country. Among the great men raised up by the Providence of events, to lead our liberties to consummation, Greene was the ablest commander next to Washington. With a won- derful power for endurance, an indomitable will, a strict attention to small details and an almost intuitive perception of character, he was one of the most ready and trusted men of those terrible times, which seemed to have no glory but that of the determination of right to subdue wrong. He commenced his campaign without an army, provisions or military stores, yet he was most successful of all the division commanders. His like is seldom seen. In any country of Europe with a veteran army under his command he would have astonished the world. Moultrie was a brave among the braves. The noblest thing about him was his pure and exalted patriotism. His country and liberty he loved above his life ; neither selfish ambition nor sordid gain sullied his brilliant career. While a prisoner of war, a British officer endeavored to persuade him to enter the English service. He tried to induce him to serve in Jamaica where the American interests would not be concerned. Moultrie knew he would likely remain a prisoner during the war, while in the English service in Jamaica he could run a career of glory; but his reply was a part of his patriotic manhood: "When I entered into this contest, I did it with the most mature deliberation, and with a determined resolution to risk my life and fortune in the cause. The hardships I have gone through I look back upon with the greatest pleasure. I shall continue to go on Il8 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. as I have begun, that my example may encourage the youths of America to stand forth in defense of their rights and Hberties. You call upon me now, and tell me I have a fair opening of quitting that service with honor and reputa- tion to myself by going to Jamaica. Good God! Is it possible that such an idea could arise in the breast of a man of honor! I am sorry you should imagine I have so little regard for my ©wn reputation as to listen to such dishonor- able proposals. Would you wish to have that man whom you have honored with your friendship, play the traitor? Surely not. You say, by quitting this country for a short time I might avoid disagreeable conversations, and might return at my own leisure and take possession of my estates for myself and family. But you have forgot to tell me how I am to get rid of the feelings of an injured honest heart, and where to hide myself from myself; could I be guilty of so much baseness I should hate myself and shun mankind. This would be a fatal exchange from my present situation : with an easy and approved conscience of having done my duty, and conducted myself as a man of honor." If moral elevation of character, conviction of right and courage to do right are elements of greatness, then Moultrie truly was a great man. General Lincoln was a noble if not a brilliant leader. So pure, sympathetic and benevolent, he was without any of that chivalric feeling which is necessary for the best success as a commander. Though resolute and decided, his kindness and gentleness developed almost into a weakness. This may account for his misfortune on the field. But, as a man of deep convictions, gentle ways and winning demeanor, his noble character was a living example and inspiration. Clinton was a noble man and an able officer. Inured from his early youth to danger, privation and toil, his frame acquired a wonderful power of endurance, and nothing seemed able to shake his iron constitution. Like Stark, Putnam, and others who served in the French war, he became so accustomed to surprises and ambuscades, and all THE TIMES THAT TRIED MENS SOULS. 1 19 the sleepless vigilance required in that half-civilized, half- savage warfare, that danger had lost all power even to excite him. He could not be startled from his self-posses- sion, nor his feelings for a moment thrown into confusion. Cool, steady and determined, he moved amid a battle with a sangfroid and firmness that astonished his soldiers. He was affectionate in his disposition, frank, generous and kind, and when unexcited, mild ; but when aroused, he was terrible as a storm. He was one of those powerful natures which in repose exhibit only traits of gentleness and quiet strength ; yet, if summoned into sudden action, put forth awful energy, and appall those who before had never dreamed of such a slumbering volcano under so mild an exterior. He was an incorruptible patriot, a fearless and gallant soldier, and a true-hearted man. Marion, Sumpter and Lee are names forever enshrined in the annals of the South. The name of Marion became a spell-word among the planters of his colony. Without pay — even the hope of victory — hunted from woodland to swamp, he still struggled on to keep the waning fires of patriotism burning in the hearts of the people. Binding men to him by love rather than by command, he would let them disband for their homes with no security but their promise to return when wanted. Yet that promise was never broken. His patriotism was as sincere as his character was pure. He neither asked nor expected pay ; his country he loved better than life, and liberty was the impulse that sfirred his whole being and enabled him to rule his men, and as if by magic, without any authority but love. Others there were, and many, true, brave and great men in congress and in the field, who deserve to be fondly cherished for their great deeds done in the name of liberty, and for the sake of making America free and prosperous. But these are the leading characters in council and camp, and those of lesser note, but just as brave, will fill out the picture of those times that tried men's souls. Such were the men who planted the tree of liberty in 120 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. this soil, watered it Avith their blood, watched over it with their vigils, and firmly braced it from the storm of bigotry, tyranny and oppression, until its roots were fixed in the purpose of the people, and its branches cheered men in their enterprise and growth. It fell to these to see, interpret and give force to the ideas and feelings of an oppressed people. Back of them was the truth they strove to bring to the world's recogni- tion, and the great wants of the universal people. Their greatness grew out of their humanity and the heroism to assert it. The founders of our empire, the builders of our nation, the architects of our government — they must be known to know our national life. CHAPTER IX. FORMATION OF OUR NATIONAL LIFE. OUT of these different elements, under these varied influences, by the personal force of these great men, against all the opposition, for the avowed purpose of relig- ious and political freedom and equality, our national life was formed. It was the hugest undertaking, as it has proven to be the greatest enterprise of the age. Nothing on so gigantic a scale, nothing with such radical measures, nothing with such revolutionary intentions, nothing with such moral considera- tion — nothing like it in any sense was ever dreampt of by political reformers before. Political regeneration had been both planned and attempted in Greece, in Holland, in the free cities of Germany; but nothing before was ever known to have been attempted where the very foundations of state- craft were torn up, and without the authority of precedence, any model to plan by, or rule for action, a people deliber- ately went to work to establish a government in which the citizen would stand equal to the ruler. It cannot be judged by any former effort, or measured by any other standard. It stands supreme and alone the most unique in character and the most magnificent in proportions, of the political productions of the world. Way back in the centuries the causes were shaping themselves, and at least a century before its formation elements were grouping for combination, and the forces were being moved by the hidden powers of the Providence of progress. The marvelous and opportune origin of our country is a matchless story in the history of political thought. Her founders were a chosen people, culled from the best blood 131 122 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. of the Norman, the Saxon and the Celt, whose consciences were their only monitors for right and accusers of wrong, whose ingrained sense of equality was the surety of their justice. In the fringe of this continent where this people had settled, there were no castelated towers, ivy-crowned turrets, no baronial castles, no gothic churches, no kings' palaces; all was new. The charter of John and the compact of the Mayflower were the only written hints of the future com- monwealth. The great drama of the revolution as an act of war has no part in this work. It was the fight of liberty with oppression, of freedom with tyranny, and forms a volume of the light and shadow of glorious conflict for right and prin- ciple. The spirit of liberty throughout the world endorsed this struggle for liberty by ordaining her freeborn sons to aid us in the name of patriotism to the common rights of humanity. France sent us a Lafayette, the compeer of our own Washington ; Germany gave us a DeKalb to fall under eleven wounds at Camden, and a Steuben to teach the art of arms; Ireland consecrated the blood of Sullivan, and gave Montgomery; Poland sent Kosciusko and Pulaski who fought and fell in the very bosom of the country's gratitude. It was the contribution made by freedom, of genius, patri- otism and energy to serve the holy hour of freedom's trial.|||p Their deeds are their monuments. The glory of this war is not in the heroism of the men, or the daring of the leaders, so much as the purpose which necessitated it. It was not a war for conquest or ambition, but for right and justice. The Roman fought for glory, the French for pride, Germany for the possession of Empire, England for conquest, but America for the idea of eternal right. And it must be said that never has this people sent out armies and navies for conquest, or at the bidding of ambition, or for the mere sake of war, but every war has been one in which has been at stake a mighty principle of right and liberty which concerned the whole people. THE SPIRIT OF LIBERTY AND EQUALITY. 1 23 Other nations have owed their origin to love of war, to ambition and to thirst for power. Other nations have been founded to advance the fortunes of military chieftains, or to promote the desire of selfish ambition. This nation alone owes its birth to the pure spirit of liberty and equality. No unhallowed, no sordid, no debasing influences were near when this commonwealth was created out of the elements of virtue, integrity and freedom, in wisdom and judgment. The spirit of liberty crossed the Atlantic with the Hugue- nots, Hollanders, Pilgrims and Quakers ; it was nurtured by gallant hearts, whose devotion to right was given amidst tears of suffering and pangs of wrong; of that noble spirit born of oppression, tested by persecution, was the eloquent form of the American government born. Chaste and most pure, this spirit that gave our nation birth. Here divinity and humanity were met. Little did the Puritan preacher of Dorchester, two hundred years ago, realize the far-reaching genius of his prophetic words, that "God sifted a whole nation that he might send a choice grain over into this wild- erness." It was the germ of political liberty, which, after its maturity here, has moved through the dark abodes of oppressed humanity and aroused men to thought and hope and effort. What mighty changes have a hundred years of political liberty witnessed? This grain has germinated and flourished in Europe in spite of her monarchies. Napoleon made the continents tremble with his hostile legions. Forty centuries looked down upon his conquering armies from the pyramids of Egypt. France heard the trumpet blast of liberty, awoke at the noise of breaking forms sounding over the world, and tore off the tattered trappings of feudalism, trampled the decrepit thing in the dust and enrolled her name among the republics of earth. Greece, dreaming of Marathon and Thermopylae, shook off her long slumber, and caught up again sword and shield and beat back, as of old, Asia and barbarism and consecrated anew to freedom the land of the olive and the vine. Nations driven by the reins of tyranny 124 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. for centuries heard the shouts of freemen and made their thrones tremble with the voice of protest. Austria, the lord of tyranny and oppression, compelled her emperor to abdi- cate. A pope who claimed the right no man could show, infallibility, was scarcely seated in his papal chair, before he fled in disguise from his pontifical halls, and Italy was an awakened nation. Hungary caught the spirit from the new life evidenced everywhere, struggled for independence and attained it so far as to compel a parliament. Russia heard the sound coming in the north breezes and responded in emancipating her serfs and starting the march of progress. China tore down her walled empire and opened her gates to the car of progress. Japan, whose narrowness was from antiquity, has beckoned to the commerce of the world and is showing evidence of an awakening civilization. To Poland and Belguim the summons was carried on the western winds, and right royally was it answered. Even England found in the protest of the American colonies the forgotten lesson of her former liberties, and in the success of liberty in America the freedom of opinion and rights of equality in England found a new pledge. And that trumpet blast started by the blood-purchased rights in America is pealing and will peal, arousing manhood, integrity and principles everywhere to assert themselves for man's good and happiness. Still, at that growing cry for freedom, the lash of tyrants will fall, the thrones of oppres- sion will crumble, the persecutions of bigotry will cease, the injustice of parliaments will be checked, the last semblance of despotism will fade utterly away ; and the hopes of free- men will rise and their hearts beat faster in gladness at the progress of truth, the growth of liberty and the blessing of prosperity. So it is seen how the liberties secured in America become the pledge of the universal sovereignty of right, justice and equality. The principles by which the equality of liberty was given humanity were found to be solid and enduring. The stability of the present and the hope of the future are found to lie in THE GREATEST MYSTERY OF POLITICS. 1 25 these underlying principles of our national life — the univer- sal equality and inalienable rights of all men. Human rights are the rights of all men, and of each man, and they cannot be taken away except so far as he surrenders them for the general good. Governments are organized for the protection of the virtues and rights of human society, but they derive all "their just powers from the consent of the governed." To this extent a man may surrender his natural, personal rights. Our government is from an internal and not from an external source. Man's liberties are secure under this system, because he rules himself, and for convenience may do it by a delegated power, to be conferred and to be changed at stated intervals. His laws are, therefore, of his own making, and while it is his duty, as a member of society, to obey them, he has the power of correction whenever he finds them unjust or oppressive. Under such a form of government the right of armed revolution does not exist, and cannot until the fundamental sources of the government be abused. In organized society man is the source of political power for self-government, and corrections or repairs belong to men from whence the authority of government is derived. In this authority and source all men are equal, and that without respect to race, creed, or color. The safety of the commonwealth rests upon this principle, which is woven in every fibre of our life. By the establishment of this government on such prin- ciples, three all-important lessons were taught the world — lessons for which humanity had been sighing for ages. These were liberty, equality and fraternity. They were the greatest and grandest doctrines ever held by man. Either one would have glorified any one age, and distinguished it as a new departure in history. But for all three of these great truths to flash clear to the zenith in one single short age — this is the greatest mystery to be explained by the philosophy of politics. These three full texts of human society have already filled the world with blessings uncalendared, and privileges 126 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. which two centuries ago were undreampt of by the wisest of the wise. Peace is coming hke an eternal sunrise over the nations. War is no longer resorted to as the only means to settle trifling disputes ; only the graver troubles which con- cern the very basis of human rights are now regarded as justifiable causes for an appeal to arms. Personal rights, as well as the rights of nations, are being respected with some- thing like the reverence they deserve; and progress is an assured factor in humanity when men learn to pay heed to the rights of each other, and nations learn that nations have rights. It is a death blow at selfishness, the most hateful quality to be found in either personal or national life. All classes bringing their complaints to the New World to settle, adjusted them on the principle of fraternity. Out of this fraternity has grown an intercourse of nations most advan- tageous to the commerce of the world. Only when this was reached did international law become possible ; and the growth of international law is one of the chief triumphs of the nineteenth century. With this slowly comes to the front international education, international science ; and may there not be expected an international religion? These qualities of liberty, equality and fraternity are developing the gentler and more refining virtues. Men become more tender as they come to understand their mutual rights and relations. Integrity and honor grow out of the same activi- ties; and in the further development of these truths lie the growth of honesty, charity and benevolence. So it is not fanciful or visionary to say, that, as liberty, equality and fraternity become master truths with the race, men will live more honest, kind and gentle ; vice will have received its strongest prevention, and crime its best remedy; moral- ity, candor and patriotism will blossom and throw their fragrance of peace, purity and contentment to sweeten society. This is no Platonic dream or Utopian spell; it is what may be expected when these truths, torn from under the heel of oppression a hundred years ago, become fully set in the convictions of men. It is what is already attained THE GREAT LAW OF LIBERTY. 12/ imperfectly. A contrast of the humanity of to-day with what it was two centuries ago will show a startling fact, which can be interpreted and understood only in conjunction with these truths of freedom. To this, more than to all else, is due the progress of the present century. The enunciation of the great law of liberty by the American freeman threw a light that reached over Europe, through Asia — even into Africa — and gilded the great globe. It has accomplished more in one century to emancipate political thought than all time prior could attain. It carried the race through five hundred years of progress in a single century. In brief, this law of freedom has resulted in some of the most beneficial consequences that could be hoped for. First, it opened the way to the republican conditions of France, and the emancipation of Italy and Russia. The leaders of the French revolution mistook the methods of the American struggle, and they precipitated the nation into an unprecedented anarchy. Coming out of this, France again tended back to anarchy; but the genius that under- rested American citizenship, especially by the inspiration of Lafayette, worked like a leaven on the people, and surely, if slowly, the spirit of equality is evolving an age of freedom for that land so long under the cloud of kingcraft and pope- craft. The disenthrallment of the people of Italy from the political bondage of the church was one of the greatest moral triumphs and significant political events for centuries. It was hailed by every reformer throughout the world as a most beneficent sign for Italy, and a golden promise of the progress that would naturally follow. The effect upon the autocrat of Russia in inducing him to free from serfdom twenty-three millions of the human race, will stand in his- tory as one of the most magnanimous results of good law ever acting upon the mind of a sovereign. Secondly, it brought about perfect security for liberty on the seas of the globe, so that the flag of any accredited nation can wave unmolested in any sea wherever the sails of commerce may drive it. This has proven to be the greatest 128 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. impulse that could possibly be given to the trade among nations. It is rapidly developing an international system of commerce. This will do no little work in bringing about a better feeling among all countries, and will accomplish a great deal in maintaining a better balance of the comforts of life among all people. Thirdly, it gave council for abolishing the slave trace, which prompted the abolition of slavery by Great Britain, France, Russia, and by our own country. Such is the beneficent character given our national life, and its counter influence on other nations. It will be observed that it is by far the most pure, wise and noble government on earth. PART SECOND. POLITICAL ECONOMY. POLITICAL Economy is the science which shows how things intended to satisfy our wants are produced, and how they are consumed ; how they are distributed among a people, and how they are exchanged one for another all over the world. It is actually the science of industry and wealth. Its aim is to investigate and explain the nature, relations and laws of wealth, and the means used to produce wealth. Political economy is a science which comes in contact with the business interests of men, and lies in the region of daily action and desire. For this reason it is of the most practical benefit to every man who is interested in his own success or that of his fellow-man, or that of the nation. It is the science of business success, and ought to interest every man who is engaged in any kind of productive industry, whether farming or mining, banking or mechanics, merchan- dise or manufacturing. In a paticular sense ought every American youth be profoundly interested in that science which teaches the laws of personal and national success. The American boy generally believes in industry, and has an ambition for business. This is inborn in the American character. Most all men in the land who make a failure of life, do so because they were without any training whatever in the science of production and supply, and never learned the industrial laws of this country. Most men in this land have the capacity and desire to be useful and productive, and would, under the right kind of industrial training, exhibit the best order of capability. 9 129 130 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. There is a great necessity for an industrial science or political economy for the people of the United States. Most of the works written on this subject are from the Eng- lish, French or German standpoint, and are inadequate for this country. While the principles of industry are the same the world over, and the means used to produce wealth are the same, yet the conditions of life, social and political, of the different countries are so vastly unlike that a work on political economy adapted to the wants of one people is of little value to another. This is especially the case with reference to this nation as compared with those of the Old World. Particularly is this the trouble with the English science of political economy. The system of government, the social life, the commercial conditions and the industrial relations are all so entirely unlike that it is impossible for a work written in England to be of practical service in this country. And it is to be regretted that all the works on this subject read in this country are either English productions,, or if written in this country reflections of those in England. The bottom principles of the science as laid down by Mills and Smith, the great English economists will hold good for the science everywhere, and likely for all time. But the conditions, methods and values of the industries are so wholly unlike in the two countries that an English book can never become of practical importance to the general reader in America. The student will continue to go to the heavy, logical and metaphysical treatises of the English writers, but the great mass of business men in this country, and those who are anxiously looking from youth's hopeful years to a successful business career, demand and should have a work of practical value, and adapted to the American people. The industrial forces of the American country constitute the ground work for a political economy for the American people. All permanent forces lying within the field of his survey, it is the office of the American political economist to bring for- ward and calculate ; transient forces — forces not belonging to. THE OFFICE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 131 but affecting for the moment, the interests of production — it is the office of the business man and the statesman to con- sider. It is they who take the general conclusions of science and apply them to the varied facts immediately before them, remembering that a use of the principle is not its suspension or rejection, but the right discernment of its modified action. It is the ofifice, then, of this science to explain the phe- nomena of wealth as produced by the American industries, its acquisition and circulation. And this is to be done by consecutively tracing all the results of a few leading and controlling principles which, of themselves, give character and direction to the great mass of facts. It is utterly impos- sible to write up this science to apply to all the small details of production, circulation and wealth, but only to apply to the great leading forces and conditions of industry and wealth, and so as to make it possible and even easy for any person to make a clear application of the rules of the science to his particular calling. The few principles once traced to their complete results, the great work of political economy is performed. If we thoroughly understand the leading forces and lines of movement, it is comparatively easy to apply these to a given case ; to trace the effects of the modifying causes or peculiar circumstances entering into any given problem. While political economy is an individual science, in so far as it has to deal with the fact of production, its ultimate object is to define the conditions and laws of wealth. And the great number of channels open in this country for the production of wealth makes the science conflict with many diverse opinions. In reference to this wealth, its methods and acquisitions, and the policy which should control and guide our individual and national industry, there have always been favorite opinions — schemes which, though often based on the most limited views, on mere prejudices, have yet arro- gated the authority of experience and led men to look with suspicion or contempt on the best established principles, the most broad and conclusive reasonings, of political economy. Even when forced to assent to the proofs and conclusions of 132 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. this science, many have been willing to regard them as so restricted by arbitrary and hypothetical premises, as to be utterly unsafe in practice ; as solely theoretical ; as giving hints and hopes, but not laws, to the weighty necessities of life. While not forgetting the occasion which the inaccuracy of alleged science has frequently given to this feeling, we yet are sure that no' attack, open or furtive, more thoroughly undermines the social sciences than this capricious and arbi- trary suspension of men's conclusions the instant they affect action. The meeting of well ascertained tendencies of princi- ples established by broad and careful reasoning, with a vague charge of theory, with a reference to certain practical exi- gencies, undefined and unexplained, is declamation — is the substitution of a narrow opinion and most partial experi- ence for conclusions deeply established on observation and human nature. Such a method, if defensible, would ren- der the most radical and thorough investigations valueless and the careless affirmations of an unanalyzed experience authoritative. We readily acknowledge the modifying influences of cir- cumstances ; we only demand that these circumstances, while as yet but partially apprehended, and in the nature and degree of their influence wholly unestimated, should not be thrown into the scale as make-weights against clear, accurate reasonings and inevitable tendencies. We appreciate the advantage which these practical difficulties and experimental reasons, must ever have while left vague and undefined. They may vitiate the most conclusive argument ; they may set aside the most weighty tendencies ; indeed, none can tell what they may not do, for no one knows exactly what they are, or has tested their strength. So that the principles and rules which have been carefully studied out of American industrial life, by the most rigid and thorough analysis, must be regarded as of weight and authority. There is a political economy for the people of the United States, but it is largely POLITICAL ECONOMY A SOCIAL SCIENCE. 1 33 unwritten and must be culled from the industrial life of the people, which after all is the best of all sources. In order to have a right apprehension of this science and of its value, it is necessary to still further understand its nature and position as a science. As a first observation, it is well to be reminded that polit- ical economy is not only an industrial science, but that it belongs to the social sciences, and has to deal with compli- cated and ever-varying phenomena. Individual character- istics, social surroundings, the circumstances of advantage and disadvantage acting upon these, the new conditions begotton by their interaction, are all innumerable, and in any given instance, much more in anticipation of all instances, totally beyond a complete estimate. Yet these phenomena, complicated beyond all exhaustive analysis, are the material of the social sciences. If, then, these sciences can have no validity, no authority, except as they include and explain all the phenomena to which they pertain and are afterward to be applied, it is evident they must be abandoned as sources of instruction and guidance, and be retained only for that discipline, which theories consecutively unfolded, however partial and arbitrary, are able to afford. But this, far from being the sole, is but a very secondary aim in the cultivation of the sciences of wealth, morals and govern- ment. Notwithstanding the conflicting and partial results of mental science, with which these sciences are in immedi- ate connection — notwithstanding the broad, shifting field of phenomena in which their principles find play — there is yet in each of them authority and guidance. A science of wealth is secured, not by an effort to enu- merate and trace in their effects all the influences at work in its production, consumption and transfer, but only those which by their prominence and weight give direction and law to the whole movement. The possibility, then, of this science, or indeed of any science, will depend whether there are causes underlying its phenomena so few as to be within the reach of inquiry; so controlling as to render that 134 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. inquiry safe in its practical deductions, and so traceable as to give us their law and also prepare us for the exceptions. In political economy these conditions are more fully met than perhaps in any other social science. It is an observed fact that men choose everywhere that method which secures the most wealth with the least labor; and this fact is the spirit and law of nearly every monetary transaction. The three desires : of wealth, ease, and of present as in contrast with future gratification are traceable everywhere, and fur- nish the law of personal effort. Between one dollar and two dollars a man really has no choice; he must take the greater; between one day and two days of labor he must take the less; between the present and the future he must take the present. Whichever one of a thousand motives engages a man in the pursuit of wealth, once in that pursuit these all conform to one method and bend to one law; the various causes which draw men from production are over- come, or tend to be overcome, by the same motive — success, made most rapid and complete. Political economy is an experimental science. We arrive at all its data through experience. It is by experience that we know the desires and tendencies of men ; it is by the same method that we know the relations working between production, demand and supply. As a science it has to do with facts, and existing causes of a known character, and is traceable to sure results. So that the investigations in this science are perhaps the most safe and clear of any of the social sciences. In the fact, then, that the forces of political economy, as far as human nature is concerned, are few, well defined, and certain in their action, — that its calculations are largely those of mathematics, that the uncomputed forces are transient, mutually compensatory, and, in all extended cases, unimportant, — we find the possibility of its being a science accurate and practical. Such a science we regard it already, and shall trust to its presentation for the proof, delaying only to see something of its advantages and of its history. THE DISCIPLINARY BENEFIT OF THE SCIENCE. 1 35 Another observation which is well to make concerning the economic science of our national life, is that it is one of the best of the sciences by which to give to the mind that discipline and thoughtful bias, which is so desirable for every successful man, and of great value in moulding a solid and sober citizenship for the perpetuity of the snation's pros- perity. It is not even enough to say that political economy, in common with other sciences, exercises, strengthens, and gives training to the mind. This it does with peculiar efficacy in two respects. Its proofs being more exact and conclusive than those belonging to any other social science, excepting, perhaps, a few of the conclusions of moral science, it best prepares the way for this whole department of inves- tigation, and happily introduces the student into a field whose phenomena are excessively complicated, whose methods of reasoning are peculiar, the generality of whose logic is limited by many exceptions, and whose questions are the most practical and important of , any that pertain to man. The preparatory discipline afforded by political economy to one giving himself to social questions, is invalu- able. The training which it affords is also of peculiar importance from the number of compensations, the compli- cated system of action and reaction which it accustoms the mind to observe and trace. The forces at work seek a certain balance, a certain equilibrium ; and when this is dis- turbed there is often a large variety of adjustments and readjustments before it is again secured. It is not sufficient to follow single causes ; these set in movement other forces, which, in their results, either modify or wholly compensate the action of the first. The whole field must be kept before the mind, and each alteration be traced in all its ramifica- tions, in all its direct and indirect effects, till a second equilibrium, a second state of rest, has been found. This often tasks the mind to the utmost, and accustoms it to a broad survey of consequences. This, again, is eminently a practical discipline, fitting the statesman for a wise and com- 136 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. prehensive policy, and the private citizen for a liberal and strengthening method of thought and action. But the chief advantage of reading the science of political economy is not the discipline which it affords. The knowl- edge which it imparts is of an important and most practical character. Wealth underlies all civilization, and ultimately, therefore, in a large measure, both knowledge and religion. It is among the lowest, and yet among the first steps to social worth and national strength. Wealth should not be valued for what it is in itself, but for that to which it can be made to administer. In its retinue come, or rather may come, all intellectual, social, and religious advantages. Aught which helps to make the road of acquisition easy and open to all, thereby helps to lift all into a higher rank, and place at their command a larger share of enjoyments and of knowledge, and hence, we may hope, of virtue. Political economy, as the science of wealth, makes plain the laws of its acquisition and distribution, and if it does not open the path of the individual, yet gives him indisputable principles, according to which his action must be directed when once in that path. More especially, when the interests and pur- suits of large numbers are to be affected or regulated by legal enactments, these principles come forward to point out the action of the mutual forces at work, to show where legis- lation is futile, where pernicious, and where demanded to supply a deficiency. It is scarcely necessary to say, that a large share of legislation relates to the regulation and pro- tection of industrial agents, and that the laws of the forces of production must be thoroughly understood before this can be successfully accomplished. In a country where, in theory, every man is, and where every educated man should be, his own statesman, nothing can be more fit than a thorough training in this direction. If, even among those possessed of most intelligence, there are in this department no correct and thorough principles, we can hardly expect from the mass anything but the most unsafe and superficial views. Still another advantage conferred by this study is, that INDUSTRY THE GREAT CREATIVE FORCE. 1 37 we are thereby able to see the harmony which exists between the interests of all classes and all countries. The competition and conflict which are on the surface are found to be but the transient foam of forces — of currents uniting to work the common weal ; beneath, there is no real strife, no per- manent conflict between the several classes of producers; the highest prosperity of each can only tend to the highest prosperity of all. This remark needs one qualification : that, while the laws of legitimate acquisition look to the good of all, and not to the plunder of any, any illegitimate action which violates a higher, a moral law, will usually vio- late a lower, an economic law, and measure the gains of one by the losses of another. There is a harmony of productive action by which the gains of all are secured, and are maintained. Industry appears to be the great creative force in the civilization of the world. It is the prime force in the growth of all commerce, and the elevation of every nationality. In this industry, wants, work and wealth are ever present factors. These are the essential elements of industry, and without all of them, industry in its full meaning could not exist. Without he had wants, man would not work ; with- out work, no wealth could be produced. If wealth was not a result of work, no one would work. The simple meaning" of wealth is goods. Thus the three factors of wants, work and wealth are involved in the full idea of industry. The industries fill the world ; they occupy the daily life of mankind ; they feed and support the populations of the globe ; they are the primary and principal element in all progress, and they fill the chief chapter in all history. Con- stituting the largest and most conspicuous part of the personal life and social connections of mankind, they, more and more, as civilization advances, engage the attention and enlist the energies of men and of nations. The study of these industries interest all who are inter- ested in watching the progress of humanity. It grows in interest with every advance in their character, and every 138 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. new departure of trade. So that this study is that of man and of society in the largest field of their activities, and in the line of their most potential movements. To gain a clear and complete view of this science, we must not only study the principles and laws of a nation's industries, but observe the practical operation of these industries; we must enter the wide field of the daily work- ing life; we must look at and thoroughly examine all the leading facts presented by the busy millions of men, who are extending over land and over sea the mighty machinery of their work, and who are bringing into use and into service every form of matter and every power known in nature. We must watch the tendencies and development of labor, from its rudest form in the savage to its most complete achievement in the arts of the highest civilization. We must follow the paths of its march, from the simplest act of labor in the boy to its mighty outcome in the commerce of cities, empires, and the whole world. All these things will be seen to spring from a few simple forces which are controlled by a few principles, and which it is the province of political economy to trace and describe. These simple elements, which form the forces of the indus- tries, are the wants, work and wealth of man. Through the whole field these appearances present themselves. The wants of man push forward the entire industries of the world, and give the direction and character to them all. They are physical and intellectual, social and moral, and include the endless run of human needs, desires, tastes and appetites. These wants form the basis of all market demand — the compelling reason and the final purpose of all indus- trial efforts. The work of man is simply the effort to satisfy these wants. This work includes the activity in all arts, trades and business. It comprises all the efforts which men make to create, preserve, transport or exchange, the efforts which satisfy their needs, either to secure pleasure or avoid pain. WHAT IS WEALTH? 1 39 The wealth of man embraces all the results of work^ physical or mental. It includes the great mass of goods and possessions which are produced by work, and which are the proposed aim and object of all industrial effort. The term wealth, in political economy, is used to denote goods or valuable things, without reference to shape or quality. It may refer to money or stocks and bonds, and just as well to goods for trade or material to produce goods, or even the machinery by which the goods are made. It is a term just as applicable to the accomplishments of the mind, if they have an exchangeable value, as to the money in the bank. CHAPTER I. • OUTLINE OF THE SCIENCE. POLITICAL economy treats of the production of needed things to satisfy the wants of men. Naturally, then, the two leading divisions of the science are production and consumption. Production is the result of labor directed upon certain things in a crude state, that they may be adapted to the satisfaction of wants. We can neither create nor annihilate any part of matter; but we can modify almost everything so as to impart to it some utility, — that is, we can create value. Under this division, therefore, are considered the processes and laws by which labor gives value to things, as well as the conditions of work. The things brought out by this labor are properly called products. Consumption is the act of destroying things which have a marketable value, either for the immediate gratifications of the wants, or to produce some article of value for exchange, or future gratifications. The actual destruction of values is by necessity involved. Under the division of consumption are considered the laws by which are governed the use made of wealth to satisfy wants or gratify desires. There are among men great diversities of capacity for labor. It is therefore good economy of productive effort to unite the labors of many persons on a particular product, so that each may contribute the part which he can do best. Yet each person has a variety of wants, while his own labor is devoted to one thing. He must therefore get what he needs in exchange for what he makes. Hence arise two other branches of our science, logically subordinate to those just mentioned, though practically of the highest importance. They are distribution and exchange. 140 DISTRIBUTION AND EXCHANGE. 141 Distribution embraces questions of equity and practical methods pertaining to the assignment to different laborers of their respective shares of values produced. Here are con- sidered the difficult problems growing out of the mutual relations of employers and employed. Exchange is the act of transferring things from one to another, according to their values. Each individual is busied in creating one utility, and wants a thousand. Each country produces, of certain articles, far more than it needs, and needs many others which it cannot produce at all. Hence the necessity of universal and ceaseless exchange. Under this division are considered the instruments, the laws, and the processes, which relate to the mutual transfer of values. The most difficult problems of political economy belong to the departments of distribution and exchange. CHAPTER II. LABOR. LABOR is the cause of production. Production is ' impossible without labor. If products of former labor are used as a working basis, the name capital is given. This branch of production, then, presents three facts to be con- sidered: labor, capital, and the cooperation of these two factors. Labor is the voluntary or enforced exertion of persons put forth to attain some desired object. Labor, or work, must be the complement of nature. Nature, though rich in the lavish display of her gifts, very seldom puts them in that form in which they are ready for immediate use. There is in the productions of nature the possibilities of food, rather than food itself; the possibility of clothing, rather than clothes themselves; and the possibility of a home for shel- ter, and not that sheltering home itself. Those things which are ready for use without labor are generally regarded as common property, and which can alike be used by all who may be available. All wild fruits, the fish of the sea, and the game of the land, man appropriates to himself; and it is not until laws of man's own making give conditional own- ership, that personal possession can attach to them. When an ability or right exists to claim these natural productions of nature, it exists as incident to the possession of the land on which such natural production may have been produced. The productions of nature are provisionally bestowed, and can only become of utility by the labor of man, given with well-directed purpose. There is, then, everywhere, occasion for the labor of man in effecting those changes by which the materials about him are fitted for his use and enjoyment. Those transformations 143 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LABOR. 143 are very various in their character, involving labor in very different quantities ; and in proportions, as regards ultimate value, very different. Some products, as the precious metals and the precious stones, owe almost their entire value to the worth of the material; others, as laces and India shawls, to the labor which has been expended upon therh. Some- times, in the imparting of value, the direct agency is that of man, and the indirect agency that of nature, and some- times the reverse. In all mechanical processes man is the leading agent. Nature furnishes the wool, but man shears, washes, spins and weaves it, till in the final product nature seems tp have ministered to the processes of man, rather than man to those of nature. Not so in agricultural and chemical processes. Here man prepares the way and meets the necessary conditions; but the act itself of growth, or molecular transformation, on which the ultimate value primarily depends, is that of nature. Man may water the seed, but its living forces are not his, nor the sun which quickens them. He may put the iron in the furnace, but if it become steel, it does so by another power than his, which he has learned to employ, through that mechanical arrange- ment of materials which prepares the way for its working. . Indeed, all man's direct agency in production is analyzable into a mechanical transfer of particles; all else being the work of nature, of which he is thereby able to avail himself. Labor is the only force which, working on these material productions of nature, will render them of value. While natural agents furnish the instruments through which, and the materials on which, it may operate, while capital facili- tates its operations, it is labor that, shaping commodities and services to the multiform desires of men, does most to create and determine values. Few are the articles into which it does not enter as a prime element of cost, and by its differences in kind and degree the wealth and productive power of individuals and nations are determined. Labor, resulting in a product — a bow, a spear — has ever been one 144 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. of the earliest teachers of the rights of ownership and the principles of economic action. The people of the United States have no need to include in their estimate of labor any effort that does not create value ; since such efforts lie outside of the province of pro- duction, and have no place in the science of wealth. All labor, to be labor, must be productive; and when we have recognized a class of persons as laborers, we must consider them productive laborers. Labor sets in motion the wheels of all the industries, and converts these industries into wealth. The magnificent industrial movement of civilization speeds forward under the touch of work to its equally magnificent result. Labor is the great wealth-producer of the world. Man's labor is with the world as well as in it. His busi- ness is not merely that of producing the wealth of money or possession, but equally, and even in a higher sense, the wealth of comfort, peace and progress for his country. In his business of wealth-making, or in that broader business of maintaining life, increasing happiness and elevating his con- dition, he finds nothing before him but the naked planet on which he lives, and his own physical and intellectual powers. The entire field and problem of his labor must be found in these. He cannot go outside of these ; he can import noth- ing from other realms. His labor in this world can accom- plish four things. It can change material as it is found in a natural state to a condition of marketable value. In the second place, it can exchange these products for those of other departments of labor. Again, his labor can result in mental products, such as truth, art, science, government, civilization. In a fourth place, his labor can render service directly to humanity in the way of general benevolence, or by effort along the line of some special reform. These four include all the trades, professions and employments ; in them arc bound up all the ceaseless activities of the business world. There are two grand divisions of labor: physical labor, in DIVISIONS OF PHYSICAL LABOR. I45 which muscular exertion is the chief force ; and secondly, mental labor, which engages chiefly the faculties of the mind. All productive industry combines some physical and some mental effort. Even the day-laborer must exercise his mind to handle his shovel with judgment and skill. In general, labor is effective in proportion as it is directed by intelhgent mind. Physical labor only moves things as to place, condi- tion or form. It depends on the capacity of living muscle to contract and expand as governed by the will. But this power to produce motion under the control of intelligent mind gives man unlimited command over the forces of nature to achieve his purposes. In physical labor, the first class is that which has to do with the production of the material for trade. This class of labor finds its type and representative in agriculture. Here is the farmer, the miner, the herdsman, the fisherman and the huntsman. In economics, agriculture is understood to include all those industries which simply collect nature's growths, without first cultivating them. Thus, lumbering, hunting and fishing may be counted as branches of agricult- ure, though the lumberman simply takes the trees from the wild forests ; the hunter collects the meats, skins, feathers, furs and ivories of animals which grew without his care, in their native haunts ; and the fishermen fetch from the lakes, rivers and seas, the fish which cost them only the labor of catching. At its outset, all agriculture gath- ered nature's spontaneous products. Agriculture, it is evi- dent, deals with the great life-forces of nature and nature's products. A second class of physical labor is that by which the materials are modified until they become completed prod- ucts. This includes not only that labor which lies in the direct line of change along which the raw material passes in becoming the commodity of our markets, but also the pro- cesses subordinate thereto — the constructions of buildings and implements. This class of labor is somewhat inade- quately and roughly comprehended in the term manufactur- 10 146 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. ing. This class includes a great variety of laborers: millers, bakers, spinners, weavers, dyers, workers in wood, leather, iron, erold ; all the innumerable servants of art in her various forms of handicraft. A third class of labor, completing the other two, is that of transfer, by which commodities pass from the hand of the producer to that of the consumer. Much of this transfer, however, may come in prior to the labor of the manufacture, or during its continuance. Here are the workmen of com- merce : the sailor, the boatman, the engineer, the porter, the drayman, the merchant. To this class belongs the whole work of transportation. This arises from the desire of men to collect and enjoy, at their homes, the varied products of distant lands and climes. Sitting in his own home a man may eat the fruits of the tropics, clothe himself with the furs of the Northland, the linen of Ireland, the silks of the South, or the soft wools of Saxony. On his table he may have the coffee of Arabia, the tea from China, the sugar of the Indies, and the spices of the East. To get these, the long lines of transportation and communication must be worked ; ships must sail, cars must run, caravans must march, telegraphs must flash ; and the great marts of trade must receive and distribute the products of every land. Transportation is the labor of exchange, and it has its own laws and conditions. It creates values the same as any other class of labor. It does not deal with nature directly, as do the great industries of the field and the shop, except as it employs her forces to float its ships and drag its trains. It might be called the service industry, since its mission is to run our errands, carry our packages to our neighbors, and bring back theirs to us. Physical labor is no more concerned in the production of wealth, not merely of money, but of homes, comfort and happiness, than is mental labor. For not only is the muscle useless without the brain, but the brain can and does pro- duce without the aid of the muscle. Mental labor is directly concerned in the production of wealth in three ways: DIFFERENT CLASSES OF MENTAL LABOR. 1 47 First, in investigation, to discover the properties and laws of matter. So chemical research made known the substance phosphorus, and its property of starting into flame under friction. The scientific investigator and explorer discover facts which revolutionize industry and lend to it a produc- tiveness manifold greater than that which it had previously had. The discovery of the magnet had to go before the establishment of modern commerce. The spirit of discovery in the restless brain of Columbus had to go before the colo- nization of America. The studies of Galvani and his suc- cessors have resulted in the telegraph, telephone, electro- plating, electrotype, and that wonder of modern science, the electric light. Out of tffcse it is unsafe to predict what may yet be achieved. But along the line of a careful scientific investigation it is not wild to say that all things are possible with science. A second way in which mental labor is a producer is by invention, which grows out of investigation, and is almost a part, as is seen from the above paragraph. It is the province of invention to devise methods and instruments by which the properties of matter may be made to meet human wants. So matches were invented, — a very simple instrument, by which phosphorus is used to kindle our fires. So the spin- ning-jenny and the power-loom were devised to facilitate and cheapen the process of making cloth. The inventor is an intellectual laborer, turns the work of investigation to account, and places the new-found fact or force to its task in the industries of the world. Governments by the patents which they grant, recognize the property value of the thought of the inventor. A third kind of mental labor is that of oversight and superintendence. In the simplest kinds of labor, mind must direct muscle. Where numbers are joined in labor for a given product, one ingenious mind superintending gives effect to the muscular exertions of a score of ignorant workers. Authors, scholars, orators, teachers, lawyers, poets, states- men, preachers and artists, all belong to the guild of mental 148 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. workers, and all have their place in the great workshop of the world ; all are counted of value, and their wages should be in proportion to the time, labor and expense required for their preparation and the service they render mankind. The number of mental laborers always increases with the advance of civilization ; and one of the plainest results of our modern improvements in the arts and in living is the release of men, more and more, from merely physical toil and drudgery, and their elevation to the position of brain-workers. Arms of iron and nerves of steel now do the hardest of the labor, while men furnish the eyes to watch the processes, and the hands to arrange the task and summon the power. Mental labor is also plainly instrumental in production, as it is applied to improve the physical health and the mental capacity of individvals, and to maintain order, justice and security in human society. Here belong the mother's care in nursing and training children ; the teacher's labor to develop the minds of youth ; the lawyer's counsel and plead- ings to define and maintain the rights and obligations of men under the rule of civil law ; the minister's efforts, by the truths and precepts of God's word, to form good con- sciences and improve the public moral sense; and the varied services of legislators and officers of government to insure stability and order in the very structure of society. Though these labors do not directly bring forth material products, they favor all the productive industry of a people, and are as essential to the best results of its processes as the manual labor of the farmer or the blacksmith. It is obvious that, in the wide range of productive indus- try, mental labor is quite as essential as physical labor. Whatever, therefore, quickens the mental activity and pro- motes the intelligence of a people, tends to the increase of their wealth. One of the paramount causes which has pro- duced the remarkable civilization of this country is that of intellectual genius. Nowhere and at no time have a nation's builders thrown such exhaustive brain labor in all directions as that which led the way for American civilization. The COMMERCIAL VALUE OF MENTAL LABOR. 149 inventive genius of the American brain has been the strongest factor in working out the grandeur of the American destiny. The question has been raised: whether intellectual forces are economic factors, and whether intellectual products are economic or commercial goods, having a marketable value. But there can be no question raised whether these intel- lectual powers and products play an important part in the field of the industries. Whether it be the discovery of a new force or element in matter, the invention of a new machine, the successful operation of a new field of study, the elucidation of a new law of science, the production of a new and valuable policy in government, the preparation and delivery of a sermon by the preacher, or a lecture by the lecturer, the painting of a new picture by the artist, the composition of a song by the musician, or a poem by the poet — whatever the mental labor, the world is not only ready to listen and examine, but even anxious to secure any valuable acquisition that will benefit it. And after this fact is closely observed, the question will scarcely be raised again as to whether these goods have a commercial value. A final kind of labor is that in which the laborer minis- ters directly to the gratification of his employer. This may be called service. The laborer in this field designs no product, makes no goods, offers no exchanges, aims at no intellectual effort. He simply meets the pressing wants of some person. He who brushes our clothes, brings our dinner, holds our valise, or drives our carriage, does us a valuable service, and we acknowledge the value of the ser- vice by giving value in exchange. The production of the country has not been increased by any of these acts, and there has been performed no mental labor, or any product conceived, planned or brought forth ; yet these persons have contributed to the wants of others, and this fact determines the value of their services. The chief criterion of service is, that it yields gratifica- tion without producing goods of value. It does just what 150 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. goods are designed to do — meets our wants and desires. This kind of service constitutes a large part of the working force of the world. Many services are rendered gratuitously — as the service of a friend to a friend — by kindred and neighbors, and even services between strangers. They are all counted as contrib- utors to the common good, if not to the wealth of a people. CHAPTER III. HOW TO INCREASE THE PRODUCTIVENESS OF LABOR. THE saving and management of labor is an important consideration in the increase of wealth. Man's physi- cal power is limited and his strength is soon exhausted. But there are forces of nature which are stronger than he, and some of which never tire. These he can bring into his ser- vice, and so at the same time relieve the burden and multiply the products of his labor. There is also great difference in the capacities of different men. Some have strong muscles and dull minds. Others have strong minds in weak bodies. Some are specially fitted for one kind of labor, and others for another. The fruits of labor will therefore be increased, if many join hands under a systematic arrangement which sets every one to doing the particular kind of work for which he is best fitted. The productiveness of labor will depend first on the laborers themselves, or the motives which prompt them to labor, the character of the raw material in their hands, and the capital at their disposal. But there are two vital ele- ments in labor itself which almost entirely govern its pro- ductiveness. The first is the use made of the agents and forces of nature. Second, a systematic division of labor. The agents and forces of nature which contribute to the effectiveness of labor in its production are many. One of the most vital is animal strength and instinct. Next to his own strength man first learned to use the strength of the domesticated animals in his labor. This is largely and rapidly giving place to the forces of matter for the running of machinery. The wind, water and steam are found to be cheaper, more powerful, and more easy to manage than the ox or the horse. But animal strength has not been dis- 151 152 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. missed from labor, but only changed to other fields of activity. Instead of being used to draw the stage, it is used to transport people and freight to the cars driven by steam. Agriculture, mining, drafting and transportation have use for an ever-increasing quantity of animal strength, and it holds a larger place now in the industries than ever. This is a vital force which is always available in production. A man wanting to go a dozen miles over the hills on a matter of business, may make use of one of three ways to be transported to his desired destination. If he does not get there, a contribution to the wealth of the country's produc- tion is lost. Now he may be taken there by steam cars, or by horse strength, or by walking ; the first would be using a vital force of matter, the second animal strength, the third human strength. He cannot go by steam, because it is not an available force ; the cars do not run to that point. He cannot walk, as it would not take him to the given point within the given time ; hence human strength is not availa- ble. He can saddle or harness his horse in a moment's time ; hence animal strength is the only available force for this instance. This will illustrate why animal strength will always remain a vital force contributing to the efTectiveness of labor, because it is always available if not always the cheapest or most desirable. When the steam cars began to displace the stage coach it was thought horses would be use- less on the hands of their owners ; but the result shows that this very substitution of steam for animal strength increased the demand for horses; as it necessitated an immense amount of carting to build the roads, and a still larger to furnish transportation to people and freight going over the cars. This will remain as long as, in economics, animal strength is more available than steam for some purposes. The silent vital forces employed by nature to build up her forests and to clothe her fields with vegetation, as also those which work out the tissues and organs of animal life, are implied and embraced in the organic gifts which they create. THE MOTOR FORCES. 1 53 In the great agricultural industries the forces of plant- growth have for ages been the chief reliance of the grain- raisers and the forest and fruit-growers. To stimulate these forces by cultivation, to nourish them by fertihzers, to direct them by selections of seed and soil, by grafting and pruning, these make up much of agricultural art. But with the advance of biological science, and in the farmer's and stock-breeder's art, these forces are coming to be counted on and employed as the mechanician counts on and employs the energies of steam and electricity. Thus they are now to be reckoned among the costly and controll- able economic forces to be taken into account in the com- putations of values. In the final analysis, all economic questions in the pro- duction and consumption of wealth, reduce to the question of the economy and conservation of energies the silent energies of nature above all others. The productive power of the soil, the working power of the domestic animals, and the steam or electric power generated by the consumption of costly fuels, all alike belong to these silent molecular ener- gies. The foods, or other gratifications which they produce, are only stored-up energy, ready to be transformed in turn to the finer energies of human life and happiness. The motor forces are the strongest where they can be used for the effectiveness of labor. They are the light and heat of the sun ; the force of gravitation, especially in falling water ; moving currents of wind ; and the expansive force of steam. These non-vital or inanimate forces of nature can only be employed through machinery costing great skill in its invention, construction and management. But when thus harnessed and controlled, these forces work with a tire- less power and steadiness which defy the competition of human energies. The most conspicuous feature of the industrial progress of this century is the rapid multiplication of machinery driven by one or more of these forces. And man is increasing his mastery of these forces in reducing the cost of operating the old forces of wind and water, and in 154 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. introducing new forces, as the air engine and the electric motor. The molecular forces are effectual for some kinds of labor. They are dynamite, electricity and galvanism, magnetism, and the action of the chemical forces. And to these must be added, for combining and directing all kinds of forces, the mechanical principles or powers; the lever, the pully, the inclined plane, the wheel and axle, the wedge and the screw, are frequently the governors of the forces of nature for the productiveness of labor. The properties of matter embodied in these agents are the gifts of God, and of themselves cost us nothing. But in most cases, to make them available, some instrument must be employed which has cost labor. Thus, to control animal power, we need yoke or harness, cart or wagon ; a lens enables us to intensify the light and heat of the sun ; by means of a water-wheel or pendulum we command the force of gravitation ; by a wind-wheel we catch the force of moving air ; by a steam-engine we accumulate and direct the expan- sive force of steam ; by a hammer we combine the principle of the lever with the force of gravitation and the density of steel ; and the complicated machinery of a cotton-mill is but an adjustment of various means to the great purpose of physical labor, which we have seen to be to produce and direct motion. These instruments, when simple, like a hammer, a spade, a plane, are called tools. When complicated, like a fanning- mill, a spinning-jenny, or a steam-engine, they are called machines. Some instruments are required in every kind of labor, for human limbs and muscles and brains unassisted can accomplish but little. The inventions of the last fifty years have introduced elaborate machinery into all branches of industry. One man with a pair of horses, a plough, a drill, and a cultivator, can cultivate ten times as much land as he could with only a spade and hoe. This use of the agents and forces of nature increases the effectiveness of labor in two ways. It enables one man to THE NEW PROBLEM BEFORE THE WORLD. 1 55 accomplish a work which must otherwise require a number of persons, and so either sets free a portion of labor for other occupations, or increases and lessens the cost of products. In a second place these industrial forces produce what no amount of labor unassisted by these forces could perform. The telegraph or telephone opens instantaneous communica- tion between places a hundred miles apart, while this com- munication under the slow means known a half century ago would have required several days of time, and a larger expense. The benefit from all this is that the means of satisfying human wants are being multiplied, and are conducing to the comfort and convenience of all classes of people. While in some few instances this may involve the danger of over- production ; it will be but temporary, as the extra labor will soon find a new field for operation. The good results far outweigh the evil ; and we may hope that the problem, now before the world, of adjusting the system of labor to the new condition of things, will soon find a happy solution, which shall be equitable and advantageous to all. A question of practical economy is. How shall labor be divided, so that different kinds of labor be distributed to different individuals and classes, so that all shall do that for which they are the best prepared, naturally and by training? In all civilized communities people take up different trades and professions according to their several capacities, tastes and circumstances. The results of labor are both increased and improved when the farmer and the baker, the blacksmith and the jeweler, the weaver and the tailor, the merchant, the lawyer and the doctor, each devotes his ener- gies to the work of his particular calling. This order of things marks the chief difference between savage and civil- ized life. But as a technical term of political economy, division of labor has a more specific application to labor employed on 156 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. particular products. Suppose, for example, an establishment for the manufacture of watches is projected. The watch is made up of many different parts. Obviously it will econo- mize labor to assign each part to one man or set of men. The application of this principle necessitates two things. An analysis of the article to be made into simple and distinct parts ; and then, a distribution of these parts to the laborers, giving to each man, or set of men, the part for which they are best fitted. The special advantages of division of labor are that it shortens the time of training to become an expert workman. It is very plain that the manufacture of a single part of an article can be learned in a shorter time and better than a number of parts, or the whole article. And it keeps the mind and muscle on one line of work, which insures greater speed and greater accuracy. It saves the time pass- ing from one kind of work to another. If, as Franklin said, time is money, this is an important consideration. A division of labor often brings out superior tools to facilitate operations. Many most valuable inventions have been brought out by laborers whose whole attention was given to observe particular processes. New improvements in machinery and industries are constantly brought out by this means. In fact, by far the greater part of the most important inventions have originated in the close observation of workmen who were specialists in their business. Division of labor secures the service of all grades and diversities of talent and capacity. In the manufacture of fine glass-ware, one part of the process requires high artistic genius ; another, judgment and skill, the fruit of experience ; another, fullness and strength of lungs ; and others, the simplest forms of manual labor. It were poor economy to set a raw hand to engrave a delicate pattern, or to send the artist to carry the vessels from the furnace to the annealing- oven. By systematic arrangement each can be kept doing that for which he is best fitted, and for which he receives wages according to its importance. By a close application of these observations to American THE OUTLOOK FOR AMERICAN INDUSTRIES. 1 57 industrial life, it will be seen that nowhere could these con- ditions for effective labor be better met. We have both the distribution of laborers through all the trades and professions, and the division of labor, to secure expert work in each part. Our labor is rightly constituted to make this the greatest industrial people of the world. With the right understand- ing of commercial law, the proper appHcation of economic principles, and the wise use of capital, this may reasonably be expected. CHAPTER IV. NATURAL, HUMAN AND MECHANICAL AGENTS OF LABOR. AS a base for all the forces brought into use by labor, is nature with its elements, forces and actions: both natural, as the flow of water, and chemical, as the process of fermentation. A natural agent is anything that can be appropriated, and is possessed of a productive power, derived from nature, and not from man. This term includes every manageable and productive force in the world, save man alone. Of the forces in nature of which we avail ourselves — while all are inherent in matter, and through its appropriation are made serviceable — some are inseparably connected with a product, and have no power beyond the one product to which they give value. Such are all the useful qualities of commodities ; the firmness of timber, the hardness of steel, the chemical action secured by the ingredients of any compound. Other forces give rise to independent products, and are not them- selves lost in those products. The horse produces a service without being destroyed by that service. These alone are strictly possessed of a productive power, and alone are natu- ral agents. Principal among the agents of nature for the exercise of labor is land. The earth is the great producer, and is the primal source of all the productions of labor. The value of land as a productive power depends on two things : its fer- tility and its location. In the first respect there is every variety, from the rich alluvial plain to the ragged mountain and sandy desert ; and in each variety, as far as fertility alone is concerned, there is a corresponding difference of value. But it is the second element which occasions the widest distinctions in the productive power of different lands, 158 THE LAND PROBLEM. 159 and causes their value to pass to the highest point. Certain causes determine, or have already determined, on each coun- try and continent, the centres of commerce and of human life. These centres remaining the same, value in land will increase as we approach them, and fade out as we leave them. Distance and difficulty of approach may overcome the greatest fertility, and render the best lands valueless. The neighborhood of a large city may impart to compara- tively poor lands a high value. The land problem is one of the most difficult in the poht- ical economy of England, and may assume critical phases in the United States. Land as an economic question is one in which all persons are deeply interested ; because out of the land in some form and way all must subsist. All human life must have a part in the occupation of land. Social and national conditions frequently rest upon the land question, and are adjusted by it. Here arises a great question of social science, which does not properly belong to this part of our discussion. The value of this agent varies under different conditions and locations. The strength of the soil, the supply of water, the distance to market, are all items which unite to determine for each section a standard of value with reference to all others. In all new settlements every man, quickened by his own interests, according to his own judgment and the judg- ment of the times in agriculture, establishes for himself, between a few of the most feasible locations still remaining unoccupied, a relative estimate, and selects that from which in the end he anticipates the largest return with the least labor. As this process goes on it is evident that later choices, from their very position, must suffer a disadvantage as compared with earlier ones. The same principle guides action on the farm. It is the most arable acre that is first plowed, the least arable that is last plowed. The value of land as a productive agent will be effected by many circumstances. Any change in climate or the centres of population by which the market is effected, or the unex- l6o THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. pected presence of an insect may change the values. All im- provement in the quality of the soil, the methods and imple- ments of agriculture and of transportation will increase the land value. The same general laws effecting agricultural lands will hold for mining lands. Their fertility in minerals, ease to operate and distance to market will determine their value as a productive agent. And another class of natural agents, briefly spoken of before, are those which can be used to impart power. The first used by any pioneer people is animal strength. The extent to which this force will be used, when brought in rivalry with the greater force of steam, will depend on its cost to labor and its utility for the purposes of labor. Much of the farm labor is performed by animals. This labor, though cheaper than human, because it provides a greater force, is more costly than is supposed. The original cost of the animal, the expense of care and keeping, gradual sinkage in value, liability to injury, if taken into account will show the cost of maintaining this working force. Estimates made in England show that the annual cost of a horse, in use on the farm, is $159.70. This includes the feed of the horse, annual wear of harness and imple- ments necessary to use the horse, and the annual deprecia- tion of the animal. Steam power for the same purposes, in those where it can be used, has been estimated at little more than one half as much as the cost of horse power. Wherever animal force can be brought into competition with other forces to produce power, its utility will wane. The law for this is that its cost is greater, while its power and speed for many kinds of labor are less. The rapid buggy- horse is giving way not only before the steam-carriage, but even before the bicycle. Not a few men are keeping this in preference to a horse, on account of its low cost and greater speed. A couple of young men, known to the author, rode thirty-two miles to the capital city of Ohio before breakfast on bicycles, and returned in even less time. Such inventions as these, in proportion to their utility, will change the economic value of animal force for the use of labor. THE THREE NATURAL AGENTS. l6l Wind, water and steam are the three inanimate natural agents used for imparting power. The most important pro- ductive office of wind is that of the saihng of vessels. To a small extent, where it is found in reliable currents, it may be used for moving machinery, as is frequently the case in the west, where it is economized for pumping water from wells. In such instances, it is strictly a natural agent. Water, as an agent for moving machinery, has but one rival, and that is steam. Its great advantages are: the absence of any first cost, and but little in sustaining it, and the simplicity and cheapness of the means by which it is applied. The possession of water privileges is dependent upon the possession of the land of which they are the inci- dents. A good water privilege, not being so open as a good soil to the judgment of all, is frequently overlooked, and sometimes involves at the outset an expense which for a long time prevents occupation. In this natural agent the elements of value are power, position and constancy. It must have force, for on the degree of this depends its pro- ductive power. This force, for its highest utility, must be regular, otherwise there is a loss of time and of use in the machinery employed ; and for this same highest utility the locality must be that which, in reference to the material employed and the commodities to be sold, involves the least transportation. These elements, in ever-varying proportions, exist in the value, each in its fluctuations modifying or wholly destroying it. There still remains the most powerful, the most con- trollable and most widely applicable of all the natural agents which are used for generating force — that is, steam. Em- ployed among the latest of these motive agents, it now per- forms the work of millions, without seeming to infringe upon the career left open to the others. It has created the call for the labor which it has performed. Its principal advan- tages are, that its amount is not given but within limits which include all practical wants ; can be fitted to the demand — the power conforming to the purpose, and not 11 l62 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. the purpose to the power ; that it can be appHed at any place, indeed, oftentimes produces and accompanies a trans- fer in place, and that it is uniform through all times and seasons. It will be observed that these advantages strictly correspond to the disadvantages of water, and the three elements which unite to determine in any given instance the value of that natural agent. There is a correspondence not less strict between the disadvantages of steam and the advantages of water. The cost of sustaining steam is large ; the means — the machinery by which it is applied — is expen- sive and complicated. One of these agents is the comple- ment of the other. Steam can do much that water cannot do ; water does cheaply and readily much that steam would do with great cost and great difficulty. Owing to the corre- spondence between the advantages and deficiencies of these agents, by which the one is made the counterpart of the other, it will usually happen that when, for any given busi- ness, the cheapness of water is outweighed by its want of entire availability, the availability of steam will come in to overbalance its cost. In another class of cases the reverse of this would be true. All the natural agents, either from sharing the same limit- ations in quality and quantity as land, or from the same intimacy of their connection with and dependence on land, come under the same laws as agricultural labor. Labor represents the difficulty in the way of man attain- ing his desires. If he could secure his wishes without labor, the world's industries would never be developed. In this case, civilization would move slowly, if it would not be an impossibility altogether. In laboring to reach his wants, man not only makes use of animal force and the forces of nature, but in a higher sense all the agents furnished by himself. The first agent which man furnishes himself for labor purposes is human strength. It is the cheapest, because it costs less to develop and use, both by training and con- trolling. Products which simply require strength will be THE SUSTAINING CLASS TO POPULATION. 163 cheaper than those requiring skill. The production and preparation of human strength is simply a part of the growth of the body, and is one of the incidents of life. As life is to be sustained and cared for, for other than economic pur- poses, there is no cost attached to the preparation of human strength as an agent for labor. This human strength is an available agent for labor between the years of twenty and seventy. This fifty years in each healthy normal life is the period of efficiency, or the sustaining period. An economist has said that " the effect- ive power of a nation is in the number of its people in the sustaining period, and in the proportion these bear to the dependent classes." The dependent classes, in the estimate of the observer, are all persons under the age of twenty, and all persons over the age of seventy, and which must be sustained by the sustaining classes. But there is quite a per cent of persons between these extreme points which cannot be classed with the sustaining classes ; the crippled, invalid, criminals in cells, and the indolent, are all unproduc- tive. Not more than one third of the population of the United States is made up of those under twenty and over seventy, yet about forty per cent of the people of the United States are unproductive ; and this is one of the most dangerous facts in our national economy. The productive or sustaining class in France is ten and •one third per cent more than one half the population : that is, for every one thousand of the productive class there are six hundred and fifty-seven unproductive. In England, the productive class is two and two thirds per cent greater than the sustained. In Ireland, the sustaining class is three and one half per cent less than one half the population : that is, every one thousand of the sustaining class must support, besides themselves, one thousand two hundred and one who are unproductive. Among the white population . of the United States the productive class is one per cent less than one half ; among the colored population, it is five per cent less than one half the population. 164 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. These facts act to reduce the force of human strength as an economic agent in the industry of the country, as they also increase the cost by making the available portion of the population bear the living expense of the unproductive. The demand for the muscular force of human strength has diminished in step with the march of civilization, while the demand for the intellectual force of human strength has increased in the same ratio. Animal and mechanical agents are becoming substitutes for human strength in all employments where mere strength of muscle was required. In uncivilized lands and times men transport goods, carry travelers, dig the soil, row vessels, run as messengers, spin, weave and turn the wheels of rough machinery, furnishing with their own muscles the working force of all labor. In enlightened lands and times, all these things, and more, are done by the harnessed forces of nature, and man has mostly to but direct and superintend their work to have accomplished, and better and cheaper than before, his labor. But while the demand for mere musular force in labor has relatively diminished, the demand for men has increased. Machinery will never drive men out of labor. A greater proportion of men will be required to use the genius of intelligence to plan, construct and manage machinery; to search out materials, to superintend labor, to distribute and transport goods, and to minister to a thousand new wants. Human strength must forever remain a valuable factor in labor. The growing necessity for intelligence in labor shows us the demand for skill. Skill is the product of the intelligence. It is " the knowing how" to do a thing. It is a quality that is gained by close reflection and long experience. Continued use of any portion of mind or physical energy in performing a certain act, perfects the ability to do it quickly and in the best way. It may become a habit. The rapid movements of a skilled mechanic appear almost automatic in accuracy. This is observed in the skilled performance on an instrument. All acts of the mind are at first made slowly and with THE ADVANTAGE OF SKILLED LABOR. 1 65 uncertainty. At each repetition the mind travels a more beaten path and with more ease. This, carried to a point of accuracy, Js skill. This is a factor of more value in labor than human strength. It requires more attention and pains to qualify it as an agent of labor, and its products are better in the accuracy of their finish. The extra value of its products must be the eco- nomic argument for its training. Instruction in the art, in the sciences, and in social duties, is the most fruitful of all culture. This product of skill, which is accurate labor, is incapable of being outrun in the race of rivalry by any agent which may hope to be substituted for it in the indus- tries, and only grows by its own activity. So, while it is more costly in its training than human strength, it is more economic, as it becomes stronger and more perfect by feeding upon itself. The comparative values of strength and skill are carried to the products of both, and lend something of their varying costliness, both to the prices of the labor and to the value of the products. Labor requiring but little except mere human strength will be cheap labor, and the product of the labor will be cheap ; while labor requiring high skill will command high wages, and the products of such labor will be costly. A man plowing the ground for a crop may work as hard as the artisan at a delicate piece of machinery, yet his labor is cheaper and his product is not so costly, and for the above reason. Another advantage which skill has over mere strength is that it has the power both to aid strength, and in some instances even to supplant it altogether. The skilled work- man, by a more adroit use of his strength, will accomplish labor impossible to an unskilled workman, though the strength of the latter may be the greater. Skill knows how to take advantage of all favoring circumstances and condi- tions ; finds the easiest way to move a mass ; makes one end of a load balance the other ; and by such ingenious devices makes its strength go for double that of the unskilled 1 66 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. laborer. The boy going to mill, who put heavy stones in one end of the sack to balance the grain in the other, instead of dividing the grain, gives an illustration of this principle in the economy of labor. Skill is what makes the expert in labor. And this is a character who must demand more attention by the industries. His knowledge has a marketable value not yet as high as it should be in this country. The expert mechanic is worth more to his employer than the laborer who is not an expert, because his product will be neater and better in quality; The expert scholar is worth more to the; people than one who has no special skill in any direction, because his product will be more attractive and pleasing in style, more solid in character, and more reliable in fact. The economics of labor demand that this distinction be made. Human strength and human skill constitute the agents man contributes to labor. Besides these, and the agents of nature, there are mechanical agents; these are the results of man's combined strength and skill, yet they form a dis- tinct class of forces for the use of labor. These mechanical agents are : all tools, implements and machines, as instru- ments of labor. These are the forces with which strength and skill do their work. They aid man in doing what, with- out them, he could not do at all, or only accomplish by harder work, by a longer time, and only then imperfectly. Although tools, and machinery of all kinds, form a part of capital, yet they are a factor of labor, as labor cannot be done without them, and they form an actual, known force in the process of labor. Tools are as old as labor itself. The man who used a stick to defend his life, or a stone to crush his corn, used these things as tools. And this use of them was the germ and promise of all the present machinery of the world. Tools conduce to labor by aiding strength or skill, or both. The lever, pully, wheel, axle and the wedge, are the simple elements of all machinery; they all add to man's strength and skill. He could not do so much as may be done by a simple machine, nor could he do it as skillfully. THE UTILITY OF MACHINERY. 167 Machinery has contributed marvelously to man's power over nature and its resistances. The drainage of the low lands of Holland, which gave to human habitation seventy square miles of dry land at the lake's bottom, was accomplished by enormous engines, one of which worked ten pumps and lifted, at each stroke, one hundred and twelve tons of water to a height of ten feet. It is doubtful if such a triumph of labor could have been attained by the whole working force of the nation, without the aid of machinery. At the cele- brated iron works of Creusat, France, there is a steam- hammer weighing eighty tons, and on its huge anvil a mass of iron of one hundred tons can be handled easily by means of four powerful cranes. This is equal to the lifting power of sixteen hundred stout men. A labor agent like this is of almost incalculable force in the world's industries. At the other extreme are machines to accomplish work, the product of which is as small as this is mighty. The watch machinery makes screws so small and fine that they can only be handled by the use of the microscope, yet this work is done with such precision that those of one watch will fit any other of the same class. Machinery cheapens the products of labor, and this is one of the chief advantages of its use. The wealth of the world consists, not in producing goods at high cost and selling at high prices, but in producing at the lowest possible cost and selling at a low price. The goods now made by machinery are vastljij. cheaper then the same goods formerly produced by hand labor. The cotton goods illustrate this. Up to the year 1769, cotton was spun by hand. Then the cost of spinning was about twenty-five shillings per pound. In 1876, spinning by machinery cost a little over two shillings per pound. The quantity which one workman can produce with machinery has increased as much as the cost has been reduced. In 1779, the French spinners in England banded to break in pieces all the spinning-jenneys, as destroying their trade. The machine survived, and in 1876, the persons employed with these l68 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. machines in England were nearly five hundred thousand, and the wages by far better than under the old regime. They run over forty-one million spindles, which consumed one bill- ion two hundred and eighty million three hundred thousand pounds of cotton. Under the old system of hand-labor it would require the whole population of England, men, women and children, to make up this amount of raw material. The first cotton mill furnished with complete machinery, was opened in Rhode Island in 1790, with seventy-two spin- dles. In 1870, the number of spindles in the United States was seven million one hundred and thirty-two thousand four hundred and fifteen ; and the cotton consumed was three hundred and ninety-eight million three hundred and two thousand two hundred and fifty seven pounds. Machines for weaving cotton came much later than for spinning. In 181 3, all the cotton yarn in America was still manufactured into cloth by hand-looms. In 1825, the retail price of calico, for dresses, was fifty cents a yard. In 1883, prints of the same grade retail at five cents a yard. Then a week's wages of a servant girl would buy one yard of calico ; now it will buy six dresses of ten yards each. This most remarkable industrial revolution has been effected by modern industrial machinery, and shows what a mighty force is that of mechanical agents. The economic results of these industrial changes, brought about by the use of mechanical forces, have been almost beyond all computa- tion. The whole character of labor has been changed. The demand for the old form of labor, where human strength was the principal factor, has well nigh died out. The cost of production has been greatly reduced, which has resulted in lessening the market price of products. The amount of products of all classes has grown wondrously, and has been distributed among a greater number of people ; until the comforts now enjoyed by nearly all, formerly were only within the reach of the most wealthy. The products being larger in quantity than local or national demand, have been compelled to seek more distant markets, and this has widened ONE CAUSE OF FINANCIAL PANICS. 1 69 commerce. As a result of all this, the accumulated wealth of the world has greatly multiplied ; and by this means there has been created a larger and cheaper capital for new invest- ments or uses. New forms of industry have been created, as capital seeks employment, which have furnished a wider field and better pay for labor. There is one disastrous result that sometimes happens from a crowded condition of production. Manufacturers are driven to strenuous competition for the markets, and crowd down prices and wages to a ruinous point. The labor strikes of the past ten years in the United States, pretend, at least, to have their excuse in this condition of the labor question. The evil, when once it occurs, must have its own cure, in the failure of some of the manufacturers, or in the forced change of production. When the markets are glutted at a time when the goods are reduced to the lowest possible price, and a financial depression occurs, the markets are ruined, and likely the manufacturer with them. But this condition of labor only is possible through the unwise spirit of pushing competition too far ; and this is a habit that political economy most severely condemns. A moderate competition, designed to keep prices at a low profit, yet sufificient to pay both the labor and the manufacturer, may be the " hfe of business ; " but when pushed under an envious commercial motive, for the mere purpose of driving a rival from business, is ruinous to trade, and is a breach of commercial honor. Under a proper balance of supply and demand, the manufacturer will find at all times a safe market for his wares ; and when the supply becomes too great for the local and national demand, and cannot be advantageously disposed of in foreign markets, there should be a change of industries from that which is over crowded to some field of labor where the supply falls far below the demand. By such precaution, the great revolution in labor caused by the innovation of the mechanical agents, supplanting both the natural and largely the human agents, can be directed wholly to the good of humanity. I/O THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. This discussion of mechanical agents cannot more fittingly be closed than by giving Francis Jeffrey's graphic description of the steam engine, its power and use : " It has become a thing, stupendous alike for its force and its flexibility; for the prodigious power which it can exert, and the ease, precision, and ductility with which it can be varied, distributed and applied. The trunk of an elephant, that can pick up a pin or rend an oak, is nothing as to it. It can engrave a seal, and crush masses of obdurate metal before it ; draw out, without breaking, a thread as fine as a gossamer ; and lift up a ship of war, like a bauble in the air. It can embroider muslin and forge anchors; cut steel into ribands, and impel loaded vessels against the fury of the winds and waves. " It would be dif^cult to estimate the value of the benefits which these inventions have conferred upon the country. There is no branch of industry that has not been indebted to them, and in all material, they have not only widened most magnificently the field of its exertions, but multiplied a full thousand fold the amount of its productions. It is our improved steam engine that has fought the battles of Europe, and exalted and sustained, through the late tremendous contest, the political greatness of our land. It is the same great power which enables us to pay our national debt, and to maintain the arduous struggle in which we are still engaged, with the skill and capital of countries less oppressed with taxation. " But these are poor and narrow views of its importance. It has increased, indefinitely, the mass of human comforts and enjoyments, and rendered cheap and accessible, all over the world, the materials of wealth and prosperity. It has armed the feeble hand of man, in short, with a power to which no limits can be assigned; completed the dominion of mind over the most refractory qualities of matter ; and laid a sure foundation for all those future miracles of mechanical power, which are to aid and reward the labors of after generations." CHAPTER V. CENTRALIZED LABOR IN GREAT INDUSTRIAL ESTABLISH- MENTS. THE use of labor-saving machinery unites many persons in the same process of production, and necessitates the parts of the labor being distributed among different classes of laborers. There cannot be any thorough division of labor except in connection with the use of mechanical agents. So that it requires both the centralization and division of labor to run large establishments, in which the full benefits of these means of increased productiveness may be realized. For their successful operation, these establishments require a great many things which labor, in its uncentralized form, cannot command. They require large investments of capital in buildings, machinery and material righit at the beginning of their operations. Besides they should have a surplus fund for the purpose of operating leading agencies throughout the country, and for the purpose of advertising. They require a large number of laborers, of varied capacity and suited for various departments of work, and these organ- ized under one leading management. They require a large amount of material ready to use, and a rapid production of goods in great quantities. They require a market that wil! meet the facilities for an extensive and wide distribution. They will require great executive ability of two kinds : that of a careful internal management of the time and work of the laborers and the processes of the labor; secondly, of the financial affairs of the company. The first two things to be secured are capital and labor. In a new country there is little accummulation of either wealth or population ; the demand for particular articles is 171 172 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. small ; facilities for transportation, which would widen the market, are few; and the first emigrants, though young and energetic, have yet to develop mutual confidence and high executive ability. Hence labor begins with each man's doing by himself all kinds of work with few and simple tools. But in due time diverse industry is developed as naturally as a tree grows. As wealth is accumulated and population increases, new wants arise and new means of satisfying them are provided. As roads and bridges are made, and railways push themselves on, the market is widened, enterprise is stimulated, talents are brought forward and great establish- ments are set up for production on a large scale. Such a natural growth is far more healthy and sound than the pre- mature development which comes from forced, artificial appliances. The most disastrous thing fhat can befall an establish- ment is lack of great executive and financial management. Economy and administrative skill are the two elements which must combine for success. With all these conditions met, the highest productive power of labor is attained. And the community in general is benefitted by this centralized labor, as it could not other- wise be. The increased productiveness resulting from cen- tialized labor makes an increased demand for labor. Sup- pose a community of one hundred men to acquire, by their labor and capital, every year, just enough to support them- selves, after defraying the expenses of their several estab- lishments. So long as this state of things continued there would be no increased demand for laborers ; for there would be no additional capital with which to maintain them. The young must therefore emigrate, or else there will be a com- petition among laborers for work, and thus wages will fall. But suppose that by some new mode of increased productive- ness the capital be increased in a single year twenty-five per cent, there will then be a demand for the industry of a greater number, say twenty-five additional laborers; since this addi- tional capital can produce nothing unless it be united with BENEFIT OF MACHINERY IN CENTRALIZED LABOR. 1 73 labor. If there be not twenty-five additional laborers to be immediately produced, wages must rise, because there will be a competition among capitalists for labor, and children and persons who, with the former prices could earn nothing, will now be employed. And if the demand for labor arising from this increase of capital, could not be thus supplied, those engaged in less profitable employment in other dis- tricts and other countries would come in to supply the deficiency. Such is always seen to be the fact. Population follows capital. It goes where capital goes, and it concen- trates where capital accumulates, and it retires when capital retires. And hence, in a whole country, where the number of inhabitants is limited, the increase of capital must raise the rate of wages. And hence, by just so much as increased productiveness of labor increases the amount of capital, it must also tend to raise the price of labor throughout a whole country. From which it is seen that the obvious ten- dency of the mechanical agents in the fields of centralized labor is to increase the wages of laborers in general. Let it be supposed that by the use of the present machin- ery, centralized labor with one hundred men is able to manufacture cotton cloth at fifty cents a yard, and that the amount which can be produced is just sufificient to supply the wants of the district for which they labor.- At this price, no consumers, but those with one thousand dollars a year, can afford to purchase cotton cloth ; and, then, of course, the demand is limited exclusively to them. Suppose, now, that improved machinery enables fifty men to manufacture as large an amount of cotton cloth as one hundred men could manufacture before, and the consequence is, that cotton cloth-is sold at twenty-five cents a yard. It is evident, that if the demand be precisely doubled, there will be wanted just as many laborers as before. If fifty men can do the same amount of work requiring one hundred under the former capacity of machinery, and if there be double the demand, arising from the greater cheapness of the product, then, it clearly follows that there can be an increase of wages ; and 174 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. it is also evident, that every degree of increase of demand, must be a benefit to the laborers. The greater productiveness of centralized labor promotes the general welfare in the increased production and the cheapened cost of products. These large establishments even economize material as well as labor. In material they can save every item of utility in the scraps and odds and ends which in production on a small scale would be thrown away. Thus, in the large packing-houses, the hoofs, the horns, the bones, even the blood and refuse matter, of the animals slaughtered, are utilized. It economizes supervision also; one man of brains being able to oversee and direct the operations of five hundred or a thousand workmen easily and effectively. As a consequence, the cost of articles is reduced, so that thousands instead of hundreds of people can afford to use them. Thus the great cotton-factories have brought down the cost of common muslin from fifty cents to six cents per yard, and all classes of people can use it freely and abundantly. And centralized labor increases the prospect of the steady employment of labor. There is periodic alarm in the United States lest labor be thrown out under its competition with labor-saving machinery. But there can be no fundamental dispute between machinery and labor. Labor is only a factor in the consideration and effort for happiness as it con- tributes in some way to wealth of some kind. As long as the wealth of a country is growing, labor will have to be the means of producing that wealth ; and the greater the wealth the greater the demand for labor. In the field of the large establishments the increase of production and reduced cost always makes an increase in the demand for labor, instead of diminishing it. In England, the laborers in the weaving factories were greatly benefited by the introducing of the power-loom. The general tendency of centralized labor, less occasional reverses caused by bad foresight in creating an over-production, is to give constant employment to workmen of all kinds. MORAL ADVANTAGE OF CENTRALIZED LABOR. 1 75 The effect of the increased productiveness of centraHzed labor is a happy one upon the person consuming these products. By increased productiveness every consumer is actually made richer ; that is, he is able by the same amount of labor to procure many more products. This is the same thing to him as though his income were increased. If a man, before the advent of cotton cloth manufacturing machinery, needed one hundred yards of cotton cloth, he would have to pay fifty dollars for the year's supply, at the price of fifty cents a yard. But the machinery reduced the price to twenty-five cents a yard. This laborer could now furnish his yearly supply of cloth for twenty-five dollars instead of fifty, saving just twenty-five dollars in this one instance alone, which is the same as that much of an increase to his income. Another advantage is seen, greater in its moral reach than all this, and is a remarkable consequence of the introduction of machinery and the consequent centralization of labor. While all the labor of man is necessary to support mere physical existence, there can be no opportunity for intel- lectual cultivation. As soon, however, as he arrives at that condition of productiveness of labor in which he is able to provide for his physical wants with less than all his time and effort, opportunity is afforded for intellectual development. At this point commences the dawn of intellectual improve- ment. As increased productiveness affords more abundant leisure, improvement advances; and as soon again as by improved intellectual power man begins to discover and apply the laws of nature, a vast accession is made to the power of human productiveness. Henceforth these two forces conspire to assist each other. Increased productive- ness allows of increased time for investigation, discovery and invention ; and discovery and invention increase the power of productiveness. The more actively these act and react upon each other, the more rapid is the progress of society, and the more rapidly accelerated is the movement of civili- zation. If this be so, we see how puerile is the prejudice which 1/6 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. frequently exists against the use of labor-saving machinery, since the introduction of such machinery, more than any- thing else, tends permanently to improve the condition of the laborer. We see, also, how groundless is the opinion that education and science are without practical benefit, and that philosophers and students are merely a useless burden upon the community ; since it is knowledge which has given to us all the advantages which we possess over savages, and it is the application of that knowledge which furnishes employment for nine tenths of the whole community. We see, also, how short-sighted is that national selfishness, which desires to limit and restrict the intercourse between nations ; since it is for the interest of each nation to improve to the utmost its own advantages, and to procure, by exchange with other nations, those productions for the creation of which it possesses, by nature, inferior facilities. CHAPTER VI. RESTRICTIONS UPON THE POLICY OF CENTRALIZED LABOR. THE great effort of centralized labor is productiveness as large as possible. To reach this the division of labor is the great policy. But there are limitations to this division of labor, caused by restrictions. The very nature of a manufacturing process will suggest a hmit to the division of labor. To secure a division of labor a work must be analyzed into its several parts, and these parts distributed among as many classes of laborers, each class having a special skill for the part assigned it. The division of labor in all cases will stop with the number of parts into which the article to be manufactured can be divided. In pin-making, the straightening of the wire is one operation, cutting into equal lengths is another, sharpening the points is another, putting on the heads is another. Each operation may be given to a distinct body of workmen; but when this operation is extended to its simple divisions of work the hmit is reached. For it is no division of labor to have two men perform the same operation. An establish- ment that works on this policy will be able to • undersell another that does not carry it to the same degree of perfec- tion. This policy has been fully carried out where the work has been reduced to its simple parts, each part assigned to a distinct class of laborers, and where these divisions of labor will be in such proportions as to exactly and fully employ each other. The greater the extent to which this is per: fected the greater the economy of the enterprise, and conse- quently the greater the financial success of the establishment. A limitation on the division of labor, caused by the restricton of an ultimate analysis of the work to be done, is generally an advantageous one, as it is a natural one, and 12 177 1/8 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. harmony with nature is often the finest wisdom. But when the division of labor is Hmited by an inadequate capital the business may suffer. Division of labor in large establish- ments cannot be carried on, unless the management have sufficient capital to employ, at the same time, all the persons necessary to such a division, and to keep them so employed until the proceeds of their work enable him to furnish them again with fresh material. This is, of course, a considerable outlay, and supposes a considerable accumulation of the pro- ceeds of pre-exerted industry. Hence, in a poor, or in a new country, there can be but little division of labor. No one has more than enough capital to employ himself, and, per- haps, one or two laborers; and hence, each individual per- forms all the operations of each process, and frequently those of several processes. The same individual is the farrierj blacksmith, cutler, and, perhaps, wheelwright, for a whole settlement. To illustrate this by a single instance: If a nailer be able to purchase no larger amount of iron and coal than he can use in the manufacture of nails in a day, he must perform all the parts of the process himself; and, of course, must labor very disadvantageously. As soon, how- ever, as he is able to double his capital, he may employ another person to work with him, and they may then intro- duce a division of labor. When he has tripled his capital, he may employ another workman, and carry his division still further. He may thus go on until he has reduced the pro- cess to its simplest elements. When he has gone thus far, the accumulation of his annual capital will enable him to invest something in fixed capital. He will thus be able to purchase some of the simpler machines, by which some of the parts of his process may be executed. To these he will add others, as he advances in wealth, until his accumulated means enable him to combine them into one machine, for completing the whole process. Thus he becomes a manu- facturer, and derives the larger part of his revenue from the use of his fixed capital. At every step his gains will be greater, and' at the same time the price of his product will RESTRICTIONS ON DIVISION OF LABOR. 1 79 become less. It is not pretended that all these changes always, or frequently, take place within the lifetime of a single individual. The progress of society is not generally so rapid. Yet they do occur sometimes, and they show the tendency of things and the power of accumulated capital. Division of labor may be restricted by a limited demand. Suppose that in a certain district, on which a certain estab- lishment is dependent for its market, there is a demand for one hundred pounds of glass per day, and that this amount can' be made by two men. If three men could, by division ■of labor, make two hundred pounds per day, there would be but small gain, either to the laborers or to the public, as they would have to lie idle half the time, and for this they must be paid. If they were employed for only half the time, their wages must be double, and thus the expense of a whole day would rest on the production of a half day. When the number of inhabitants is small, as in a newly- settled country, or in an isolated situation, the demand must, of course, correspond to their number. One hundred men will require but one tenth as many hats or shoes as one thousand. It is on this account that wealth accumulates most rapidly on large rivers, or on through lines of road, as the producers are not limited to a local demand, but can easily ship to other points. The cost of production has a like effect upon the division of labor. The greater the cost of the product, the smaller will be the number of persons who are able to purchase it. Hence, the less will be the demand; and hence, also, the less opportunity will there be for division of labor. And, besides, the greater the cost of the article, the greater amount of capital is required in order to produce it by division of labor. Hence, this cause operates in two ways to prevent the employment of this means of effecting the reduction of price. Thus, if a community consist of one thousand men, and of these one hundred be worth one thousand dollars per year; four hundred be worth five hun- dred dollars, and the remainder be worth but two hundred l8o THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. and fifty dollars per year; and an article be produced within the reach of only the, first of these classes, it can have but one hundred purchasers. If it come within the reach of the second class, it will have five hundred ; and if it come within the reach of the third class, it will have one thousand purchasers. Hence it is, that division o"f labor is but sparingly used in the manufacture of rich jewelry and in articles of expensive luxury, while it is so universally used in the production of all articles of common use. Hence the benefits of the division of labor are vastly greater to the middle and lower classes than to the rich. These means of increased production reduce the cost of necessary articles to the lowest rate, and, of course, bring them as far as possible within the reach of all. The division of labor extends even to the means and facilities of transportation. The cost of an article depends not only on the cost of its original production, but also upon the cost necessary to bring it to the consumer. Coal may be very cheap at a coal mine, but if it must be borne on the shoulders of men to the consumer, it would, at a few miles from the mine, become so dear that no one would be able to use it. The demand would be so small that there would be no profit either in investing capital in the machinery or in employing division of labor to raise it from the mine. But if horses be used to transport it to the consumer, the demand will increase. Again, if, for horses, canals and railroads be substituted, it will become cheap, and the demand will increase still more ; and with every such improvement that circle of consumption expands, of which the mine is the centre. The same principle applies to manufactures, spe- cially those of iron or heavy ware; and it applies just in proportion as transportation forms a large or small part of the cost to the consumer. And thus, in general, we see the principle on which facilities for internal communication improve the condition of both the other branches of indus- •try. For this reason, the price of land and grain rises in a district through which a canal or a railroad passes ; and for HOW TRANSPORTATION AFFECTS PRODUCTION. l8l the same reason manufactories may at one time be success- fully established in situations where they at another time would have been useless, if not ruinous to the proprietor. And still more generally, we see the manner in which all the branches of labor assist each other. A railroad or a canal can never profitably be constructed in a country where there is nothing to be transported ; but where agriculture, manu- factures and commerce are productive, and hence require a large amount of transportation, there these facilities are immediately in demand. Were Liverpool and Manchester to decline, of what use would be the railroad between them ? And, on the other hand, the railroad between them, by reducing the cost of all articles bought and sold, diminishes the cost of living in both places, enables the producer to come into market with greater advantages, increases the profit in all kinds of industry, facilitates the accumulation of capital, and thus adds vastly to the accumulating wealth of both cities. As the laws which seem to affect labor are studied with direct reference to the manufacturing interests of the United States, division of labor will secure more and better atten- tion, the restrictions will be more and more removed, and the great productive power of labor will be used for the benefit of the whole people. Selfishness is condemned by industrial as well as by moral law. . CHAPTER VII. THE LABOR QUESTION IN ENGLAND. NO question is of such economic importance as the labor question. The welfare of laborers, social and intel- lectual, as well as financial, is pushing to the front. It must receive, as it deserves, attention. The laboring class have the same rights as any other class, and all should be interested in seeing that they have their rights, and that they are maintained. England has, for a century, been one of the greatest manufacturing countries on the globe, and nowhere has the attention been given to solve the question of labor as there. The great industrial competition between England and the United States, and the union existing on all other matters, as the arts, sciences, and commerce, deserve an attention to a consideration of the labor question in England, before coming to that of the United States. In 1776, Adam Smith, the early master of the science of political economy, said : " When, in any country, the demand for those who live by wages is continually increas- ing, when every year furnishes employment for a greater number than had been employed the year before, the work- men have no occasion to combine to raise their wages. The scarcity of hands occasions competition among the masters, who bid against each other to get workmen." In 18 17, Ricardo wrote : " Labor is dear when it is scarce, and cheap when it is plentiful." The labor condition in England at the present time, confirms these simple principles of industrial science, as expressed by the leading minds in the study of the labor question. Trade in England is depressed to a degree seldom equaled in the history of English commerce. 183 THE ENGLISH CONTRACT SYSTEM. 183 The tendency of the rate of wages has been for years in the downward direction. It might have been expected that the industrial principles of Smith and Ricardo would have been endorsed universally ; yet few English employers act as if they had any faith in the accuracy of these deductions from the universal experience of mankind. It is a favorable prospect, that in the relations between labor and capital in England, there seems to be a gradual abatement of hostile feelings. The solicitude of the employ- ers for the welfare of the working class, has been exhibited in a most practical form in the recent amendments of the laws relating to trade combinations. By an act passed in the session of 1875, ''all breaches of contract between masters and workmen cease to be, in the eye of the law, criminal offenses. Damages may be recovered from v/orkmen for breach of con- tract of service, and the courts may, at the request of defendant, order specific performance of his contract in place of damages, with the alternative of a short term of imprison- ment, in default of his new undertaking. But criminal and penal proceedings can no longer be taken." By another act of the same session, trade combinations ceased to be subject to indictment for conspiracy, except in cases where the objects of the compact were themselves legally punishable. It is now admitted by the warmest advocates of the rights of workmen, that the state of the English law, as it affects the industrial classes, no longer pre- sents any grievances, of which they have reason to complain. The most substantial grievance of the British workman, is of a nature which cannot be removed by legislation. In the United Kingdom, after centuries of active enterprise in the pursuit of commerce, capital has been accumulated in a more ample store, in proportion to the population, than in any other country in the world. The result is that the ordi- nary rate of interest is lower in England than in any other money market in Europe. Money is only worth about three per cent in London. 1 84 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. Money being abundant, and the rate of interest low, out- lets for investments are eagerly sought for. It is in London, that foreign countries in a state of impending bankruptcy, have of late conducted their principal borrowing operations, and their appeals to a credulous and ill-informed public have not been made in vain. If, in any trade or business, whether in commerce or agriculture, in mines or in shops, at home or in the remotest regions of the earth, a return has been antic- ipated, ever so little beyond the low nominal rate of interest, eager and credulous people have hitherto been only too easily induced to embark their capital. A large proportion of the annual savings of the country, have thus been squan- dered away in injudicious speculations; and, even when cap- ital has been attracted to a legitimate trade, if the profits have, for ever so short a time, exceeded what may be called the nominal rate of interest, over-production has ensued, and the period of short-lived prosperity has been followed by a long depression. A serious fall in the value of manufactured goods has been inevitable ; and the workmen, whose wages have been unduly advanced by excessive demand for their labor in prosperous times, have been compelled to submit to a reduction, or to suffer the more cruel alternative of entire loss of employment. The recent history of the iron trade presents a striking illustration of this. A very large per cent of coal produced is consumed in the manufacture of iron. After a long period of depression, the price of iron rose, in 1 871, to a degree which Gladstone said had advanced, not by steps, but by strides, leaps and bounds. These high prices implied a high rate of profit ; and at once everybody who could engage in the iron and coal trades, applied his utmost energies to the increase of production, while new capital for the develop- ment of these industries was obtained from the inexperienced investors who are ever ready for any wild scheme to increase their wealth. The great pressure thus brought to bear on the labor market caused a rapid advance in wages. Can it be a subject of surprise that such an inflation as EFFECT OF STRIKES ON THE MARKET. 1 85 this was promptly followed by a corresponding reaction? As prices fell, the masters required that the men should accept reduced wages, and a long conflict naturally ensued. The workshop became the seat of negligence and incapacity; and evils, which could be cured only by the sharp physic of privation, were abundant. Thus, after a disastrous struggle, representing a loss in wages to the workmen estimated by Lord Aberdare at three millions sterling, the truth of the doctrine laid down by Adam Smith was once more confirmed : " The condition of the laboring poor is hard in the stationary, and miserable in the declining, state. The progressive state of trade is in reality the cheerful and the hearty state to all the different orders of society. The stationary is dull ; the declining mel- ancholy." It cannot be too strongly impressed on the intel- ligent minds of the operative classes that it is only when trade is in a progressive state that wages can be increased. Strikes, in a rising market, are generally successful. " Strikes, against a falling market, inevitably terminate in disaster to the workmen. There have been labor combinations formed which have contributed somewhat in changing the condition of the laborer. In the finished iron and engineering trades the workmen have succeeded, within the space of a few years, in reducing the hours of labor to nine a day, and they have obtained a substantial advance of wages. The agricultural laborer has received the most noticeable benefit from these combinations. Until within a recent period the condition of the rural population in many dis- tricts was a dishonor to a country abounding in riches and resources of every kind. The blessings of education and political intelligence had not been extended — even now they are but partially enjoyed — among the inhabitants of the secluded villages and hamlets of the agricultural districts. The humble tillers of the soil had no conception of a system of trade combination. In their complete ignorance of any other condition of life than that which they had inherited 1 86 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. from their forefathers, they had no definite aim or plans for the improvement of their lot. They endured their poverty with dogged submission. At length, however, the rural laborer found a powerful and eloquent advocate in the per- son of Joseph Arch. By arguments based upon a more or less accurate appreciation of the facts, but in the main con- clusive, the laborer was urged to ask for an advance of wages. The demands made were not extravagant. In Suf- folk, for example, the men asked that their wages should be increased from thirteen to fourteen shillings a week. The modest request was met on the part of the farmers, by the formation of a counter association, and ultimately the laborers throughout an extensive district were locked out. The course adopted by the employers was condemned by all impartial and thoughtful men. In his characteristic way the Bishop of Manchester stated the case against the farmers in plain and forcible terms: "Could a man, at the present prices of the necessaries of life, maintain himself and his family, he would not say in comfort, but even with a sufficiency of food, fuel and clothing, to enable him to put his whole strength into his work, on a smaller income than fifteen or sixteen shillings a week ? If the farmers said they could not afford to pay this rate of wages with their present rentals, and could prove this statement, then rents must comedown; an unpleasant thing to contemplate, for those who would spend the rent of a three hundred acre farm on a single ball, or upon a pair of high-stepping carriage-horses. But, never- theless, one of these things is inevitable." The farmers succeeded for the time in their resistance to the demands of the laborers. They and their families per- formed the manual labor on their farms, which had hitherto been carried on by hired workmen. The results, however, of the labor movement in the agricultural class have been considerable. The laborers were defeated in their pitched battle with the farmers; but they subsequently obtained considerable advances in all those districts where the lowest wasfes had hitherto been given. THE ENGLISH CO-OPERATIVE SYSTEM. 18/ Philanthropic men have sought to reconcile the apparently- hopeless conflict between capital and labor, by the introduc- tion of the so-called cooperative system. It will be sufficient to point out where the principle has been adopted with success, and where it has been marked by failure. It has been a success, where the business to be done was easy to manage. At the cooperative retail stores, great reductions of price and improvements of quality have been secured to the consumers. Cooperation has been a failure in its appli- cation to productive industry. In a large factory, or mine, or foundry, where the labors of hundreds or thousands of men must be combined, in order to carry out extensive and complicated operations, discipline must be maintained, and the reasonableness of the orders given must be accepted with- out debate by those engaged in subordinate capacities. The government of a factory, like the command of a regiment, must be an autocracy. Hence it is that the principle of asso- ciated effort has been found inapplicable to productive industry. There is another reason why cooperative manufacture has been a failure. Capital is required for such undertakings. Competition has reduced the profits of manufacturers so con- siderably, that an establishment, unprovided with the newest and most costly machinery, must show an adverse balance. Unfortunately, the savings of the working classes are not sufficient to enable them to provide the capital necessary for business on a large scale. It would be unfair to the intelli- gent and industrious working people of England, to ignore the many laudable efforts they have made to raise their material and their social condition. The benefit societies, the post-office savings bank, in which the savings of the poor are accumulated at the rate of a million and a half a year, the building societies, and the cooperative associations, attest the prudence and the thrift of multitudes, who can not save money without self-denial. On the other hand, the consumption of spirits and beer in the United Kingdom shows that the surplus earnings of prosperous times are 1 88 . THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. largely consumed in pernicious indulgence. The consump- tion of British spirits increased from twenty-four million gal- lons in 1 87 1, to thirty million one hundred thousand gallons in 1874, while the number of bushels of malt consumed was increased in the same period from fifty-four millions to sixty- two millions. It has been computed that one hundred million pounds a year are annually expended in the United Kingdom in drink. If any appreciable proportion of this vast and deplorable outlay were devoted to industrial investment, the working classes might become more independent than they are of the aid of the capitalist. There has been tried in England a more practicable form of cooperation, according to the best thought on the subject in that country. For, whether cooperation will work in the United States or not, it does not seem to have met with much success in England. The new experiment in England is that of paying by results. This system is that according to which work is done by the piece, and a per cent .on all work done in a week, over a certain amount, goes to the laborer. It has been warmly advocated by the most gener- ous friends of the working classes. The best workmen are usually found where piece-work is the established practice. Of the two hundred and forty million pounds a year of English exports, fully ninety per cent were made by the piece. Of textile manufacture, England exported, in 1874, one hundred and twenty million pounds' worth, and these had all been paid by the piece. So it was with iron and steel, to the extent of thirty-one million pounds; and also with coal, cutlery, haberdashery, and other small articles, all of which, so far as practicable, were produced under the piece-work system. There is more piece-work done in England than in any other country in the world ; and the more it is extended the better for the workmen, whether they like it or not. The comparative efficiency of the English and the foreign workman has been much discussed in the present hard times, as it always is when trade is depressed. The truth is that THE OUTLOOK FOR ENGLAND. 1 89 there is little difference between the amount of work per- formed for a given sum of money in any of the manufactur- ing countries of Europe. The English workmen became idle when their wages were raised, and their hours of labor cur- tailed ; but they have skill and physical power, and common sense. They are not likely to allow themselves to be beaten in a fair and open competition. The best evidence of the excellence of the British workmen, is afforded by the high tariffs, which, in many countries, where the wages are lower, and the hours of labor longer than in England, it is thought necessary to impose, in order to give effectual protection to native industry. If there were no protective duties, English iron-work would be found in use in France, in Russia, and in the United States, whence now it is only excluded by prohibitive imports. The present labor depression is not confined to England. In Germany there has been over-production. Wages have risen as rapidly as in England. Good workmen have become careless ; and the general standard of diligence and workman- ship has declined. In Belgium, more than half the blast furnaces are standing idle. The present outlook for England is that there is to be temporary relief at least. A great deal depends upon how the immense surplus capital will be used ; a great deal more on what measures the wealthier class will take for the social, intellectual and moral elevation of the working people. More than all else will depend on the energy, faith and skill of man- agement upon the part of the laborers for themselves and their interests. The present face of the labor question in England reflects one lesson clearer than all others : there can exist no natural friction between labor and capital, and therefore between the laborer and the capitalist, without loss and dis- tress to both sides. That mutual interests demand harmony, is the sad, yet important truth, taught by the labor problem of England. It is idle to find fault with trades-unions. , When men came to be- employed together in numbers so vast, it was 190 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. natural that they should combine to promote their mutual interests. It is better to recognize these organizations, and to make use of the facilities they afford for negotiation and agreement between employers and their work-people. Even in the most prosperous times, there are multitudes who have to fight a hard battle in the daily struggle for life. Side by side with the colossal fortunes accumulated in suc- cessful enterprise, it is sad to see so many human beings without sufficient food or raiment. The affluent may strive to satisfy the conscientious scruples of their position by lavish doles to the poor. But this is not enough. Indis- criminate alms create more misery than they relieve, and their distribution requires an amount of careful inquiry that is not commonly bestowed. To the rich, it is easier to be lavish of their money than to devote their time to the prac- tical work of charity. The poor, however, have a claim to both ; and a full and generous recognition of that claim can alone dispel the bitterness and the envy, which an ostenta- tious display of wealth cannot fail to excite. CHAPTER VIII. THE LABOR QUESTION IN GERMANY. THE German laborer is in distress, discontented, and ready to do violence for relief. The German is over- governed. The desire for good government, and the implicit faith which the common citizen places in his rulers, render possible an abnormally large number of officials, while the over-watchful care which the latter place on all the ordinary affairs of life, and the cumbrous and complicated forms reg- ulating even the simplest official business, have created a large number of small officials for which there is no need. Germany now supports a standing army of four hundred thousand men, while her military improvements and con- structions have for years been on an immense scale. In both agricultural and manufacturing industry Germany is at a great disadvantage. The soil is generally poor. The aver- age wheat yield for ten years has been about fifteen bushels. In England it has been about thirty bushels. The German implements are clumsy, and there is a great lack of labor- saving machinery. In manufacturing, Germany is at the same disadvantage. The division of labor has proceeded there but slightly; the use of machinery is backward, old- fashioned conservatism is still powerful in industry, and the productions of the laborer are correspondingly small. Prussia is the most distressed state of Germany. Among ninety six per cent of the population there is not one person who has an income of over one hundred and fifty dollars. Six hundred dollars is a very large income. The peasants are ill-fed, hard-worked, and their hovels, many of them with only one window, some lacking even one, are hardly fit for the fowls which share them with the family. There are many huts containing only one room, with damp earth as a 191 192 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. floor, and not more than fifteen feet square, where two families dwell; where sons bring their wives; where young and old of both sexes are thrown together; where modesty can furnish no barrier to vice, and fine feelings, if any could arise, are crushed by hard surroundings. The condition of the independent laborer is worse still than that of the serfs. Those who receive their entire pay in money, get less in proportion than those who, besides a small pay, have a hut furnished them. The independent laborers work for daily wages, which in summer vary from twenty-six cents to thirty-six cents for men, and eighteen cents to twenty-five cents for women. From this scanty pay they must save enough to live through the winter, when there is seld.om an opportunity to work. It is now impos- sible for a common German laborer to support a family by working ten or twelve hours a day. All must labor — father, mother and children. Mere unskilled labor varies from twenty-five to sixty-two cents per day, with the average about forty-three cents. In Leipzig, at present, the city employs men on a new canal, who, coming from the country, work twelve to fourteen hours per day, walk back often five to ten miles, and receive thirty-seven cents. At Leipzig they pay masons five cents per hour; wool-combers, six cents per hour; spinners, best, four dollars and twenty-five cents a week, and book printers, three dollars and ninety- four cents. But for the lowest forms of labor, or mere brute force, the wages are much smaller. Those habits of docility and subordination which nature and years of iron rule have instilled into the German laborer, having followed him in his demands from his employers, have brought it about that the part of wages which is gov- erned more by custom and by the personal influence of man with man than by economic laws, has been especially large in Germany, and it has operated against the lowest forms of labor. Again, on account of the poverty of the lower classes not permitting them to remain long without employment, they are placed at the mercy of the capitalist. All these THE CAUSE OF SOCIALISM. 193 causes, combined with the fact that the backward state of German growth has not matured those finer quahties of leniency toward the weaker element in society, have caused the wages of unskilled labor to hover at the very edge of the necessities of existence. The present embarrassed condition of industry and trade adds to the laborer's hardships. Thousands are now wan- dering in vain in search of employment, from the confines of Russia to France. This last and heavy straw it is which has broken the German laborer's patience. He sees others in prosperity while he is in misery. His long-suffering is at last worn out, and he clamors for a change, for assistance against his hard surroundings, for relief from giving two or three of his best years to military service, for relief from taxation, for anything that will lighten his burdens. For relief he has gone to socialism, the worst economic principle to which he could resort, and one from which labor has never received any good. The German laborer felt that he was wronged of his proper wages, and socialism demanded state help for labor. He was told that every man has a right to the necessaries of life ; that while one single person suffers, no one has a right to luxuries. He was told that property once belonged to the community; that private possessions in land were first caused by robbery of individuals from society ; that labor being the only justification of prop- erty, land belongs to no one person, but to all; that the laborer in every generation is coming more completely into the power of the capitalist ; that the boasted policy of libe- ralism has only increased the evils ; that all else but social- ism has been fairly tried, and in socialism alone is relief. Socialism in Germany among the laboring classes is sim- ply the present and half-accidental form which the complaint against hardship and the resistance to over-government has assumed. This socialism teaches that labor is the source of all wealth and culture; and as general beneficial labor is possible only through society, to society belong the com- bined products of all labor ; that is, to all its members, with 13 194 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. the general duty of work, with equal rights, and according to the reasonable needs of each. The cause of the misery and slavery of the laborer is the monopoly of the means of labor by the capital classes. The destruction of this mon- opoly of the system of wages, of profit in every form, and of all social and political inequality is the ultimate aim of socialism. The extreme wing demands that the state shall become the owner of all land, and that private property in land shall not exist. In German socialism capital has no right and should have no profits. Wages are to be regulated by state officials, and the whole industry and trade of the country are to be under the control of the government. This doctrine carried into effect would constitute a kind of a state communism, which would be a hundred fold worse than the people's commune of France, as power in the hands of a few is always more tyran- nical than when in the hands of many. If this solution of the labor trouble in Germany should be attempted, and if the attempt should be successful, the whole industry of that coun- try is bound to fall into a wreck which will bury both rich and poor. For it is not possible to see how a board of officials can govern the infinite ramifications of industry and trade. There is no man, or number of men, existing who can fully comprehend the combined conditions of commerce in a city like London so as to guide its massive and intricate move- ments to advantage. No government has ever attempted one hundredth of that contemplated by socialism, and yet we know that all attempts at interference with industry have hitherto been disastrous. Even on such questions as free trade there have been differences of opinion among the ablest men. What, then, can a government do when it takes on its shoulders the entire control of a country's indus- try and trade? Again, it is a well-established fact that government works are carried on more expensively than private works. The former are noted for being slow, cumbrous and lacking in progress, because they are outside of the sphere of com- THE TRUE SPIRIT OF PROGRESS. 195 petition. The removal of individual enterprise will take away many a spur to progress, and mankind, not made by nature to rise with rapidity, will proceed still more slowly. The control of industry and trade by the state can be effected only by restrictions on individual activity, and this must decrease production. Progress is the progress of individuals, and that comes only from experience, the only teacher, the only improver of man's character ; and experience should be left as free and as wide as possible. And nowhere more so than in the field of labor ; this is the lesson political economy points out in the labor question in Germany. CHAPTER IX. THE LABOR QUESTION IN THE UNITED STATES. IT is believed that this question, as a problem of industrial science, is more easy to adjust in this country then it will be in England. There are several things favoring this view. The first reason is that the spirit of freedom is in Ameri- can industry, as it is in all other distinctive American insti- tutions. And liberty is as important to the right adjustment of labor, as it is to the highest manhood. The superiority of free labor has been believed by nearly all economists, as it has been taught by all sound philosophy. The labor of slaves is forever inferior, and mostly unprofitable. From the time when the Israelites had to make bricks for the Egyptians, until the Negro had to pick cotton for the southern planter, servile fear has been the only motive of slave labor. It lacks the great stimulating motive of all modern industrial power and progress. The labor of the races who have been slaves, is not one half what it would have been under the spur of liberty. Rome fell because she had not enough free laborers to maintain the dignity of labor. The great defect of Grecian civilization was that the useful arts were resigned to slaves. Whatever holds men back from the full freedom of their laboring powers is destructive of the very genius and efficiency of labor. No people are more delicate in this prin- ciple than the Americans. It is felt here that labor is dig- nifie.d by liberty, and it is honorable because it is free. The fruit of labor is in the free reward of the laborer. No English restrictive legislation can put a bar on American labor. Another advantage which the labor question has in this country, for its favorable settlement, is, that men are better paid for their work. There is a greater spirit of willingness 196 PRE-EMINENCE OF OUR LABOR SYSTEM. 1 97 to reward labor. Capital has been supreme so long in England that it is forgotten that it is the child of toil, and labor is degraded. In the United States, labor claims reward, and it gets it. Most laborers in the better class of industries are paid according to merit, and not merely on time. The best observation throughout the world shows the policy of piece-wages, rather than time-wages. The laborer who works by the piece is more apt to produce a better and quicker article than the laborer who is merely paid for his time. A German scholar in this field, affirms that the system of paying by the piece in lower Silesia increased the daily earnings of workmen by one third, one half, and even more. Another observer says that in railroad work labor is worth one third more if paid for by piece, then by time. The closer the sympathy between labor and reward, the more smoothly labor will operate, and the less danger there is of friction between labor and capital. Close on to this is a still stronger element for good in American labor. Every laborer is mostly concerned in what is of most benefit to him. American laborers are more interested in their labor than are those of England. This is shown by the well-known fact that by far the greater num- ber of industrial inventions have come from the American laborer, while the English laborer has done but little in invention. Especially in American agricultural labor is it the case that the laborer is interested in his labor. Arthur Young well says : " Give a man the secure possession of a bleak rock and he will turn it into a garden." In agricult- ural life in the United States every laborer, nearly, expects to be the owner of land. The land is mostly very cheap ; it consequently yields of itself no rent, and is tilled almost exclusively by the proprie- tors. The class of farmers, intermediate between that of proprietor and laborer, has developed itself but rarely ; it is also of no advantage, especially in the free states, to acquire and cultivate great tracts of land, except for the purpose of soon selling them again. The farmer who is interested in 198 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. his own labor, because its returns belong to himself, will be a warm defender of labor as a producer of wealth ; so that in such a person labor and capital meet in harmony. The labor question is here, with this class, already adjusted. Adam Smith, the English economist said: ''The liberal reward of labor, as it encourages the propagation, so it increases the industry of the common people. The wages of labor are the encouragement of industry, which, like every other human quality, improves in proportion to the encour- agement it receives. A plentiful subsistence increases the bodily strength of the laborer, and the comfortable hope of bettering his condition, and of ending his days, perhaps, in ease and plenty, animates him to exert that strength to the utmost. Where wages are high, accordingly, we shall always find the workmen more active, diligent, and expeditious, than where they are low ; in England, for example, than in Scotland ; in the neighborhood of great towns, than in remote country places." Diversified industries will always aid the labor question to an easy solution, as they prevent any one destined field of labor from becoming crowded. Where labor must largely confine itself to a few industries, production is too rapid for consumption, and wages are too low for a life of comfort; which condition is sure to aggravate the labor question and make its adjustment difificult. That nation or people is happiest which has the most widely diversified industries; because its members will be led inevitably to the exercise of great and varied ingenuity and enterprise, while at the same time capital, the fruit and reward of labor, will be more equally distributed among the population than in a country where but a few industries are pursued. Take, for instance, a region devoted to grazing, or to the cultivation of cotton only, and the mass of the people will be dull and subordinate, and the wealth will be in few hands. In like manner examine a district devoted mainly to the production of crude iron, coal, or cotton fabrics, and the mass of the people will be subordinate, in poor circum- POSSIBLE SOLUTION OF THE LABOR QUESTION. I99 stances, comparatively ignorant and unenterprising, and not ingenious, while the greater part of the wealth of the com- munity is concentrated in a few hands. But find a district where the people are engaged in a multitude of small industries, and wealth is more equally divided, comfort is more widely diffused, and the people are more enterprising, intelligent, ingenious and independent. To contrive a system of law, therefore, whose tendency and effect would be to draw large numbers from the smaller 'industries which they would naturally pursue, and concen- trate their labors upon a single pursuit, would be to degrade the character of such a population by making it less ingen- ious, enterprising and independent than before ; and this the more if this single industry should be of a kind which required, in the mass of those engaged in it, but little skill or thought, and at the same time required that much capital should be devoted to it. For, in that case, not only would the character of the people deteriorate, but wealth would more and more be drawn away from the smaller industries and concentrated in the larger, and the mass of the people would become in time less prosperous and comfortable. American labor has been so organized that all these facts are favorably inclined to a prosperous condition of our industries. In this respect, the United States will not have to overcome some of the great evils of the English system before the more vital interests of labor can be considered. The industrial interests of the United States form the basis of the wealth, and consequently prosperity of the country. The laborer is the most important, if not the most conspic- uous, character in our national life. His condition, welfare, elevation, ought to be of interest to all ; and the highest question of the hour for the statesman, reformer and econo- mist, is how to promote labor and keep it free and clear from all disastrous revolution. Shall this republic, the beacon light of humanity, the last hope of the toiling millions of the Old World during many years of tyranny and oppression, became the prey of 20O THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. pirates, cliques and rings, and never recover? This new Atlantis, surrounded and protected by the vastness of the ocean — this wonderful country, with all its inexhaustible resources, its majestic mountains and rivers, it railroads and telegraphs, its great political institutions, its free press of more than four thousand batteries, spreading out the light of intelligence and information among more than fifty millions of inhabitants ; with its free schools and religious freedom, the universality, the intelligence, skill and energy of its citizens — shall it remain what it has been, or shall it become degenerate and corrupt ? Shall it resist the storms of time and the corroding influences of egotism, extrava- gance and corruption, or will this present unfortunate condi- tion of affairs become permanent, and the close of another century look down upon the ruins of a once mighty and prosperous nation ? We believe that through the strong common sense and patriotism of its people it will stand firm, resist and conquer. Republics must have their time of development, as monarchies have had theirs; they must pass through a series of trials and experiments to find the system which harmonizes best with their particular conditions, aims and ends, and when moved from the same they must, from time to time, by the process of reform or revolution, return to the basis upon which they were founded, employing the great lever of popular sovereignty to remedy the evils of the hour. There are some ponderous evils looming up in the Ameri- can labor system, which in the near future may result in great distress to trade, unless some wise, economic principle will take such vigorous hold of them as to steer clear of industrial panic. Let us have the courage to look them straight in the face. CHAPTER X. STRIKES. THIS is the most dangerous element in the labor question of the United States. It is simply the demand labor makes upon capital for higher remuneration, accompanied with the threat that if it is not granted the work will stop. Of course, every workman has a right to make his own terms with his employer; and it can make no difference — so far as right goes — whether he acts singly, or whether he joins a number, great or small, of his fellow-laborers in arranging or rearranging these terms. All laws having for their object the prevention of such combinations and strikes are, there- fore, unjust and oppressive. Every man has an inalienable right to seek to better his condition, and the means he uses for that end lie within his discretion, saving only, of course, that he must keep the peace. As a workman has no defense against an oppressive employer, except the threat to leave him, it is injustice to deprive him of that. His strike may bring loss and inconvenience upon not only his employer, but upon the whole community; that does not lessen his right to strike, or to combine with others to strike. It may bring suffering upon his family ; still his right remains. He only exercises the liberty of deciding for whom, and on what terms he will work ; and this is a supreme right of which he cannot be deprived. But the rights he has and uses, he must allow to others; and the striker has no right to coerce any other workingman to join him. When he does that, he becomes a criminal of a very grave kind, for his wrong affects the rights of all working-men. If it were granted that a striker might rightfully force another workman to join him, he would thereby give up his own rights and liberties; for if he may abridge the freedom of 201 202 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. another, somebody else, by the same right, may lessen his. The striker, therefore, commits the grossest and most absurd tyranny when he interferes to force other persons to quit work. In our country, strikes usually take place upon a great scale. The organization of the trades-unions has brought hired laborers into close connection, and enabled them to act in large masses for various purposes. Hence we have seen, in this country, strikes in which thousands of men were united ; and in England, where the trades-unions are more powerful and compact organizations than here, it has happened that a general strike of the laborers in one industry, was supported by those engaged in others, out of a general fund of their societies. In all this, the workmen were exer- cising only the inalienable right of determining for whom and on what terms they would labor; and so long as they did not attempt to force unwilling laborers to join them, and did not otherwise break the peace, interference with them would have been the grossest injustice. Nothing can do more lasting harm to labor than strikes. They contribute to an ill feeling between laborer and employer, which ought not to exist. An industry giving employment to ten thousand men is embarrassed by a strike. While the workmen are on the strike, they are con- suming their savings, and are thus made the poorer; and as idleness is a habit creative of evil, they are tempted into some bad habits. If they ever succeed, the increased rate of wages which they have compelled, will not, probably, for a long time to come, restore to them their former savings and comforts. Meantime, however, it is probable that other per- sons have been drawn into their industry, and thus, by their own act, the number of persons seeking their bread by this industry has been increased, and in the nature of things, the demand for wages is greater, proportioned to the capital available for wages, than before ; and either wages will pres- ently fall again, or some part of the laborers will be thrown out of employment. They are the boomerangs of industry. The evil spirit of monopoly is at the bottom of the strikes TWO SPECIAL CASES. 203 in the United States. While the author is at work on this article, there is in progress a strike among the telegraph operators of the country. There appears to be an operators' union, with branches in all the large cities. At precisely twelve o'clock on a certain day, the strike begun, and upon a given signal, men and women rose from the keys and left the rooms ; in some instances, messages were just being sent, in others, just being received ; in both cases the instruments were deserted. In many central of^ces, hundreds of hands, all supposed to be members of the union, deserted the work and repaired to their halls to hold meetings. The public business and comfort are greatly disturbed. The operators are resolute, and the companies are determined. Calls have been sent to Europe for men to operate the wires, and per- sons in this country, who do not belong to the union, are eagerly sought for the same purpose. In this instance the companies are pursuing a policy they are not willing to accord to their laborers. They have resolved to employ no person connected with the union of operatives ; but at the same time the trouble has been brought about by the action of these same companies com- bining to form certain rates of wages, and all the companies connected with the agreement are bound to these low rates. The operatives have the same right to combine in a union to refuse, as a body, these same low wages. The simple his- tory of this strike is, that capital is resolved, at the instiga- tion of the evil spirit of monopoly, to injure labor; where- upon labor using the only tool of which it is possessed, flung the insult back by momentarily crippling the power of capi- tal. A close examination of the strikes will likely show that the oppression of capital, through the tyranny of hard employers, has been the cause. In the labor war of eight years ago, when Pittsburgh was in the hands of a mob, it was an attempt to raise the cry of industrial protest against the downward tendency of wages. The railroad companies were the agrieving parties in this instance. The railroad companies have sometimes acted as 204 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. powerful and uncontrolled interests are apt to act ; in small states such as New Jersey, their political power has been overweening, and has been freely exerted ; and they have even come to be regarded by alarmists as one of the great political dangers of the future. Matters were, of course, not mended by the occasional appearance of such pirate kings as Fisk. The companies combined to reduce wages. And combi- nation on one side both suggests and justifies combination on the other. An unbalanced power of combination on the side of the masters would in fact be injurious not only to the interests of the men, but to those of the community at large, as any one who takes the pains to work out the economical problem will admit. The men had a right, by united action, to resist the new rate of payment which the companies were endeavoring, by united action, to enforce. But they went beyond the bounds of right — they placed themselves in opposition to economical law and to the interests of the community — when they proceeded to prevent other work- men from taking the employment which they had them- selves declined ; still more when they proceeded to stop the trains, to take forcible possession of the stations and other property of the companies, and to ofTer armed resistance to the representatives of the law. The destruction of life was heavy in this strike, while the destruction of property reached twenty-five million dollars. And the first cause of this double crime must be laid at the charge of the railroad companies, who distressed the laborers by too great reduction of wages. The other forces of the strike were light. In the United States the industrial conflict is not so much aggravated as it is in some other countries by social antagonism between the classes. The distinction between wealth and poverty of course cannot fail to exist, and to be sometimes a source of bitterness ; but the ascent of the employed into the employing class is so frequent, and so many of those who are at the top began with their feet on ABSENCE OF COMMUNISTIC ELEMENTS. 205 the lowest round of the industrial ladder, that a very sharp line of social division is hardly possible. For the communistic elements of the riot, not American institutions, but the maladies of European society and the shortcomings of European governments, are responsible. Cummunism is not a native product of the United States, nor, when brought hither from the Old World, has it ever taken deep root. The attempt of the international commune society to extend its operations to America proved a total failure. Considering the entire absence of repression there can be no more conclusive proof of the general sound- ness of American society. These ever-reappearing strikes give evidence of a disturb- ance between labor and capital. Their history also teaches that the citizens of the United States regard them as unwise methods for the redress of wrong, and that they can only aggravate the trouble instead of soothing it. The feel- ing of the people is strong against all violation. A shoe- makers* union in Massachusetts was baffled some time ago, in an attempt to extort exorbitant wages, by the spirit of the people, who supported the employers in breaking down the monopoly of the strikers by the introduction of Chinese. A printers' strike at Boston, which threatened to suspend the publication of the newspapers, was in the same way defeated by assistance lent in all quarters to the pubHshers, even a judge, it was said, bearing a hand in setting type. When wages are permanently too low in any well-estab- lished industry, that means that too many persons are seek- ing to share in the gross returns of that industry. The remedy lies in either increasing the demand for the goods, which means widening the market for them, which can be done only by an extension of commerce, when more capital could be profitably invested in the industry, or in decreas- ing the number of persons desiring employment in it. Now a strike certainly does not widen the market for goods ; it does not extend commerce, which is the only way to perma- nently increase demand ; and, by alarming capital, is far 2o6 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. more likely to decrease than to increase the proportion used in the given industry ; and by stopping work it checks the accumulation of that which is already invested. But it does not decrease the amount of labor offering — for the strikers simply stand idle, and mean to reenter the same industry as soon as the contest between them and their employers is decided: as soon, that is to say, as one side or the other has suffered all the loss it can bear. CHAPTER XI. THE MORAL FEATURE OF THE LABOR QUESTION. POLITICAL economy gives recognition to the fact that the condition of the mind and heart of a people has an effect upon the industry of that people. The labor problem in the United States cannot be solved without considering the moral elevation of the laborer. Here industrial science and moral philosophy meet to measure a common ground. The organization of laborers into combinations and unions will not likely effect much for the elevation of labor, as long as they have in view provision for merely temporary relief. These generally act on the principle that to right themselves they must wrong others. It is the selfish feeling that there are too many laborers to do the work of the world. But there are no surplus men in the world ; when any one appears to be so, he is only in the wrong place. Enable him to go elsewhere, and teach him that he shall, if need be, do something else, and he is no longer surplus, but highly neces- sary to civilization. More than one half of our planet still lies waste and useless, and suffers for lack of strong arms and stout hearts to redeem it. Here is one of the most dangerous blunders of labor- unions. They teach, if not directly, yet by the spirit of their doctrines, that men have a vested right in their employments : that a mason has a right to remain a mason, and that society owes him a living by that trade. No man has the least right to subsistence as merely a mason, a shoemaker, a lawyer, a clergyman, a tailor, a bricklayer, or a miner. If his labor as a mason is surplus, if no more masons are wanted when he comes along with his trowel, it is his duty, not to conspire against society with absurd regulations about apprentices 207 2o8 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. and hours of labor, but to go at sovictJiing else. A man who regards himself as only a shoemaker, a mason, a tailor, a lawyer, a physician, or a clerk, becomes thereby a contempt- ible object. He loses his independence, and makes himself the sport of circumstances. In our days, when new inven- tions continually change the methods of labor, it is especially hazardous for men to bind themselves for life to a single employment ; and those only can hope to benefit both them- selves and their fellow-laborers who, when they find their occupation overcrowded, have courage and independence enough to seek a new calling, and if possible a new field of labor. What the laborer needs is mental and moral elevation. Education has, in all civilized countries, given to the great class of laborers for wages the taste and desire for a greater amount of comfort than contented them in other days. Labor unions should use their means to seek out new fields of labor; to teach their members energetically that though to-day they may be shoemakers, they can, if need be, achieve success as shepherds, gold miners, farmers ; that dependence is hateful ; that independence is possible to all who have health and will. The laborer is not a mere laborer, nor was he made c!iiefly to minister to the wants of an industry. Every man ought to seek his own elevation. A mind, in which are sown the seeds of wisdom, disinterestedness, firmness of purpose, and piety, is worth more than all the outward material interests of a world. The common notion has been, that the mass of the people need no other culture than is necessary to fit them for their various trades ; and, though this error is pass- ing away, it is far from being exploded. But the ground of a man's culture lies in his nature, not in his calling. His powers are to be unfolded on account of their inherent dignity, not their outward direction. He is to be educated, because he is a man, not because he is to make shoes, nails or pins. A trade is plainly not the great end of his being, for his mind cannot be shut up in it ; his force of thought VALUE OF SELF-HELPS. 20g cannot be exhausted on it. He has faculties to which it gives no action, and deep wants it cannot answer. How often, when the arms are mechanically plying a trade, does the mind, lost in reverie or day-dreams, escape to the ends of the earth ! Undoubtedly a man is to perfect himself in his trade, for by it he is to earn his bread and to serve the community. But bread or subsistence is not his highest good ; for, if it were, his lot would be ha'rder than that of the inferior animals, for whom nature spreads a table and weaves a wardrobe, without a care of their own. There are some moral reflections by which a laborer may by self-helps elevate his condition by elevating himself. A first consideration is the ambition, cherished at all times, that a cabin home is better than a mansion tenement. Many a man has been helped to elevation above his daily thoughts of toil by living in a rude hut, built with his own hands, shaded and fragrant with the vine and blossom of the morning-glory, planted by his wife. The science of beauty will help the science of economics. A clean, comfortable dwelling, with wholesome meals, is no small aid to intellectual and moral progress. A man living in a damp cellar, or a garret open to rain and snow, breathing the foul air of a filthy room, and striving, without success, to appease hunger on scanty or unsavory food, is in danger of abandoning him- self to a desperate, selfish recklessness. Labor is a means of justice. For instance, in almost all labor a man exchanges his strength for an equivalent in the form of wages, purchase money, or some other product. In other words, labor is a system of contracts, bargains, impos- ing mutual obligations. Now the man who, in working, no matter in what way, strives perpetually to fulfill his obliga- tions thoroughly, to do his whole work faithfully, to 'be honest, not because honesty is the best poHcy, but for the sake of justice, and that he may render to every man his due ; such a laborer is continually building up in himself one of the greatest principles of morality and religion. Every blow on the anvil, on the earth, or whatever material he 14 2IO THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. works upon, contributes something to the perfection of his nature. Nor is this all. Labor is a school of benevolence as well as justice. A man, to support himself, must serve others. He must do or produce something for their comfort or gratification. This is one of the beautiful ordinations of Providence, that, to get a living, a man must be useful. Now this usefulness ought to be an end in his labor as truly as to earn his living. He ought to think of the benefit of those he works for, as well as of his own ; and in so doing, in desiring amidst his sweat and toil to serve others as well as himself, he is exercising and growing in benevolence as truly as if he were distributing bounty with a large hand to the poor. Such a motive hallows and dignifies the com- monest pursuit. It is strange that laboring men do not think more of the vast usefulness of their toils, and take a benevolent pleasure in them on this account. The world can never do without the dignity and honor of human labor. Such a world would make a contemptible race. Man owes his growth, his energy, chiefly to that striving of the will, that conflict with difficulty, which we call effort. Easy, pleasant work does not make robust minds, does not give men a consciousness of their powers, does not train them to endurance, to perseverance, to steady force of will, that force without which all other acquisitions avail nothing. Manual labor is a school in which men are placed to get energy of purpose and character — a vastly more important endowment than all the learning of all other schools. They are placed, indeed, under hard masters, phys- ical sufferings and wants, the power of fearful elements, and the vicissitudes of all human things; but these stern teachers do a work which no compassionate, indulgent friend could do for us, and true wisdom will bless Providence for their sharp ministry. The laboring class are depressed by obstacles which prevent any great elevation until they are removed, and as a rule, they are to be removed by the laborers themselves. INTEMPERANCE AND PAUPERISM. 211 How much of this depression is to be traced to intemperance? What a great amount of time and strength and money might multitudes gain for self-improvement by a strict sobriety! That cheap remedy, pure water, would cure the chief evils in very many families of the ignorant and poor. Were the sums which are still lavished on ardent spirits appropriated wisely to the elevation of the people, what a new world we should live in ! Intemperance not only wastes the earnings, but the health and the minds of men. How many, were they to exchange what they call moderate drink- ing for water, would be surprised to learn that they had been living under a cloud in half stupefaction, and would become conscious of an intellectual energy of which they had not before dreamed ? Their labors would exhaust them less, and less labor would be needed for their support ; and thus their inability to cultivate their high nature would in a great measure be removed. The working class, above all men, have an interest in the cause of temperance, and they ought to look on the individual who lives by scattering the means and excitements of drunkenness not only as the general enemy of his race, but as their own worst foe. In the next place, how much of the depression of laborers may be traced to the want of a strict economy ! The pros- perity of this country has produced a wastefulness that has extended to the laboring multitude. A man here turns with scorn from fare that in many countries would be termed luxurious. It is, indeed, important that the standard of living in all classes should be high : that is, it should include the comforts of life, the means of neatness and order in our dwellings, and such supplies of our wants as are fitted to secure vigorous health. But how many waste their earnings on indulgences which may be spared, and thus have no resource for a dark day, and are always trembling on the brink of pauperism ! Needless expenses keep many too poor for self-improvement. And here let me say, that expensive habits among the more prosperous laborers often interfere with the mental culture of themselves and their 212 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. families. How many among them sacrifice improvement to appetite ! How many sacrifice it to the love of show, to the desire of outstripping others, and to habits of expense which grow out of this insatiable passion ! In a country so thriv- ing and luxurious as ours, the laborer is in danger of con- tracting artificial wants and diseased tastes ; and to gratify these, he gives himself wholly to accumulation, and sells his mind for gain. Our unparalleled prosperity has not been an unmixed good. It has inflamed cupidity, has diseased the imagination with dreams of boundless success, and plunged a vast multitude into excessive toils, feverish competitions, and exhausting cares. A laborer, having secured a neat home and a wholesome table, should ask nothing more for the senses, but should consecrate his leisure, and what may be spared of his earnings, to the culture of himself and his family, to the best books, to the best teaching, to pleas- ant and profitable intercourse, to sympathy and the offices of humanity, and to the enjoyment of the beautiful in nature and art. Unhappily, the laborer, if prosperous, is anxious to ape the rich man, instead of trying to rise above him, as he often may, by noble acquisitions. The young, in particu- lar the apprentice and the female domestic, catch a taste for fashion, and on this altar sacrifice too often their upright- ness, and almost always the spirit of improvement, dooming themselves to ignorance, if not to vice, for a vain show. Cannot the laborer, whose condition calls him so loudly to simplicity of taste and habits, take his stand against that love of dress which dissipates and corrupts so many minds among the opulent? Cannot the laboring class refuse to measure men by outward success, and pour utter scorn on all pretensions founded on outward show or condition ? Another cause for the depression often found among laborers is that of ignorance and carelessness of health. Health is the working man's fortune, and he ought to watch over it more than the capitalist over his largest investments. Health lightens the efforts of body and mind. It enables a NEED OF INTELLIGENT AND MORAL EDUCATION. 213 man to crowd much work into a narrow compass. Without it, Httle can be earned, and that httle by slow, exhausting toil. To throw off this depression, there is nothing a laborer needs so much as recognition as a man, and a chance for his family. With ambition, and the feeling of a common man- hood, the laborer w^ho has this recognition ought to set about to elevate himself. And he ought to remember that his own elevation will give him an increased respect from the employer; give him more independence, and better qualify him for a change of labor in a possible hour of distress. Among the laborers of the United States there ought to be a more general move for intellectual and moral education. The diminution of a country's wealth, occasioned by general attention to intellectual and moral culture, would be followed by very different effects from those which would attend an equal diminution brought about by sloth, intemperance, and ignorance. There would indeed be less production in such a country, but the character and spirit of the people would effect a much more equal distribution of what would be pro- duced ; and the happiness of a community depends vastly more on the distribution than on the amount of its wealth. It is a teaching of political economy as well as of moral philosophy that the law of mutual interest is as unfailing and fixed as the law of gravitation. Whatever incident in the trade of a' country effects either labor or capital is bound to effect the other. Whatever brings loss in capital will bring distress in labor. If anything, as a general disease among workmen, brings suffering upon laborers, the employ- ers will sustain a loss. There is a law of organic sympathy here that makes the interest of one party the interest of the other. Whatever one may do to injure the other, will react upon the first party. While laborers are clamoring for a constant increase of wages in this country, they should not forget that high wages ^means high products. Just as they are paid high wages for their work, they will have to pay high in return for the work of other laborers, whose products they may need. If it cost twice as much money to produce 214 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. a barrel of flour to-day as it did yesterday, it will double in price. Every article of produce, every garment that we buy for ourselves or our children, will have added to its price exactly what has been added to the cost of its production or manufacture ; and when this excess has been added to the excess of rent, the laborer will find himself at the end of his first year no whit benefited by what seemed to hold the promise of a fortune. These conclusions are unavoidable to any one who will observe closely. Now there is beyond this direct result of a doubling of the price of labor an indirect effect upon the price of real estate, which greatly enhances the trouble of the laborer. The destruction of various branches of industry, and the rendering of other branches either pecarious or insufficient in their profits, would inevitably concentrate capital, so far as possible, upon real estate. Idle, or poorly-employed, capital is always seeking for an investment ; and if banking and manufacturing and trade become unprofitable, through a disturbance of just relations between labor and capital, the man who has money puts it into real estate. Under this stimulus real estate rises at once. If the price of labor were doubled, the advance in rents from this cause alone would not only be appreciable but decidedly onerous. The inevit- able tendency of every strike is to drive capital out of manu- facturing into real estate, to raise the price of real estate, and to raise the laborer's rent. This is always the sure tendency of the measure of laborers to secure by forced means a high price for their labor. There is, when trade is well balanced, a fair price for a day's labor which capital can afford to pay, and this is the highest price which labor can afford to receive. Beyond this all is injustice, and both sides will suffer loss by venturing. The high wages which labor may by extreme threats force capital to pay it, will prove a curse to the hand that receives it. It is suicidal for labor to conduct a crusade against cap- ital. A man has a right to get rich. There is not a laborer in the country who is not personally interested in the THE PROVISION OF NATURE. 21 5 universal recognition of this right. The desire for wealth is a legitimate spur to endeavor, a good motive to the exercise of wholesome economy, and a worthy incentive to honest and honorable work. It is not the highest motive of life, but there is nothing wrong or unworthy in it so long as it is held in subordination to personal integrity and neighborly good will. There always will be rich men, and there always ought to be rich men. There must be accumulations and combinations of capital, else there v/ill be no fields of labor and enterprise into which, for the winning of hvehhood and wealth, the new generations may enter. We may go farther and say that there always will be, and always ought to be, laborers. Men are born into the world who are better adapted to labor with the hands than with the head ; better adapted to production than trade ; better adapted to execu- tion than management, and, being the order of nature, it is wise. The world could not move were the facts different. By the capital and the business capacity of one man, whole neighborhoods and towns made up of laborers thrive and rear their families ; and the relations between the head and the hands of such towns and neighborhoods seem, and doubtless are, perfectly natural and perfectly healthful. Capital has something to complain of as well as labor in the matter of service and wages. It is as difficult to get a days work done by skillful and conscientious hands as it is to get a fair reward for such work ; and so long as this is true, it becomes labor to be somewhat modest and careful in its demands. CHAPTER XII. PAID AND CO-OPERATIVE LABOR. BY presenting two pen pictures we can see two sides of the American labor question. It is a problem yet unsolved whether cooperative labor will work in the United States. It is equally an unsolved problem in political economy how the low paid labor can be better rewarded. Until industrial science has given a solution to each of these questions, facts may be stated just as they are, and be allowed to teach their own lessons. Here is a pen picture of low paid labor: A certain valley is one of the seats of the cotton manufacturing industry of this country. Two streams afford ample water power for many factories. Near to one another on both streams are the villages, each having one or more cotton mills, or other manufacturing establishments. There are a score of fac- tories, and the whole population is over ten thousand. The people are French, Irish, German, Welsh, English and Americans. These elements prevent social manners and customs, as also any united action for the purpose of pro- ducing a strike. The wages are considered good at one dollar a day. Spinners get about this much. Weavers get still less. For a piece of cloth over fifty yards in length they receive twenty-three cents, and about two days are required to weave such a piece on one loom. The number of looms run by individuals is four, five or six. In mills where print cloths are woven more looms are run, but there the rate per cut is much less, and the weekly earnings amount to about the same. In these mills none of the workers who are paid by the day, except the overseers and their assistants, receive more than five dollars per week. The labor time is eleven hours a day. 216 NO MONEY RECOMPENSE. 21/ House rent is cheap ; a good commodious tenement can be hired at the rate of fifty dollars a year and less. In nearly all the villages the owners of the mills have tenement houses for their operatives, which they let to them at a low rate. Some of the operatives have houses of their own, but they are very few compared to the population. In many of the villages the owners of the factory keep a store where the force of circumstances almost compel the workmen to trade. The amount of their bill is deducted from the wages of a family, and the surplus, if any, is paid over to the head of the household. Board is also deducted in the same way, and the amount goes to pay the bill the keeper of the boarding-house has contracted. This practice is followed even in instances where young men and women board with their parents. Many poor people see no money form one year to another, and others obtain a little some- times if any member of the family should happen to be employed elsewhere. One man had not received any money for at least seven years, as all he had earned had not been sufficient to pay his bills, and he was deeply in debt. This is an exceptional case, but there are many nearly as bad, and the majority have all had a slight touch of the same experience. When once in debt it is very difficult to get out. The prices of supplies are higher than they would be in private stores. The system of accounts between the operatives and the store is confusing to the former, many of whom, through their ignorance, are obliged to accept as true the results presented. In good times the work-people were allowed to run large bills, but now those who show a disposi- tion to exceed their income are put upon an allowance. There are common schools in the villages, but compara- tively little attention is paid to education. The French especially are extremely careless in this matter, and, as there are no compulsory measures used, many of the children are put to work very young, and have no chance to go to school. One cause of this is the small wages the operatives 21 8 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE receive, in niany cases the united earnings of all the family being barely sufificient to provide for their wants. In this instance, at least, capital is evidently oppressing labor. The employers are making some nioney, or they would close down. If their profits are ever so small, they should still do something for their laborers beyond what they are. They are wronging them in three ways. They are distressing them into positive want ; they are overwork- ing them ; they are neglecting their social, mental and moral training. The future of this industrial community is perspectively dark. Moral degradation and dense ignorance will assuredly be their lot, unless methods are pursued in regard to them in the future different from those in' the past. The employers have not manifested, nor do they now, any visible practical interest in their welfare. At the utmost they leave them severely alone. No means are provided for their education except the common school, which they do not use; no libraries, no reading-rooms, and very few social advantages. To work, to eat, to sleep, is the unvarying daily round. Here is a pen picture of a cooperative cummunity in the United States. It is a transfer from the same industrial section as the former. An industrial association has nearly sixty members, men and women, who are at the same time laborers and owners. A candidate for admission into the community must be sound in body, blameless in character, an abstainer from smoking and drinking, and must pay three hundred dollars into the general fund. For three months he is on trial ; at the expiration he may be voted out. In this way the association is not likely to be saddled with bad characters. The affairs of the community are managed by five directors, chosen by ballot, who appoint a president, secretary, superintendent, and select those who are to act as foremen of the shops. A member on probation receives wages slightly in excess of the cost of living, but as soon as he is elected into the society he is paid according to his abilit)', the rate varying from seven and a half to sixteen PEN PICTURE OF A CO-OPERATIVE ENTERPRISE. 219 and a half dollars a week, the last named being exceeded in special cases. Wages are paid once a quarter, not in full, however; four and a half dollars a week being deducted for board and lodging, and one fourth of the worker's earnings being retained for investment in the association's capital fund. Thus, a man earning fifteen dollars a week will at the end of three months receive eighty-eight dollars in cash, and have forty-eight dollars added to his capital ; so that every member is compelled to save money and increase his monetary interest in the business. He cannot draw any money out of the fund, even the interest due to him being added to his capital, until it pleases him to withdraw from the community, when he — or, in case of his death, his rep- resentative — receives the whole of the money standing to his credit in the association books. What with the quarterly additions and the high compound interest, a member who holds his connection with the association for ten years will find his original investment swelled to a very respectable sum. Boys and women are put on the same footing as men, save that the former need only bring in one hundred instead of three hundred dollars to the common fund ; while the latter are let off yet easier with a contribution of twenty- five dollars, which they are allowed to pay by installments out of their earnings, and are only charged three dollars a week for their board and lodging. Business meetings are held at regular intervals to consider the directors' reports and statements of accounts, and to fix the rate at which each worker is to be paid for the ensuing period ; it being the strict rule of the association that the interest upon the invested capital — which is fixed at eight per cent — must be first secured; and if the dullness of trade threatens a falling off in the receipts, the difificulty is met by reducing the wages until things recover themselves. Every member is expected to be in his or her place when the machinery is started at seven in the morning ; any one making an imperfect day being mulcted ten per cent on the day's earnings. At twelve all adjourn to the home, where a 220 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. good dinner is provided, and return to the shops at one and work until six. This industrial community is engaged in manufacturing toys, flags and emblems. In one month they shipped about four thousand seven hundred dollars* worth ; increased their capital by fifteen hundred dollars, and their joint wages amounted to one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three dollars. When the day's work is over they hurry to the boarding- house to change their working clothes for smarter attire ere they set down together to an early supper; and, supper dis- cussed, set about amusing themselves according to their several fancies. Some go for a walk, some for a row in a boat, some try their skill at foot-ball and other outdoor games, while the stay-at-homes settle down to their letters or their books, or gather round the piano for a little music. As the evening closes in, the family gather together to indulge in candy-pulling. Then the dining-room is cleared for a game at forfeits, the penalties attached to the redemp- tion sometimes affording amusement. At ten all retire for the night, and conscious of a well-spent day. The majority of the male recruits are steady workmen, tired of enforced idleness, and the consequent melting away of their savings. Most of the women have been lured from the harassing, underpaid work of teaching by the prospect of being able to lay by something for the future while earning a present livelihood. It is a trade-union that recognizes the claims of capital ; insists upon every worker working his best, and being paid according to his ability; discountenances the idler, the shuffler and the thriftless, and inculcates self-denial. So far the association has prospered. It has fulfilled its promise of providing constant and remunerative employment and a comfortable home for all belonging to it. The contrast between these two pictures of real indus- trial life in the United States is heightened by that of the South Manchester, Connecticut, silk industry, which is not a A MODEL ENTERPRISE. 221 cooperative enterprise. Here the eight Cheney brothers operate the largest silk mill in the United States. They manufacture such a durable quality of silk that their labels and patterns are counterfeited in Europe. In the manage- ment of this industrial village the Cheney brothers have given a practical solution of the pleasant and equitable relation between capital and labor. They have established, and been able to manage with surprising success, an ideal manufacturing village. The rep- utation they have gained among philanthropists and econo- mists is hardly second to the reputation of their silks. They started their mills, and have conducted them for business purposes, not merely for social experiments. But they began and have continued in the right way. They have treated their employes not as slaves, but as men and women. Instead of living in the city, away from their mills, as most stockholders do, and thus having no personal interest in the welfare of the village, they have built their own houses upon beautiful sites near their mills. They have built a large number of cottages in the place, which they let to married employes at a low rent. They have established boarding- houses for the unmarried, and school-houses for the children. A large hall, erected and furnished at a cost of nearly sixty thousand dollars, which is supplied with a good organ, scenery, and dramatic appliances, is one of the best monu- ments of their generosity. A free library and reading-room, furnishes their employes with the latest newspapers and mag- azines and the best current literature. Unsectarian religious services and a Sunday-school are provided every Sunday in the hall, the Cheneys paying the expenses of preaching. An excellent orchestra, numbering eight or ten pieces, organized from among the employes, and, accompanied on the piano by the accomplished daughter of one of the employers, renders some of the most difficult classical music. The cottages are each supplied with water, gas, and a pleasant garden plot. The mills are well lighted and venti- lated. The -grounds are laid out with great taste ; there is 222 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. no fence in the whole place. In fact, everything is done to make it pleasant and convenient for the employes. The happy results which follow the efforts of these two last-mentioned managements may open a new way to adjust the queston of the elevation of laborers and the relation between labor and capital. CHAPTER XIII. CAPITAL. IT was noticed in giving the divisions of political economy that there were two forces in production, labor and capi- tal. Whatever labor may do, it is a crippled force in produc- tion without the aid of capital. The two together form an economic firm for the production of wealth. Capital is money employed in production. This is the only clear definition for capital recognized by political economy. Capital is not synonymous with wealth. All capital is wealth ; but all wealth is not capital. Suppose a farmer's crop this year gives him a hundred bushels of wheat to spare. He may lay it up in his granary for his own future use; or he may sell it for gold and bury the gold for safe keeping; or he may spend the gold for a fine picture with which to adorn his parlor. In either case it is a part of his wealth ; but since, in either case, it will do nothing to increase his next year's crop or income, it is not capital. If, however, he exchanges his surplus wheat for a horse, or spends the avails of it on labor to clear and drain his fields, or buys with it a share of stock in a flouring-mill, he turns this part of his wealth into capital. His wheat is gone ; or the money is gone; but in the horse, or the improved land, or the share in the mill, it is to work out for him more wealth next year. Capital is not synonymous with money. Money buried in the ground produces nothing. A man intending to start a woolen-mill, may need first to turn some of his property into money, with which to pay for buildings and machinery. His fifty thousand dollars deposited in the bank for this pur- pose, is his prospective capital; but it will not become for him actual capital, till it is paid out for a building, a water- wheel, spinning-jenneys, and power-looms. When his estab- 223 224 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. lishment is complete, his money will be all gone ; but now he has his capital all ready for service. Money in circulation is an instrument of exchange, and so performs an important function for all productive industry; but it is just a wheel- barrow to pass things from one to another. The confusion of ideas comes from the fact that capital, and indeed all wealth, is estimated in terms of money; but in reality, only a small portion of an individual's or a nation's capital is in the form of money. Money is capital when it is invested in any enterprise or industry for the purpose of aiding labor, or with the motive of producing more wealth. A man may have one thousand dollars in the bank on deposit. This is not capital, as it brings him no return ; leaving it there a hundred years, he in the end only receives a thousand dollars. If he takes that thousand dollars and purchases a piece of land in the west ; or with it builds a house in some growing town, to rent, in either case, it is capital, as it is invested for the purpose of making more money. If it be used in purchasing timber for manufacturing purposes, it is capital, as it is engaged with labor for the object of making money. In short, capital is money when in use. Whether money be in material, or in tools and machinery, still it is capital, as it is an invested force, intended to produce a larger return than when put in the material or the machinery. Capital is the result of former labor or skill ; it is itself a product of labor. Every dollar represents just so much labor, by some one at some time. Capital, as all wealth, is a convenient representative of labor, held in the form as a sur- plus left over from present consumption. If labor be sus- pended upon any material before it reaches its proposed final form, as when trees are cut into logs or logs are sawn into lumber, or hides are tanned into leather, these half- completed products have value as goods, but they require additional labor to bring them into the final forms of houses or furniture, or boots and shoes, in which they can meet the wants of man. If the first labor is done by one workman, THE FORMS OF CAPITAL.. 225 and the incomplete product be sold to a second, it evidently comes to the latter with the labor of the former stored up in it. This is the first form of capital. The second workman buys it because of the work in it, and because it will save him the work of going to the woods for his materials. It is to him prepared material. If in place of preparing material the first workman had made a tool or machine, it would have come to the second not only as stored-up labor, but also as stored-up force and skill. Instead of capital passing from the material into money, it passed into the form of skill, or rather an increase of capital under the skill of intellectual force in making the machine. Capital is a representative of the reserved fruits of former labor, turned into the labor of new production. In this aspect of the matter, capital is simply past labor embodied, and reserved for present labor to work with. Hence we see that labor and capital are not so diverse as many suppose. In nature they are akin, and indispensable to each other in the processes of production ; always com- bined for a common end. They are set in antagonism to each .other only through a popular sentiment, or an organi- zation of society radically false and wrong. The forms of capital are as various as the employments of men. The farmer possesses seed, tools and animals ; the manufacturer possesses cotton, wool, flax, and all kinds of raw material ; the merchant possesses sugar, tea, coffee, and all the various articles of trade. But all these things may be without value. But in order to effect this intended creation of value, it is found that intermediate agents must^ in all these cases, be employed. A farmer could not reap with his fingers, nor a miner dig with his hands, nor a manufacturer labor without tools. All these instruments, the use of which is necessary to the creation of value, are, therefore, also termed capital. Thus, the plows, harrows, spades, carts, and working aninoals of the farmer are a part of his capital. To the same class, also, perhaps, belongs his land. 15 226 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. The axes, planes and hammers, of the mechanic, and the buildings and machinery of the manufacturer, are their capital. Under this division of capital may also be included the ship of the merchant, the wagon of the teamster, and the railroad and locomotive of the proprietor. Values depend on the destruction of values, and only by the change of capital from one value to another can it increase. There is, in the very act of change, a destruction of value. He who changes iron into steel, consumes the iron, destroys that particular value and creates another in its place. He who sows wheat, destroys the value of that wheat, for food ; and he who spins cotton, destroys the value of cotton wool as cotton wool. That is, neither of these substances can ever be used again for the purposes to which they were before adapted. If, however, the industry of the laborer has been skillfully directed, the product will have acquired an exchangeable value sufficient to replace the original material in additional quantity, and also to repay him for his labor, and pay the interest of his capital. The amount of difference between the exchangeable value of his original material, together with his labor, and the exchange- able value of his product, is his profit. The annual amount ' of these profits, is his annual gross revenue. The annual amount of these profits in a nation, is the gross national revenue. It matters not in what form capital reappears, if it only reappears in a form bearing a greater exchangeable value. The smith exchanges gold or silver for coal ; he burns up his coal and nothing is left but ashes. But it has produced an invisible substance, called caloric, by means of which he has been able to give such an increased value to iron, as will not only replace his gold and silver, but also the iron itself, and will also pay him for his labor. The farmer exchanges his gold or silver for manure, but this manure will so increase his harvest, that he will be able to replace his gold and silver, and also be abundantly repaid for his labor. The principle UNPRODUCTIVE CAPITAL. 22/ is the same in all cases of change of capital. It matters not into what we change our capital, nor how valuable the sub- stance may be that is exchanged, if we only receive in return a greater amount of exchangeable value, or that which will procure for us a greater amount of objects of desire. We see, hence, in what manner nations and individuals grow rich. It is by uniting the industry of this year to the capital of last year, and by this process creating an aug- mentation of capital. Though loosely so, when money is bringing in a return it is by some writers called productive capital ; when it is not in use it is called unproductive capital. When capital is unproductive it is losing annually its ordinary rate of inter- est ; because it must have been purchased with that which would have yielded that interest. Hence every sound economist is anxious to have the whole of his capital pro- ductively invested. He who acts otherwise is ignorant of the principles of production, is indolent, or slovenly. The farmer who allows a heap of manure to lie in his farm-yard for a year, instead of spreading it on his land ; the merchant who allows his ships to lie idle, or his goods to be scattered unsold, over several warehouses; or the manufacturer who owns twice as much machinery as he is able to employ, are annually losing all the accumulation which this capital, properly invested, would produce. And still more, as we have seen that all gains arise from small and successive accu- mulations, and as almost every product is liable to waste, it is manifest that habitual negligence of this sort must greatly diminish, if it do not entirely consume, all the net revenue of an establishment. The effort of every man should be to unite every fraction of his capital with industry, and to keep it so united continually. Any gain, even the smallest, is better than no gain at all. The process of accumulation in all branches of produc- tion is largely the same. It is also true that where capital is free — that is, where there are no restrictions upon the use of it — there can be no great permanent difference in the 228 THE SCIENCE OF * ATIONAL LIFE. rate of accumulation between the different modes in which it is employed. If the profits of one kind of business are above the average rate, other capital will flow into that chan- nel. If the profit in any b^ianch of production be below the ordinary rate, capital w!!l be withdrawn from it. If commerce be unusually lucrative, men will leave their other pursuits and devote themselves to commerce, until, by com- petition, they reduce the profits to the ordinary rate. If commerce be depressed, men will leave it, until, by the reduction of the supply of commercial facilities, the rate of profit is increased. Rates of profit cannot be rendered per- manently unequal in any other manner than by oppressive legislation. The differences in profit in the various depart- ments of industry are, therefore, more apparent than real. When profit is sure, it is, of course, less than when it is uncertain. Capital, as well as labor, is limited by restrictions which make it either impossible or impolitic to run to a high amount in any given industry. Before the laboring strength in any community is fully taken up, the way is open for the employment of fresh capital; and this capital may com- mand the needful assistance from labor. Nothing is to be apprehended from the consequent multiplication of com- modities. The desires of men are ever transcending that which is possessed ; and the greater the increase in com- modities, the more universal the ability by mutual exchange to gratify these desires. As long as products can be created, they may safely be created, if not in all, yet in the great majority of their several varieties. It is only when capital has so accumulated that it can secure to itself no more labor, that its growth necessarily ceases. If an effort be made to enforce its employment beyond this point, the new capital comes into use at the expense of the old ; there arises a hot competition between capitalists for laborers, till, by the rapid fall of profits consequent thereon the growth of capital is effectually stopped. The immediate limitation, then, which capital feels, is the number of laborers which THINGS WHICH LIMIT CAPITAL. 229 a community can furnish ; while the ultimate limitation is the number of laborers which can be sustained by the capital invested in the community. A second element determining the amount of capital, is the state of invention. In proportion as the machinery is poor, and the instruments employed feeble, will the capital invested be small. Two hundred men, each in his own house, with a hand-loom, will demand for their constant occupation but a small part of the capital necessary to sustain a cotton- factory with the best machinery, giving full occupation to the same number of hands. Each step in the arts usually involves a larger cost in machinery, and always, by the more rapid production which it secures, a larger amount of mate- rials and of products, partial and complete. If, therefore, capital, in any given state of invention, should reach the limits assigned by labor, those limits might again be enlarged by any device increasing the efficiency of labor, and thus the amount of capital it can employ. Because these are the limits of capital, it does not follow that it will necessarily go on to increase till these are reached. The extent and rapidity of its actual growth in any com- munity, will depend on the strength of the motives which lead to abstinence. These are the variety and utility of the objects inciting desire, the security with which they are sought and enjoyed, the amount of the returns which absti- nence secures, and the thoughtful practice of economy. Capital depends upon reproduction, through the change of form. This change is passing on capital in each of its forms. The instruments slowly and surely wear away by use, the materials are immediately destroyed, food is rapidly consumed, clothing more slowly, and the house more gradu- ally still, but none the less surely ; and the finished product sold is lost to the producer, to appear again in new imple- ments, new materials, new means of subsistence, and new products. Thus is the unceasing round of values destroyed for the sake of greater values produced. The difference between the value consumed and the value produced, is the 230 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. profit — the end steadily aimed at. It matters not in what form the value reappears, provided only it is greater than that destroyed. If a value is destroyed to produce another only equal to it, we lose our labor. If a value is destroyed and nothing is reproduced, we lose both labor and capital. Individuals and nations grow rich only as the value created is superior to the value of both the labor and the capital consumed. Mr. Mill says: "The greater part, in value, of the wealth now existing in England, has been produced by human hands within the last twelve months. A very small propor- tion indeed of that large aggregate was in existence ten years ago ; of the present productive capital of the country, scarcely any part except farm-houses and a few ships and machines, and even these would not, in most cases, have survived so long, if fresh labor had not been employed within that period in putting them in repair. Capital is kept in existence from age to age, like population, not by preservation, but by reproduction." Credit is an agency which, though not property, performs some of the functions of property, and enters largely into production, as it does into all the forms of business. By means of this, men who are without wealth of any kind, buy materials, employ labor, purchase machinery, and produce goods. Credit is the power to borrow other people's property. It is the confidence which one's character and circumstances inspire in other men, and which induces them to entrust the credited party with their goods or money, on their promise to repay the same, in a stipulated time, either with or without interest or compensation for use. It is a purchase with the payment deferred. Credit fills, necessarily, an immense space in the world of business. The laborer gives credit to his employer, at least till pay-day comes. Goods are bought and sold on credit ; materials are furnished, work is performed, great industrial enterprises are undertaken, and immense transfers of wealth CREDIT AS CAPITAL. 23 1 are made daily, on credit ^ — that is, on a promise of future payment, secured by the good faith of the party promising, or by other securities. Every debt that is owed implies a credit given to the debtor. All debts are also credits. All notes, drafts, bills of exchange — all bank notes and green- backs — all bonds and mortgages, all securities of govern- ments or corporations, imply so many credits. Credit is not wealth in itself. It does not count in the world's resources in the census of actual values; but it has the power to command the use of wealth, and therefore may be counted as a sort of reserved capital. Materials and labor bought on credit serve the same purpose as those bought for money. The importance of capital is told by every piece of labor. Its presence is seen in all production which goes beyond a single transformation, a single transaction. No protracted operations can be performed by a single individual without capital. To say nothing of the instruments and materials involved, all of which are capital, there is a constant increase of value as the process progresses ; and each previous value, as soon as it is realized, becomes capital in reference to the succeeding. But when several persons perform different operations in one manufacture, the presence of capital becomes still more obvious. A larger amount of material is required, since the labor of several, sometimes of very many, is to be employed. The partially completed product no sooner passes from the hands of one set of workmen to those of another, than its place must be immediately supplied ; and thus, when the entire series is in full operation, a large value may be accumulated in the several stages of manufact- ure. In proportion as the division of labor becomes more complete, the number of laborers, and hence the accumula- tion of capital, will increase. A business which has capital sufficient to be complete in all its departments, and having each department fully provided with material, machinery and men, is the most profitable. CHAPTER XIV. USE OF MONEY IN PRODUCTION. NO one man can produce all the articles he needs for com- fort and enjoyment, because his time, skill and capital are limited, and many things which he desires^ must come from other climes and soils. Besides, he can work to much greater advantage, produce more easily, and accumulate more rapidly, if he confine himself to one or a few articles of pro- duction. If one man is a carpenter, another a shoemaker, the one wanting a house, the other shoes, it would be to the advantage of both if the carpenter should build the house for the shoemaker, and the shoemaker should make the shoes for the carpenter. This kind of exchange is called barter. Imagine a tribe or nation to whom barter is unknown, but who have learned to accumulate property. Each family aims to provide all it needs by its own labor; and whatever its surplus may be, it stores away. The monstrous incon- venience of such a condition is seen, because the surplus may be perishable. But, what is far more serious, siicJi a surplus could have no value ; for unless it could be sold, which means exchanged for some other articles giving comfort or enjoyment, it would simply accumulate, and in time rot. Unless a surplus product can be exchanged for something else, it is absolutely worthless. Therefore, to establish industry, it is necessary that prop- erty be secure, and that the possessors of property be able freely to exchange it for other articles which they may desire ; also, if the possibility of exchange be taken away, produc- tion will cease. If two men were engaged in production, miles apart, one in the manufacture of cloth, the other in raising coffee, they might both be benefited by exchanging one article for the 232 THE PURPOSE OF MONEY. 233 other. They would at first be at the trouble and expense of finding each other, and would probably waste much time in this pursuit, which would be just so much time taken from the production of cloth and coffee. If a third person should step in, ready to carry the coffee to the producer of cloth, and return with cloth to the producer of coffee, plainly that would be an advantage to both. They could go on in the production of their special articles of trade for which they were fitted. This third person is a merchant, and his busi- ness is commerce. But this merchant may be a rogue. To meet the provision for care here, we have the ingenious contrivance called money. The government coins the money used by its people. This means that the government, at a mint, assays the gold and silver, purifies them, and by a mark on each coin denotes its fineness and weight : that is to say, it certifies that a silver dollar, or a gold five-dollar piece, really contains a dollar's worth of silver, or five dollars' worth of gold. It follows that a gold or silver dollar is an object having a real value. If you choose to melt it, you can sell the gold or silver in it for a dollar. If you give it in exchange for a dinner, you do not swindle the tavern keeper. The government, having for the general convenience and economy coined the money or certified its value, may rightly, for the same end, punish false coiners or counter- feiters ; and it may declare that its coinage shall be accepted by all the citizens in their transactions at the weight and purity which it has certified, which is called making it a "legal tender." This is in order that no man shall put his neighbor to trouble, in making payments, by disputing these qualities of the coin. But it is evident that this does not give the government a right to debase the coinage by certifying that to be a dollar which contains less than a dollar's worth of gold or silver, for this would be to cheat the people ; still less can it afifix arbitrary denominations to things, as pieces of birch- bark, or of paper, and command them to be accepted as 234 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. money, or make them a legal tender, as we say, for this would be to authorize one citizen to swindle another. All that the government does in coining is for the general con- venience, to declare the purity and certify the actual weight of a piece of metal. Money forms but a very small part of the capital of any country. Every one may easily judge of this from his own observation. How very small a portion of any one's pos- sessions is in money. And if this be true of every individual separately, it must be true of all the individuals collectively. The sole use of money is to facilitate exchanges. It is an instrument for the saving of labor, and for the perform- ing of labor with greater accuracy. Of this any one may convince himself in a moment if he will imagine two cases, in the one of which he was obliged to make several exchanges without money, and the other in which he could make them with it. Money gains nothing by exchange, but rather loses in value, like eveiy other machinery which is worn out while it accomplishes its object. Hence, it belongs to the class of fixed capital. It is subject to slow wear, which must be replaced out of the circulating capital of the country. And hence, as any country may have a greater amount of any particular kind of fixed capital than it needs, as, for instance, of any particular kind of machinery, and as, when this is the case, it sends it abroad, or, in other words, makes it an article of export, or changes it into circulating capital, so is it with money. If a country has more money than is suffi- cient to accomplish its exchanges, it sends it abroad, and receives back something that it needs more. Such is perma- nently the case in mining countries, and such is at times the condition of almost every commercial nation. CHAPTER XV. CAPITAL AND LABOR. CAPITAL and labor are the two great forces of produc- tion ; they are the comparisons of strength in all the industries — the twin giants of civilization. They share in the joint result of production. Each is necessary to the other; each is helpless without the other. The most stal- wart man can produce nothing without food and clothings tools and materials, — the fruit of previous labor, viz : capital. Factories filled with ingenious machinery, warehouses full of cotton, stores of finished goods, capital in whatever form or amount, can do nothing to increase itself. Thus labor and capital are the two necessary and inseparable factors in the production of wealth. The spirit of accumulation, that of industry and self- denial being once aroused in a people, and encouraged by their security in the enjoyment of property and facility in exchanging their surplus products, which gives them value, it is clear, considering the difference in men, some being weak of body, less persistent, less ingenious, or less self- denying than others, that inevitably some will accumulate less property than others; and that many will, in fact, accumulate nothing, but consume all they produce, and as fast as they produce it. It is therefore fortunate for the less prosperous of man- kind that the spirit of accumulation leads those who own property to seek ways in which to use this very property or capital in adding to their stores ; for thus the efforts of the poor, the non-capitalists, are lightened, and made more pro- ductive for themselves than they otherwise could be. Capital is simply accumulated savings. In the United States any laborer may hope to acquire property, if he has 235 236 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. health and intelligence, by the exercise of industry and economy ; and it is one of the commonest, as well as, to a thoughtful man, one of the most satisfactory, experiences to see a young man, after laboring faithfully for hire for a time, presently begin on his own account, and by and by become, in his turn, the employer of other men's labor as well as his own. While it will probably, for a long time to come, be neces- sary as well as advantageous to the mass of men to labor for wages, that country is the most fortunate in which it is the easiest for an industrious and self-denying citizen to lift him- self from the condition of a hired man to that of independ- ence, however modest. It is extremely important that neither laws nor customs shall interfere with this change, but that all doors shall be opened for it. For though not one in a thousand of the laborers for wages may choose thus to elevate himself to independence, it adds materially to the contentment and happiness of all to believe that if they choose to do so they might ; and that efforts not beyond their powers would always open the way to them. As the accumulated wealth or savings in any country is thus a source of subsistence and a means of advancement, not merely to the individual owners of this wealth, capital, or property, but to the whole population, and especially to that part of it which labors for wages, and who could not receive wages if accumulated capital did not exist, or if it were destroyed, so it may be said without exaggeration that no part of the community has so vital an interest in the abund- ance, freedom and security of capital as those who labor for wages. For though the individual capitalist may be seri- ously inconvenienced by events which lessen or make inse- cure his accumulations, he has still the resources of removing his capital, especially if it consists of money, to a more secure place, of withdrawing it, at whatever loss, from enter- prises which afford employment by giving the means out of which to pay wages, or, in the final resort, of living upon it MUTUAL DEPENDENCE OF LABOR AND CAPITAL. 237 without seeking any return for its use. In any of these cases the laborers suffer first and most severely. The relation, therefore, of capital and labor is one of unity and mutual dependence. While capital is the product of labor, it is a product upon which labor reserves a claim to direct into a new investment for a fresh employment of labor. For labor to discard capital it must disjoin itself from all its products, and everlastingly begin anew. Its work of yesterday, laying in the form of money to-day, must be rejected in its work of to-morrow. The tools, and machinery and material it has gathered must be abandoned, if it will not unite its efforts with capital, for these are the usual forms which capital takes to aid labor. The laborer who would reject capital must disarm himself of all tools, buildings and material, even educated skill, and abandon all the inventive genius by which the experience of labor has provided means and ways for easier production. A man cannot cultivate a piece of ground without, making use of the capital resting in that land and its improvements, whether it belongs to himself or a pure capitalist. He can- not clean the streets of a city, or clean the paths of its parks without being dependent upon the capital invested in the trade of that city, for the commerce of a city necessitates clean streets and beautiful parks for convenience and com- fort. Labor, at every turn of its glaring eye, looks into the golden countenance of capital, and is dependent upon it. Capital is just as dependent upon labor. Capital without labor can produce nothing. It is useless unless called into use by some industry. Without labor it lays in the house, or vault, with no more value until used, than so much wood or paper. If there is any economic difference in the scale of dependence, capital is more dependent upon labor, than is labor upon capital. Labor may, by beginning over again the process of civilization, slowly and painfully produce capital. But without labor capital is entirely useless, per- fectly worthless, A large investment may be made in western land, in an unsettled section. That capital will, for 238 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. all time, lay as a dead force, unless the brain and muscle of labor direct the industrial forces to operate in that section. That capital will not show much return of its investment until a railroad is built near its location. But what a mass of accumulated labor lies back of this achievement! First, the study of men of broad commercial foresight in consider- ing if a road through that section would pay; then the skill and labor of a corps of engineers in determining the exact line along which the road could be built the cheapest ; the work of interviewing the owners of the land and securing the right of way ; the labor of grading, and making and bringing the ties upon the ground ; the labor of mining the iron ore, and coal to smith it, and the heavy work of manufacturing the rails and spikes ; the labor of laying the rails and ballast- ing the road ; the complicated and almost unmeasured labor, directed by the finest mechanical skill of manufacturing an engine, without which the road would be of no utility; and back of all this the long years of hard brain-work by which, under the pressure of inventive genius, the expansive power of steam was discovered and the steam-engine was invented. All this aggregation of labor has to be calculated as a known force in the construction of that road. And that road has to be built in order that capital may be of service and pay as an investment. For without an outlet for produce no labor spent on the land would pay. The same fact, illustrated by capital put in land, holds good in mechanical or mercantile investment : that to capital must be added labor before it can become productive. Therefore capital must recognize the use of labor upon which it is so dependent, and its course or policy should be to carefully avoid antagonizing labor. From this it is forci- bly seen that there can be no divorce of labor and capital. Everywhere the two stand and work together in mutual dependence. Apart they are nothing; together they are well nigh omnipotent. They have filled the world with beauty plenty and wealth, and lifted humanity from the barrenness of barbarism to the fruitfulness of civilization. WEALTH INCREASES FASTER THAN POPULATION. 239 The relative growth of capital and labor is one of the questions in which political economy is greatly interested. Capital may be increased to any desired extent. Human labor can multiply only with the multiplication of popula- tion. It is true that the real laboring force never equals the entire labor power of the population, and the active capital never equals the entire wealth. Much of both labor and of possible capital always lie idle. Neither labor nor capital come into service till the demand for them promises a reward sufificient to draw them out. They both work for wages ; for the interest on capital is the wages paid for its service. It is a rule of values that interest on capital falls as wages for labor rise. History in modern times shows that capital increases faster than labor ; and this proves that capital has been held at too high a value, in proportion to the value laid on labor. Wealth has increased faster than population. The following table will show how this has run. It is made out from Superintendent Walker's census report. DATE. POPULATION. AGGREGATE WEALTH. WEALTH PER CAPITA. 1850 i860 1870 1880 23,191,876 31,443,321 38,558,371 50,155,783 $ 7,135,780,218 16,159,616,068 30,068,518,507 37,100,000,000 $307.68 543-89 779-81 896.40 From this table it is seen that the increase of wealth has been much more rapid than the increase of population. The same fact is proven by the steady declining of interest on cap- ital, while the wages paid for labor have steadily increased. A half century ago the wages paid servant girls were from fifty to seventy-five cents a week; common laborers were paid from fifty to sixty cents a day. To-day the same class are paid from one dollar and fifty cents to two dollars a week for girls, and about one to one and a half dollars a day, or 240 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. about twenty-five dollars a month, for laborers. During the same time, the interest on common loans has fallen about three per cent. This increase of the price of labor, and decrease of interest on capital, prove that capital grows faster than the labor power of the world. With the growth of wealth and population, the power of combination in- creases ; there is also great increase in the productiveness of labor ; while every such step is attended by a decline in the power of capital to command the services of the laborer, and a corresponding increase of the power of labor to com- mand capital. The laborer's proportion of the increased products tends thus to steadily increase, while that of the capitalist tends as regularly to decline. Capital and labor will move along in harmony in the production of industry if the laws binding their union are permitted to have free force. It is important that capital has free and general distribution. It is better that it be in many, rather than in a few, hands. Laborers themselves should hold a fair share of the working capital of any coun- try. All means, therefore, which encourage laborers to save their earnings are economic measures, advantageous alike to capital and labor. As industry is limited by capital, every increase of capital should demand an increase of labor. The great regulator is free competition on either side, under which the tendency is toward an equilibrium ; for nature provides for the steady increase of both capital and labor in some definite proportion. Labor and capital should both have their just reward. No one questions the right of the laborer to a reward for his toil. As capital is the fruit of past labor saved, the right of its owner to a reward for its use is equally plain. The reward of each must come from the product of their joint investment. Both capital and labor should be free from the evil restrictions of monopolies, or special legislation. The inhe- rent right of every man to do what he will with his own, provided he do no wrong to his neighbor, is not to be ques- NEED FOR INTELLIGENCE. 241 tioned. Ordinarily, each will judge best for himself as to the use he will make of both his labor and his capital. The general intellectual and moral culture of a people is an important condition of the effective cooperation of labor and capital. Intelligence in the laborer adds much to his efficiency. Honesty and integrity are of the highest conse- quence to the safe investment of capital. With reference to the cooperation of the two, it is important that both parties as they meet be able to take broad views of their common interests and mutual dependence. Harmony between the two requires mutual respect ; and the basis of this is self-respect on the part of each, which springs from a clear, intelligent understanding of relations, rights and priv- ileges. Thus means for the general education of a people, and the culture of good consciences by all rehgious influences, have an economical value which cannot be over-rated. There is reason to believe that laborers have some occa- sion to complain of hardships from the oppression of capital ; yet the wrong is not all on one side. The agitation of questions at issue between the parties will do good if it leads to a better understanding and a controlling regard for their common interests. But measures which directly increase jealousy between them, organizations which con- template hostility and violence, can only aggravate the evil, and work damage to both sides. Combinations on either side to rule out fair competition, and repress freedom of individual judgment and action, are positively and only mischievous to both capital and labor. 16 CHAPTER XVI. EFFECT OF LEGISLATION ON CAPITAL AND LABOR. IT has been a principle of action in American legislation to make as few laws as possible to embarrass American industries. Government is the friend of production, and it is under the shadow of government that labor and capital are busy, and go forth together to build up the nation's wealth. The chief function of the American government in con- nection with production, is protection ; to furnish an open field in which it may bring forward its own motives, guide its actions by its own laws, and enjoy its own reward. The economic action of men is so far social, is so far in harmony with those interests which it is the especial office of govern- ment to cherish, as not ordinarily to demand any constraint or coercion beyond the common criminal code. Not only does the line of action marked out by economic science run parallel with the higher interests of man, and minister to them, but this lower interest is amply able to furnish the safest, most general, and most efificient motives, drawn from all departments of enjoyments, for effort in its own field. The impulse which most effectually works the forces of pro- duction is an internal impulse, drawn from its own rewards and the relations of those rewards to the civilization and science of the times. Of all departments, the economic is the most thoroughly self-sustaining, in the strength and uni- versality of its motives, and least of all needs aid from with- out. Money secures or increases nearly all our enjoyments; hence there is no province of action from which it does not bring inducements to effort. The absorbing love of gain, ever ready to pass into avarice, and withhold those very ministrations to the social good for which it primarily exists, 242 WHAT IS A MONOPOLY? 243 can first and best, of all our impulses, be emancipated from the patronage of govenment. Indeed, it is with its own products alone that govenments undertake to stimulate pro- duction, and the increased reward bestowed at one point is plundered from another portion of its own field. Industry best knows how to apportion her own rewards, and is neither profited nor pleased with any interference. In some forms of production, legislation is an actual par- ticipant with labor and capital. There are many labors which must be attended to, and yet devolve rightly on no individual producer. Many of them, if performed by an individual or large body of persons, can make them no recompense, or at best only a small one, and that secured with much vexation. This class properly falls on society as a whole, and hence on government, as its representative. Here belong the construction of roads, light-houses, water- breaks, clearing of harbors and rivers, establishment of currency and postal service. Those internal improvements, from which no income corresponding to the cost can be secured, properly fall to the government. In connection both with the beneficial and injurious action of civil law on production, we have the subject of monopolies. A monopoly is any kind of process, or instru- ment of production, restricted in whole or in part by law. Nothing should be included within the term which does not involve a right in addition to those natural rights protected by civil law. There is a sense in which all property may be termed a monopoly, as its possession and use are necessarily exclusive, and that which is one man's cannot be open to the occupation of another. Thus land is called a great monopoly. It is a monopoly, and the worst form of monopoly, as we have already shown, if its acquisition and transfer are restricted by law, but no more a monopoly than any other species of property if its possession is open to all. Nothing is gained by the term monopoly if it is made to include every economical advantage, from whatsoever source derived, since all the appropriated powers of production 244 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. would thus be monopolies, the very act of appropriation involving exclusion. Of these powers, a part is restricted by nature to certain owners — such are personal qualities ; another part is left open to the general effort — such is land. Society sometimes goes beyond the restrictions of nature, and estab- lishes restrictions of her own. These give rise to monopolies. The effect of a monopoly is to limit the production in the department to which it applies, and thereby to raise the price and profits. Monopolies are illegitimately conferred, as a matter of favoritism, government losing sight of the equality of citizens, and distinguishing between them ; or are legiti- mately conferred as a compensation for a corresponding ser- vice done to production. Belonging to this class is the exclusive trade in any article, and all patents and copy rights. Inventors and writers, though among the most valu- able of laborers, are not able, from the nature of the product realized, to obtain its immediate pecuniary advantages. To relieve these obstacles government gives to the individual, for a limited time, the exclusive disposition of his product. The rights of corporations, so far as they pertain to pro- duction and are bestowed at the option of government, are monopolies. A railroad company is a monopoly, and a close monopoly, till parallel roads are authorized. Banks, when charters are granted on the fixed conditions of a banking law, are open monopolies — monopolies, since the restrictions are assigned by law ; open monopolies, since these restric- tions are the same for all. Railroads, involving in their construction the violation of the ordinary rights of individuals, can only be authorized by the voice of the community whose interests are thereby affected. The government, the representative of an organ- ized society, may suspend the rights of individuals, and force the sale of private property for a public purpose. No such power can belong to individuals or to companies, save only as by a special incorporating act it has been imparted to them for a limited and particular purpose. This new and addi- WHEN MONOPOLY IS LEGITIMATE. 245 tional right vests in railroad companies, by virtue of a specific legislative act, and constitutes them monopolies. There are two classes of legitimate monopolies: the restriction in use or in sale of a discovery, an invention, or a literary production, to him whose it is, and the restriction of certain departments of production by conditions necessary for the safety of all. In the first class, the rights of the individual are secured, and encouragement given to a most valuable class of laborers. But, as their rights are guaranteed by law, and are solely dependent upon its protection, it is evident that the law- giver is to settle, in view of common interests, what length of use constitutes adequate compensation and encourage- ment. The right, as a practical, available right, is the offspring of law, and hence must conform to the end of law — the common good. This it is which marks the limits within which law shall define and protect a right, left by nature undefined and unprotected. No more just and fitting bounty can be offered for invention than protection, for a limited period, in the exclusive use of the thing invented. The second, like the first class of monopolies, are estab- lished by government for the stimulus and protection of industry. A railroad charter, judiciously granted, places in the hands of producers a fresh power; judiciously withheld, protects private property from the plunder of needless spec- ulation. To decide where the best interests of production lie, whether in the bestowing or withholding of a railroad, is manifestly the office of those whose duty it is to represent and protect those interests. It is evident that this class of monopolies are obnoxious when bestowed with partiality, and thus removed still more than the common good requires from general competition. Production demands that, as far as possible, the same con- ditions should be fixed for all, and that, within these condi- tions, the arena of competition should again be opened. Nature itself in some few instances seems to provide a monopoly. Some natural productions require such a! singu- 246 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. larity of soil and situation, that all the land in a great country, which is fit for producing them, may not be sufficient to supply the effectual demand. The whole quantity brought to market, therefore, may be disposed of to those who are willing to give more than what is sufificient to pay the rent of the land which produced them, together with the wages of the labor, and the profits of the stock which were employed in preparing and bringing them to market, accord- ing to their natural rates. Such commodities may continue for whole centuries together to be sold at this high price ; and that part of it which resolves itself into the rent of land is in this case the part which is generally paid above its natural rate. The rent of the land which affords such singular and esteemed productions, like the rent of some vineyards in France of a peculiarly happy soil and situation, and the orange lands in Florida, bears no regular proportion to the rent of other equally fertile and equally well-cultivated land in its neighborhood. The wages of the labor and the profits of the stock employed in bringing such commodities to market, on the contrary, are seldom out of their natural proportion to those of the other employments of labor and stock in their neighborhood. The price of monopoly is, upon every occasion, the highest which can be got. The natural price, or the price of free competition, on the contrary, is the lowest which can be taken, not upon every occasion, indeed, but for any consider- able time together. The one is upon every occasion the highest which can be squeezed out of the buyers, or which, it is supposed, they will consent to give : the other is the lowest which the sellers can commonly afford to take, and at the same time continue their business. A monopoly can only be justified on the ground of com- mon good. If it benefits the community, by rewarding for a limited period the party developing the industry, and who could not do it without some such provision, then it is right and may be tolerated. When a company of merchants undertake, at their own risk and expense, to establish a new MONOPOLY IN TRADE. 247 trade with some remote and barbarous nation, it may not be unreasonable to incorporate them into a joint stock com- pany, and to grant them, in case of their success, a monop- oly of the trade for a certain number of years. It is the easiest and most natural way in which the state can recom- pense them for hazarding a dangerous and expensive experi- ment, of which the public is afterward to reap the benefit. A temporory monopoly of this kind may be vindicated upon the same principles upon which a like monopoly of a new machine is granted to its inventor, and that of a new book to its author. But upon the expiration of the term, the monopoly ought certainly to terminate; the forts and gar- risons, if it was found necessary to establish any, to be taken into the hands of government, their value to be paid to the company, and the trade to be laid open to all the subjects of the state. By a perpetual monopoly, all the other subjects of the state are taxed very absurdly in two different ways : first, by the high price of goods, which, in the case of a free trade, they could buy much cheaper ; and, secondly, by their total exclusion from a branch of business which it might be both convenient and profitable for many of them to carry on. It is for the most worthless of all purposes, too, that they are taxed in this manner. It is merely to enable the company to support the negligence, profusion, and malver- sation of their own servants, whose disorderly conduct seldom allows the dividend of the company to exceed the ordi- nary rate of profit in trades which are altogether free, and very frequently makes it fall even a good deal short of that rate. Without a monopoly, however, a joint stock company, it would appear from experience, cannot long carry on any branch of foreign trade. To buy in one market, in order to sell, with profit, in another, when there are many competitors in both; to watch over, not only the occasional variations in the demand, but the much greater and more frequent variations in the competition, or in the supply which that demand is likely to get from other people, and to suit with dexterity and judgment both the quantity and quality 248 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. of each assortment of goods to all these circumstances, is a species of warfare of which the operations are continually- changing, and which can scarce ever be conducted success- fully, without such an unremitting exertion of vigilance and attention, as cannot long be expected from the directors of a joint stock company. The East India Company, upon the redemption of their funds, and the expiration of their exclu- sive privilege, had a right, by act of parliament, to continue a corporation with a joint stock, and to trade in their cor- porate capacity to the East Indies in common with the rest of their fellow-subjects. Monopoly, besides, is a great enemy to good manage- ment, which can never be universally established but in consequence of that free and universal competition which forces everybody to have recourse to it for the sake of self- defense. It is not more than fifty years ago, that some of the counties in the neighborhood of London petitioned the parliament against the extension of the turnpike roads into remoter counties. Those remoter counties, they pretended, from the cheapness of labor, would be able to sell their grass and corn cheaper in the London market than themselves, and would thereby reduce their rents and ruin their cultiva- tion. Their rents, however, have risen and their cultivation has improved since that time. Political economy condemns all interference of legislation with rates of interest. Yet in almost every country there are legal rates of interest ; in this country each state fixes its own rate. A state legislature has as much right to enact a law declaring that a two-story frame house of a given size shall not rent for more than one hundred dollars a year, as to enact that money shall not bring more than seven per cent interest. A law declaring that a two-story frame house shall not rent for over one hundred dollars per year might temporarily and in the first instance benefit a part of the poorer people — for whose advantage demagogues would cry out for its adoption — but it would presently and perma- nently injure them ; for, first, it would at once put a stop to EVIL OF LAWS REGULATING mfEREST. 249 the building of such houses, whereby mechanics would be thrown out of employment ; second, it would incommode the poorer people, by lessening the number of houses in pro- portion to occupants, and confining them, therefore, to narrower quarters; and third, capital, thus menaced and oppressed, would take alarm and be rapidly removed to countries where the people were not silly enough, and demagogues not powerful enough, to enforce such arbitrary regulations. And while not merely the capital which was originally intended to be invested in two-story frame houses, but much other capital would thus disappear, and all enter- prises supporting labor would be checked, the owners of two-story frame houses, who would actually lose, would in their turn be so much less able to employ labor. Thus, for a temporary gain of a small part of the people — the occu- piers of two-story frame houses already built — the whole laboring population, the mass of the people, would be seri- ously injured. Such a house, worth fifty or one hundred dollars per year in some locations for some people, might be worth one hun- dred and fifty, or even two hundred dollars, per year, to others in other locations ; and this house is the equivalent of so much money. If a legislature has no right in one case it has none in the other. In one section of a state m^oney may be worth seven per cent for a certain business; in another part of the same state a man in another business may be able to pay twelve per cent, and because he cannot get it for seven per cent he must suffer. Capital arbitrarily interfered with, seeks other uses and is carried ofif, and the laborer suffers in the end more than the capitalist. The natural effect of a usury law is to drive capital away. Eng- land has usury laws that are constantly compelling capital to seek investment in this country. It is safe to conjecture that there are two hundred millions of dollars of English capital in this country. The usury laws there make the legal rate about four per cent. The usury laws of New York have forced an immense amount of capital to the western 250 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. states for investment. If there was no legislative restriction at home, the demand for money in other sections would act on the home market, and the balance of power in the money- market would be maintained. It is contrary to economics that capital should be worth six per cent in New York and twenty in Dakota. Even what is held at home feels the effect of usury laws. A part of this held at home is invested in securities, such as railway bonds, and thus also substan- tially goes to enterprises in other states; and for that which is actually lent out at home the borrower is obliged to pay a premium, or sum down on receiving the loan, which really raises the rate he pays, and raises it in a manner unprofitable to him, because it obliges him to pay a considerable sum down of which he entirely loses the use, and on which he gets no interest. Moreover, where usury laws prevail and are enforced, borrowers have generally to fee an agent or middle-man, who receives the premium, in order to save the lender harmless against the law. Thus, not only do usury laws make capital less abundant, and, of course, enterprises and wages less in the same measure, but the borrower him- self is usually injured by having to pay premiums graduated upon his individual necessities, and not upon the general demand for money. Many of the western states show the advantage, not merely to a country, but to the individual laboring man, of letting borrower and lender arrange their own terms. These states w^ere rapidly built up on borrowed capital, which they drew from the East by the ofTer of high rates of interest. Cultivating a rich soil, and settled on cheap lands, the western farmers could afford to pay high rates of interest, because their returns were very great. Take a laboring man, who, by saving his wages, was able to buy one hundred and sixty acres of congress land, but must borrow the means to plant his crop and harvest it. He could afford to pay a high rate of interest ; he could not afford to let his land lie idle. It is the poor man who is .r^.\ USELESSNESS OF USURY LAWS. 25 1 benefited by the free power to borrow, of which a usury- law would deprive him. No law is more constantly violated than a usury law, and that too by the very class of persons against whom the laws are made. They catch the simple and the honest ; the shrewd and the dishonest readily escape. The few that are punished are angered by the injustice of the law; the many that escape laugh at its weakness. These laws aim to equalize the price of money, placing it at fixed rates in the hands of all; their effect is just the reverse of this. If money is plenty in any section, its value is lessened. If natural forces were left to themselves, this state of things would occasion a fall in the rate of interest, and, enticing enterprise by the easy terms of capital, would prepare the way for that accelerated exertion which restores price to its ordinary level. But a law, retaining the price of money at a rate beyond its true value, renders all borrowing a loss ; and money, cut off from its natural remedy of forcing a market by a fall of price, is left to accumulate in the hands of holders, and sinks much beyond the mark which the real state of things made necessary. Nor is such a law more fortunate in its efforts to give money, at all times, at an easy rate, to those who need it. If money is really worth something more than the law suffers to be received for it, the holder will struggle, as far as possible, to employ it himself, that he may realize this additional per cent, and a market already too dry will become dryer, till not a drop can be extorted, without the illegal proffer, not simply of the true value, but of this value as enhanced by the odium and additional risk of a surrepti- tious business. And all this supplaces those natural forces which, by the additional profits and free circulation of money, would have shortly restored it in amount, and hence reduced it in rate per cent to the general level. No law can reduce the common rate of interest below the lowest ordinary market rate at the time when that law is made. Notwithstanding the edict of 1766, by which the ii^:-: 252 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. French king attempted to reduce the rate of interest from five to four per cent, money continued to be loaned in France at five per cent, the law being evaded in many different ways.' The simplest and best interest law is that which determines the rate of interest to be implied when no rate has been expressed. The next most simple law is that which leaves individuals to give and receive whatever rate they may agree upon, but refuses to collect, by legal process, any interest higher than a given rate. In connection with the effect of legislation on capital and labor, the question comes up of how far production should be protected by law from the competition of other countries. So far as the natural forces of commerce seem to direct, the course of action should be that of free exchange. Some forms of industry are made impossible save in certain climes and soils; others differ greatly in the facilities different places afford them, and even those processes of art capable of the most universal exercise are in their complete success intimately connected with natural characteristics and the advantages of position. These intrinsic differences, which cannot be overcome, and can only be partially removed, result in a great variety of productive power. If the highest aggregate of production is to be reached, these powers must be developed each according to its own highest suscepti- bility, and the distribution of the products of industry, now the most numerous possible, be left to a free exchange. To this action the desires of men tend. Each nation naturally chooses for itself that kind of industry which it deems most productive, and with the products so trafifics, as most fully to supply all its wants. Men do not accept the less in place of the greater gratification, and in this course of action lies their largest power of purchase and hence of gratification. Laws of protection, therefore, as superseding natural laws, alway. demand either specific reasons and special grounds of justification, marking and justifying them as exceptions, or a solid and sweeping proof, showing that a natural tendency, as natural law, is here at work, which is FREE MANUFACTURING. 253 radically vicious, and requires to be systematically overcome. The aggregate amount of products, of utilities, which the industry of the world can at any time create, is the measure of the productive power of that time, of that which she can furnish for human enjoyment. Any scheme by which the common stock is lessened, weakens production, is unprofita- ble, and must result somewhere in a smaller amount of enjoyments. If any branch of manufacture, which it is desired to introduce into a country, is equally productive with other branches already introduced, it needs no protec- tion ; if it is not equally productive, then that labor which is withdrawn from more productive departments to be employed in this department, diminishes production elsewhere. This is as far in the discussion of the protection of law to industry as the relation of labor and capital carries us, leav- ing its further treatment to its proper place in the tariff question. CHAPTER XVII. OBLIGATION OF THE RICH TO THE POOR. TO work, is one of the obligations of this Hfe ; and that the comforts of hfe are to be the fruits of toil, is one of the maxims of industry. If God has made labor necessary to our well-being, in our present life ; if he has set before us sufficient rewards to stimulate to labor; and if he has attached to idleness correspondent penalties, it is manifest that the intention of this constitution will not be accom- plished unless all these motives operate upon man. If this is a provision of our nature, it is binding upon every man in health. No man who has health and the use of his hands, can expect to exempt himself honorably from this arrangement. And one man is bound equally with another to work. Idleness, then, from the very logic of God's provision, is a crime against man, as it is a sin against God. It requires a certain amount of labor to provide sus- tenance for every man. If some men are idle, they cannot be sustained by the labor of their own hands. Scavengers upon the country's production, they eat the bread for which they do not toil, and are clothed with clothes upon which their own labor has no claim. If the comforts of life are the fruits of industry, they may be gathered by all who will labor at some industry. If some men will not labor when they can, they are not, by any economic or moral law, entitled to any fruit of other men's labor. If any idle man complain that this is hardship, he must mean that he has reference to his relation either to man or to God. If his relation to man, he is reminded that every- thing is the result of labor; if this be true, it is hardly a question worth raising: Who shall enjoy the result of labor; 254 THE DILEMMA OF IDLENESS. 255 he who has labored or he who has not ? The man who will not labor has no right to deprive the man who is willing to labor of the fruits of his labor. If the idle man complain of this doctrine on the ground of his relation to God, and thinks that in this way it is a hardship to work, it is a com- plaint which he may settle with his God. A man who grumbles at the provisions of God has neither heart nor brain enough to make it worth while for man to attempt an adjustment of the trouble between himself and God. Since God has ordained labor as a producing power, we cannot help it, and the man who will not conform to it, has no right to complain against the man who does comply with God's plan. There are some persons who cannot labor. They are afflicted by sickness, accident, or the unhappy force of circumstances, into a condition where labor is impossible. These are to be dealt with by the moral doctrine of charity, rather than the economic one of labor. This class are the sick, the infirm, the aged, the helpless, the widow, the father- less and the orphan. When God has seen fit to take away the power to labor, he then calls upon us to bestow liberally, and he always teaches us that this mode of expenditure of our property is more pleasing to him than any other. Christ- ian benevolence can never do too much for this unfortu- nate class. The cloud is heavy upon them, and kind deeds and rich gifts ought to do all that is possible to lift it, and pour the sunshine of comfort and gladness on these distressed ones. But this economic principle has reference to men who are poor from indolence, and idle from choice. Provisions made to supply their wants, without requiring their previous labor, are wrong, on economic grounds. What right is there in demanding a man who labors to give a portion of the result of his labor to a man who will not labor? This is wrong altogether. To such provisions belong the poor laws, as they are established in England, and in some parts of our own country, and permanent endowments left to particular corporations for the maintenance of the simply 256 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. indigent. Now such provisions are injurious for several reasons. And on these reasons political economy disclaims any wisdom in using the fruits of labor to sustain the idle ; and on the ground, too, that it is an economic waste. They are at variance with the fundamental law of govern- ment, that he who is able to labor, shall enjoy only that for which he has labored. If such be the law of God for us all, it is best for all that all should be subjected to it. If labor be a curse, it is unjust that one part, and that the industri- ous part, should suffer it all. If, as is the fact, it be a bless- ing, there is no reason why all should not equally enjoy its advantages. They remove from men the fear of want, one of the most natural and universal stimulants to labor. Hence, in just so far as this stimulus is removed, there will be, in a given community, less labor done; that is, less production. It would not require long, were this measure of relief given the idle, to stifle the industries of a whole country and produce a nation of paupers. By teaching a man to depend upon others, rather than upon himself, they destroy the healthful feeling of independ- ence. When this has once been impaired, and the confi- dence of man in the connection between labor and reward is destroyed, he becomes a pauper for life. It is in evidence, before the committee of the British House of Commons, that, after a family has once applied for assistance from the parish, it rarely ceases to apply regularly, and most fre- cjuently, in progress of time, for a larger and larger measure of assistance. This fact has equally been noticed by private gifts in this country, the more that is given this class, the more they demand, and to begging they add impudence. Hence such a system must tend greatly to increase the number of paupers. It is a discouragement to industry, and a bounty upon indolence. With what spirit will a poor man labor, and retrench to the utmost his expenses, when he knows he shall be taxed to support his next-door neigh- bor, who is as able to work as himself; but who is relieved SUPPORT OF THE UNPRODUCTIVE. 257 from the necessity of a portion of labor, merely by applying to the overseer of the poor for aid. They are, in principle, destructive to the right of property, because they must proceed upon the concession, that the rich are under obligation to support the poor. If this be so ; if he who labors be under obligation to support him that labors not ; then the division of property and the right of property are at an end : for, he who labors has no better right to the result of his labor, than anyone else. Hence these provisions tend to insubordination. For, if the rich are under obligation to support the indolent poor, why not under obligation to support them better? Why not support them as well as themselves? The larger the provision there is made of this kind, the greater will be the liability of collision between the two classes. If all this be true, it is seen that these provisions to sup- port the idle poor, without compelling them to work, are dangerous to industry, are perilous to the highest interests of the very class they aim to relieve, as well as antagonistic to the arrangement of God. The only true method is to present the strongest possible inducement to industry. There should be no funds held in provision for the sup- port of the idle. If any such provision is known to exist, it will only encourage indolence, by creating the hope in an idle man that if he abstain from work until poverty pushes him into want, he will be supported by this fund. If a man be reduced by indolence or prodigality to such extreme want that he is in danger of perishing, he should be relieved through the medium of labor; that is, he should be furnished with work and rewarded with the proceeds. Should he refuse to accept any work, he should be put under some prison industrial discipline, where he would be com- pelled to work. If idleness is a crime, the sooner it is pun- ished as a crime, the better for the industrial interest of the country, as well as the moral welfare of the people. Those who are enabled only in part to earn the comforts of life, should be provided with labor that far, and then insist 17 258 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. on benevolence supplying the deficiency. This would pro- duce a better class of dependents. All provisions for the relief of the indolent poor should be so devised as not to interfere with the law of our nature, which necessitates labor. By so directing benevolent ener- gies the poor are better provided for ; they are happier them- selves, because complying with the law of their being; and a great and constantly increasing burden is removed from the community. It has been found that alms-houses con- ducted on this plan will support themselves ; and sometimes even yield a small surplus revenue. This surplus should always be given to the paupers, and should never be received by the public. The principle should be carried out that the laborer is to enjoy the result of his industry. For the same reason penitentiaries and state prisons should always be places of assiduous and productive labor. Idleness is a most prolific agent of crime. If the criminals could be accustomed to labor one half of this reformation would be effected. Besides, by this means, a great diminution could be effected in the expense to the community. There can be no reason why a hundred able-bodied men, and such are generally the tenants of our prisons, should not both support themselves and pay for the superintendence necessary to their labor. In a well-regulated prison, they will always do this. There must always be something deeply culpable in the arrangements of such an institution where there is not this result. And thus, where a society is so organized that every man is left to suffer the results of idleness, that is, where labor is made necessary to the acquisition of everything desirable, and where the results of that labor are most perfectly secure to the laborer, there will exist the greatest stimulus to labor, and, of course, production will be most rapidly augmented. CHAPTER XVIII. CHILDREN S LABOR. AS the United States become more and more a manu- facturing country, the question of children's labor will become a serious problem in political economy, as well as in morals. As manufacturing is not yet largely developed in many sections, it has not been much studied, but where it is demanding attention it shows a troubled look, without a single softening line. Massachusetts is largely a manufact- uring section, and the factory towns are beginning to reveal some sad economic and moral facts. The state has, in view of these facts, passed some excellent laws to the effect that : " No child under ten years of age shall be employed in any manufacturing, mechanical, or mercantile establishment in this commonwealth. "No child under fourteen shall be so employed except during the vacations of the pubHc schools, unless during the year next preceding such employment he has attended some public or private school at least twenty weeks; nor shall such employment continue unless such child shall attend school twenty weeks in each and every year following; and no child shall be so employed who does not present a certificate, made by or under the school committee, of his compliance with the requirements of this act. " Every owner, superintendent, or overseer who employs •or permits to be employed any child in violation of this act, and every parent or guardian who permits such employment, shall forfeit a sum of not less than twenty nor more than fifty dollars for the use of the public schools." From these carefully worded statutes it would seem as if every precaution had been taken by the state of Massachu- setts to prevent the overworking of children in the common- 259 26o THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. wealth and the neglect of their proper schooling. It is one thing, however, to make wise laws, and quite another to enforce them, as may be seen from the following statistics. During the past, year some hundred alid sixty factories in the state, that have been inspected, give an average of only two per cent, where strict compliance was found with the enactments quoted above. In one factory, the facts discov- ered by the inspector showed that not one-half the children employed were of the legal age. Further investigations proved that many at that time, of legal age, had been work- ing many years without the prescribed absence of five months for the legal amount of schooling. In some factories many girls of fourteen were found who could neither read nor write. Systematic investigation has shown that of the thirteen thousand children employed in various factories throughout the state in 1878, only four thousand five hundred and seventy-five I'eceived the legal amount of schooling; and that among the two hundred and eighty-two thousand four hundred and eighty-five children in Massachusetts between the ages of five and fifteen there are no less than twenty-five thousand children who never have been present in either our public or private schools. There seems to be a growing disposition on the part of parents to put their children to work before they are of legal age, and to avoid sending them to school the length of time required by law. Scarcely a day passes but mothers come to the mills and beg to have their children employed. It is difificult for managers to comply with the law, as parents give false statements regarding the ages of their children. Something is wrong somewhere when children under eleven years of age are among the bread winners of the state, and when children between ten and fifteen produce twenty- four per cent of the income of the factory people. It is hardly possible for even a strong able-bodied man to earn enough to support his family and keep his children in school until they are fifteen. With the present relation of wages to CHILD LABOR IN ENGLAND. 261 the cost of living in Massachusetts, it seems that a laboring man with a family cannot keep out of debt and keep his children in school with a yearly income of less than six hundred dollars. They dress shabbily, occupy tenements, and are in a wretched condition generally. From the present condition of labor and living in Massa- chusetts, the majority of workingmen's families, without the wages of the children, would be in poverty or debt. In England, the over-working and under-schooling of minors is now subject to heavy penalties ; but past generations of factory children have already given rise to an almost distinct class of English working people — pale, sallow, and stunted both in physical and mental growth. How long will it be before a deteriorated race like the Stockinger, Leicester and Manchester spinners, springs up on our New England soil? Present legislative steps in England, will in due course of time, undoubtedly, lead to the entire prohibition of child labor throughout Gr-eat Britain, and provide compulsorily for the education of minors ; the same humanitarian and politic movement is apparent in every European country. In many of the Massachusetts manufacturing towns, it is true, mill schools, half-time and evening schools, are provided for the little unfortunates doomed to labor; but class schools of any description are mischievous to the best interests of a democracy. Doubtless any instantaneous elimination of child labor from a community would for a time increase the amount of suffering — that suffering of which it really has been a primal cause. But the ultimate result of child lahot upon the interests of the parent and the manufacturer will be most disastrous. We will suppose that the owner of a certain factory sud- denly discovers that he may lessen the cost of production, and thereby gain advantage in trade, by employing young persons of fifteen, or sixteen, where he has heretofore employed adults. He can hire them for one half the sum he has been accustomed to pay his men, and more applicants 262 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. are found than he can supply with work. Other manufact- urers follow the example. The demand is increased for minors, who are willing to work for half the wages a laboring man with a family to support absolutely requires. The competition increases ; large numbers of adult work- men are thrown out of employment, and since they must have some means of subsistence they say to the manufact- urers: "If you cannot give us twice as much as you give these boys, we will work for a little less than we have done ; but surely our skilled labor is worth more to you than the work of mere children." So a compromise is made: part of the men are retained at lower wages, and they are comforted by the thought that their children's earnings will make up the balance needed to eke out a scanty living. The evil results of this would be enormous. The economic, as well as moral interest of any com- munity, demand an utter destruction of children's labor in factories. The laborers will suffer, production will be poorly done, the manufacturers will have a pauper community to support, and the commonwealth will have an inferior class of people in the course of two or three generations inferior in body, mind, and the moral responsibility belonging to a safe citizenship. CHAPTER XIX. CONSUMPTION. ALL the processes of production are represented in the consumption of products, which is the ultimate end of production. This is the legitimate use of wealth. Wealth not put to the actual work of producing some benefit for man is misused. In the process of gratifying human desires all production is consumed. Consumption is thus the coun- terpart of production, and in its widest meaning is simply the destruction of value. By this is not meant the annihila- tion of material subtances, but the extinction of particular forms of utility. It is in the nature of things an established law that we can neither create new values nor gratify our desires except by the destruction of existing values. If gun- powder be burned, if bread be eaten, if a tree be felled, the particular utility which each originally possessed, is destroyed forever. And this destruction of value takes place, alto- gether independently Of the result which may in different cases ensue ; because that destruction is as truly effected in one case as in another. A load of wood when it has been burned, as truly loses its utility, that is, its power of creat- ing heat, when it is destroyed in a conflagration, as when it is consumed under a steam boiler, or in a fire place, though the result in the two cases may be very dissimilar. If bread be thrown into the sea its utility is destroyed just as much as if it were eaten ; though, in the one case, there is no result from the consumption and in the other it is the means of creating the vigor necessary to labor. An act of consumption does not destroy all the utilities of an article. The cloth of a worn-out mantle may have utility as material for the paper mill. The ashes of burned wood may be utilized in producing alkali for the manufacture 263 264 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. of soap, and a wheel, worn out in the machinery, may be recast again. A pair of rubber shoes may be worn out, and yet possess a valuable utility to the manufacturer of India- rubber cloth. Hence economy in consumption requires an exhaustion of all the values contained in any product before it is thrown away as entirely worthless.' For the want of this care, millions of property are annually wasted. The difference between the cost of two establishments, in the one of which every utility of every substance is consumed, and in the other of which only the first utility is consumed, is frequently as great as the net profits realized in the ordinary employments of industry. There are several ways in which values are destroyed by the extinction of utility, all of which come within the range of our broad definition of consumption. Sound economy must make account of all. Consumption is involuntary or voluntary, as effected with or without the direct design of man. In either case, if there be consumption, there is value destroyed. The difference is, that in the one case there is a profitable result expected ; in the other case there is none. If a loaf of bread become moldy by neglect, its value is destroyed just as much as though it were eaten. The differ- ence is, that in the one case the loss is total ; in the other ease, the consumption of value creates a power to labor, which is of more value than the loaf itself. If, for the want of a fender, the fire fall out of the fire-place and burn the carpet, the carpet is as effectually consumed as if it were worn out by use. The difference is, that in the one case it affords a substantial convenience, and in the other it affords none. If, by forgetfulness or neglect, a gate is left unlatched, and it is beaten in pieces by the wind, it is as effectually consumed as by the wear of several years. The difference is, that in the one case it answers for a long time the purpose of inclosure, in the other case it answers no purpose at all. Hence, the necessity of care and vigilance in all the business of life. Almost everything is constantly tending to consumption. Vegetable matter decays ; animal FORMS OF CONSUMPTION. 265 matter putrefies ; most of the metals may be corroded ; almost all our possessions are liable to accidental destruction from fire or flood, from the frosts of winter or the heat of summer. Hence, without our continual care, a continual process of consumption will be going on by which cur capital will be diminished. Involuntary consumption may be divided into natural consumption and accidental consumption. Natural con- sumption has to do with the process of destruction effected by nature. In nature all things tend to decay.. Wood and vegetables rot, iron rusts, linen goods become mildewed, woolen goods and furs are moth-eaten, grain in store heats and spoils, flour turns sour, and all things in use, even gold and silver, insensibly wear away. To this head is to be referred also the destruction caused by all kinds of insects. It is reported that the destruction caused by rats and insects in England amounts to ten million pounds annually. Natu- ral consumption varies with the climate of different sections. It appears in one form under the influence of heat, in another under the power of cold. It is most general and most rapid in tropical countries. It is most within the con- trol of man in the temperate zone, but no part of the world and no form of wealth is wholly exempt from this liability. This kind of consumption is generally pure loss, and a sound economy will use all possible prudence and call for the most diligent labor to protect it as much as possible. Yet, after the best that man can do, there will be much of waste and loss from this cause, which must be carefully taken into account in the estimate of wealth and in plans for its increase. Accidental consumption is destruction of values caused by accident. The great Chicago fire is an instance of this kind of consumption. And to this class may be put all those sudden calamities which carry sweeping destruction before them, proceeding sometimes from the carelessness of men, sometimes from the unforeseen and inexplicable action of nature's forces. Such are great fires, railway-collisions. 266 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. steamboat -explosions, shipwrecks, floods and tornadoes, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, avalanches and land- slides. The annual destruction of values in these ways is very great. Wealth in every form and in all countries is more or less liable to be thus suddenly consumed. No human art or foresight is competent to prevent it altogether. Notional consumption is something spoken of as that consumption which is the result of the mere caprice, notion or fashion of a people. The high, stiff, sharp-crowned hat is in style a certain season. Twenty million hats of this style are manufactured. The second season following, the style is entirely abandoned; but only fifteen millions have been sold. The five millions are lying with the producers or the wholesale and the retail houses. They are worthless as hats. Fashion has changed the style throughout the several countries where the trade can carry the hat, and the five million unsold hats are without value, merely from the whim of a notion, though they may have represented ten million dollars. This kind of consumption, heavier in this country than Germany, heavier in France than here, is almost a positive loss of the labor and capital spent in production. And the probable amount of notional consumption is esti- mated by the manufacturer and dealer, and its cost added to the value of that portion actually consumed. So that the fifteen million hats which were bought, sold for probably fifty cents a hat more, merely to cover the cost of the five millions which would not be sold. Voluntary consumption is that in which men deliberately destroy values for a special purpose. There are two objects for which men, of their own purpose, destroy existing values. The one is the increase of wealth by reproduction ; the other is immediate gratification. Reproductive consumption demands care, skill and labor, while consumption for gratifica- tion ordinarily requires neither. Hence the former is more or less irksome ; the latter is a present joy. CHAPTER XX. PRODUCTIVE CONSUMPTION. PRODUCTIVE consumption is that which every person effects who carries on the operations of production. The farmer, the mechanic and the manufacturer are all con- sumers, and are such in a greater or less degree, according to the extent of their production. Productive consumption requires both skill and labor, and no less capital. It requires skill and labor to sow seed, as well as money to provide that seed. It requires skill and labor to turn iron into a machine, as well as the capital invested in that iron. Productive consumption is commonly attended with no immediate gratification. The farmer may prefer agriculture to manufactures, but he would not commonly labor for the mere pleasure of the operation. Could he secure his crop with half the present labor, or with no labor at all, he would doubtless do so. The case is the same with the manufact- urer or any other producer. Economy suggests the rule that the destruction of value for the desired product be always the least which will meet the necessity. Consumption is either of capital or of labor. The consumption of capital used to produce a given result should be as small as possible. The ordinary maxim is as true as it is common: "A penny saved is a penny earned." In estimating the profits of any operation, it is manifest that he who has produced a value worth one hun- dred dollars, at an expense of sixty dollars, reaps a profit of twenty dollars more than he who has produced the same value at an expense of eighty dollars. The farmer who saves half a bushel of seed in sowing an acre enriches himself 267 268 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. as much as though he had reaped half a bushel more per acre. In China sowing is always done by drilling, and it is estimated that the saving throughout the whole empire, from this improvement, is enough to feed the whole popu- lation of great Britain. The same principles hold with mechanics, manufacturers and all classes of consumers. From want of care a much larger amount of value is con- sumed than is necessary for the production required. The amount of capital should be no greater than is necessary. It is unwise to employ a steam engine of a hundred horse- power when half that amount of power is needed. The kind of capital employed should be of the lowest value that will accomplish the purpose. Straw is a cheaper material for paper than rags. Every producer should make it a careful study to ascertain in what manner he may carry on his production with the least costly production. Chem- istry applied to the arts has introduced cheaper dye-stuffs for prints. Research and invention are thus constantly econo- mizing the cost of production, and eveiy manufacturer needs to avail himself of the fruits of such' study. Every utility of the substances employed in production should be exhausted. There are fragments which may be sav^ed. Thus in the coining of money, the filings and sweepings of the work-room yield a considerable value. There are secondary utilities which may be developed, as the refuse of a large slaughter-house furnishes materials for soap, candles and glue. Formerly the seed of the cotton crop was mostly thrown away ; now from the kernel large quantities of valuable oil are extracted ; the oil-cake furnishes excellent food for cattle and sheep ; the hull of the seed yields soluble phosphate of lime and potash for manure, and the spent hull makes a white and clean paper-stock. By realizing these new values the cost of producing cotton-fibre is reduced. This principle is well illustrated in the various uses to which the horns of cattle are applied. The horn consists of two parts, an outward horny case, and an inward conical-shaped substance. The first process consists in sep- UTILITIES OF CATTLE HORNS. 269 arating these two parts, by means of a blow against a block of wood. The horny exterior is then cut into three portions by means of a frame saw. The lowest of them, next to the root of the horn, after undergoing several processes by which it is rendered flat, is made into combs. The middle of the horn, after being flattened by heat, and its transparency improved by oil, is split into thin layers and forms a substitute for glass in lanterns. The tip of the horn, is used by the makers of knife handles, and of the tops of whips. The interior or core of the horn is boiled down in water. A large quantity of fat rises to the surface. This is sold to the makers of yellow soap. The liquid itself is used as a kind of glue, and is purchased by the cloth dressers for stiffening. The bony substance which remains behind is sent to the mill, and, being ground down, is sold to the farmers for manure. The clippings and shavings are also sold to the farmers for manure, or are used in small quantities for the manu- facture of toys. A chief advantage of production on a large scale is, that it warrants different operations for developing these minor utilities, which in small establishments are wasted ; and it is evident that if any part of this material were wasted the cost of the manufactured articles would be higher, and the gain of the producer less. For economic consumption, all the values must be con- sumed in the most profitable manner. It frequently happens that a producer wants but one value from a substance for his particular purpose, while another, and an important value, remains unappropriated. It is always a matter of impor- tance to employ in the best manner every value which a sub- stance is known to possess. Thus, after we have derived from wood all the heat which it can evolve, it leaves ashes, which possess an important value. After the oil has been pressed 2/0 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. from flax seed, the residuum is a valuable food for cattle. The employment of this utility, of course, lessens the price of oil, and increases the demand for it. Hence we see the supe- riority of the economy of large establishments to that of smaller ones. A large manufacturing establishment can carry on several distinct operations for the sake of using these secondary utilities. In a small one this would be impossible, and much must in consequence be wasted. In the consumption of labor in production there should be just as much labor employed as may be necessary to accomplish the intended result. There should never be more labor engaged in any piece of industry than is just able to do the work well and rapidly. If there is more than is wanted, it generates idleness and negligence. One super- numerary laborer is not only useless himself, but he gene- rally requires the time of two or three others to bear him company in idleness. There should not be employed less labor than is wanted. This produces confusion, and destroys the advantages of correct division of labor. It saves nothing to employ one person less than is necessary in an establishment. The grade of labor should be carefully adapted to different operations. All the many advantages of division of labor come into account here. It is wise, when great skill is required, to employ a man of skill at high wages. It is unwise to put such a laborer upon work which can be as well done by an unskilled workman at less wages. The labor paid for should be all performed. To secure this, efficient superintendence is all-essential. "Time is money," says the maxim. Certainly it is money to him who pays money for it. Every hour paid for, that is spent in idleness, is so much unprofitable consumption, — an absolute loss. Good superintendence often makes all the difference between success and failure in the conduct of business. There is much waste of labor, which arises from various causes. One cause is that of poor superintendence. If twenty men are employed by the day to perform a piece of HOW LABOR IS WASTED. 2/1 labor, it will be found that considerable time is wasted in sauntering and story-telling, which might be prevented by an efficient superintendent who will carefully economize the management so as to avoid opportunity for this waste of time. Another cause for wasted time is irregularity. When tools are out of place or dull, materials unsuitable, by which carelessness laborers stand around idle to wait for the arrangement of these things, they, by habit, become irregular, and few large establishments are there but the time wasted in this way might, by economy in this direction, produce largely increased values. Bad labor is a cause for much waste in labor. A break in a dam, or in a fence, by being fixed well, in time may save a dam washed out, or a crop destroyed by cattle. Say, in his Political Economy, tells a story this wise : " I remember being once a witness of the numberless misfortunes which a neglectful housekeeping entails. For the want of a small latch, the gate of the poultry yard was forever open, there being no means of closing it externally, arid many of the poultry were lost in consequence. One day, a fine young porker made his escape into the woods, and the whole family, gardener, cook and milk-maid, presently turned out in quest of the fugitive. The gardener, in leaping a ditch, got a sprain that confined him to his bed for a fortnight. The cook found the linen burnt that she had left at the fire to dry. The milk-maid forgot, in her haste, to tie up the cattle in the cow house, and one of the loose cows broke the leg of a colt, that was kept in the same shed. The linen burnt, and the gardener's work lost, were worth twenty crowns, and the colt as much more, so that forty crowns were, in a few minutes, lost, for want of a latch that would not have cost more than a few sous." From these considerations on the consumption of capital and labor for the purpose of production, several things are evident. The economical consumption of labor and capital depends chiefly on the careful study and accurate knowledge of the whole process of production. It is further evident 2/2 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. that restrictions on capital will retard the economic con- sumption of capital and labor in production. Waste of labor in any form will prevent close consumption of labor. Economy in capital and labor promotes an entire community, by saving from destruction much that may be made of utility in the work of satisfying human wants. If a man economize labor and capital, he increases his own wealth, and he also rescues as much as he saves, from actual destruction. The whole of this amount may go to the further increase of production, or to the satisfying of human wants. The more he produces, the greater is his wealth ; and the greater is the value which is created for the good of the whole community. Hence, we see, that he who is honestly promoting Kis own welfare, is also promoting the welfare of the whole society of which he is a member. CHAPTER XXL CONSUMPTION FOR GRATIFICATION. THIS kind of consumption would be impossible if it were not for the consumption used in production. An article of food or clothing, or an instrument of pleasure, must be made before it can be enjoyed, and in its manufacture there is the consumption of both capital and labor. The consumption for gratification does not include a man's entire production, but only the excess of production over the amount needed for the work of production. There are several kinds of gratification for which the products of labor and capital may be consumed. The first and most important are those gratifications needed for the preservation of life, health and comfort. All men require food, clothing and shelter. Hence these are called necessi- ties. The term is, however, used relatively, not absolutely. The measure and quality of goods needed in this form varies with circumstances, such as climate, grade of civilization, occupation, and social position, and also with the taste, tem- perament and education of different persons. A bamboo hut, a measure of rice and a few yards of cotton cloth, sufifice for the pariah of India. A respectable citizen of our country requires values a hundred-fold greater. But economy teaches that these necessities be secured at the lowest possible expenditure for the accomplishment of any given plan of living. No more should be purchased of any article than is needed. The articles ordinarily consumed in a family, are rapidly destructible. If more be purchased than is wanted, it is liable to become useless, and, in this case, the loss of this excess is total. By having a superabundance of anything consumable, it becomes, in the eyes of those who use it, less valuable, and 18 273 274 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. is used less carefully. And, if neither of these results be experienced, if an article be purchased a year before it is wanted, the purchaser loses the interest, for a year, of the money expended. Hence it is generally as economical to purchase at retail as at wholesale. It is never good policy to purchase anything because it is cheap. If a man need anything, its cheapness is a reason why he should buy it ; but if he do not want it, its cheapness is no reason at all. A man may buy stones very cheap, but it is doubtful whether he would be either enriched or made happier by the pur- chase. Many a garret is filled with great bargains, which were purchased because they were cheap, and then laid away to rot. The enjoyments of life depend to some little degree on the gratifications which delight the senses and tastes. The, mere sustaining of existence comes far short of filling out the measure of men's capacity for enjoyment. Such things as delicacies for the table, beautiful dress and equipage, ornamental furniture, the products of fine art in painting, statuary, architecture and music, public exhibitions to please the eye and the ear, yield rich gratifications to people of taste. The desires which run in this direction are natural. Their gratification, within due limits, is refining and elevat- ing. Means for these gratifications may be drawn from the resources of nature, and quite generally distributed. It is morally and socially healthful for people of every class to enjoy some things which they esteem luxuries. At the same time there are in this direction dangers to be carefully avoided. Appetites unnaturally formed and unduly pam- pered may gain the mastery, and lead to indulgences which produce misery instead of happiness. Consumption for intellectual and moral pleasures is the most nobly used. We consume money for this purpose in the purchase of books and philosophical instruments, and we consume time in the study and use of them. We here enjoy the pleasure of intellectual exercise, and also obtain MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. 275 that knowledge by which we are enabled to perform the duties of life with greater success. Moral gratification should never be stinted in the culture of a good conscience toward God and toward men, and in the exercise of benevolence. To secure these, some value must be consumed in the support of religious institutions and in gifts of charity. By such expenditures the noblest capacities of our nature are drawn out, and for the expenditure there is returned the richest satisfaction — a satisfaction not limited to the moment, but abiding for the lifetime of the soul. The consumption of values in moral and mental pleasures is not as heavy as it should be. The time spent in moral and intellectual cultivation is no more expensive than to spend it thoughtlessly and after vanities, while the reward is quite different. The time consumed in thoughtless dissipa- tion, if employed in moral culture, would effect great changes in our habits and characters. The pleasures of benevolence, so far as pecuniary consumption is concerned, are less expen- sive than those of the senses. Were the means lavished in thoughtless caprice, squandered in drinking or wasted on the forms of fashion, to be reserved for charity, a wide and new world of comfort, elevation and happiness would be opened both to the giver and the receiver. Great intellectual culture is within the reach of all classes at a small consumption. The useless articles by which a parlor is over-decorated, frequently represent an expense greater than would be necessary to purchase a good library. The sums of money annually spent by most families to satisfy the vanities of fashion, would furnish them with more reading than they could digest, and when several classes of enjoyments are placed before a man, and when one may be procured at so much less expense than the others, it is worth while to earnestly inquire if the cheaper will not afford him more true pleasure than the others. There is something wanting when the dwelling of a moral and intelligent being reminds us of everything else than that he is either moral or intellectual. 276 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. This i^ a question with which political economy may- wrestle, as moral and intellectual pleasures actually tend to the wealth of a community. The exercise of benevolence has several important economical tendencies. For instance, it tends directly to cultivate the habits of self-denial and self- government, which are so essential both to industry and frugality. Sensual self-indulgence temds directly to produce both indolence and capricious and reckless expenditure. Again. The habit of benevolence tends to moderate and correct that intense love of gain, which is so frequently the cause of ruin to enterprising men. In the management of any hazardous business, he will be the most likely to succeed who looks with entire coolness on the chances of loss and gain. The too eager, governed by their imagination, rush into needless danger. The too cautious allow a fair prospect of advantage to pass by unimproved. The one is as liable to fail as the other; but he who, by the practice of benevo- lence, has learned a more accurate estimate of the blessings of wealth, will, more probably than either, judge correctly. The miser and the sensualist will fall into opposite extremes, one upon each side of him. Besides, the social benefits of benevolence are incalcula- ble. It unites together the various classes of men, by the strong ties of affection and gratitude. By bringing all classes of men more directly under the view of the whole mass of society, social responsibility is increased, and the encouragements to virtue and the restraints upon vice are strengthened. When the rich are hard-hearted and luxuri- ous, the poor are disaffected, anti-social, and destructive. In so far as benevolence, therefore, tends to the improvement of the social dispositions of men, it may lay claim to great economical advantages. And the same is true of intellectual pleasures. A man cannot enjoy these without improving his mind, and render- ing it a more valuable instrument both for the production of his future happiness, and the accumulation of wealth. Knowledge is power, in what sphere of life soever it be DOMESTIC EDUCATION FOR WOMEN. 277 exerted. The gratification of the senses enervates the body, enfeebles the mind, and tends to render intellectual exercise unpleasant, and to unfit us for any important or highly responsible exertion. The extent to which consumption may be exercised on moral and intellectual pleasures will depend much on the domestic arrangements of each family. As there is economy in the household expenditures, there will be left a portion which may be expended on moral, social and intellectual enjoyments. And as the domestic department of consump- tion in general devolves upon the mistress of the family, we see how important to the execution of it with success, must be vigilance, care, intelligence and industry. The husband, by the employment of capital, labor and skill, in productive consumption, secures an annual revenue for the purpose of consumption in the various means of gratification, whether necessary or superfluous. The expenditure of this annual revenue, or the making of those arrangements which govern the expenditure, generally devolves upon the wife. If that expenditure be made without economy, either the gratifica- tions which it might procure are never enjoyed, and, by all the consumption, neither comfort nor pleasure is obtained ; or else, if the gratification sought for be obtained, it is obtained at an expense absolutely ruinous. Hence it will be seen that the physical comfort, as well as the means of happiness of both parties, depends more on the domestic education of the female sex than is ordinarily supposed. Afifection will rarely exist in the atmosphere of self-inflicted poverty. No man can respect a woman by whose caprice and ignorance of her appropriate duties he is plunged into disgraceful bankruptcy, and wedded to hopeless penury. Nor let it be supposed that no talent is requisite skillfully to superintend a household. It requires, at least, as much ability to direct, with skill, and on principle, the affairs of a domestic establishment, as to select a ribbon or dance a minuet, to finger a piano, or to embroider a fire screen. There is a close reciprocal relation between production 2/8 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. and consumption for gratification. All goods and articles are manufactured with reference to their consumption. No article would be produced but for the belief that it would be consumed. Material welfare consists in ample production with an equal consumption. Extreme frugality would leave goods in the hands of producers uncalled for, and at once throw laborers out of employment and out of the means of living. Extreme lux- ury would consume resources and hinder the accumulation of capital necessary for production. The problem is to find the golden mean which shall keep the balance that sustains prosperous industry, by a steady demand for its products. The problem can be solved only as each man studies it, and finds the solution for himself, by using his means for health- ful gratifications, at the same time limiting his gratifications by a due regard to his means. CHAPTER XXII. PUBLIC CONSUMPTION. BY force of the social instinct mankind is brought together in communities. This gives rise to many com- mon wants, which are provided for by money drawn from the entire people by taxation. These common wants can only be met by the destruction of existing values, the same as individual consumption. These values, which are destroyed by public consumption, are taken from the private citizen. The government has nothing to expend but what is con- tributed by its tax-paying citizens. When a given sum is to be raised for the accomplishment of any object, it is, by some mode of assessment, distributed among the various individuals of the community, and every one is obliged to pay the proportion with which he is charged. The sum thus collected is then, for the accomplishment of particular purposes, consumed by the agents into whose hands it is delivered. Taxes are either direct or indirect, and it may be said that direct taxes are no heavier to bear than indirect. Direct taxes are those laid on land and on personal prop- erty in actual use, on incomes and on polls. All state and local revenues are raised by direct taxation. Indirect taxes are duties on goods imported, or on goods manufactured for sale at home. In the last case they are called excises. But the merchant who imports goods, or the manufacturer at home, does not submit to the loss of the amount of the tax he pays. He makes it in either case a charge upon his goods, and adds it to their price. Not only that, but as he must take the risk of loss by fire or other accident, or by falling prices, or a lack of market after the duty or excise is paid, he adds a percentage to the price to cover these 279 280 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. risks, for he knows that the government will not return him the taxes he has paid, no matter if he should entirely lose his goods the day after he paid the tax or duty upon them. Hence indirect taxes are less economical than direct taxes ; they inflict more loss upon the consumer compared with the amount of revenue raised. But because indirect taxes are paid by the consumer with other payments, in small and often insignificant amounts at a time, and without the intervention of that universally hated personage, the tax- gatherer, this mode of raising revenue has always been a favorite with the people ; and because an indirect tax is thus collected with less friction, and can be increased secretly, as it were, and without its effect being so immediately and plainly felt by each individual tax-payer, it has always been a favorite with governments. The revenues of the general goverement are almost entirely derived from indirect taxes! As these indirect taxes are difficult of adjustment, and com- plicated, their arrangement almost always gives opportunity to selfish and scheming persons to impose upon congress, and get it to favor their pursuits either by exemption where a tax should be laid, or by laying a tax where the general interest requires none ; or, finally, by inducing congress to change the duty or tax, either raising or lowering it, by which change manufacturers or importers or speculators may make extraordinary gains. Thus a tax system, whose only proper end is to raise a certain amount of revenue for the government, is often misapplied to providing a bounty for certain favored pursuits, or enabling influential specula- tors to make unjust gains at the cost of the mass of the people. In spite of these abuses, however, it is probable that indirect taxation will remain a favorite means of raising revenue in all countries for a long time to come ; and the citi- zens have no remedy against its abuse, except to insist upon the sound and indisputable principle that the sole proper purpose of taxation is to raise the revenue required by the government ; and to hold legislators to a strict account in this matter. DIFFERENT METHODS OF TAXATION. 28 1 Nations have resorted to peculiar methods of taxation. In the territory of Venice all the arable lands which are given in lease to the farmers, are taxed at a tenth of the rent. The leases are recorded in a public register, which is kept by the officers of revenue in each province or district. When the proprietor cultivates his own lands, they are valued according to an equitable estimation, and he is allowed a deduction of one fifth of the tax, so that for such lands he pays only eight instead of ten per cent of the supposed rent. In Hamburg every inhabitant is obliged to pay to the state one fourth per cent of all that he possesses; and as the wealth of the people of Hamburg consists principally in stock, this tax may be considered as a tax upon stock. Every man assesses himself, and in the presence of the mag- istrate, puts annually into the public coffer a certain sum of money, which he declares upon oath to be one fourth per cent of all that he possesses, but without declaring what it amounts to, or being liable to any examination upon that subject. This tax is generally supposed to be paid with great fidelity. In a small republic, where the people have entire confidence in their magistrates, are convinced of the necessity of the tax for the support of the state, and believe that it will be faithfully applied to that purpose, such conscientious and voluntary payment may sometimes be expected. The canton of Underwald, in Switzerland, is frequentljr ravaged by storms and inundations, and is thereby exposed to extraordinary expenses. Upon such occasions the people assemble, and every one is said to declare with the greatest frankness what he is worth, in order that he may be taxed accordingly. At Zurich the law orders that, in case of necessity, every one should be taxed in proportion to his revenue ; the amount of which he is obliged to declare upon oath. They have no suspicion, it is said, that any of their fellow-citizens will deceive them. At Basle the principal revenue of the state arises from a small custom upon goods exported. All the citizens make oath that they will pay 282 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. every three months all the taxes imposed by the law. All merchants, and even all inn-keepers, are trusted with keeping themselves the account of the goods which they sell either within or without the territory. At the end of every three months they send their account to the treasurer, with the amount of the tax computed at the bottom of it. It is not suspected that the revenue suffers by this confidence. Adam Smith very clearly lays down the qualities which economy demands in every system of taxation. The four following principles contain these qualities : The subjects of every state ought to contribute to the support of the government, as nearly as possible in propor- tion to their respective abilities ; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protec- tion of the state. In the observation or neglect of this maxim consists what is called the equality or inequality of taxation. The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain and not arbitrary. The time of payment, the manner of payment, the quantity to be paid, ought all to be clear and plain to the contributor, and to every other person. Where it is otherwise, every person subject to the tax is put more or less in the power of the tax-gatherer, who can either aggravate the tax upon any obnoxious contributor, or extort by the terror of such aggravation, some present or perquisite to himself. The uncertainty of taxation encourages the insolence and favors the corruption of an order of men who are naturally unpopular, even when they are neither insolent nor corrupt. Every tax ought to be levied at the time, or in the manner, inwhich it is most likely to be convenient for the con- tributor to pay it. A tax upon the rent of land or of houses, payable at the same time at which such rents are usually paid, is levied at a time when it is most likely to be conven- ient for the contributor to pay; or when he is most likely to have wherewithal to pay. Taxes upon such consumable goods as are articles of luxury, are all finally paid by the con- PURPOSES OF TAXATION. 283 sumer, and generally in a manner that is very convenient to him. He pays them by little and Httle, as he has occasion to buy the goods. As he is at liberty, too, either to buy or not to buy, as he pleases, it must be his own fault if he ever suffers any considerable inconvenience from such taxes. Every tax ought to be so contrived as both to take out and to keep out of the pockets of the people as little as pos- sible, over and above what it brings into the public treasury of the state. The methods of indirect taxation used in the United States will be discussed to further extent further on in this work. Taxation, by different methods, having provided means for public consumption, the following purposes are provided for: The first purpose to which public consumption is applied is that of the support and administration of the government. Law and order are grand essentials of good society. On them depend the security of private property and of personal enjoyment. To secure these, officers of various grades and qualifications must be supported. There are a few simple principles which should govern this branch of expenditure. Economy requires, that precisely such talent should be employed, in the various offices of civil government, as may be necessary to insure the discharge of the duties of each office in the best possible manner. Many of these offices can only be discharged successfully by the first order of human talent, cultivated by learning and discipline, and directed by incorruptible integrity. Now it is certainly bad economy, to employ inferior talent to do badly, that which can only be of any service when it is done well. Hence the salaries of judicial, legislative and executive officers should be such as will command the services of such talent as the duties of each office require. It is most unwise parsimony, to give to a judge such a salary as will command the services of nothing more than a third rate lawyer; and it is mean to ask an individual to do a service for the community. 284 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. at a lower rate than that at which he would do it for an individual. A second purpose for which public consumption is used, is that of public and internal improvements. Here are included such things as paving, cleaning and lighting the streets of a city, providing water-works and sewerage, con- structing roads and canals, improving harbors, building and sustaining light-houses. These works confer benefits upon the whole community. It is just, therefore, that they should be paid for out of the common treasury. For them, also, it is often necessary that private property be taken for public use, by the right of eminent domain, a right peculiar to the government. If they would be a profitable investment of capital, individuals would be willing to undertake them. If they would be an unprofitable investment, both parties had better let them alone. The only case in which a govern- ment should assume such works, is that in which their magnitude is tpo great for individual enterprise, or that in which the power which they confer, is too great to be entrusted to private corporations. Whenever they are under- taken, the principles on which the expenditure should be made, are the same as those which govern the expenditure of individuals. Public consumption is in part used for the purpose of advancing science and diffusing intelligence. Nations are greatly enriched by the result of discovery and invention, and hence the whole people are vastly interested in the prog- ress of science and the growth of intelligence. Because this is the case, it is equitable and wise that a portion of the public revenue be devoted to this purpose. To this class of public works belong exploring expeditions, astronomical observations, geological surveys and coast surveys. By the system of storm signals the National Observatory saves, annually, wealth that is exposed to the dangers of the seas, whose value is a hundred-fold that consumed in its main- tenance. Any measure which will increase the general intelligence of a people may wisely be provided for out of PROVISION FOR WAR. 285 the funds for public consumption. The reHef of a certain kind of pauperism may demand a portion of the pubHc con- sumption. The poor we have always with us. Every encour- agement should be given to the exercise of private charity for its relief, because christian beneficence brings a blessing to the giver as well as to the receiver. But there is neces- sity also for some public provision for the poor, to meet some cases which fall outside the range of private benefi- cence, and also to offer some facilities for the poor to do something toward their own support. It is unwise, however, to dispense either public or private charity in a way to encourage pauperism. A last object of public consumption is the defense of the nation. The cheapest defense of nations is justice ; but justice must itself be maintained. The general good is involved in the nation's life. While selfishness rules human hearts as it does, especially in international relations, exigencies will arise when nothing but military force will save a nation's life. Such exigencies must be anticipated by due appropria- tions for forts, and armies and navies, and the various muni- tions of war. When war is enevitable, then no expense is unreasonable which is necessary to prosecute it with the utmost vigor. The whole management of public expenditures should be such as to hold the respect and confidence of the people. Private and'public consumption will, under a wise manage- ment of industry, balance production with always a surplus to export to other portions of the globe. CHAPTER XXIII. DISTRIBUTION — PROPERTY. DISTRIBUTION is that department of polical economy which determines the principles on which the proceeds of industry are divided among the parties concerned in their production. As property is one of the results of indus- try, it is the first thing to be considered. The origin of ownership in land is a question that would be interesting; but the science of economy is concerned only with the fact that it is professedly owned by some persons, and with the doctrine as to who should own it, and how the distribution should be made. There are three theories prevailing relative to the owner- ship of land. The first theory is that of community of prop- erty and equal distribution of the products of industry. The second theory is that of ownership by the government. The third and practical theory is that of individual ownership. In conceiving property in land, and its vested rights as derived from a particular organization of society, we may suppose a community unhampered by any previous pos- session ; a body of colonists, occupying for the first time an uninhabited country, bringing nothing with them but what belonged to them in common, and having a clear field for the adoption of the institutions and polity which they judged most expedient ; required, therefore, to choose whether they would conduct the work of production on the principle of individual property, or on a system of common ownership and collective agency. If the object aimed at would be to hold the land and all instruments of production as the joint property of the com- munity, and to carry on the operations of industry on the common account, the direction of the labor of the com- 286 HORACE GREELEY'S FANCY. 28/ munity would devolve upon a magistrate or magistrates, whom we may suppose elected by the suffrages of the com- munity, and whom we must assume to be voluntarily obeyed by them. The division of the produce would in like manner be a public act. The principle might either be that of com- plete equality, or of apportionment to the necessities or deserts of individuals, in whatever manner might be conform- able to the ideas of justice or policy prevailing in the community. The characteristic name given this theory is communism ; under a somewhat modified form it has assumed in England the name of socialism. The general idea of the teaching of communism or socialism is either that of the entire abolition of private property, or that the land and the instruments of production should be the property, not of individuals, but of communities. The two highest intellectual efforts to give existence to this theory have been called, from the names of their projectors, St. Simonism and Fourierism. The former is defunct as a special system, but ere its death succeeded in sowing the seeds of nearly all the extreme socialist tendencies. Horace Greeley was an enthusiastic advocate of Fourierism, but he discovered that every benevolent fancy could not be successfully applied. Most serious objections arise in every attempt to apply the theory of community of property. One unanswerable objection is that in a system of community of property and equal distribution of products, many persons would be inces- santly striving to evade their fair share of the work, respon- sibilities and duties. Some persons, under any course of training, are determined to be indolent; others strive to reduce to the lowest minimum the amount of work expected of them, for fear they will do a little which should be done by some one else. Another objection which social philoso- phy sees in such a system is, that if every member of the community were assured of subsistence for himself and all his family, in the sole condition of his willingness to work, pru- dential restraint on the multiplication of mankind would 288 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. be at an end, and if this system should become universal, a population would start forward at a rate which would expose humanity to increasing stages of discomfort if not ultimate starvation. Political economy beholds in this system a still greater difficulty. It would be almost impossible to fairly apportion the labor of the community among its members. There are many kinds of labor, and no plan can determine a standard by which they can be measured one against another. It would be impossible to judge how much cotton-spinning, brick-laying or selling of goods should be an equivalent to so much plowing. The difficulty of adjusting different qualities of labor is so strong that communist leaders have advocated that all should work by turns at every description of useful labor: an arrangement which, by putting an end to the division of employments, would sacrifice so much of the advantage of cooperative production as greatly to diminish the productiveness of labor. Besides, even in the same kind of work, nominal equality of labor would be so great a real inequality, that the feeling of justice would revolt against its being enforced. All persons are not equally fit for all labor; and the same quantity of labor is an unequal burden on the weak and the strong, the hardy and the delicate, the quick and the slow, the dull and the intelligent. Notwithstanding these heavy difficulties the community doctrine of property has been supported by such able writers as John Stuart Mill. But it is safe to say that as society is now organized this theory can never become the universally accepted one. The theory of governmental control is similar to that of community of property. The authority of the government is substituted for the management of the community. Gov- ernment officials would direct all industries, manage all work, divide all products equally, and put into a fund for the common good all profits. The same objections which face communism are in the way of this theory, with the additional one that it is not the province of government to manage THE RIGHT OF PRIVATE PROPERTY. 289 industry. The more simple the province of government and the fewer the number of ofificials the better will be the administration of justice, is the cautionary lesson of the history of all government. If in the colony we supposed started, private property were adopted, we must presume that it would be accom- panied by none of the initial inequalities and injustice which obstruct the beneficial operation of the principle in old society. Every full-grown man or woman, we must suppose, would be secured in the unfettered use and disposal of his or her bodily and mental faculties; and the instruments of production, the land and tools, would be divided fairly among them, so that all might start, in respect to outward appliances, on equal terms. It is possible also to conceive that in this original apportionment, compensation might be made for the injuries of nature, and the balance redressed by assigning to the less robust members of the community advantages in the distribution, sufficient to put them on a par with the rest. But the divison, once made, would not again be interfered with ; individuals would be left to their own exertions and to the ordinary chances for making an advantageous use of what was assigned to them. The foundation idea of private property is, that pro- ducers have a right to what they themselves have produced. It consists in the recognition of each person to the right of exclusive disposal of what he or she have produced by their own exertions, or received either by gift or fair agree- ment from those who produced it. The right of property includes, then, the freedom of acquiring by contract. If a man has a right to what he has produced by industry, hon- esty and frugality, he also has an equal right to dispose of what he has acquired as he may please. The right of each to what he has produced implies a right to what has been produced by others, if obtained by their free consent ; since the producers must either have given it from good will, or exchanged it for an equivalent, and to prevent them from doing so would infringe one of the dearest rights of humanity. 19 290 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. Nothing is implied in the system of private property but the right of each person to his own faculties, powers and skill, to what he can produce by them, together with his right to give this by gift or contract to any person if he may please, and the right of that other person to receive and enjoy it. From this it is clear that the father has a full right to distribute his property to his children, at his death, by the form of will or bequest. The right of property, like that of liberty, is a personal right, and not a legal. Man's right to property does not rest inherently in any law favoring this system, but in the fact that property is to be acquired only by personal effort. As freedom must be a quality in all well-regulated labor, so it must be a quality in property which is the result of labor. The value of labor belongs to the man who creates it by his labor, whether this labor be in bond or in manufacturing. It may be said that in most labor as performed in large industries, or in that of the farm laborer, the laborer, as a fact, does not get all he produces, nor should he. It must be remembered that the laborer does not furnish, in these instances, the whole producing force. In the manufacture the doer has no right of possession in the capital invested in the buildings, machinery or material. In the work of the farm he has nothing invested in the capital of the land, animals or machinery. In both these cases he furnishes the labor only, and is entitled only to a proportionate share of the profits. The farmer also owns his farm, and all the force needed to work it, has secured to himself all the results of his labor, including the profits of his investment, as well as the reward for his personal labor. Where a man both owns the capital and performs the labor, the entire accruing result belongs to himself. Where he unites his labor with another man's capital, he forms a partnership, and must share the results of the enterprise with the man furnishing the capital. The right to land is the same in manner and extent as that in any other kind of property. Who shall own the land ? THE LAND QUESTION. 29I is a question that in some countries promises to spring some problems and dangers of dynamite force and terror. There is a definite quantity of land in every country, which cannot be increased ; low lands, and barren hills and deserts, may by different methods be reclaimed, but the acreage is definite and must remain so. Every acre that is taken up by any one leaves so much less for others to occupy. It is a tendency in some countries that all the land will fall into a very few hands. England has a population of thirty-five millions, yet all the land is owned by less than one million men ; and if there is thrown out of the estimate those who merely possess town lots, it is shown that two hundred and sixty-nine thousand five hundred and forty-seven land owners hold the farming lands ; while five thousand persons own fully one half of these lands. The tendency is going on, and the number of land owners is becoming fewer and fewer. Ireland has a population of five and a half millions, and the land is in the hands of thirty-two thousand five hundred and seventy-two persons. In this country there are uncalculated acres still unoccupied, with inexhaustible mines and forests thousands of miles deep, and it appears a far-off trouble with us. But the matter will by and by come up for adjustment. England and Ireland are in danger of an industrial revolution from this very cause. England has tried to grapple with the matter in her dealing with Ireland. The action has been taken by parliament that society can, by its authorized agents, step in between the land holder and his tenant, and put a limit to the right of property in the land. The rents are fixed which the landlords may demand for the use of the soil. Can there be fixed a limit beyond which men cannot go in monopolizing the land of the country? This question will force itself on society more and more. This, above all former times, is an age for amassing great fortunes. Large accumulations of wealth seek to be used as capital. They will be put in investment, used in gifts of benevolence, or lie idle. The latter is condemned by political economy. The 292 THE SCIE^XE OF NAtlONAL LIFE. amount devoted to chanty will, as it should, become larger and larger ; still there will remain immense fortunes, which will demand investment somewhere. Land is considered the most safe and reliable place for money, hence it may be sup- posed that in the future, more than in the present, will wealth, in the hands of the few, purchase in large tracts the land of the country. The tendency will grow by exercise until even a worse condition of the land question may, in the far future, be expected in this country, than England is now troubled over. The remedy for this inequality of property is not the communistic plan of forbiding all property. Society has as a paramount claim the personal rights of its members ; and either by reformation or revolution, society, as a last resort, will secure itself against the evil of monopoly in land. As land is the basis of all wealth, and as there should be as much of a general distribution of this basis as possible, it may be a suggestive question, if there should not be in this country, some kind of legislative limitation against large landed possessions? Gladstone, the most sagacious statesman in the world, has attempted this policy with the land question of Ireland, and with strong show of advantage. May we not suppose that two hundred thousand dollars of capital in land is quite enough for any one person, in order to serve the highest economic interest of the whole people. It might be better if the limit was one hundred thousand dollars. This would not say that a man must limit his wealth to this amount, but only that this must be the limit of his capital invested in land. The highest good of the whole people would establish the right to enact such a law. There might be at least two good results flow from such a policy. In the first place, it would encourage a person of great wealth to seek many and smaller industries for the use of his capital, thus contributing to the life and energy of production, by which the laboring class would be bene- fited. In a second place, it would have an effect on the charitable spirit of this wealthy class, who, finding that there CIVIL PROTECTION OF PROPERTY. 293 would be a limit to the amount of capital they could hold in land, might be interested more generally in plans for gener- ous distribution of their surplus to carry on institutions and movements of social, intellectual • and moral culture of the poorer classes. There is no grander project in this world for a man of wealth, than to systematically contribute annually large sums for these purposes. The rights of property are only secure under a careful civil protection. One of the highest duties of government is that of protection to life and property. In a rude or savage society, a man who wished to accumulate property, had not only to labor to create it, and to exercise self-denial to save it, but he had to devote a considerable part of his time and strength to defending his possessions, as well as his life, against others. To save this last necessity, society and gov- ernments exist, their use being to make life and property secure against attack ; and by a general cooperation and con- tribution of efforts or of means to overawe and punish depre- dators. Armies, navies, the police, the courts, and the body of laws in obedience to which all these act in a free state, are simply means for the protection of life and property, at a cheaper rate, and in a more effective manner, than could be done by individual efforts ; and every nation is, therefore, in this respect, only a great cooperative association, in which each member contributes somewhat from his accumulations or earnings to pay the charges for preserving the rest. It is only by thus delegating the power of protection to a few members of society, that the remainder can get time to produce sufficient for consumption and a surplus — which surplus we call wealth, or capital. And it is only where this protection is effective that men are encouraged to the labor and self-denial necessary to create property or wealth. iL. CHAPTER XXIV. DISTRIBUTION — PUBLIC LANDS — LAND LAWS. THE American government has nowhere shown more wise economic measures than in its provisions for the distribution of its lands among the laboring class of its citizens. The poorest man in this country can become well-to-do within ten years under the distribution laws of public lands. The general government obtained possessions of their lands in the fairest manner : by purchase or treaty with for- eign powers, and from the Indians, and by a praiseworthy cession on the part of the several older states. It is true those tracts might in a certain sense be called ownerless ; but it was in conformity with, and conducive to, good order not to let every one seize upon and appropriate the lands at his own discretion, but to allow the government to proceed with system and method, and promulgate judicious laws respect- ing them. Those individuals who had settled here and there at pleasure were treated with proper fairness and allowed the right of preemption. When greater assumptions on the part of individuals had properly been repulsed, some states preferred the claim that all the land lying within their boundaries belonged to them, and that the general government had nothing to do with it. To this it was replied : Although a territory, when its inhabitants amount to the requisite number, is raised to the rank of a state of the great confederacy, it does not follow that the Union has bestowed or must bestow on it all the public land lying within its borders. The new settlers pos- sess not the slightest right in this respect ; whereas the right of the Union rests on purchase and cession, has never been disputed, but has been confirmed times without number. 294 THE LANDED ESTATE OF GOVERNMENT. 295 Such a partial and inconsiderate bestowal of the public lands would rob the government of one of its principal sources of revenue, cast all the burdens of the state upon the customs, and deprive the older states of what they obtained for their money or by their exertions. They have purchased, defended, surveyed, valued, and brought it into market, and have employed the proceeds for the public good ; the gov- ernment shows itself reasonable enough in claiming no rights of sovereignty within the bounds of an individual state, but only the rights of a private proprietor, while it also assumes the obligations that rest on one. The moderate defenders of the claims of those states responded : Our purpose is not to make an immense dona- tion to them, but to simplify the inappropriate and compli- cated duties of the central administration, to do away with injurious influences, and to put an end to perpetual disputes between congress and the single states. In order, however, to supply the wants of the general government, we will take from the proceeds of the sales conducted by the states so much per centum as remains after deducting the expenses of managing the lands. Should the management and sale of the lands lying in the several states be transferred to them, the sums to be paid to the general government would be augmented rather than diminished, and consequently the Union would not be a loser, but a gainer, by the more active exertions of the states. But the letter and the spirit of the federal constitution point to the revenue arising from land as the first financial resource of the Union ; and, in fact, it would be no misfor- tune if there were no need of any other tax. If, however, at some future period all the public lands should be sold, and this source of revenue be exhausted, the wealth and popula- tion of the country will have been so much increased in the meanwhile that even a far greater amount can be easily raised. Henry Clay said, in one of his speeches : " Every consider- ation of duty to ourselves and to posterity enjoins that we 296 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. should abstain from the adoption of any wild project that would cast away this vast national property, holden by the general government in sacred trust for the whole people of the United States." A system of surveying the public lands was inaugurated as early as 1785 by congress. Since then immense tracts of country have been surveyed, and accurate maps and records filed in the general and district land offices. Before being offered for sale, the unoccupied lands are surveyed in ranges of townships, each six miles square. A township is after- ward divided into thirty-six sections, each section containing one square mile, or about six hundred and forty acres. The divisional mark of the six hundred and forty acre sections is made by lines crossing each other from east to west and from north to south. These sections are further subdivided into quarters of one hundred and sixty acres each, and also eighths (eighty acres) and sixteenths. The surveyors put up distinguishable marks in the field indicating the corner of townships, the sections and quarter sections. Section six- teen of each township is set apart for common schools, and other land for colleges and universities. Two per cent of the purchase money is reserved by the government for the encouragement of learning, and three per cent for the con- struction of roads, together with all salt-springs and lead mines. At first the land was sold in great tracts, and this enticed speculators, who either made a fortune by their operations or turned bankrupt. Now smaller portions, down to forty acres, are offered. About one half the area of the entire country yet remains under the control of the general government as public lands. This would make at least one and a half million square miles of public domain. These public lands are divided into two great classes. The one class have a dollar and a quarter designated as the minimum price, and the other class two dollars and a half, an acre. Titles to these lands may be obtained by private entry, or location under the homestead, preemption and HOW TO SECURE FREE LANDS. 297 timber culture laws ; or, in some cases, by purchase for cash, in the case of lands which may be purchased at private sale, or such as have not been reserved under any law. Such tracts are sold on application to the register of the land office. The homestead laws give the right to one hundred and sixty acres of a dollar and a quarter lands, or to eighty acres of two dollar and a half lands, to any citizen or applicant for citizenship over twenty-one who will actually settle upon and cultivate the land. This privilege extends only to the surveyed lands, and the title is perfected by the issue of a patent after five years of actual settlement. The only charges in the case of homestead entries are fees and com- missions, varying from a minimum of seven dollars to a maximum of twenty-two dollars. A person who has once availed himself of the homestead provision, cannot procure another piece of land at any other office. Nor is a person entitled to the privilege who has in any state or territory an actual unencumbered tract of three hundred and twenty acres ; neither can one who quits or abandons such owner- ship, possess himself of the benefit of the provision. By the homestead law no land acquired under its provisions shall in any event become liable for any debt contracted prior to the issue of the patent therefor. The timber-culture acts of 1873 and 1878 give the right to any settler who has cultivated for eight years as much as five acres in trees, to an eighty acre homestead, or if ten acres, to a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres. The limita- tion of the homestead law to one hundred and sixty acres for each settler is extended in the case of timber culture so as to grant as many quarter sections of one hundred and sixty acres each as have been improved by the culture for ten years of forty acres of timber thereon, but the quarter sections must not lie immediately contiguous. There are no United States taxes levied on these lands. As long as the fee is in the United States there are no taxes whatever, but when the title passes to the state it becomes subject to the local legislative enactments. 298 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. By the timber-culture acts no person can secure more than one grant, and only one hundred and sixty acres in any one section can be entered. If a person making an entry under this act fails to comply with its conditions after one year has expired from date of entry, the entry will be canceled, and the land will become again subject to any of the laws for its possession. Lands under this act, while the title is lodged with the United States, cannot be held liable for debts. The fees for entries are five dollars for an eighty acre tract or less, and ten dollars for a hundred and sixty acre tract. The cultivation of shrubbery and fruit trees does not meet the requirements of this act. In 1844 and 1845, when Texas, which had wrested her independence from Mexico, became a member of the Union, she by treaty expressly reserved her own public lands, which then amounted to nearly two hundred million acres, and also the right of dividing her territory into other states if she saw fit. Texas is so burdened by land speculators that it recently had to repeal the law allowing the owner of property which had been sold for taxes to reclaim it within forty years on payment of the tax purchase price with ten per cent interest. Since that date titles obtained at tax sales have been consid- ered good. The general law of tenancy in the states is that it can be created by implication, agreement, or by lease. The only process to get rid of a bad tenant is by writ of ejectment. Distraining for rent is prohibited by statutes in nearly all the states. Under other enactments, household and personal effects, varying in amount in the different states from two hundred dollars to about three thousand dollars, are protected and cannot be seized and sold for any debt. In this category of exemption from seizure is also included the tools of workmen, and the books or apparatus of profes- sional men. The legal principle involved in all these cases mechanics' liens. • 299 is, that no person should be deprived of the means of sup- porting himself by his own labor. In many of the states there are laws against usury. In New York, if more than seven per cent interest is exacted^ the debtor can plead the usury law, and thus cancel what- ever obligation he may have entered into with a creditor. The rate of interest borrowers on real estate have to pay for money depends altogether on the locality and the condition of the times. The usury laws in most of the states are always got over in some way, either by premiums or by the borrower getting but a fraction of the sum. A married man cannot mortgage his property without his wife's consent, as she is half owner with him. Whenever money is borrowed on mortgage or real estate, the mort- gagee may file the bond in the county record office, where it is transcribed, and the entry thus made is legal notice to all the world. Priority in recording a mortgage (which is marked the minute it is received) entitles the mortgagee to a first lien, although mortgages may have been executed antedating it, but not recorded. There is another feature of the laws affecting land in the states that demands notice. What are called mechanics' liens have, by statute, a priority over all others. A car- penter, mason, or other mechanic who has been engaged in building a house, and who has not received payment for his labor, or for the materials furnished, is entitled to a first lien on the premises as against all comers. The same rule in law extends to the man who erects a fence, builds a barn, or assists in the cultivation of the crops. The courts, by process, protect the workmen in securing the fruit of their labor, and the owner of the land can be restrained from interfering in any way with the property to which there is a claim made by the laborer, until the matter is equitably adjusted. . For this purpose the courts appoint receivers of the property, and on the issue of a suit, the character or amount of the claim made is determined by the court or jury, as the case may be. 300 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. The public lands are not all reserved for distribution among the people ; grants are made for schools and for internal improvements. The most of the states have made grants for the establishment of agricultural colleges, in which farming is taught on scientific methods. Texas has set apart for a state university, two hundred and twenty-one thousand four hundred acres ; and for educational purposes, seventeen thousand seven hundred and twelve acres in each county. With two hundred organized counties, the state has for free schools, over twenty millions of acres. Success has justified the management of the public domain on the part of the national and state governments. There are extensive tracts belonging to the public domain unsuitable for cultivation, but well adapted for graz- ing lands. Their value for grazing purposes has, however, been greatly diminished by claims being made for special spots suitable for watering cattle, and which are necessary for the utilization of the adjoining land. Men make their fortunes by selecting such spots, and then charging a toll for the use of the water. Legislation in this country, as in other parts of the world, is a constant contest between the greed and selfishness of individuals and the public interest, but it must be admitted that brave, and generally successful, attempts have been made to protect the interests of the public ; and no doubt some means will be devised to provide for an equitable use of the enormous districts of grazing land, the value of which has greatly increased since the export of meat has become possible. The great charm which attaches to farming in the United States is that the land is occupied and cultivated by the owners thereof. Men work willingly ^hen they labor for themselves, and bring to bear upon their undertakings a degree of intelligence and energy which under other condi- tions would be unattainable. The economic advantages of such a distribution of the public lands are apparent. They are put at such low prices as to encourage the laborer to purchase. They are open to GREAT CHARM OF AMERICAN FARMING. 30I all alike, on the simple condition of American citizenship ; and this contributes to our national idea of equality. Under this method of disposing of them they are being rapidly taken up, and are already effecting a favorable influence in the production of the country. CHAPTER XXV. DISTRIBUTION — WAGES. THE general term expressing the remuneration of labor is wages, whether it be the daily hire of the hod- carrier, the commission of the traveling agent, the fee of the lawyer, or the salary of the superintendent. Different kinds of labor, and various conditions of the laborer affect the prices pai-d for labor. Labor is either simple or educated. In order to produce simple, or unskilled labor, all that is necessary is muscular strength, resulting from a properly formed body, and a sound mind in ordinary health. But, in order to the production of health and muscular strength, it is necessary that the human being be supplied with food, clothing, shelter, and, at times, with medicine and medical attendance. If a man have nothing to eat to-day, he cannot labor to-morrow. If, for a few days, he be deprived of food, he will inevitably die. If his food be insufficient in quantity, or of improper quality, his strength will diminish, and, of course, the muscular efforts, of which he would be otherwise capable, will be decreased. If this be continued but for a very short time he will become sick, and thus lose the power of laboring altogether. If he be not relieved, he will die. Hence we see, that there is a natural minimum of the cost of labor. The least cost, is that which is sufficient to give the laborer all the necessaries of life. If we give less, we not only diminish the power of labor, but, in a short time, take it away altogether. Hence the mini- mum price of labor does not depend upon the will of employers, but upon those physiological laws which regulate the existence of man. But other considerations tend to raise this minimum 303 THE LOWEST POSSIBLE PRICE OF LABOR. 303 price of labor. The human race is kept in existence by succession. Were it not for rearing children the race would become extinct in three quarters of a century. For several years children are unable to earn anything, and are a burden on the time and wages of the parents. Hence it is neces- sary that the parents receive sufficient wages, not only to provide food, clothing and shelter for themselves, but also for at least two children, until the children are able to support themselves. Another consideration is that the life of man is often prolonged beyond the period when he can labor. In old age he is disqualified for labor. Hence he must either be supported by his children, or else he must, when yet in full strength, accumulate sufficient to support him in his feeble- ness. Hence the wages of simple labor must be sufficient, not only to support the laborer and at least two children, but also to provide for the time when old age prevents labor. If just this much be earned by the laborer it will no more than supply the ravages of death. This, then, is the lowest possible price of simple labor. But it is a fact that the number of children of the poor far exceed this small average of two children to each family. The rich are often childless; the poor rarely are. If the laborer received but enough for two children, all over this number must produce suffering either for themselves or others. If the parental affection is strong, the parent denies himself the necessaries of life, and he soon becomes wasted in strength and unfit for work. If parental care is neglected, the suffering falls directly on the children. This is one rea- son why so many children die in infancy. When a portion of a family are removed by death, a greater amount of the necessaries of life remain for those who survive. So, fre- quently out of a great many births but a few survive. In the Highlands of Scotland it is not seldom that but two children are raised out of a family of twenty. The officers of English military barracks say, that while the children of parents in the barracks are numerous, yet it is seldom that 304 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. enough of them are reared to supply the regiments with drummers and fifers. From these observations it is conckided that the price of unskilled labor at all times ought to be high enough to allow of a comfortable living and for the raising of such a number of children as naturally falls to the lot of the race. And this is affected, too by climate. In northern latitudes there must be a larger portion of animal food in order to endure labor. The Esquimaux live upon animal food entirely. And as animal is more expensive than vegetable food, the northern laborer, on this account, is more expen- sive than the southern. Again: In cold climates clothing is much more expensive. A laborer must provide both winter and summer clothing; he must protect himself from the cold and wet, or he will sicken and die. In cold climates much greater expense is incurred in the erection of houses. A comfortable house in a northern climate costs the labor of several men for several weeks, and of some men of con- siderable skill. In India a day or two is sufficient to erect a bamboo house, which, in that climate, answers tolerably well for the purposes of a habitation. And, besides this, in a cold climate fuel, which must be used for from three to nine months in the year, is a very great item in the bill of annual expense. In warm countries fuel is used for no other purpose than that of cooking; and for this purpose a very small quantity suffices. This, to some extent, accounts for the fact that twenty years ago labor in Batavia, a southern clime, was worth four cents a day. But this is partly the result of the effect of climate on the constitution. The enervating nature of a warm climate unfits for labor. The rigor of the northern climate compels men to energy, and invigorates them for continued effort. An illustration of this is seen in the fact that cotton is carried from India and sold to northern manu- facturers, and then carried back to India and sold cheaper than it can be made by the native workmen. A large portion of the labor of a civilized country must WHY SKILLED LABOR IS HIGH. 305 be skilled or educated labor. It requires a special training. This adds to the cost of labor. The skilled laborer must spend several years in acquiring a knowledge of his trade. During this time he is earning nothing. Now his wages, at compound interest, if he had been at profitable labor, would amount to a considerable sum, especially if they had been invested in capital which might have been united with his own labor. He is entitled, therefore, to such an addition to his wages as would pay the interest upon this amount. Besides, in many cases, the learner not only earns nothing, but is obliged to feed and clothe himself. This amount is to be added to the capital which he has expended, and for which his wages should pay the interest. Nor is this all. The learner is frequently obliged to pay a large sum for instruction. This, also, is to be added to his investment, for which he is to be paid when we employ him. Thus, in the learned professions, a student is obliged, commonly, to spend two or three years in preparing for college, to spend four years in college, and three years in professional studies, before he is admitted to practice. During the whole of these nine or ten years, in which he earns nothing, he must be fed, clothed and furnished with books, and must pay a very considerable sum to his instructors for tuition. He must, in most cases, also possess the means to meet all these expenses before he commences. Now, had he used such a sum skillfully from the time at which he commenced to that at which he concluded his studies, it would have amounted to a small competency. He is, therefore, fairly entitled, in addition to. the price of simple labor, to such wages as would pay the interest of whatever such a sum would have amounted to had it been used with ordinary skill. Wages which, in addition to the price of simple labor, would pay the interest of whatever is expended in procuring the necessary education would, hence, be the lowest cost of such labor. And it is manifest also, that these should vary with the cost of the investment necessary for acquiring the skill. Thus the wages of him who was obliged to sustain 20 ,j^^.. 306 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. himself while a learner should be higher than those of him who, though he earned nothing, was fed and clothed by his teacher. The wages of him who was obliged to pay for his tuition, should be higher than those of him who, though he fed and lodged himself, received his tuition for his services. And if such wages be not generally paid, such labor will not ordinarily be produced. Parents who have capital to bestow upon their children, are generally desirous of investing it to the best advantage. If the capital necessary to furnish a professional education will not improve the condition of a child, the parent will not invest the money in a professional education, but will employ it for the advantage of his child in some other way. In this manner the supply of such labor will be diminished, until necessity obhges men to offer greater inducements to produce it. The remuneration of skilled labor is not merely deter- mined by the time, expense and work of acquiring that skill, but as well by the usefulness to which it can be turned. Two men may have spent the same time, given the same amount of work, and paid out the same sum of money, to acquire their education, yet one receives twice the pay for his services as the other. The scale of remuneration for educated services is affected by the development and utility of real merit. In the learned professions men of the highest ability and repute receive extraordinary remuneration, simply because such men distance competition and custom. Merit of the highest order can claim any reward. After the reputation has been achieved through merit and effort, lecturers like Greeley and Tilton, lawyers like Webster and Choate, and physicians like Mott and Parker, would be overwhelmed with business if they did not limit ifc by high charges. George Stephenson is an illustration of this reward of merit. He began his career as an engine-boy at the lowest wages. As his mechanical genius was developed, he was made an engine-wright, and put upon a salary of a hundred pounds a year, when he thought his fortune was made. But GREAT DEMAND FOR UNSKILLED LABOR. 307 by patient study and labor he invented the locomotive- engine, and became the promise of the railroad. Then the services of his later years received munificent remuneration. The world, enjoying unspeakable benefits from his achieve- ments, pronounces that remuneration justly and worthily bestowed. The demand for unskilled labor is more imperative than for skilled labor, because it is unskilled labor, mostly, which conducts the great operative industries. Every one in a community must have at every hour of his life the results of that labor which produces food, clothing, fuel and shelter; and as all these articles perish with the using, the demand is not only imperative but unremitting. Now, such being the fact, he who possesses capital knows that if he can transform it into such products he can always reasonably anticipate a profit. But he cannot transform it into such products without labor. Hence, as incessant and imperative as is the demand for the necessaries of life, so incessant and imperative must be the demand of the cap- italists for that labor, by means of which alone they are produced. If a community need clothing, and a capitalist has all the means for making clothing, and wants nothing but workifnen to create the product, just in proportion to the demand for clothing will be his demand for the work- men, by whose agency alone this demand can be supplied and his capital rendered profitable. Such being the fact, there must always be a demand for such labor ; hence, when there is any capital, such labor will always bring something. Every capitalist will wish to employ all his capital, either in skilled or unskilled labor. If the number of laborers be insufficient to supply the demand, there will be a competi- tion among capitalists for laborers, and they will offer higher wages: that is, rather than have any portion of their capital useless, they will offer a larger share of the profits to the laborer. The first class of workmen will all be employed at a high price, and a portion of the second class will be raised 308 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. one grade, in order to supply the demand. The second class will, then, be still more insufficient to supply the demand for their description of labor, and their wages will rise, and the increased deficiency be supplied from the third class. And, at last, those who were before employed only at simple labor will be taught and employed in educated labor ; and thus the whole class of workmen will be raised one grade in labor and in wages. And the reverse will take place in the opposite case. Suppose the number of laborers be too great to be em- ployed by the existing amount of capital. A capitalist, whofee capital will occupy but one hundred, cannot employ one hundred and fifty laborers. Hence there will be a competition among laborers for work. After as many of the first class have been employed as are needed, there will remain a portion of them out of work. These must fall into the second class, and receive tlie second rate of wages. This will cause an excess still greater in the second class ; their wages will fall, and a greater number will fall into the third class. The lowest class will thus be supplied from the classes above it, and it must betake itself to simple labor, or labor of the cheapest kind ;• while many of those whose only support is derived from simple labor must be out of employment either wholly or in part : that is, the whole class" of laborers will fall one grade, and their wages will depreciate in proportion. Hence, we see, that at any given time and place the demand for labor and the wages of labor will be in the proportion to the ratio that the active capital of a country bears to the number of laborers in that country. But wages are affected otherwise than by the influence of large or small capital. Whenever in any country capital is removed from one kind of an employment to another, the wages in that form of labor to which capital is transferred, will be raised. Thus, if a people find it for their interest to employ their capital in manufactures, instead of navigation, the wages of manufacturers will rise, and those of sailors will fall. This will continue until the demand for manufacturing THE RATIO OF WAGES. 309 labor is supplied. But when the current is once set in any direction, it frequently continues to move after the force which was originally applied has ceased. Hence it will fre- quently happen, that a change of this sort will abstract from navagation too large a number of laborers, so that there will not be a sufficient supply to meet even the diminished demand. In this case the wages of seamen will rise again, somewhat above the proper average. Again, the price of labor is affected by the ease or diffi- culty, the honor, or absence of honor, accompanying the employment. When the employment, for instance, requires great mus- cular effort, the number of persons who can accomplish it is comparatively small. This diminishes the supply, and, of course, increases the price. When this is the case, as men are not usually attracted by the prospect of hard labor, a smaller number apply for this kind of employment. This still further diminishes the supply. Hence, the price will rise, as the wages must be increased sufficiently to overcome this repugnance. On the contrary, when the labor is easy, the number of persons both able and willing to perform it is increased ; thus the supply is large and wages fall in proportion. The same effect is produced by the general estimation of the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the employment. Any kind of industry, which from necessity is uncleanly, commands higher wages than one which can be performed without interfering with personal neatness. One which is considered disgraceful can be supplied with laborers only by paying an unusual price. Labor in which reposes large confidence, commands high wages. Whenever a great amount of capital is invested, it must, to a great degree, be placed under the management of one or two agents. If the confidence is abused, the whole is liable to be lost. This confidence, which is the union of judgment with incorruptible integrity, is rarely found. The demand is imperative and the supply is small ; consequently 3IO THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. the wages of such persons are high. Doctor Wayland says this is one of the rewards God bestows upon wisdom and virtue. Another circumstance which affects the price of wages is the certainty or uncertainty of success. In most of the ordinary avocations of life, if a man acquire the requisite skill, he will invariably find employment. In the professions it is not so. Those who have prepared themselves at great expense for the practice of a profession, unable to find employment, sometimes relinquish it for another pursuit. When such a risk exists, the wages of labor should be greater, for the laborer is entitled to a remuneration for the risk of this loss of time and of capital. Competition is the controlling circumstance affecting the price of labor. Many laborers are seeking wages, and high wages at the same time ; many capitalists are seeking profits as large as possible ; competition is active in proportion to the comparative numbers on either side. If the number of laborers is large in proportion to the employment offered, a sharp competition arises between those seeking work. Each, rather than lose his chance for wages, will lower the rate at which he will contract. If the number of employers is large, with a large amount of capital in proportion to the number of laborers, a sharp competition arises among employers. Each, rather than lose his chance for anticipated profits, will raise the rate of wages he is willing to pay. If, for any reason, the wages in a particular branch of industry rise above the ordinary rate, a speedy rush of laborers into that employment intensifies competition till the wages are brought down. On the other hand, if a particular branch of production yields profits above the ordinary rate, there comes a rush of employers with their capital into that business; wages are raised, and products are multiplied and cheapened till profits are brought down to the ordinary level. Competition thus tends to bring wages and profits to an equilibrium most favorable to the interests of all. In the USELESSNESS OF COMBINATIONS. 311 nature of things, competition is inevitable: it has a blessing in it, and it is simply absurd to ignore or condemn it. Labor unions frequently attempt to regulate wages, by resisting competition in two ways: First, by promoting and sustaining strikes, in which they are likely to aggravate the evils already referred to, because under them the strike is better organized and more domineering. They are apt also to insist on uniformity of wages irrespective of the varying abilities and efficiency of different workmen, which involves injustice to superior artisans as well as to employers. Secondly, by restricting apprenticeship, which is simply an attempt to rule out free competition and give to a limited number of persons a monopoly of certain forms of skilled labor. This involves the injustice and mischief which are inherent in the very principle of monopoly. If generally carried out, it would set the various branches of industry in antagonism to each other, and tend, as Mr. Brassey says, "to establish that subdivision of caste which has been the great curse of India." On the other side, combinations of employers are often formed to resist competition. Such combinations sometimes attempt to regulate the prices of products, creating a monopoly in the general market. They sometimes try to regulate wages by agreements not to pay above certain rates. This is an abuse of the power of capital, in an effort to dictate terms. It produces in the laborer a feeling of injury and promotes antagonism between labor and capital. Such combinations seldom succeed in controlling wages except for very brief periods. To be effective, the combina- tion must embrace all who are engaged in a particular industry, and also all the capital likely to be drawn into it. If the wages fixed by the combination are so low as to make the profits larger than those of other forms of business, free capital will rush in and bid for laborers by raising wages, thus renewing competition and defeating the end sought. Experience shows that combinations on either side, to pre- vent free competition, cannot, for any long time, materially 312 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. influence the rates of wages. Such attempts interfere with the natural law of supply and demand, which is the grand regulator of wages for the best interest of all concerned. When issues arise between the parties to the labor-contract, the surest way to a fair adjustment is by frank mutual explanations, or, in the last resort, by joint reference to just arbitration. In most cases the occasion of difficulties may be forestalled by the culture of mutual good will in active cooperation for the common good, intelligently apprehended and prosecuted on both sides. If competition were universally free and fair, it would do much to remove present inequalities of condition, and the burdens and the benefits of human industry would be equally distributed. But over-reaching selfishness is contin- ually interfering with competition to make it neither free nor fair. The great principle of justice to all, as true in economics as in morals, should be accepted as the best arbiter in these controverted cases of labor wages, and it is only by an appeal to this, with freedom for both capital and labor, that they will adjust themselves. The wages paid female labor are lower than for male labor. The fact is known as existing everywhere. The causes for this are various. Some just, others unjust. In physical organism and mental constitution woman is not so well qualified as man for all kinds of labor. Woman has not the strength to work in the spinning-room of a cotton factory, and here man's labor only is in demand. In the weaving- room of the same factory woman's labor is mostly used, because she can tend the loom as well as man, and her labor is cheaper. In all positions needing the ability to calmly meet exigencies and unexpected dangers, man is wanted, as not one woman in a hundred is calm in the moment of surprise and emergency. As society is now organized, woman's true sphere is regarded as being that of the home, a help to the husband, a builder of child character, a priestess of comfort, a dispenser of all those finer joys which are the chief glory of a sweet WOMAN'S LABOR. 313 home life. This common belief creates the impression that is it unwomanly to enter the heavy fields where jostle the ways of labor. There are feminine instincts which prompt women to draw back from many occupations because they are coarse, or involve too rough jostling with the world. These instincts are natural, and when they are crushed out the charm of womanhood is gone. Yet the prevailing tendency is to make them excessive, so as to produce a morbid sentiment of false delicacy. In labor in which woman is as well qualified as man, there is no just reason why she should not receive the same remuneration. In that in which she is not as well qualified, and which she does in an inferior manner, there is no just reason why her remuneration should not be less, and political economy demands that it should be so. We shall conclude the discussion of wages by pointing out the effect upon them of a direct or indirect tax. If those commodities are taxed which are consumed by the laborer, or a direct tax is levied upon his income, as the burden falls in common on all laborers, there is no oppor- tunity to escape it by any rise in prices. If the whole or any portion of it is removed from the laborer, it must be at the expense of the capitalist, and by a readjustment of the division of their mutual fund. But a new apportionment can only be effected by a change in one of the elements which control it. If laborers are to have more, there must be either a decrease in their numbers, or an increase in reference to those numbers, of capital. In each case, it must be the result of their own prudence. If, then, the laboring class is pressed below its wonted standard of com- forts by taxation, only a fresh effort of prudence can restore them to their lost social rank. It is plainly just that labor should bear a portion of the expense of the government which protects it ; but when that government has forgotten to cherish its most valuable and dependent agent, that agent can, nevertheless, protect itself, and throw back the 314 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. burden on capital, by rigorous self-control. Indeed, without self-control the laboring classes will become the pack-horse whose capacious panniers will bear the whole burden of misery. The wages of skilled and educated labor, which come in liberal salaries and large incomes, seem a very appropriate object of taxation. The agents which this kind of labor employs being immaterial are not open to taxation, and hence, owing to the absence of those means by which wealth is ordinarily acquired, a large revenue derived from educated labor may exist under a property tax merely, without con- tributing to the common burden. Farmers and manufact- urers are taxed on their farms and buildings, and the instruments by which their income is realized ; when these instruments cannot be reached, it is sufificiently just that the income realized should take their place. If a mechanic with buildings pertaining to his trade should pay a yearly tax, it is fit that a lawyer with a net revenue much exceeding his, though without such buildings, should pay a corresponding tax. \ CHAPTER XXVI. DISTRIBUTION — INTEREST. SUPPOSE a man be qualified to work in both simple and skilled labor. For simple labor he requires noth- ing but health, and the use of his body; in skilled labor he must have tools or machinery. If, in this supposed case, the laborer be so poor he cannot own a set of tools, though he is a fine mechanic he can only work at some low form of labor. His unskilled labor is worth only about one dollar per day. If he be a carpenter suppose some one loan him a set of tools, by which he can avail himself of his skill. His labor will now become vastly more productive ; that is, he can, in a given time, create a vastly greater amount of value than before, and will, of course, receive a much larger recom- pense. If his simple labor were worth one dollar per day, his labor and skill will now probably be worth at least two dollars; that is, the capital which he uses has at least doubled his wages. This, at the rate of three hundred working days in a year, would be equal to three hundred dollars, which he receives for the use of the capital which was loaned to him. Suppose that this capital were worth, originally, five hundred dollars, and that he paid for the use and wear and tear of it, ten per cent per year ; he might then pay fifty dollars for the use of it and have two hundred and fifty dollars net profit, over and above the wages which his simple labor could earn. In two years he might, besides paying the interest, pay for the whole capital, and thus own it himself. He would then be entitled to all the profit derived from the three several sources: First, his labor; secondly, his skill ; and thirdly, the use of the capital, upon which his labor was employed. But this is not the ordinary way in which capital is borrowed. It is much more common and much more con- 315 ^Sj^r, 3l6 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. venient for him who wishes to borrow the capital with which to employ his skill, to borrow it in the form of money, which he immediately transforms into that kind of capital which his occupation requires. Hence contracts of this kind are always estimated in money. And hence interest is the price of money. From this it is clear that the laborer may derive very great benefit from the loan of money. He is enabled in this way to employ advantageously all his skill, and this alone for a few years is very frequently the commencement of a fortune. It is evident, then, that capital loaned should be paid for. Interest is no extortion and no unreasonable demand. It is for the advantage of the skillful laborer to borrow it, at a reasonable interest, as much as it is for the advantage of the capitalist to loan it ; and it is as much for the advantage of the laborer as the capitalist, to enter into that partnership by which they share the profits of the operation between them. It is by reason of this partnership, that the laborer receives the wages of skill instead of the wages of mere physical force ; and the capitalist is able to employ all his capital in production, instead of employing only that portion of it which he could employ with simply his own personal industry and skill. There are four things which chiefly determine the rate of interest. These are risk, convenience, profits, and the ratio between supply and demand. When a man loans money, he puts it out of his own hands into the control of another. There is, in this, always the risk of money being lost. Now, the greater this risk, the greater will be the interest which a capitalist may justly demand. He who would loan to one man at six per cent, when he was sure of being repaid, would not, surely, loan to another man at the same rate, when there were fifty chances in a hundred that he would lose both principal and interest. This risk of having money lost in lending it, depends on several things. The character of the person to whom it is siven is one circumstance which affects a risk. A man with WHY INTEREST CHANGES ITS RATE. 317 whom it will always be safe to entrust money, must be a person of industry, frugality, business tact and moral integ- rity. He must have an honest employment, which he con- ducts in an honest and wise manner. Saloon-keepers, as a rule, pay a higher rate of interest than the dry goods or drug men on the same street. It is almost impossible for the known gambler to borrow money from bank or private citizen. The man borrowing money must, to make the risk only ordinary, be a man of conscientious scruples, who has no desire to evade the laws made in the interest of the lender. Such a man can procure money at six per cent easier than a man of the opposite moral make up could at eight per cent. The risk incurred in lending money is determined by the character of the government. If justice be well administered, and every man have all reasonable security that he will have the whole power of the society at his disposal, in order to enforce a just contract, of course the risk is less and the rate of interest lower than when experience. has shown, that no such security exists. Hence is seen the economy of good legislation, and of a wise, just and incorruptible judiciary. The additional interest on capital, incurred in consequence of the bad admmJstration of justice in a country, would annually pay the expenses of all the courts of law, ten times over. Where the laws restrain commerce and tend to harrass progress, trade is dull and capital is at no special advantage in any investment. The same results flow from confidence, or the want of confidence in the stability of a government. A revolution not unfrequently dissolves contracts, dissipates security, and renders obligations valueless, both by destroying the evidence of their existence and annihilating the means of enforcing them. Hence, when such an event is feared, men will not loan except at an exorbitant premium, and they generally prefer removing their property to some other country, to subjecting it for any premium whatever to the risks of a revolution. 3l8 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. The rate of interest is affected by the convenience of investment, and this convenience is enhanced by facihty, permanency and punctuality. In loaning rfioney there is an advantage in having it available at any time. A facility of transfer, by which the money can be lifted at any time needed, will tend to reduce the interest. If a man loan at six per cent, for two years, he may, in six months, find some investment in which it would yield him eight per cent ; but, having loaned it for two years, he cannot now withdraw it. Hence it is a great advantage if it can be so invested that he may, without loss, recall it at any moment. If a man does not want to use his money he desires a permanent investment, because he is thus saved the loss of interest which would occur during the time of transfer, and the trouble and inconvenience of finding another borrower. This is of special benefit to widows, orphans, persons retired from business, and all those persons who wish not to labor with their own capital themselves, but only to live upon the interest of it. Punctuality in the payment of interest affects the rate. It is a great convenience to those who invest capital to be able to calculate with certainty on the payment of interest. They can thus with ease adjust their expenses, both to the amount of their income and to the time of their receipt of it. If they wish to reinvest the interest, they can make their arrangements with certainty, and thus invest it with the greatest advantage. They are also saved the trouble of looking after their debtor, and they avoid the inconvenience of that personal altercation, which is liable to arise respect- ing pecuniary transactions. British consols, which represent the consolidated debt of England, run at from three to four per cent interest, because they combine these three advantages in the form of invest- ment they offer. For the same reason, our United States bonds are eagerly bought up at a premium, though they bear only four or four and a half per cent interest. USURY LAWS. 319 The profits of industry affect, to some extent, the rate of interest. This is determined by the borrower. He must consider what he can afford to pay, and that evidently must depend on the profit he can gain by the use of capital. If, as sometimes happens, a business yields so large profits that the capital is doubled in a year, one can well afford to pay twenty-five or even fifty per cent for capital to be employed in such a business ; whereas, if through any cause a particu- lar industry yields only three per cent of profit, one cannot pay even six per cent for capital to be embarked in that business. The relation between supply and demand produces the same effect upon the rate of interest as upon everything else. Whatever be the profit of capital, if the supply be very small, the price will rise in proportion ; since he, who by employing it at a high price can make a small profit, will rather so employ it than, by doing without it, make no profit at all. If the supply be large enough, or too large, to meet the demand, the price will be low. Usury laws — that is the attempt of the government to regulate the rate of interest — are an injustice here, as they are in their effect elsewhere. A man has the same natural right to ask ten per cent for his money, as he has to ask ten dol- lars per month rent for a house, and the right to take it if he can get it. It is hard to discover a principle by which law can fix a price for money, any more than it can fix a price by which iron or coal must be sold. Money is a necessity of life in active industry and trade, and for that reason it ought to be left free to the action of the natural law of supply and demand. In active commercial centres this is coming to be understood. Every state should have a statute defining a legal rate of interest for cases in which the contract indicates no specific rate. Beyond this, legal sanction and security for all reasonable contracts in loaning capital, under free competition, constitute the surest safeguard against excessive interest. Massachusetts has lately abolished usury laws, and it was a wise measure. CHAPTER XXVII. DISTRIBUTION — RENT. RENT is the price paid for the use of land. It imphes ownership of land, and a right on the part of the owner to receive a compensation for its use when he lets it to another. In England, and in all countries where the influence of the old feudal system is still felt, the questions of rent are perplexing, because the titles to lands are encumbered by entails and other claims. In the United States, land is held in fee simple, and the ownership is absolute ; and consequently the problems of rent are more simple. In England, where the land is held by a few men, rent is almost the effect of a monopoly. Mills says it is altogether so. The reason why land owners are able to require rent for their land is, that it is a commodity which many want, and which no one can obtain but from them. If all the land of the country belonged to one person, he could fix the rent at his pleasure. The whole people would be dependent on his will for the necessaries of life, and he might make what conditions he chose. This is the actual state of things in those oriental kingdoms in which the land is considered the property of the state. Rent is then confounded with taxes, and the despot may exact the utmost which the unfortunate cultivators have to give. The exclusive possessor of a country could not be anything else than a landed despot. For agricultural purposes, the amount of rent which land will command must depend mainly on its productiveness; and this productiveness is determined by the fertility and situation of the land. Fertility is the first consideration with reference to rent. The productiveness of different soils is very diverse. Some 330 HOW FERTILITY AFFECTS RENT. 32 1 soils will produce thirty or forty bushels of wheat to the acre, while others will produce, at the cost of more labor, not more than ten or fifteen bushels to the acre. Some soils will produce the most valuable vegetables ; and others, bnly the most common and comparatively worthless. Some soils will produce no wheat whatever; and others will, without manuring, produce a luxuriant crop, every year. Some, wholly unfit for tillage, can be used only for grazing; and even when thus employed, yield to their stinted flocks but a meagre subsistence. Here is a reason for great diversity in the price of land. A farmer might, with profit, pay a heavy rent for one farm, and with poor policy occupy another farm for nothing. There is land, such as the deserts of Arabia, which will yield nothing to any amount of labor; and there is land, like some of our hard sandy heaths, which would produce something, but in the present state of the soil, not enough to defray the expenses of production. Such lands, unless by some application of chemistry to agriculture still remaining to be invented, cannot be cultivated for profit, unless some one actually creates a soil by spreading new ingredients over the surface, or mixing them with the existing materials. If ingredients fitted for this purpose exist in the sub-soil, or close at hand, the improvement even of the most unpromis- ing spots may answer as a speculation, and in time become productive. The interior, or lake district of Florida, in its natural condition, will raise nothing. The soil is a light, white sand, without any sub-soil. Yet by fertilizing it becomes very productive; and the orange gardens of the world promise to be in this very section. The situation of land is a second important element in the value of rent. If a farmer, living one mile from market, can put his grain in the market for one cent per bushel, and another man, ten miles from market, must be at a cost of five cents a bushel to market his grain, the man living but one mile from market would have an advantage of market worth just four cents on every bushel of grain he sells. This 31 322 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. makes the rent of the land one mile from market worth about four per cent more than that of the land laying ten miles from market. The opening of railroads enhances rent by bringing produce within easy run of the markets. Beauty of situation, good neighborhood, and proximity to schools and churches, are also minor considerations of more or less weight in determining the rents of agricultural lands. In the United States, land is quite frequently rented on shares ; that is, the owner receives for the use of his land a certain proportion of the produce of the land. In this case, the owner shares with the renter the risks as well as the profits of the labor of farming. In cities, rents for lots and buildings are determined almost entirely by location, with respect to centres of busi- ness, the character of the neighborhood, and the freaks of fashion. A store in the centre of business will rent for much more than one half a mile off, because a merchant there will sell ten times as many goods as in the other location. A residence in a respectable or fashionable quarter of the city commands the highest rent, because it secures pleasant sur- roundings, or gratifies pride and vanity. With the growth of cities, the centres of business and the fashionable quarters are subject to change from time to time, so as materially to vary the rent value of property; and this fact needs to be considered when capital is invested in that form. The value of the rent on land having a water power or mine, depends on the principles of fertility and situation just the same as agricultural lands. A water-fall provides for the manufacturer a constant supply of power, which he can use by means of very simple machinery. Suppose the interest of capital employed in the construction of furnaces and steam machinery, and the annual expense for fuel and attendance in a given situation, were one thousand dollars, and the same power could be procured at the same place by appropriating a water-fall, by means of machinery, of which the interest was no more than one hundred dollars, the labor THE WISDOM OF INSURANCE. 323 of the water-fall would be worth nine hundred dollars per year. Hence, supposing it to be in a situation in which there was a demand for this power, the land which gave the legal right to the use of it would possess a value proportioned to the value of the power. A water-fall is a mine of power, a bed of ore is a mine of metal. If a piece of land has on it a mine of great produc- tiveness and of a good quality of ore, and it be so situated as to be within easy reach of market, the value of the rent of that land will be immensely increased. In all variations of land it may be laid down as a maxim of political economy that rent varies with the value of the land. As rent covers the price of the use of the land, it includes the buildings as well as the soil. These are destructible, and are liable to be destroyed. This risk must be covered by some provision. In some instances it is provided for by the rent being raised high enough to cover this risk, as well as pay for the use of the soil. In other instances it is secured by insurance. The risk of property being destroyed, especially m a city, may be estimated. When this risk is known it may be ■carried by the owner, or he pay a company for bearing it for him. This has no effect upon the amount of the loss, in case of fire, or destruction in any way. If a ship and cargo worth one hundred thousand dollars be sunk, precisely one hundred thousand dollars' worth of value is destroyed. The only effect of insurance is to make the loss fall upon one person instead of upon another. The benefit of this transfer con- sists in this, that the loss is thus equalized. It is better for a community to divide a given loss among a great number of persons, than to suffer it to fall exclusively upon one. And hence, inasmuch as every one has the power of avoid- ing risk, by paying a small premium; every one whose property is small, and liable to be lost by a single accident, is negligent if he suffer it to remain a moment uninsured. As insurance has no effect upon the fact of loss, the higher the premium of insurance the greater is the annual loss to a 324 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. country ; because it shows us how great an amount of prop- erty is annually destroyed. Hence a sound policy would always dictate the importance of taking every means to reduce the rate of insurance as low as possible. This can be done only by reducing the risk of the accidental destruction of property. On this account, the abundant supply of water is a matter of inestimable economical importance to a city. The difference in the amount annually paid for insurance by the two cities of New York and Philadelphia is enormous. CHAPTER XXVIII. DISTRIBUTION — PROFITS. IT is expected that a successful business will more than pay for all the expenses in running it ; it is expected that it will produce a surplus or profit. To whom does this profit belong? All the parties entering into the business have been rewarded for their labor or capital. It is evident, as industry is organized in this country, that the profit belongs to the parties who undertook the enterprise, bore the risk, and owned the affair. It is this expected profit which induces the planning and execution of business enterprises, and compensates for the risks undertaken. Profit is the net proceeds, expressed in money values, after all the necessary expenses of production have been deducted. These several items are to be included in the necessary expenses of production. To expenses must first be counted the cost of all material used in production, wages paid for simple and skilled labor of all kinds, salaries paid for management of all kinds, interest on capital invested, insurance to cover risks by destruction of property, a proper amount for wear of machinery, with taxes paid on the capital or on the business. If the products of an industrial establishment provide for these expenses, and nothing more, the business just sustains itself, but it yields no profits. In such a case, since all parties get their legitimate compensation, they may be satisfied to run on so for years. But in general, the expec- tation of profits is the necessary stimulus of enterprising industry, and the aim is to make profits as large as possible. The lowest rate of profit which can permanently exist is that which is barely adequate, at the given place and time, to afford an equivalent for the abstinence, risk and exertion 335 326 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. implied in the employment of capital. From the gross profit has first to be deducted as much as will form a fund sufficient on the average to cover all losses incident to the employment. Next, it must afford such an equivalent to the owner of the capital for forbearing to consume it as is then and there a sufficient motive to him to persist in his abstinence. Further, after covering all losses and remunerating the owner for forbearing to consume, there must be something left to recompense the labor and skill of the person who devotes his time to the business. This recompense, too, must be sufficient to enable at least the owners of the larger capitals to receive for their trouble, or to pay to some manager for his, what to them or him will be a sufficient inducement for undergoing it. If the surplus is no more than this, none but large masses of capital will be employed productively ; and if it did not even amount to this, capital would be withdrawn from production and unproductively consumed, until, by an indirect consequence of its dimin- ished amount, to be explained hereafter, the rate of profit was raised. When one combines in himself the functions of operator, manager and capitalist, wages, salary, interest and profits, if there be any, all come to him. No question of distribution arises ; but even in such a case it is well for one to keep his accounts so as to define what is properly to be reckoned as wages for labor, salary for management and interest for capital ; only so can the profits of the business be accurately estimated. Though a common usage, it is yet a serious error to express the measure of profits in a business by a percentage on the capital invested, as though the profits belong exclu- sively to the capitalist. In many cases the labor is of more account than the capital. A shoemaker, with a capital of five hundred dollars, may, by untiring industry through a year, make his proceeds count a hundred per cent on that amount, and yet receive an insufficient return for his labor. WHAT AFFECTS PROFITS. 327 Twenty per cent on five hundred thousand dollars invested in a great manufacturing establishment may pay well for labor and management and ordinary interest on capital, with a large margin for profits. Hence it is often better for one to work for wages or a salary in connection with a large establishment rather than attempt an independent business. It is much more difficult to realize a profit from a small capital than from a large one. A small capital does not pro- duce profits in proportion to the amount of care and labot bestowed, that a large one will. A huckster, with his apples, may realize a return of several hundred per cent, and not more than pay the labor bestowed ; a wholesale dealer may find the wages of this kind of labor reduced to one half or one fourth per cent on all the capital employed. In the last case, the returns are almost all profits; in the first case, almost all wages. Twenty per cent, with a capital of ten thousand dollars, may give no higher profits than seven per cent, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars. He who has a very large capital, if he can find a business that will absorb it all, is willing to accept returns relatively small, since the superintendence of a single individual may be sufficient, and the risk is uniform. Profit is affected by the amount of risk connected with a business. The profits of a gunpowder manufacturer must be considerably greater than the average, to make up for the peculiar risks to which he and his property are constantly exposed. When, however, as in the case of a marine advent- ure, the peculiar risks are capable of being, and commonly are, commuted for a fixed payment, the premium of insur- ance takes its regular place among the charges of produc- tion, and the compensation which the owner of the ship or cargo may receive for that payment does not appear in the estimate of his profits, but is included in the replacement of his capital. The portion, too, of v the gross profit, which forms the remuneration for the labor and skill of the dealer or pro- ducer, is very different in different employments. This is 328 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. the explanation always given of the extraordinary rate of apothecaries' profit ; the greatest part, Adam Smith ob- serves, being frequently no more than the reasonable wages of professional attendance, for which, until a late alteration of the law, the apothecary could not demand any remunera- tion, except in the prices of his drugs. Some occupations require a considerable amount of scientific or technical education, and can only be carried on by persons who com- bine with that education a considerable capital. Such is the business of an engineer, both in the original sense of the term a machine-maker, and in its popular or derivative sense, an undertaker of public works. These are always the most profitable employments. There are cases again in which a considerable amount of labor and skill is required to conduct a business necessarily of limited extent. In such cases a higher than common rate of profit is necessary to yield only the common rate of remuneration. I.n a small sea-port town, a grocer will make forty or fifty per cent upon a stock of a five hundred dollars, while a considerable wholesale merchant in the same place will scarcely make eight or ten per cent upon a stock of ten thousand. The trade of the grocer may be necessary for the convenience of the inhabitants, and the narrowness of the market may not admit the employment of a larger capital in the business. The man, however, must not only live by his trade, but live by it suitably to the qualifications which it requires. Besides possessing a little capital he must be able to read, write and account, and must be a tolerable judge, too, of perhaps fifty or sixty different sorts of goods, their prices, qualities, and the markets where they are to be had cheapest. From one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars a year cannot be considered as too great a recompense for the labor of a person so accomplished. Deduct this from the seemingly great profits of his capital, and little more will remain, per- haps, than the ordinary profits of stock. The greater part of the apparent profit is, in this case, too, real wages. The great practical question in American social economy HOW PROFITS AFFECT THE LABOR QUESTION. 329 is, how can there be made a fair distribution of profits? In all great productive industries in this country there seems to be a partnership of three parties : Labor, executive man- agement and capital. Now each of these is entitled to a fair compensation for the service rendered, and each is entitled to a share in the surplus fruits of their cooperation. Labor and executive capacity are not entitled to an equal share with capital, because capital assumes all the risk of loss by fire, by inadequate management, or by a break in the market, and the party of the partnership bearing this risk should have a larger share of the profit. Besides the amount of profits is generally due to the wisdom and energy of the party furnishing the capital, and this is another reason why capital should receive the greater share of profit. After due allowance for these considerations, however, there is a share which justly belongs to the labor, and which should be distributed among those who make up this third member of the firm, according to each laborer's merit and grade in the service rendered. The rising antagonism between labor and capital will be best counteracted, we believe, by measures adapted to secure a fairer distribution of profits on this basis. To devise the best measures for this will require much earnest study, and experiments carefully conducted with good-will and patience on both sides. No doubt it will be found that measures must be varied to suit different cases and circumstances. What works well in one case may not do so in another. Tact and common sense must be used to apply the principle which is one and common. There are obstacles in the way of the immediate adoption of such measures. False ideas on the part of both workmen and their employers must be cor- rected, mutual confidence must be established and common usage must be changed. These are things not to be accom- plished in a day. Yet there is good reason to believe that if attention is turned earnestly on the study of this specific object, obstacles will be overcome, measures will be defined and successfully applied, and the result will be more of 330 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. justice, harmony and efificiency, in the actual operations of industry, and abiding rehef from dangers which threaten the peace and prosperity of the nation. What shall become with profits when once secured? They may become a part of the capital of the industry which produced them, or they may seek other investment. Safety is the first thing to be considered in investing profits. Agri- cultural investments are known to have great security, but the profits are usually low. Manufacturing investments ordinarily return larger profits, but with less security. These laws of safety and profit will prove the controlling forces in investing the profits secured from any business, and which may not be needed in prosecution of the business which produced them. Profits are the saved reward of industry, and should be handled very carefully, so as not to be lost. CHAPTER XXIX. EXCHANGE. THIS fourth great factor in the economy of wealth, expresses the method by which products find their way from the producers to the consumers. Wealth is transferred from producers to consumers by manifold exchanges. The division of labor which increases production, necessitates exchange. With the wonderful growth of modern civilization, and the varied form assumed by industry, exchange has become a complicated and exten- sive piece of machinery ; so much so, that exchange holds the place of greatest importance in the science of poHtical economy. Exchange is a transaction in which two individuals mutu- ally and voluntarily transfer to each other the right of property, to a given amount, either in capital or labor. This transfer must be both mutual and voluntary by both parties, or else it is robbery by one party. If property, without the right of possession, be given in exchange, it is fraud. Distribution goes on with production, and both are frequently completed at the same time. So, too, exchange accompanies every step of production, and the same act is often one of production, of distribution, and of exchange. The products which are manufactured by any given firm are not usually those which they wish to consume, but these products are to find their way to persons wishing them, through the medium of exchange. Exchange itself is not without its own exclusive agents ; and has need for a vast employ of labor and skill to conduct its management with accuracy and honesty. A large portion of labor and capital is directly employed in the transfer and traffic of commodities. The merchant, the mariner, the 381 332 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. porter, while transferring values, increase, by their labor, the values so transferred and are themselves producers, claiming a share of the products. As the utility of a thing is not simply dependent on intrinsic qualities, but on the avail- ability of these qualities, the porter may add not less to the utility of an article than the manufacturer. No inconsider- able part of the fixed capital of any civilized nation is repre- sented in roads, in railroads, canals, docks, in the permanent improvements of navigation, in wagons, cars and ships. Nor are machinery and invention anywhere more efficacious in reducing the cost of products and multiplying the enjoy- ments of all classes, than here. The merchant is among the illustrations of the division of labor, and the resulting reduc- tion in cost. He does that cheaply for a whole community which must otherwise be done by each of its members, at a great expense. A large importation of needful and custom- ary commodities by one, is made to take the place of a much more laborious and partial supply, secured by each individ- ual, and though scarcely observed, the time saved and the additional utilities furnished are very great. No class is more effective in the interests of production than this class. Here, too, we have money, one of the most facile, most frequently employed and productive of instruments — the very language of commerce. Important, however, as is its office, there does not belong to it that necessity and omnipo- tence which it has ever possessed in the minds of its worship- ers. No questions in political economy require more careful thought, are more practical, than those of value and those of currency. The last is truly the life-blood of industry. If vitiated and reduced by fraudulent coin or worthless paper, no innate forces of production can compensate or correct its destructive influences ; but if an honest and reliable medium of exchange, the most essential condition of a healthy economic growth is met. It is often said that exchange may be either of commo- dity for commodity, as when one gives a table for a pair of boots; or of commodity for labor, as when one gives fifty THE MEANING OF VALUE. 333 pounds of flour for a day's work at mowing ; or of labor for labor, as when a mason gives a day's work in exchange for a carpenter's work for a day. This is proper enough to indicate the precise form of the transaction ; but in reality it is not the labor itself, but the value in some form of wealth, the product of the labor which is contemplated. Value, then, is the principle term of this branch of polit- ical economy. The worth of value is determined by its utility and difficulty of attainment. The value of anything is its purchasing power ; the price of anything is its power to command gold or silver, or that which constitutes the currency of the country. Value may be expressed in any commodity whatever; price is expressed in one commodity only. Value, to be fully determined, demands a universal expression. The principles which determine value are not the same in all products. Difficulty of attainment, though a much more important cause in estimating value than utility, does not in all cases furnish a measurement. But as these two are the sole causes of value, we should naturally look to them, in their joint action, for a measure of its amount. Difficulty of attainment is resolvable into labor and abstinence, since these include all the danger incident to their employment, and in this cause of value we shall find a very general meas- ure of value. Though it is impossible to make labor the only, it is the chief, measure of value. The general arena of exchange is called the market, a term which signifies not so much a locality as the actual relation of demand to supply at the place and time contem- plated for making exchanges. By demand is meant the extent of desire for an article. Supply expresses the quan- tity of the article at hand to meet that desire. Between these two factors competition works continuous variations in the value of commodities. When demand is great in proportion to supply, value is enhanced by competition among the buyers. When supply is great in proportion to demand, value is reduced by competition among the sellers. 334 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. Value is a relative term. All goods sold are paid for in goods of another kind. Whoever sells a thing becomes in the act a purchaser of some other thing, and the value of each is simply what it brings in the trade. The values of all things can never, therefore, rise or fall at once. A rise of value on one side implies a fall on the other side. Here the distinction between value and price must be observed. Price is value expressed in terms of the single article money. If the amount of money in a country be suddenly increased, as was the case in the United States from 1 86 1 to 1865, the prices of all things will rise together, because money is cheapened. The prices of wheat and broadcloth may thus be doubled at the same time without changing the value of, either; it will take the same amount of wheat to buy a yard of broadcloth as before. If it takes twice as much wheat to buy a hat this year as it did last, the fact implies a change of value on one side or the other If the hat holds the same relation to all other articles as before, it is evident that wheat has for some reason declined in value. If all other articles must be doubled to buy the hat, it is evident that the hat has risen in value. The market value of a thing depends on the demand and supply ; rising as the demand rises, and falling as the supply rises. As a thing grows cheaper, however, under an increased supply, the demand increases in greater proportion, because every step downward in the value widens the circle of those who are able to buy the article. The necessity of exchange springs from the diversity of nature's resources, the diversity of human capacities and tastes, and the wide reach of human desires, all of which prescribe for human industry the principle of division of labor. As men advance in intelligence, their desires are multiplied ; at the same time, by discoveiy and invention, the resources of nature are unfolded in full proportion. Desire stimulates invention, and successful invention wakes new desires. There is no assignable limit to the development of either men's desires or nature's resources. THE COMSTOCK MINER. 335 Out of man's social nature spring sympathies, attractions, interests, which widen his associations and multiply his opportunities as both a giver and receiver of good things. Hence comes a law of interdependence which forbids that any man should live either for or by himself alone. Thus human industry is varied, and each does that for which he is best fitted, or which he likes best, while mutual exchanges enable each to get what he wants by giving what he can spare. The importance of this cannot be overestimated. Not only the comforts of life to the individual, but the existence of society in its highest forms, depend on the ability of man through the medium of exchange, to draw supplies from the whole world. Without this, civilization would stagnate and progress would cease. The great boon of trade to the individual man lies in the fact that, with its aid he may labor where he lives, and yet, through a line of exchanges may effect, in a hundred different places and distant lands, the production he desires. Henry George has most eloquently put this fact when he says : The miner who, two thousand feet under ground, in the heart of the Comstock, is digging out silver ore, is, in effect, by virtue of a thousand exchanges, harvesting crops in valleys five thousand feet nearer the earth's centre ; chasing the whale through Arctic ice-fields ; plucking tobacco leaves in Virginia; picking coffee berries in Honduras; cutting sugar cane in the Hawaiian Islands; gathering cotton in Georgia, or weaving it in Manchester or Lowell ; making quaint wooden toys for his children in the Hartz mountains, or plucking, amid the green and gold of Los Angles orchards, the oranges which, when his shift is relieved, he will take home to his sick wife. The wages which he receives on Saturday night, at the mouth of the shaft, what are they but the certificates to all the world that he has done these things — the primary exchanges in the long series which transmutes his labor into the things he has really been laboring for? The activity of exchange has created a distinct depart- 336 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. ment of useful industry, by which commodities are trans- ferred from the producers to the consumers, in such places, at such times and in such quantities as are most convenient. It involves labor and so adds to the cost of objects; it adds also to their desirableness, by bringing them within the reach of those whose wants are to be gratified. Thus in both ways it enhances their value to the benefit of both parties. By it the producer is helped to dispose of his products, and the consumer gets things just where and when and as they will best meet his wants. Obviously this labor will be most economically performed by persons who devote themselves exclusively to it, receiving a fair compensation for their service. This compensation is made up by a per- centage charged on the values transferred, of which each party pays a portion ; that is, the producer sells his products to the exchanger for something less than he would ask of the consumer directly, and the consumer pays the exchanger a little more than if he bought directly of the producer. But the expense of conducting the exchanges is far less than it would be without such intervention. Merchant is a general name for those who devote them- selves to the business of exchange, but the term embraces a great variety of agents. In the commerce of every community are to be recog- nized two great currents of trade — an outgoing current and an incoming current. The outgoing current bears away what a people have to spare ; the incoming current brings back what a people want. In a new country a retail mer- chant stands at the turning point where these currents meet. He gathers up in small quantities the surplus products of his neighborhood and starts them on the current of outgoing trade, to float, it may be, half round the world to find their ultimate consumers ; in exchange for these he dispenses to his neighbors small quantities of foreign products which they need. As population increases, and products are multipled, another agent appears on the ground, called a middle-man, THE DOCTRINE OF EXCHANGE. 337 a produce buyer, a commission dealer. By arrangement he buys up for some house at a commercial centre the grain, the cotton, the wool, the pork, the butter, or whatever of one kind or of many kinds of produce may be ordered, and is paid by a percentage on the values purchased. To this list of agents must be added the whole class of those who have to do with money and credit, the instru- ments of exchange ; also, those who as underwriters and insurers distribute the risks, by land and by sea, involved in trade. There are some general doctrines of exchange which it is well to know. The first is, What constitutes the basis of the value of exchange ? If two men have created their respective products, and are prepared to exchange them, it is manifest that they will not commonly exchange them quantity for quantity, because a given amount of labor will procure a much larger amount of some products than of others. The same labor which will procure an ounce of gold will procure a hundred pounds of iron. Hence the gold miner will offer to exchange labor for labor: that is, an ounce of gold for a hundred weight of iron. And, if the miner of iron will not exchange on these terms, the miner of gold will procure his iron for himself; since, if he can thus procure it for himself by a less amount of labor than by exchange, he will do so. Hence it is that the general rate at which everything is exchanged is the amount of labor which it costs to produce it. A second doctrine of exchange is, that exchange does not add any new value to a commodity. When exchange takes charge of it, the producer has conferred the last value it is to have. The exchanger passes any commodity into the hands of the consumer just as he receives it from the producer. Hence, it is seen, that the more rapidly exchanges are made the better. The more rapidly they are made the less is the loss of interest, and the smaher the advance which the exchanger must charge for his labor. If a merchant pur- 23 338 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. chases to-day a thousand dollars' worth of iron, which he sells to-morrow, he charges us for his labor and skill, and adds only the interest for one day upon his capital. If he must keep the iron a whole year before he sell it, he must charge the interest of a whole year, or else he will be the loser by his operation. Nor is this all. If he sell his iron to-morrow, he may invest the same sum in iron and sell it again fifty times in the course of the year, and thus receive a profit fifty times a year upon the use of his skill and labor, while in the other case he receives this profit but once. Hence, when exchanges are rapid, he can afford to exchange at a less rate for his labor and skill than when they are slow; and hence brisk exchanges are for the benefit of both buyer and seller, and a benefit to one is a benefit to all. It is for this reason, among others, that we can frequently purchase at a cheaper rate in a large city than in a country town. And hence we see a reason why the profit upon one operation in some kinds of exchange is greater than that in others. The profits of the wholesale merchant on a pound of tea are, for instance, greater than those of the retail merchant. He who sends his capital to the East Indies, and receives in return a cargo of teas, must charge interest and risk for the whole time consumed from the day that he parts with his property until the day that he receives it again. This may be nearly two years. The retail merchant who purchases one of those chests of tea may sell it all in a week, and thus invest it fifty times in the course of a year. Now, if the profit on an exchange were as great in the one case as in the other, the annual gains of the retail merchant would be exorbitant. These are reduced by competition to the average level, and hence his gains on any single operation are much less than those of the wholesale merchant. Though the act of exchange adds nothing to the absolute value of a commodity, yet that commodity will command a higher price after it has passed through a channel of exchange than before it entered it. Exchange itself must be remun- RELATION BETWEEN EXCHANGE AND EDUCATION. 339 erated. But this is a price that the buyer and seller are both willing to pay for convenience, and as the commodity is not modified in any way, it does not affect its value. A third doctrine has to do with the conditions according to which the frequency of exchange occurs. It is manifest that the more numerous are the exchange the better must it be for a community. As no one exchanges except to gratify his desires and to improve his condition, the more numerous the exchanges the greater the number of desires which will be gratified, and the more universally will the condition of a people be improved. It is also evident that facility of exchange is one of the greatest stimulants to production. If a man cannot transform his products into what he desires, he will labor for nothing but the mere necessaries of life. But in just so far as he is able by exchanging the products of his labor to procure objects of desire, his motives to industry will be quickened. And the same is true of nations. Everyone, whether poet, or philoso- pher, or traveler, in setting forth the prosperity of a country, has described its harbors thronged with ships, its roads cov- ered with merchandise, and its sails whitening every ocS^n. But all these are only so many forms of expressing the general fact that a nation's exchanges, both internal and external, are abundant and prosperous. Doctor Wayland says that a nation's exchanges will be frequent in proportion to the intelligence, wealth and moral character of a people. His presentation of this three-fold cause is a strong one. He says that exchanges will be frequent or unfrequent in proportion to the intelligence or ignorance of a people. It is only by the diffusion of knowl- edge that men ascertain how their desires may be gratified. It is by knowledge that the desires of man are brought into relation with the objects intended by his Creator for their gratification. Everyone knows how the dormant desire for exchange is awakened in the bosom of a child, the moment he enters a toy shop. Strangers rarely pass through the streets of a large city without being strongly, if not success- 340 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. fully, tempted to lighten their pockets before the termina- tion of their journey. Every reader knows how quickly his desire for books is enkindled by passing a few minutes in a book store. And thus we see how instantaneously a desire for exchange arises in the breasts of savages as soon as they are brought into contact with civilized man. A multitude of objects for the gratification of desire, of which they were previously ignorant, is set before them ; and they are fre- quently stimulated to exchange to their own disadvantage. Knowledge is gained by observation, and a man rarely goes from home into another country, or into another sec- tion of the same country, without obtaining a knowledge of various conveniences of which he was before ignorant. Familiar intercourse between men of different pursuits con- duces to the same result. Newspapers filled with advertise- ments, circulated over every district of a country^ have, in this respect, a powerful effect. All these causes combine to show every individual what he can produce that other men want, and how he may by exchange procure from them what he wants himself. We see all this illustrated in every district separated by nature from the surrounding country, as a valley inclosed by mountains difficult of access, or an island which has but rare communication with the main land. The progress of such a population in the arts, and in possessing themselves of the conveniences of life, is always much less rapid than that of their more highly favored neighbors. They know but little of what is going on around them, and their desires are but feebly stimulated to improve their condition. Exchange will be lively in proportion to the productive- ness or w^ealth of a country. It has been already observed that simple desire in both parties is not enough to effect exchange. Each party must both possess and be willing to part with so large a part of the product as the other party may desire. Every man, nearly, has a desire for a horse and carriage ; and every man who raises horses and manufactures carriages is willing to WHAT CONDUCES TO EXCHANGE. 341 exchange them for an equivalent. But, until every man has something to give for a horse and carriage, the exchange cannot be general. In proportion as a country is productive, men will have the means to purchase the things they desire, and this will enliven exchange. Thus, exchanges must always be most numerous in the most prosperous condition of a country; or, as every one knows, mercantile business is most prosperous — that is, exchanges are most abundant — when manufacturing, agricultural, and all other kinds of industry, are most productive. This same prinpple is of universal application. A good harvest in one country is a benefit to every other country; because the favored country desires a larger amount of the production of her neighbors, and has a larger fund where- with to pay for them. Hence the exchanges between such a country and every other country are increased. On the contrary, a famine or a war, or any other calamity in one country, is a calamity to every other country, because the unfortunate country wants fewer of the productions of its neighbors, since it has less wherewith to pay for them. Exchange will be active in proportion to the moral char- acter of a people. Here moral philosophy and industrial philosophy again join to argue the importance of universal morality. Individual morality is highly favorable to exchange, inas- much as it lessens the liability to fraud, and, of course, the risk to which exchanges are exposed. No one will, if he can avoid it, trade with a knave. In proportion to the prevalence of knavery will be the disinclination to exchange. On the general moral character of a people depend the equity of their laws, and, of course, the full enjoyment of the right of property. One party frequently parts with his property to-day, on condition of receiving the property of .his neighbor a month hence. Here is a liability to fraud. Unless the one party have, by means of just and equitable law, the power of enforcing contracts, exchanges will be greatly restricted. 342 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. On the morality and intelligence of a people will greatly depend the freedom of its civil constitutions; that is, the accuracy with which it limits the power of society, over the person and property of the individual. When these are improperly understood, or insufficiently guarded, the prop- erty of the citizen is liable to suffer from the avarice or the oppression of rulers. To this evil property undergoing exchange is specially liable. Exchange exposes to the view of the public the possessions of the parties, and, of course, enables a tyrant to seize upon them with greater certainty. For this reason exchanges are frequently, under bad govern- ments, made in secret ; and for this reason under such a government they are always as few as possible, and at great expense to the consumer. Exchange is affected greatly by a stagnation of business. For this there are several causes. It may arise from a dimin- ished desire for a particular product. Thus the decrease of the Catholic religion, during the wars of the French revolu- tion, diminished the desire for fish, which the Catholics eat in Lent and on fast days. This produced a stagnation of business in the fish trade. It may arise from change of fashion. Thus, when shoe- strings were substituted for shoe-buckles, the demand for shoe-buckles ceased ; the manufacturers of shoe-buckles were thrown out of employment, and there was a stagnation of business in this kind of trade. Stagnation in business may arise from a temporary fail- ure in production. Thus, if the crop of sugar should be reduced one half, there would be a stagnation in the sugar business; that is, there would be but half the quantity of sugar to be exchanged, and half the quantity of other things could be exchanged for it ; in other words, half the number or amount of exchanges would be made. And, in general, the failure of any crop, or the diminution of any kind of production, must cause a stagnation of business in that article itself, and also in whatever is usually exchanged for it. A stagnation in business, greatly reducing exchange, may A NATURAL TARIFF. 343 arise from the inability of one of the parties desiring to make the exchange. If a nation is able to produce but one million dollars of profits, it can purchase but one million dollars' worth of foreign products. A stagnation of business, and a consequent cutting down in exchange, may be the effect of legislation. Suppose the importation of coffee into this country be a million pounds per annum, but if a heavy duty be laid on coffee, which will double its price, the consumption will be diminished one half, and consequently the exchange will be cut down one half for this one commodity. A last general doctrine relative to exchange, affecting it alike everywhere, is, that duties on imports can have no other than a depressing effect on exchange. Their only effect must be to raise the price of the products and, of course, to diminish the ability in both parties to exchange. Every one knows that the exchanges between two places are diminished by any natural obstacle to communication. If a road were so bad that it cost five dollars per hundred weight to transport merchandise between two places, every one knows that exchanges between these places would be fewer than they would be if the road were improved, so that trans- portation could be effected for twenty-five cents per hundred weight. Now, it makes no difference whether this additional four dollars and seventy-five cents be the result of the bad- ness of the road, or of a transit duty between the two places. The diminution of exchange which it causes will be precisely the same. In a severe winter, our northern harbors are closed for v/eeks or months by the ice. This is a natural tariff, and imposes a large protecting duty, inasmuch as exchanges must be effected, if they be effected at all, at a vastly greater price than in summer. All legislative restric- tions have the same effect. CHAPTER XXX. MONEY AS AN INSTRUMENT OF EXCHANGE. NO man can wholly supply his own wants, by directly exchanging his labor for the things to gratify his wants. He supplies the greater part of them by trading his labor through some representative of exchange. But when the division of labor first began to take place, this power of exchanging must frequently have been very much clogged and embarrassed in its operations. One man. we shall suppose, has more of a certain commodity than he himself has occasion for, while another has less. The former consequently would be glad to dispose of, and the latter to purchase, a part of this superfluity. But if this latter should chance to have nothing that the former stands in need of, no exchange can be made between them. The butcher has more meat in his shop than he himself can consume, and the brewer and the baker would each be willing to purchase a part of it. But they have nothing to offer in exchange, except the different productions of their respective trades, and the butcher is already provided with all the bread and beer which he has immediate occasion for. No exchange can, in this case, be made between them. He cannot be their merchant, nor they his customers ; and they are all of them thus mutually less serviceable to one another. In order to avoid the inconvenience of such situations, every prudent man in every period of society, after the first estab- lishment of the division of labor, must naturally have endeavored to manage his affairs in such a manner as to have at all times by him, besides the peculiar produce of his own industry, a certain quantity of some one commodity or other, such as he imagined few people would be likely to refuse in exchange for the produce of their industry. 344 THINGS USED AS MONEY. 345 Many different commodities, it is probable, were succes- sively both thought of and employed for this purpose. In the rude ages of society^ cattle are said to have been the common instrument of commerce; and though they must have been a most inconvenient one, yet in old times we find things were frequently valued according to the number of cattle which had been given in exchange for them. The armor of Diomede, says Homer, cost only nine oxen; but that of Glaucus cost an hundred oxen. Salt at one time was the common instrument of exchange in Abyssinia ; a species of shells was used on the coast of India ; dried cod was the money of Newfoundland a century and more ago ;, tobacco was used in Virginia for the same purpose, and sugar in the West Indies. In some countries leather and even hides have been used. In the territory of the Hudson Bay Company the beaver-skin is the unit of value, and their money-table runs thus: "Three martens are equal to one beaver, one white fox to two beavers, one black fox or bear to four beavers, a rifle to fifteen beavers." In Burmah, lead was used ; in Russia, platinum. In Scotland, formerly, nails were used; among the Chinese, pieces of silk; in Tartary, cubes of pressed tea. In ancient Greece it was cattle. In the early age of the patriarchs it was gold or silver bullion, carried about in bags and weighed instead of counted. Iron was the common instrument of exchange among the Spar- tans; copper among the ancient Romans; and leather in ancient Carthage. In Central Africa it was bark; in old Britain, the money was slaves. The original inhabitants of this country, as we learn from the uncovering of mounds and exhumation of subterranean cities, used mica and bone and iron as a standard of payment. With the Indians it was shells. But in all countries there was early an irresistible impulse in the direction of metals. Metals cannot only be kept with as little loss as any other commodity, scarce anything being less perishable than they are, but they can likewise, without any loss, be divided into any number of parts, and by fusion 346 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. those parts can easily be reunited again; a quality which no other equally durable commodity possesses, and which more than any other quality renders them fit to be the instruments of commerce and circulation. The man who wanted to buy salt and had nothing to give in exchange but cattle, would be obliged to purchase salt to the value of a whole ox at a time. If, instead of cattle, he had metals to give in exchange he could easily proportion the quantity of the metal to the precise amount of salt for which he had immediate use ; hence the convenience of the metals. As the civilized countries gradually settled upon the metals as the best medium for exchange, it was found neces- sary, in order to prevent abuses, to facilitate exchanges, and thereby to encourge all sorts of industry and commerce, to affix a public stamp upon certain quantities of such particular metals as were in those countries commonly made use of to purchase goods. Hence the origin of coined money, and of those public offices called mints; institutions exactly of the same nature with those of the alnagers and stampmasters of woolen and linen cloth. All of them are equally meant to ascertain, by means of public stamp, the quantity and uniform goodness of those different commodities when brought to market. The public stamps of this kind that were affixed to the current metals seem in many cases to have been intended to ascertain, what it was both most difificult and most import- ant to ascertain, the goodness or fineness of the metal, and to have resembled the sterling mark which is at present afifixed to plate and bar silver, or the Spanish mark which is sometimes afifixed to ingots of gold, and which being struck only upon one side of the piece, and not covering the whole surface ascertains the fineness but not the weight of the metal. Abraham weighs to Ephron the four hundred shekels of silver which he had agreed to pay for the field of Machpelah. It is in this manner that money has become, in all civil- ized nations, the universal instrument of commerce, by the M^i AN ADVANTAGE OF MONEY. 347 intervention of which goods of all kinds are bought and sold, or exchanged for one another. In this way it is a great convenience, serves a vast variety of wants, and saves a great deal of labor. It substitutes a general for a particular article. He who is possessed of a particular article and wishes to exchange it for another, must not merely find a person possessed of the second article, but one both possessed of it and wishing to barter it for the first. Each has only the limited purchasing power of his own com- modity, still further restricted by the necessity of finding another whose desires are the precise counterpart of his own. An intermediate agent like the merchant would, indeed, in part relieve this embarrassment ; but it is only through money that each comes into possession of an agent possessed of a general purchasing power that can command everything' everywhere. It is sufficient for the seller, that his own product is anywhere wanted ; this want, through the mer- chant, represents itself at his own door, or in his own com- munity, and to the extent of the value of the product he receives that which commands any utility he may choose. As the wheel of exchange revolves he puts on anything he will and receives a ticket which, to the amount on its face, allows him to take off from that wheel anything that he will. His particular commodity gave him an order on some as yet unknown person, who should possess what he wished, and was willing to receive this product in return. This order is now changed into a general order, and may be presented to any person at pleasure. Money also generalizes the purchasing power, not only in place, but in time. A perishable commodity is exchanged for an imperishable medium, and the power of purchase locked up in this form may be retained at the pleasure of the holder. It also condenses and makes divisible that power. A crowded barn may have a less command of utilities than a moderately filled pocket-book ; and the house, which was one in the sale, may now, in the money which represents it, divide itself many hundred times, and 348 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. roam in all directions in search of enjoyments. Money in the hand of the holder is a pliant agent that unites or divides its forces as the exigency demands. It is an indus- trious agent which works at all times. If a man had wheat, there would be but a naked chance that he should find some one willing to loan it and return it with interest ; probably he would be compelled to keep it with waste and damage ; transform it into money, and from that hour it may earn, and, like a faithful slave, will pay in its wages. If there were a hundred commodities, all in equal demand, the chance that he who possessed one could make a loan would be represented by one, while his chance who possessed money, and thereby commanded them all, would be rep- resented by one hundred. Hence almost all loans take place in money. Money is the constant medium in which values are expressed and balanced. Through money the whole ex- change of products, in all their varieties, come under the measurement of one table, and everything resolved into dollars and cents is rapidly weighed with every other. Without this, no accuracy, no uniformity, no general mar- ket price, could well be secured in the transfer of values. Money represents a universal standard of value, but does not establish that value. The legal stamp on a piece of money does not occasion the value. It only marks it ; and if it marks it either above or below the true value — that value which the natural forces at work have already assigned the metal contained in the coin — only the utmost despotism can establish or sustain this fictitious value, and that only within a very limited circle, and for a restricted period. The two measuring causes of value are cost of production and the supply and demand. Values, as dependent on supply and demand, are usually subject to much wider and more constant fluctuations than those arising from cost of produc- tion. Anything whose supply was not large and strictly limited might have sufficient value to constitute a medium of exchange. If the quantity of gold now in the world COST OF PRODUCTION AFFECTS VALUE. 349 were left to us, but all further supplies cut off, it would, for the time being, retain its present value, as defined by the cost of production. Shortly, however, as the quantity came to be diminished by loss and wear, and the demand for it in the currency and consumption of luxury to be increased, its value would come under the action of the equation of supply and demand ; and though by increased value it would still meet and discharge all the functions of exchange, this neces- sary and constant rise would be an element of perpetual disturbance and error. Even irredeemable paper might, within the limits of a single country, have circulation if its quantity were by arbitrary power so limited as to be kept constantly within the demand. If this second measure of value is to be the basis of a currency, it is by no means necessary that the medium should have any intrinsic utility, or utility for any other purpose ; it is sufificient that it has utility in this one direction, and that this utility is forced into a high value by the constant action of the demand on the supply. The cost of production affects value in equal proportion to its degree. If a metal is obtained from a large variety of places ; if these are either possessed of nearly equal fertility, or constitute a scale, in which the difficulty of attainment passes up by slight and nearly regular intervals, while the demand is such as to keep the labor of production constantly employed on the more difficult and uniform mines ; then it is evident that a cost of production, either in itself uniform, or ranging, in its higher state, at about the same point on the scale of difficulty, would occasion a nearly uniform value. Gold and silver are so obtained. The sources are many, and though the fertility of some of the more favored mines may make them the means of large revenues, the demand is still so great as to force the production into those which are more difficult and uniform in their returns. All great fluctuations have arisen from the introduction of new and unexpected ele- ments. The discovery of America, by the large amount of the precious metals already accumulated therein, and the greater 350 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. fertility of its mines, greatly reduced the value of gold and silver. As soon, however, as these new resources became practically measured and wrought into the general estimate, a value nearly firm was restored to these metals. New « explorations have, down to the very present, occasioned new fluctuations. But, as the world shall be more thoroughly known, and its surface harvest gathered, the cost of produc- tion will tend to greater uniformity, with a corresponding steadiness of value. The large amount of gold and silver now constituting the currency of civilized nations, acts between the supply and demand, like a heavy balance-wheel between the force and resistance, reducing all sudden impulses, and retaining an equable and working state, when the power is for a moment withdrawn. The yearly waste and the yearly supply are both very small, in comparison with the accumulated hoards of centuries, and any increase of one or diminution of the other, for a limited period, can only affect, by a very slight fraction, the relation of gold and silver to the uses of the world. The gold and silver of the arts, and of luxury, the plate and the ornaments, constitute a reservoir, from which, on any augmentation of value, a supply will immediately begin to flow, and to which, on any reduction of value, a return stream will bear away, from the clogged wheels of currency, the surperfluous and disturbing element. The small annual stream, then, which keeps good the supply of the precious metals, has a double safeguard, in the reservoir which the arts afford, whereby to make equal its spring tide and summer flow, and also in the very weight of that wheel of currency on which it acts. It is the measuring function of money which renders its concealed fluctuations of value so harmful, and sometimes disastrous. It is as if some one should, by some strange perversity of honesty, secure by secret agents, all rules of carpenters, and all sticks and lines of measurement in the country, and at a given time, shorten them by one inch. At once every person would find his property apparently MONEY NOT WEALTH. 351 changed, and every uncompleted contract would be changed in its requirements. The real object of all trade is to effect an exchange of commodities. In this exchange money is the medium. And the cost or price of money employed in every exchano-e is equal to the cost or price of the article which is exchanged for it. If a barrel of flour in Lima be exchanged for ten ounces of silver, the cost of producing the flour and of trans- porting it to Lima is equal to the cost of producing the silver and transporting it to the same place. If a barrel of flour in New York be exchanged for seven ounces of silver, the cost and transportation of the one at the place of exchange, is equal to that of the other. If the flour merchant wishes for a thousand ounces of silver, he can procure it more cheaply by producing the flour than he can by going to the mines of Mexico and working it out from the ore. And if the miner wishes for flour he can procure it more cheaply by working in the mine than by attempting to raise wheat and manufacture flour on the mountains of Potosi. Money in itself is not wealth ; but because it represents value it has often been identified in men's minds with wealth. They have been ready to suppose that an accumulation of the precious metals preeminently rendered a nation rich, and that their deficiency was both the result and occasion of hopeless poverty. This, like avarice, is a fallacy of the senses, and has been strengthened by the fact 'that indi- vidual wealth shows itself in the possession and ready com- mand of gold and silver. A lurking belief in the peculiar efificacy and intrinsic value of money above other products, has made nations reluctant to suffer its exportation and desirous to encourage its importation. It has been only of recent date that men have been willing to leave the distribu- tion of the precious metals to natural forces ; and these natural forces of trade strew the precious metals evenly over the globe, and by their very equality make them like the fertilizing deposits of the Nile. Scarcely any other product is of so little value as gold or 352 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. silver, if accumulated in any country, by special or legislative effort, beyond the share u^hich trade would naturally have furnished. Unlike most products, these metals, save a lim- ited utility in the arts, meet no desire. Their first use is for currency, their second for luxury ; and in both of these uses a limited supply is as efificient as a more abundant one. Cur- rency, far from being benefited by forcing full its circulation, immediately depletes its plethoric channels by a correspond- ing reduction of value, and the apparent gain is to the senses only. We have more weight, but less value in the same weight ; more coins, but less worth in each coifi. Nor is this all ; not only is there a corresponding loss of value by push- ing the supply beyond the demand, but a currency cut ofT from the world's exchange, resting on its own narrow basis, becomes far more liable to fluctuations. The artificial bar- riers may at any moment give way, and then, like head waters, gold and silver rush out with great injury to existing interests, the unit of calculation in debt and credit being entirely altered. So, also, the gain for purposes of luxury is not so real as it seems. Gold plate does not depend for its value on its intrinsic superiority, but on the estimation of men ; and just in proportion as it is multiplied, will men cease to esteem it, and it will fall in value. No product which ministers to the necessities or ordinary enjoyments of life fails, by its multiplication, in a proportionate degree to benefit men ; yet every needful product has been neglected for the acquisition of gold, which obtained, has lost a large share of its utility. If metallic money be taken as the basis, it is not difificult to understand what is a real scarcity, and what an abundance of money. We have seen that money, like any other com- modity, is liable to the operation of the laws of supply and demand. To accomplish a given amount of exchange, a certain value in money is required and in ordinary times this value always exists. And, the exchanges remaining the same, we cannot employ for this purpose more than this amount of WHAT PRODUCES SCARCITY OF MONEY. 353 value. If a quantity equal to one thousand ounces of silver, or of one thousand bushels of wheat, be required to perform the exchanges of a certain community, we cannot employ more than this amount of value. If we increase the quantity, we shall only decrease the value proportionally. If such a country be insulated from other countries, and we introduce into its circulation one thousand additional ounces of silver, equal to one thousand additional bushels of wheat, the value of the whole two thousand will be just equal to that of the one thousand ounces before ; that is, the value will not alter. If, on -the other hand, from such a country thus insulated we remove half the circulating medium, the remaining half will accomplish the purpose of the whole ; that is, it will double in value. This is evident, because there are neither more nor less exchanges to be made than before, and a variation in the instrument does not vary the amount of the work which the necessities of the community require to be done. If there be a given amount of yarn to be woven by twenty looms, the quantity will not be increased by employing forty looms. And if we employ forty we must work all of them but half the time ; that is, each one will be of half its original value. If the work be doubled, we must work them by day and by night ; that is, each one will be worth twice as much as before. But manifestly the quantity of work to be done being given, it can never be affected by varying the quantity of the instruments by which it is accomplished. Now suppose the exchanges in a given community be equal to fifty millions annually, and that there are required to effect these exchanges one million ounces of silver, and that this quantity of silver actually exists in its possession. Under these circumstances there will be neither a plenty nor a scarcity of money, and it will be neither exported nor imported. But suppose that, owing to a very productive harvest, or some rapid improvement in the productiveness of human labor, the amount of products to be exchanged reaches seventy-five millions. Here will arise a scarcity of money. There will be more exchanges than can be accom- 23 ^£M... 354 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. plished by the instrument by which they are to be effected. The price of money will rise because the supply is limited : that is, the price of other commodities will fall, and every- thing will be cheap ; though there cannot be purchased more wool, meat or cotton with a barrel of flour than last year, there can be purchased more wool, meat or cotton with the money which a barrel of flour brought last year. By the same illustration we can see what is meant by too much money. If, while exchanges were at fifty millions, and one million ounces of silver were necessary to effect them, a mine were discovered by which the quantity in circulation was doubled, the price of silver would fall, and commodities would cost twice their usual price. The ebb and flow of the trade of a country will regulate this, as it does all other commodities. Hence it is seen that a plentifulness or a scarcity of money forms no occasion which calls for the interference of government, but that it is a matter which, if left alone, will regulate itself. When money is really scarce, there is no need of prohibiting its exportation ; for no one will be so unwise as to export it. When it is abundant, it is useless to prohibit its exportation, because it cannot be prevented ; and because, if it could be prevented, by preventing it we should deprive ourselves of the only method in our power of alleviating the evils which we suffer. The precious metals are relatively abundant in the states of South America ; that is, they need other kinds of capital more than they need this. How absurd a policy would it be to forbid the exportation of those metals, and thus deprive themselves of all the conveniences of other countries, nay, of the very means on which progress in civili- zation and the arts, and in the real accumulation of wealth, depends. Hence the notion that the plentifulness or scarcity of money is an unfailing indication of the prosperity or of the adversity of a country is in the highest degree fallacious. If the scarcity result from an increased productiveness of labor, it is an indication of prosperity ; just as the business of EVIL OF TOO MUCH, OR TOO LITTLE, MONEY. 355 weaving is most prosperous, when the weavers have more work than they can do. If it result from a casual withdraw- ment of specie, it is an ambiguous indication and its effect upon the country will depend upon the use which is made of that which is sent abroad. If it be employed in wars or in other unproductive consumption, it is just so much loss ; .and it matters not whether this amount of loss be in silver, or gold, or copper, or tea, or coffee, or cotton. If it be well invested and return in the form of a profitable addition to the capital of the country, it is just as much a source of gain as though the same profit were made upon any other article. It is profitable for an individual to give one thousand dollars for what is worth fifteen hundred dollars, although, for a month afterward he be obliged to live somewhat more economically. And what is profitable for the individual is profitable for the nation. An overplus of money may have an evil effect on the industry of a country by increasing the prices of production and of labor, and by this raising only the apparent value of property a spirit of mere speculation is produced, and thou- sands rush into or enlarge their business. The increasing prices are mistaken for an increasing demand, and men -count upon a career of prosperity. In the end the same business would be done, only with more money, and false values would be created. Another evil effect of too much money is, that it is apt to place the country at a disadvantage in relation to other countries, for the high cost of its commodities would largely prevent their export, and the redundancy of money, even if it is in gold, cannot be exported except at a loss, since it must go as bullion and not as coin. Again, too little money may result in evil to a country. A scarcity of money will clog exchange, and diminish the circulation of production. If there is not money enough in the country to purchase more than the mere necessities of life, the poor class cannot indulge in luxuries, and this class of products will not go into general circulation. 356 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. A scarcity of money will increase the rate of interest and discourage business. When prices fall and wages are low, men think there is to be a general prostration, and they will hesitate to enter business or to increase their risks. The final result here will be that all prices must adjust themselves to a lower scale. Another, and the most serious effect of a scarcity of money, is the hardship imposed by it on the debtor class. This is always a large class, and grows in a period of finan- cial prosperity, when public confidence enlarges the amount of private credit. As a deficiency of money raises its rela- tive value, the debtor finds his debts increased, while the property for which he incurred the debt shrinks in price. The opposite line of effects follows a redundancy of money, which entails a hardship upon the creditor class. During the war, mortgages upon western farms to an immense amount were paid off with paper money worth no more than one half the value of the money loaned. On the other hand, debts contracted and mortgages given during the late years of the war, or in the years which immediately followed, while the great volume of paper money was still afloat, had to be paid at a later date in money worth as much again in value as that which was borrowed. There is not as much money used in international trade as is supposed. A large portion of foreign trade consists in exporting goods, and, to tlfe extent of the proceeds, pur- chasing a return cargo ; so in this case there is no exchange of money in the transaction. Again, to a large extent, commodities are imported by each nation to meet the demand, and thus a double indebtedness is occasioned. These two classes of debts are made, as far as possible, to cancel each other without any transfer of money. The goods imported into the United States from England occa- sion here certain foreign liabilities, and those exported to England a corresponding class of debts. A class of brokers or intermediate agents buy and sell the bills mutually drawn on England and the United States. Those on England, LITTLE MONEY USED IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 357 debtors in the United States repurchase and forward to their creditors in England, and thus the EngHsh debtor and creditor are paired against each other. By a precisely similar process, the American debtor and creditor are intro- duced, and nothing remains to be adjusted but that remnant of indebtedness in one country to which nothing is found to correspond in the other. If the purchases in America equal those in England, they mutually compensate each other, and in the traffic of bills the supply and demand, in both countries, will remain in equilibrium without any advance of price on the part of the bills of either country. Exchange is then said to be at par, and there is no tendency in trade to an inequality. If such a tendency arises, the indebtedness on the one side being greater than that on the other, in the broker's mart of bills those of one country are in deficiency, and rise in value; those of the other country are in excess, and sink in value. Exchange is now said, to the extent of the per cent express- ing the rise, to be in favor of that country whose bills have risen. The rise of price in bills drawn on one country neces- sarily involves a corresponding depression in those return bills whose excess has disturbed the equation. If the exchange between the United States and England is one per cent against the former, then, in England, the bills on the United States will be at one per cent discount, and in the United States those on England at one per cent premium. As most bills have some little time to run, this state of exchange need not necessarily occasion any transfer of coin. The broker may buy in the bills, expecting that a more favorable exchange may arise, which will enable him to cancel his home by his foreign bills. The very state of the exchange tends to aid him in this and to restore itself to par. On all exports from the United States, at the above rate of exchange, there would be realized an additional one per cent, since the bills representing the indebtedness would sell at an advance. All imports, on the other hand, would suffer a corresponding loss in the 358 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. discount on the bills by which they were met. Hence, to the extent of the adverse exchange, exports would be encour- aged, imports discouraged, and an effort made to restore the equality. This force would be sufficient to overcome all transient and superficial causes, and the exchange would restore itself by its own action and without any transfer of coin. If, however, after successive delays the exchange fails to restore itself, and it becomes evident that remittances must be made, the adverse per cent will rapidly rise to meet this new expense, and a more violent effort at restoration thus be set on foot. The first variation in the rate of exchange springs from the natural and inevitable fluctuations of trade, and readily corrects itself ; the second and more violent indicates a permanent derangement. This may be an excess of trade on the part of the indebted country, or a want of equality in the value of the currency of the two countries — the cur- rency of the one being too replete in reference to that of the other. If the difficulty arises from the first cause, the necessity of payment being forced on the indebted country, will either restrict its demand or its ability to obtain credit. If from the second cause, coin passing from one country to the other will tend to restore their respective currencies to an equality of value. If for any reason the money of one country has become more plenty, in reference to the amount of exchange to be performed by it, than that of the country with which it is trading, there will relatively be a rise of price in the first and a depression of price in the second. This will be regulated in course of time by the natural forces of trade, and the natural tendency of the money markets of the entire world to seek a general level of values. CHAPTER XXXI. SPECIE AS THE BASIS FOR MONEY. THE necessity for money as a circulating medium for exchange, is clearly evident, when the difficulties of the exchange of commodities, as the farmer exchanging pork for salt, is considered. Suppose a producer to have prepared his product for con- sumption. If he be obliged to exchange in kind, it may be a long time before he find another person who desires the article which he has created. If he be obliged to wait long, his product, if perishable, will be either destroyed or deterio- rated. He must go in search of a purchaser; and if he at length find one, he may have consumed in the search as much time as the article originally cost. This must be added to the cost of the article, or else he will be a Ibser. But, by this additional cost, the product is no better; it is only dearer. This must, of course, decrease the demand ; and hence, by all this additional cost, both parties are poorer. But it is to be remembered that the producer not only wants to part with his product, but also to part with it for some definite object of desire. He who has raised wheat, does not wish simply to part with his wheat, but also to receive in exchange for it, tea, or coffee, or iron, or salt, or clothing. He must, therefore, in order to effect the exchange which he desires, not only find some one who wishes for wheat, but also some one who is able to give him, in return, the precise product he desires. If he desire clothing in return, it will not be sufficient to find some one who offers him bread, or shoes, or butcher's meat. This, also, increases the difficulty of exchange, and of course, the labor and the cost necessary to eiTect it. But this is not all. Men who wish to exchange, do not 359 360 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. always wish to exchange in equal amounts. A grazier who brings a fatted ox to market, may find persons enough who want a few pounds of beef, but very few who want a whole ox. The grazier cannot divide his ox, and give a part of it for a few pounds of coffee or tea; nor, probably, does 'he require one fourth of the value of the ox in any article which can be purchased in the town where it may be sold. He wishes to obtain, by the sale of the ox, additional provender for the support of his remaining herd. This he cannot, per- haps, procure except in the country; or if he could procure it, the merchant who owns the provender would not want a whole ox for meat. In this way, exchange would be arrested ; or must be made very rarely, and at great cost, and under every possible disadvantage. Here, then, arises the great convenience of some article as a medium through which exchange of commoditites is to be effected. Suppose that the producer can always exchange his product, not for the article which he immediately wants, but for some other article which is universally wanted, and wanted at all times, and in all quantities. As soon as the producer has, by exchange, possessed himself of this commodity, he may then, on account of its universal desirableness, easily procure by another exchange whatever he may need. In this manner, by means of two exchanges made at the same instant, the labor of days or of weeks may be accomplished. Thus, if salt were this commodity and every one wanted salt in all quantities, at all times and at a fixed value ; by exchang- ing everything for salt, and then exchanging salt for what- ever we might desire, the labor of exchanges would be vastly diminished. This convenience, however, will be much increased if the article of universal desire be small in bulk ; because, in this case, much of the labor of transportation will be avoided. Were the lace-maker obliged to exchange his lace for salt, he would be obliged to furnish himself with a cart, in which to receive his payment. And thus, in general, instead of a ADVANTAGES OF A CIRCULATING MEDIUM. 361 purse in which to carry our money, we should require for this purpose the use of a wagon and horses. If this circulating medium be also minutely divisible, it will possess still greater conveniences. The producer may then part with all, or with a part of his product ; and he can procure with a circulating medium as small a portion of that which he wishes in exchange as he may choose. The farmer, instead of exchanging one part of his wheat for tea, another part for coffee and another part for clothing ; or else exchang- ing it all for tea and then endeavoring to find customers for his tea, may exchange it all for the circulating medium, pro- cure as much of each as he pleases, or, if he choose, make no further exchange whatever. The case is still stronger when labor is one of the articles to be exchanged. The laborer will now no longer be obliged to labor at any price for him who is able to give him in exchange what he immediately wants ; but he may labor for any one who will give him in return this object of general desire. Hence he is now at liberty to labor for him who will give him the best wages ; that is, where his industry and skill will be employed most advantageously to himself. With this he can procure whatever he wants, in such portions as he may desire. The practicability of the division of labor now becomes immediately apparent. If the laborer be paid in the article of universal desire, it makes no difference whether the person who produces what he wants, needs, or does not need, his particular product. He wants the object of universal desire, and this is enough; for by this the laborer can effect exchanges with him or with any one else. If he can procure this circulating medium by means of pin-heads, or knife- handle rivets, this is all that he wants. He is now as inde- pendent as though he produced that which every one wants ; since by means of what he produces he can procure that which every one wants. Thus we see that every man is in this manner able to devote himself to that in which his skill will be most productive to himself. And all men thus 362 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. making the first exchange in this object of universal desire, all are equally independent ; and all are able, in the most successful manner, to avail themselves of the fruits of their own industry. Now whatever it is that performs the ofifice of facilitating exchanges is called a circulating medium, and so great has been the need of some such instrument that even the rudest nations have always been found adopting some such contrivance. In all civilized nations the metals, gold, silver and copper, have come to be regarded with special fitness to serve the purpose of a circulating medium. They possess certain qualities, peculiarly combined, which make them adapted to meet the functions of money. When these three metals are prepared and marked for that purpose, they are called specie. There are several qualities which combine to make these metals the standard specie money of the world. That which would be used as a circulating medium must be universally desired. The object of a circulating medium is to facilitate exchanges, but it can only accomplish this by means of the willingness of the whole community to exchange for it everything which they are willing to part with. If one individual of a community prefer one sub- stance, and another individual another, exchanges will be embarrassed by unnecessary multiplication and by the use- less consumption of time. And if, on the other hand, any substance be thus universally desired, on account of the great facilities which it offers, and the great saving of labor which it effects, it will immediately be used for this purpose. And it will be so used without any agency of government, and even although a government did not exist; just as a man will use any other instrument for increasing the productive- ness of his labor as soon as he can procure it, simply for the reason that it is for his advantage. If the exchanges of a country were wholly internal, it would be sufficient that such a circulating medium were universally acceptable in that country alone. But, inasmuch WHY GOLD AND SILVER ARE THE BASIS. 363 as every nation has important and extensive exchanges with other nations, it is an additional advantage to have the same substance used as a circulating medium by all. Copper is only used for small values, and gold and silver are of universal desire because they have an intrinsic utility. Their brilliancy, malleability and resistance of corrosion make them desirable for personal ornaments, plates, and all manner of home decoration. While all these quaHties enhance their value, they are specially valuable on account of their permanence. It would not do to have any substance for the money of the country which would be liable to decay. Were it easily destructible, great losses would con- stantly occur, as the loss must fall upon the individual in whose hands it happened at the time to be. And, besides, it would be from this cause liable to so great fluctuation in value that it could never be used as a circulating medium. Were fish or wheat the circulating medium, since both are liable to rapid decay, a change of weather might frequently ruin a man. No one would exchange at such hazards for the circulating medium, and all exchange would be made in kind. Could the circulating medium always bear the same relative price to other commodities, it would probably be advantageous. But as this is impossible, it is manifest that that commodity which is liable to the least fluctuation is, by this circumstance, the best adapted to this purpose. The circulating medium of exchange should be an article that would represent in small bulk a large amount of value. This must be a value largely determined by the labor it represents. This is a great advantage by saving the labor of transportation. The commerce of the world, at its present state, must instantly cease if we were obliged to exchange gold and silver for the iron money used by direction of Lycurgus. Gold and silver are obtainable only by labor, and the amount of labor necessary to obtain them is more invariable than that which pertains to other substances. Now and then one has stumbled upon a nugget of pure gold 364 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. of great value ; but ordinarily, gold and silver are obtained by labor in long and patient search, in washing sands, break- ing rocks, reducing ores, and separating the pure metals from other substances. The amount produced is dependent on the labor employed. In respect to the two elements of value — desirableness, and cost measured by labor — gold and silver are permanent and uniform beyond any other products ; and these metals concentrate a large amount of value in a small bulk to an extent that the value of a load of wheat or a herd of cattle may be carried in a wallet. Another quality fitting gold and silver and copper to be the specie of the world is, that they are capable of minute division without loss. A gold eagle or a silver dollar may be divided into ten equal parts, and each part will have the value of just one tenth of the original coin. Not so with diamonds, which also concentrate value. A large diamond is worth many times its weight in small diamonds, and once broken into pieces, its original value can never be restored. The circulating medium of a country should be of such a nature, that it can be easily verified ; that is, it should be susceptible of such preparation, that every one can readily assure himself of its purity and weight ; that is, of its value. Unless this can be done, at every exchange, every one must examine and try every piece by itself. This would consume much time, would require the possession of great skill in every individual, and would, by its frequent repetition, soon wear away the substance itself. Hence it is of advantage that the metals used for money should be peculiar in their weight and color, and that their appearance should attract attention, so that their peculiarities may be easily learned and distinguished. The brilliant lustre of silver and gold, therefore, adds very much to their fitness for coin. Their weight, also, presents a ready means for the detection of adulteration. Platina, which is used in Russia for the purpose of money, has the advantage of both of them in weight ; but it has no lustre, and, in appearance, it very much NO DANGER OF OVER-PRODUCTION. 365 resembles the baser metals. This will be an objection to its universal acceptableness. Inasmuch as gold and silver possess all the essential qualities which are required in a circulating medium ; and as the condition of man so manifestly points to the necessity of some such instrument, it is not remarkable that they have so long and so universally been adopted for this purpose. But it is always to be remembered, that we use them as a circulating medium, because we want a circulating medium, and because they accomplish the purpose. We do not use them as a circulating medium because we see a stamp upon them, nor because government has made them a legal tender; but because we know that they represent a given amount of value, and we therefore know that we can exchange them for the same amount of value whenever we please. If a bushel of wheat sell for a dollar, we know that it costs as much labor to produce a dollar at the mine and bring it to us, as to produce a bushel of wheat and bring it to us. Hence we know that, until some new and vastly more productive mines are discovered, this dollar cannot be produced for less labor, nor represent a less amount of value. And, as every body wants a dollar, and no one can furnish it at a less cost, we know that it will bring, in exchange, the same as we have given for it. As the trade and commerce of the world will likely grow fast enough to keep pace with the growing production of these metals, arising from the discovery of new mines, we may not expect any embarrassment of the specie basis of the monetary market from over-production. CHAPTER XXXII. SPECIE AND THE GOVERNMENT. THESP2 metals are employed as the money of the world, not because ordained to this by authority of human governments, but because in the ordinance of nature they possess in peculiar degree those qualities so essential to represent precise amounts of value, and are ever exchange- able for the same amounts of value. In the strictest sense, these metals coined constitute the only real money univers- ally recognized. But there is, nevertheless, a legitimate agency of govern- ment with respect to money. Men use money in exchanges for the same reason that they use hammers in driving nails, because they thus save time and labor, and the work is thereby better done. Yet the convenience of money may be increased by the action of the government, in two ways. First, by indicating a uniform instrument of exchange; that is, by establishing the precious metals as a legal tender. Whenever any substance has been found universally adapted to the purposes of exchange, it is important that it should be used by all men, unless something to the contrary be spec- ified by particular contract. And to prevent disputes with- out end, it is desirable that something be fixed upon, of which the tender shall discharge forever the debtor's obligation. And as this would most naturally and most justly be the sub- stance which all men have chosen for a circulating medium, this is most properly chosen. Hence society or government has a right to establish the precious metals as a legal tender; that is, to enact that if a man owe another ten dollars, and offer him ten silver dollars, if he choose not to receive them, the man tendering the money is under no obligation to give himself any more trouble about it. The tender on his part 866 WHY GOVERNMENT COINS MONEY. 367 is a full release. He is under no obligation to offer anythino- else ; and the other party has no right to demand anything else. Nor is there, in this, any oppression. If a man wish to be paid in something besides money, he can always specify it in the contract ; and thus his object can be accomplished. The whole effect of such a law is to prevent disputes, and to enact what shall be full and valid release from obligation, when nothing specific has been agreed upon. And such a law need not interfere with special contracts for the exchange of particular objects. A second, and the .most important, action of the government in money is that of coining. The coinage of a country is a common interest, an impor- tant and delicate trust, and can nowhere be as safely lodged as in its government ; and even here it has been an often abused prerogative. The adulteration of coin has seemed so simple a method of raising money that few governments have uniformily resisted the temptation. Yet no tax rests so long, so heavily, and with such broad disaster on all pro- ductive interests as this. To embarrass the movements of exchange is to impair confidence and limit the motives to production. A metallic currency once vitiated becomes an intolerable burden, and in its reformation compels an entire resumption of the original load of debt for a time so unsuc- cessfully shifted to the currency. The inevitable career of all such measures is from reduction to reduction, till the worthless medium, utterly failing to perform its functions, is wiped away in a new coinage. But while the government is the true representative of all common interests, and by general admission the proper agent in establishing and sustaining a currency, it is not desirable that this should be done wholly at the public expense. If coin is given in equal weight at the pubhc mints for bullion, the expense of coinage and of the delay involved both fall on the public. There is in that case no greater value attached to coined than to uncoined metal; and hence, in the arts, the one is as quickly melted down as 368 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. the other. Nor in foreign trade has bullion any advantage above coin. That the expenses, therefore, of coinage may not be unnecessarily increased by a waste of coin, it is desir- able that a certain charge or seigniorage should be made at the mint, slightly raising the price of coin. Such a charge should be slight, otherwise it will keep bullion from the mints and make the replenishing of the currency more difficult. The history of the coinage of money by the United States government is one of great interest. The Mint was established by act of congress on April 2, 1792. Branch mints were estabhshed in 1873 in California, Nevada and Colorado. The building for the first mint was erected in Philadelphia, The first director was David Rittenhouse, LL.D., who was appointed by Washington April 14, 1792, The first money coined by the authority of the United States were copper cents made in 1793. In the following year silver dollars were made. Gold eagles were made in 1795, The first copper used by the mint was imported from England. The site of the present building of the mint is on Chest- nut street, below Broad, and has been occupied since 1833. The structure is marble, and of the Grecian style of archi- tecture. It was made fire-proof in 1854. In the weighing-room of this building all the metal used by the mint is received and weighed. Deposits of plate, jewelry, or native gold, of less than one hundred dollars value, will not be received. It is estimated that about six hundred millions of dollars' worth of gold has been received and weighed in this room. Of this sum probably nine tenths has been received since the first discovery of gold in Cali- fornia, in 1848. Previous to that time the gold came from different places, but principally from Virginia, North Caro- lina and Georgia. Considerable quantities of a very fine quality have come from Nova Scotia during the past four or five years. Most of the gold which reaches the mint at the THE LARGEST NUGGET OF GOLD. 369 present time comes from Montana territory. Nearly all west of that goes to the branch mint at San Francisco. Before the discovery of the immense veins of silver which exist in the territories of the United States, the silver used by the mint came principally from Mexico and South America. The precious metals are now found in most of the territories through which the Rocky and other mount- ains pass. The copper used by the mint comes principally from the mines of Lake Superior. The finest is found in Minnesota. The nickel is principally from Lancaster county, Pennsyl- vania, but it is also found in other sections of the country. The largest weight used in the mint is five hundred ounces, while the smallest is the thirteen-hundredth part of a grain, and can scarcely be seen with the naked eye. This scale is so delicate that if the arms be accurately balanced with a piece of white paper on one side, the mere weight of a single word written on the paper will weigh it down. There are twelve vaults in the mint, made of solid masonry lined with iron, and most of them with very complicated locks. The purest gold in this country has been found in the state of Georgia. The largest nugget of gold ever brought to the mint came from California in 1852, and was worth nearly six thousand dollars in gold. Attempts have been made to deposit spurious or manufactured nuggets at the mint, but no matter how nicely the fraud has been concealed it has always been detected. After the metal is weighed carefully in the deposit room, in the presence of the depositor and oflficers of the mint, it is locked up in iron boxes and conveyed to the melting room, where the boxes are unlocked by two men, each pro- vided with a key. There are four furnaces in this room, and the first process of melting which the gold or silver goes through after falling into the hands of the mint, takes place here. The metal, after being properly mixed with borax, or other fluxing material, is placed in pots and melted. It is 24 370 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. then poured into iron moulds, and when cool is again carried to the deposit room and reweighed, after which a small piece, weighing about three pennyweights, is cut off from each deposited lot by the assayer. From this small piece the fineness of the whole lot (perhaps ten thousand dollars' worth) is ascertained, its value calculated, and the depositor paid. The gold in its rough state is then ready to be trans- ferred to the melter and refiner to be refined and rendered fit for coinage. In the process of assaying gold the small piece cut off by the assayer is placed in a black lead pot and covered with borax to assist the fluxing and to prevent the oxidation of the alloy. It is thus melted down and stirred, by which a complete mixture is effected, so that an assay piece may be taken from any part of the bar after it is cast. The piece taken for this purpose is rolled out for the convenience of cutting. It is then taken to an assay balance (sensible to the ten-thousandth of a half gramme or less), and from it is weighed a half gramme, which is the normal assay weight for gold, being about seven and seven tenths grains troy. This weight is stamped one thousand ; and all the lesser weights (afterward brought into requisition) are decimal divisions of this weight, down to one ten-thousandth part. The assay of silver is similar in process to that of gold, except that charcoal is used instead of borax, in order to prevent oxidation and to allow of dipping out. The gold and silver used in the assaying process are returned to the depositor. In the separating room the gold and silver used by the mint in the manufacture of coin and fine bars are separated from each other, or whatever other metals may be mixed with them, and purified. It goes to this room after having been once melted and assayed. In separating and purifying gold, it is always necessary to add to it a certain quantity of pure silver. The whole is then immersed in nitric acid, which dissolves the silver into a liquid which looks like pure water. The acid does not dissolve the gold, but leaves THE PROCESS OF COINAGE. 371 it pure. The silver solution is then drawn off, leaving the gold at the bottom of the tub. It is then gathered up into pans and washed. The silver in the condition in which it is received from the hands of the depositor, and generally filled with numer- ous impurities, is melted and then granulated, after which the whole mass is dissolved with nitric acid. The acid dis- solves the base metal as well as the silver. The liquid metal is then run into tubs prepared for it, and precipitated or rendered into a partially hard state, by being mixed with common salt water. After being precipitated it is called chloride. By putting spelter or zinc on the precipitated chloride, it becomes metallic silver, and only needs washing and melting to make the purest virgin metal. The base metals remain in a liquid state, and being of Httle value are generally thrown away. After the refining process has been completed, the gold or silver is conveyed to the drying cellar, where it is put under a pressure of some eighty tons, and all the water pressed out. It is then dried with heat, and conveyed in large cakes to the melting room. Here it is properly mixed, heated, and then poured into an iron mould. When cool it is knocked out of the mould, and although it is rich-looking, it is without that brilliant lustre which we see in new coin. The piece taken from the mould is now called an ingot. It is about twelve inches long, and is wedge-shaped at one end. This end is made wedge- shaped to facilitate its passage through the rollers. A gold ingot is worth about twelve hundred dollars in gold. A silver ingot is worth about sixty dollars in silver, A noticeable feature of the melting room is the false floor. It is of iron, and is laid in small sections. It acts as a continual scraper, and prevents any of the small particles of precious metals from sticking to the shoes of those who pass through the rooms. The sweepings of these rooms have sometimes proved to be worth fifty thousand dollars in one year. The melting of copper is similar to that of gold and silver. 372 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. Up to the year 1857, the base coin of the United States was exclusively copper. In this year the coinage of what was called the nickel cents was commenced. These pieces, although called nickel, were composed of one-eighth nickel; the balance was copper. Since the first coinage of nickel money, the pieces have changed two or three times, both in design and mixture. The present coinage of base coins is as follows: NICKEL. Weight. Three cent 32 grains 180 pieces to the pound. Five cent 77 16-100 or about 74 pieces to the pound. Weight. One cent 48 grains 120 pieces to the pound. Two cent 96 grains 60 pieces to the pound. The composition of the five and three cent pieces is one fourth nickel ; the balance copper. The bronze pieces are a mixture of copper, zinc and tin, about equal parts of each of the two last ; the former contributing about ninety-five per cent. After passing through the melting room, the metals (gold, silver and copper) are passed through rollers until they assume the shape of long thin strips of the requisite thick- ness for the sort of coin required. These strips pass through the cutting presses, and are cut into pieces of the desired denomination. These pieces are conveyed to the adjoining room w^here they are inspected, and weighed on very fine scales. There is a certain deviation in the weight of all coins allowed by law. If a piece is found too light, it is thrown aside and melted over again ; if too heavy, but very near the weight, it is taken in hand, and a small particle filed off the edges ; if too heavy to admit of filing, it is thrown aside with the light ones and melted again into ingots. If a piece is found to be of the proper weight, it is then ready for the cleaning room. THE COUNTING BOARDS. 373 After these pieces are cleaned with heat, acid and water, they are ready for the coining. The pieces are first weighed, then they pass through a machine which turns up the edge, before they are ready for the coining presses. There are ten of these presses, each one capable of making from seventy to one hundred and twenty coins per minute. They are seldom run at a greater speed than eighty per minute. If each press in the room was run at its greatest capacity, and engaged in making double eagles (twenty dollars), in the short space of one minute we should have the astonishing sum of thirty-four thousand dollars manufactured. Only the largest presses are used in making coins of large denomina- tion. The small presses are used for base coins and the smaller denominations of silver pieces. The amount of pressure necessary to making a perfect coin is from twenty to eighty tons. The larger the piece the more pressure is required. These machines are attended by ladies, and do their work in the most perfect manner. The deviation of a hair's breadth would spoil the coin. The impressions on both sides of the coin are made with one motion of the press. A steel die, whereon the characters to be placed on the coin have been engraved or dug out, is fastened by means of screws on to what is called a " stake," and placed below or on the bed of the press. It is set about the thickness of the coin below the surface, and is surrounded by a " collar." It makes no material difference whether the obverse or reverse of the coin is below, although the latter is generally placed there. On a portion of the machine made to receive it, working directly over the lower die, the obverse die is fixed, and on this portion the pressure is regulated. The counting boards are used for counting the small silver and base coins into packages varying in value from five to fifty dollars. By this process twenty-five dollars in five cent pieces can be counted in less than a minute. After being put in packages the entire process of coining is completed. 374 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. No eagles were coined from 1805 to 1837 inclusive; no half eagles in 18 16 or 18 17; no quarter eagles before 1796, nor in 1800 or 1801, nor from 1809 to 1820, or in 1822, 1823, 1828 or 184 1 ; no dollars from 1806 to 1838 except one thou- sand in 1836; no half dollars from 1797 to 1800, nor in 181 5; no quarters before 1796, none from 1798 to 1803, none from 1808 to 1 8 14, and none in 18 17, 1824, 1826, 1829 and 1830; no dimes before 1796, none in 1799, 1806, 1808, 18 12, 181 3, 18 1 5 to 1 8 19, none in 1824, 1828 and 1830; no half dimes in 1798, 1799, 1804, 1806 to 1828; no cents in 18 15; a few- specimens in 1823 ; no half cents in 1798, 1801, 18 12 to 1824, 1827 to 1830, 1834, 1836 and 1840. A few half cents were struck every year from 1840 to 1857. First three dollar pieces in 1854, The coinage of the silver dollar of four hundred and twelve and one half grains, the five and three cent silver pieces and bronze two cent piece was discontinued under the coinage act of 1873, which went into effect on the first of April of that year. Pure silver is worth one dollar and tjiirty cents an ounce, troy. Pure gold is worth twenty dollars and sixty-seven cents an ounce, or a fraction over fifteen times as much as silver. The pure gold is always a bright straw color; the different grades of color seen in jewelry, etc., are caused by different alloyage. Half cents have not been coined since 1857. All of the base coins for the country are coined in this institution. It is capable of making enough coin to supply the wants of all the nations of the world. The coinage of the mint up to June 30, 1877, amounted to one billion one hundred and thirty-two million two hun- dred and twenty-six thousand three hundred and ninety dollars and ninety-five cents. This includes gold, silver, nickel and copper. Coin is procured from the mint in the following manner: Any responsible person can make a deposit of gold or silver at the mint, providing it be of one hundred dollars in value. .:.:^...M WHAT BECOMES OF OLD COIN. 375 On depositing the bullion, the depositor is furnished with a receipt for the gross weight of his deposit. After the fine- ness of the bullion has been ascertained by assaying, the calculations are made, and the depositor is paid the full value, deducting a small charge only for the work. If the deposit be gold, it is paid in gold ; if silver, it is paid in silver. The mint does not exchange money, and recognizes no depositor but the person who presents the bullion. In all cases the depositor is expected to state what state or country the bullion is from. Inasmuch as money is liable to continual wear from friction, and as it is thus steadily though slowly diminished in value, it at last becomes so much worn as to be unfit for circulation ; because its impression is effaced, and also because it contains much less than the standard quantity of metal. When it becomes thus unfit for circulation, on whom is the loss to fall, on the last holder, or on the whole com- munity? Doubtless, on the latter. The last holder has derived no more benefit from it than any one of the thou- sand holders, each one of whom has contributed by using it to depreciate its value, and there is no reason why he, in preference to any other, should bear the whole loss. In other words, worn-out coin should always be received at the mint at par, and exchanged for new. This remark, however, should apply only to worn-out coin, and not to coin which has been fraudulently diminished in value. Pierced or clipped coin should not be exchanged. Our government provides that gold coins of the United States may be received at the treasury at their denominational value, pro- vided that, after a circulation of twenty years, they are not reduced in weight more than one half of one per centum. The government has also authority to control the circula- tion within its own territory of foreign coins. Otherwise, worn and depreciated coin of other countries may come in and drive out its own superior money. Thus some years ago our government ordered that worn Spanish and Mexican silver coins should be received only at a discount of twenty 37^ THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. per cent on their face value, though they were really depre- ciated only ten per cent. This made the old coins worth more as bullion than as coin, and they were collected and melted. The lack of uniformity in the monetary systems of different countries involves troublesome fractional operations in reducing the coinage of one country to that of another. It is, therefore, very desirable that the attempts to secure a system of correlated international coinage for the civilized nations of the world should succeed. A slight change in the systems of the leading commercial nations will secure uniformity. If with this change a uniform system of weights and measures could also be adopted, the exchanges of the world would be greatly facilitated. The principal question now in debate among governments and statesmen is whether gold, or silver, or both shall be made legal tender. Countries using both these metals as legal money are said to have a double standard. The single silver standard prevails in Australia, India, China, and other parts of Asia. The gold standard is used in England, Germany, the Scandinavian kingdoms and Portugal. The double standard of gold and silver, prevails in France, Bel- gium, Italy and Switzerland. It is also in use in the United States, in Spain, Greece, the Netherlands, Mexico, Japan and Russia. In 1873, the United States demonetized silver, taking away from silver coins their legal tender quality. It was not long before the agitation began for its remonetization, and after a long and heated controversy in Congress, and by the press of the country, silver was again made legal tender, and its extensive coinage was provided for by law. Since this remonetization the opinion has been growing stronger in this country, that the double standard is founded in reason, and ought to prevail throughout the world. England established the gold standard in 18 16, and has adhered to it steadily since. The United States had the double standard till 1873, and reestablished it in 1878. MONEY VALUATIONS. 377 France, and the other nations of the so-called Latin union, hold to the double standard ; and the general aspect of the field seems to indicate a growing tendency in favor of the double standard among all the first-class commercial powers, England possibly excepted. When two kinds of money of different valuations are thrown into the trade of a country together, it is a law, as fixed as the law of gravitation, that the cheaper money, of inferior value, will drive out the dearer money, whose value is greater. If the government comes in often to adjust the relations of the two metals, this interference disturbs the operations of trade. This difficulty would be relieved in measure, if all commercial nations were to adopt the double standard ; but even then some international congress would need from time to time to define the relative value of the two metals. No government has any right to raise the denomination of any coin ; this would be a fraud on the money markets of the world, and a deception on the poorer class of persons in the country, as well as a cheat on all concerned. Yet in ancient and modern times nations have, when driven to the verge of bankruptcy, resorted to this juggling trick. The Romans, at the end of the First Punic war, reduced the as, the coin or denomination by which they computed the value of all their other coins, from containing twelve ounces of copper to contain only two ounces ; that is, they raised two ounces of copper to a denomination which had always before expressed the value of twelve ounces. The republic was in this manner enabled to pay the great debts which it had contracted with the sixth part of what it really owed. The law which enacted it was, like all other laws relating to the coin, introduced and carried through the assembly of the people by a tribune, and was probably a very popular law. In Rome, as in all the other ancient republics, the poor peo- ple were constantly in debt to the rich and the great, who, in order to secure their votes at the annual elections, used to lend them money at exorbitant interest, which, being iiH^i:' 378 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. never paid, soon accumulated into a sum too great either for the debtor to pay or for anybody else to pay for him. The debtor, for fear of a very severe execution, was obliged, with- out any further gratuity, to vote for the candidate whom the creditor recommended. In spite of all the laws against bribery and corruption, the bounty of the candidates, together with the occasional distribution of corn, which was ordered by the senate, were the principal funds from which, during the latter times of the Roman republic, the poorer citizens derived their subsistence. To deliver themselves from this subjection to their credi- tors, the poorer citizens were continually calling out either for an entire abolition of debts, or for what they called new tables; that is, for a law which should entitle them to a complete acquittance, upon paying only a certain proportion of their accumulated debts. The law which reduced the coin of all denominations to a sixth part of its former value, as it enabled them to pay their debts with a sixth part of what they really owed, was equivalent to the most advanta- geous new tables. In order to satisfy the people, the rich and the great were, upon several different occasions, obliged to consent to laws both for abolishing debts and for intro- ducing new tables ; and they probably were induced to con- sent to this law partly for the same reason, and partly that, by liberating the public revenue, they might restore vigor to that government of which they themselves had the principal direction. An operation of this kind would at once reduce a debt of a hundred and twenty-eight millions to a little over twenty-one millions. In the course of the Second Punic war the as was still further reduced, first, from two ounces of copper to one ounce, and afterward from one ounce to half an ounce ; that is, to the twenty-fourth part of its origi- nal value. By combining the three Roman operations into one, a debt of a hundred and twenty-eight millions of our present money might in this manner be reduced all at once to a debt of five millions. Even the enormous debt of Great Britain might in this manner soon be paid. CHAPTER XXXIII. CREDIT AN INSTRUMENT OF EXCHANGE. CREDIT plays an important part in the exchange of the world. A very small part of trade is carried on by the actual transfer of money. Credit is, in a large part of exchange, the substitute for money. Its use can hardly be estimated. Credit is trust in the promise to pay. The advantages which belong to credit are open to all, while its disadvantages are concealed from many. Credit does not create, it only transfers, capital. That which was previously in one man's hands is by credit transferred in its occupation, its use, to another. There may be a great gain to the interests of production in this transfer. The owner may be either unable or indisposed to employ his capital ; the borrower may have both the industry and skill requisite for its profitable use, and thus by the act of credit new returns be realized by both, and the general resources of production augmented. Though credit is never anything more than a transfer of capital from hand to hand, it is generally and naturally a transfer to hands more competent to employ the capital efficiently in production. If there were no such thing as credit, many persons who possess more or less of capital, but who from their occupations, or for want of the necessary skill and knowledge, cannot personally superintend its employment, would derive no benefit from it ; their funds would either lie idle, or would be, perhaps, wasted and annihilated in unskillful attempts to make them yield a profit. All this capital is now lent at interest and made available for production. Capital thus circumstanced forms a large portion of the productive resources of any commer- cial country, and is naturally attracted to those producers 379 380 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. or traders who, being in the greatest business, have the means of employing it to most advantage ; beeause such are both the most desirous to obtain it and able to give the best security. Although, therefore, the productive funds of the country are not increased by credit, they are called into a more complete state of productive activity. As the confi- dence on which credit is grounded extends itself, means are developed by which even the smallest portions of capital — the sums which each person keeps by him to meet contin- gencies — are made available for productive uses. The principal instruments for this purpose are banks of deposit. Where these do not exist, a prudent person must keep a sufficient sum unemployed in his own possession to meet every demand which he has even a slight reason for think- ing himself liable to. When the practice, however, has grown up of keeping this reserve not in his own custody but with a banker, many small sums previously lying idle become aggregated in the banker's hands; and the banker, being taught by experience what proportion of the amount is likely to be wanted in a given time, and knowing that if one depositor happens to require more than the average another will require less, is able to lend the remainder — that is, the far greater part — to producers and dealers, thereby adding the amount, not indeed to the capital in existence, but to that in employment, and making a corresponding addition to the aggregate production of the community. The gains of credit do not belong to it in all forms. The credit which the industrious merchant and artisan extend to the consumer is not usually attended with these results. By such credits, those engaged in production are deprived of the immediate, the complete, command of their resources, and this often in favor of those who are relatively unproduc- tive consumers. In this kind of credit neither party gains to the full that which is lost by the extended time of pay- ment. The merchant, by the smaller but more rapid and safe profits of a cash system, is able to realize more than by the dilatory method of book account. The customer, in the DIFFERENT FORMS OF CREDIT. 38 1 additional profits which he finally pays the merchant in the arrangement of his account, should remember that there is included not only interest for the average time during which the use of capital has been lost, but also a percentage repre- senting the bad debts which are the necessary accompani- ments of such a business. Only he who exacts prompt payment, and is very vigilant for himself, can afford to sell cheap. Credit, then, between the producer and customer is as liable to be attended with loss as with gain. The first of the leading forms of credit is that of book accounts. In a book account there is but a single credit or series of credits, single transactions, and no power to make them the bases of others. The effect of this kind of credit must depend on the particular case in which it exists, and on how far it becomes the general method of business. When credit takes the form of a book account, the depos- itor gives his banker credit for money put into his hands to be paid on his order, and accepts a certificate of deposit, or an entry on his bank book, as the promise, the voucher, for the transaction. The orders by which the deposits are drawn out are called checks. These may float about .with a limited circulation, as tokens of credit at home. Or, on a wider range, taking the form of bills of exchange, the credit thus originated may reach around the globe, doing good service in the exchanges of individuals and of nations. Bills •of exchange were first introduced to save the expense and risk of transporting the precious metals from place to place. Bills of exchange having been found convenient as means of paying debts at distant places without the expense of transporting the precious metals, their use was afterward greatly extended from another motive. It is usual in every trade to give a certain length of credit for goods bought: three months, six months, a year, even two years, according to the convenience or custom of the particular trade. A dealer who has sold goods, for which he is to be paid in six months, but who desires to receive payment sooner, draws a bill on his debtor payable in six months, and gets the bill 382 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. discounted by a banker or other money-lender; that is, trans- fers the bill to him, receiving the amount, minus interest for the time it has still to run. It has become one of the chief functions of bills of exchange to sefve as a means by which a debt due from one person can thus be made available for obtaining credit from another. Another form of credit, equally extensive in its applica- tion with the bill of exchange, is the promissory note. A bill drawn upon any one and accepted by him, and a note of hand by him, promising to pay the same sum, are, as far as he is concerned, exactly equivalent, except that the former commonly bears interest and the latter generally does not ; and that the former is commonly payable only after a certain lapse of time, and the latter payable at sight. But it is chiefly in the latter form that it has become, in commercial countries, an express occupation to issue such substitutes for money. Dealers in money desire, like other dealers, to stretch their operations beyond what can be carried on by their own means : they wish to lend, not their capital merely, but their credit, and not only such portion of their credit as consists of funds actually deposited with them, but their power of obtaining credit from the public generally, so far as they think they can safely employ it. This is done in a very convenient manner by lending their own promissory notes payable to bearer on demand : the borrower being willing to accept these as so much money, because the credit of the lender makes other people willingly receive them on the same footing, in purchases or other payments. These notes, therefore, perform all the functions of currency, and render an equivalent amount of money which was previously in circulation, unnecessary. As, however, being payable on demand, they may be at any time returned on the issuer, and money demanded for them, he must, on pain of bank- ruptcy, keep by him as much money as will enable him to meet any claims of that sort which can be expected to occur within the time necessary for providing himself with more; and prudence also requires that he should not attempt to STOCKS AND BONDS. 383 issue notes beyond the amount which experience shows can remain in circulation without being presented for payment. The convenience of this mode of coining credit, having once been discovered, governments have availed themselves of the same expedient, and have issued their own promissory notes in payment of their expenses ; a resource the more useful, because it is the only mode in which they are able to borrow money without paying interest, their promises to pay on demand being in the estimation of the holders, equivalent to money in hand. A bank bill is a promissory note payable on demand. Such a note may be the unlimited instrument of purchase. Another form of credit is that of stocks. In this form a number of persons wishing to combine their capital for man- ufacturing, banking, building a railway, or whatever, form a stock company. Each gives credit to the company for the capital he puts in, and accepts a certificate of stock as the promise, or voucher. These certificates aire transferable; and credit in this form becomes an article of merchandise with a current price, more or less variable, from causes natural or artificial. Bonds are a form of credit. These are issued by corpora- tions, cities, states and nations, and are evidences of debt. Whoever holds these gives credit to the body corporate or politic, whose promise is embodied in the bond. These, like stocks, are made articles of merchandise, and are sought by many for the investment of money. They are also often made the sport of wild and reckless speculation, and so credit furnishes instruments for stock-gamblers to play with. These forms of credit exist, and will exist more or less extensively in every commercial nation ; and it is only where they have become so far systematized as to be an habitual method of payment, as to underlie a large share of the business of the country, that their effects are manifestly injurious. Credit has a purchasing power equal to cash, and the sum of each man's purchasing power is equal to his cash and his 384 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. credit. If he is confined, or nearly confined, to the former, his ability by actual purchase to enhance the demand will be greatly restricted ; if he can employ to its utmost ten- sion the last, his purchasing power and his ability to affect the market will be proportionately augmented. It does not indeed follow that because a man has credit he will use it, or, if he uses, will use it to its full extent ; but a system of credit entering as a stated element into the methods of busi- ness, shows not only the existence, but a very large use of the purchasing power of credit, and hence a proportionate intensity of demand acting on price. A serious abuse of credit is that it is apt to be too freely used. When there is a general impression that the price of some commodity is likely to rise, there is a general disposi- tion for men dealing in that commodity to increase their stock to the extent of both their capital and credit. When the prices cease to rise, the holders are anxious to sell. Then the price begins to decline ; the holders rush into the market to avoid a still greater loss, and few being willing to buy in a falling market the price falls much more suddenly than it rose. Those who have bought at a higher price than rea- sonable calculation justified, and who have been overtaken by the revulsion before they had realized, are losers in pro- portion to the greatness of the fall, and to the quantity of the commodity which they hold, or have bound themselves to pay for. If there were no such thing as credit, this could hardly happen with respect to commodities generally. If all pur- chases were made with ready money, the payment of increased prices for some articles would draw an unusual proportion of the money of the community into the markets for those articles, and must therefore draw it away from some other class of commodities, and thus lower their prices. The vacuum might, it is true, be partly filled up by increased rapidity of circulation ; and in this manner the money of the community is virtually increased in a time of speculative activity, because people keep little of it by them, but hasten CAUSE OF A COMMERCIAL CRISIS. 385 to lay it out in some tempting adventure as soon as possible after they receive it.. This resource, however, is Hmited; on the whole, people cannot, while the quantity of money remains the same, lay out much more of it in some things without laying out less in others. But what they cannot do by ready money, they can do by an extension of credit. When people go into the market and purchase with money which they hope to receive hereafter, they are drawing upon an unlimited, not a limited, fund. Speculation, thus sup- ported, may be going on in any number of commodities, without disturbing the regular course of business in others. It might even be going on in all commodities at one. We could imagine that in an epidemic fit of the passion of gambling, all dealers, instead of giving only their accustomed orders to the manufacturers or growers of their commodity, commenced buying up all of it which they could procure, as far as their capital and credit would go. All prices would rise enormously, even if there were no increase of money, and no paper credit, but a mere extension of purchases on book credits. After a time those who had bought would wish to sell, and prices would collapse. This is the ideal extreme case of what is called a commer- cial crisis. There is said to be a commercial crisis, when a great number of merchants and traders at once, either have, or appre- hend that they shall have, a difficulty in meeting their engage- ments. The most usual cause of this general embarrassment, is the recoil of prices after they have been raised by a spirit of speculation intense in degree and extending to many commodities. Some accident which excites expectations of rising prices, such as the opening of a new foreign market, or simultaneous indications of a short supply of several great articles of commerce, sets speculation at work in several leading departments at once. The prices rise and the holders realize or appear to have the power of realizing great gains. In certain states of the public mind, such examples of rapid increase of fortune call forth numerous imitators, and speculation not only goes much beyond what 25 386 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. is justified by the original grounds for expecting rise of price, but extends itself to articles in which there never was any such ground : these, however, rise like the rest as soon as speculation sets in. At periods of this kind, a great exten- sion of credit takes place. Not only do all whom the con- tagion reaches employ their credit much more freely than usual ; but they really have more credit, because they seem to be making unusual gains. But when the reaction comes there is sure to be a crisis. Chief among the evil effects of prices made high by credit^ is that upon currency. These prices induce a large importa- tion, leaving a balance to be met by the abduction of specie. Nor does this tendency have any definite limits. Credit, elastic and ductile, enters in to take the place of the coin withdrawn and prices remaining the same, still further pay- ments are made necessary. By this means the currency becomes more and more embarrassed. These prices also discourage home industry. All things purchased at home are for the manufacturer high ; his goods, therefore, must bear a correspondingly high price. But goods from abroad can still be exchanged on the old terms for gold and silver; and hence, in the home market he is readily undersold. Neither in the foreign market can he make sales for cash to the same advantage as formerly, since at home gold is a depreciated commodity. In the home market he is readily undersold and forced into the foreign market. But even here, if thrown into competition with the same goods brought by a foreign vessel, he may, in a traffic for the precious metals, be undersold and can only protect himself by a repurchase of goods for the home market. The effect which the credit system has on the commercial integrity of men — the basis of all permanent success — should be observed. Nothing can be easier than fraud under such a system. The young man, with no reputation for skill or honesty, and but little property, makes a large purchase on six months' credit and removes the goods to a distant place; he may there effect rapid sales at reduced THE AMERICAN CREDIT SYSTEM. 387 prices, pocket the avails and decamp. Or with more honesty and less thrift, he in turn may give credit, and making but few profitable sales, find the goods scattered and himself unable to meet his obligations. In such a system the reward of property, skill and integrity are greatly reduced. No man finds it necessary to bring these to the loan market. Money and goods are ready on hard conditions indeed ; but he with the same spirit, can still further raise the prices and pass on the burdened product. Is it strange that a reckless, specu- lating spirit should be the first-born of such a system ; that patient, plodding industry should be regarded as a poor, stupid substitute for enterprise and a general crash as a joke on a large scale? Men who work with that which is not their own have not the same motives to caution ; the losses are not theirs ; and they come out of a business, totally wrecked, with nearly all with which they entered it. They had but little business character to lose, and where bank- ruptcies are frequent they have proportionately less power to affect reputation. The results of indolence and heedless- ness are not, under such a system, suffered to follow men. An easy law of bankruptcy is its necessary and natural supplement. That these are forces which readily manifest themselves in this revolution between the poles of extended credit and bankruptcy, there can be no doubt ; but it is equally certain that these forces are largely under control, and that their movement may be greatly modified or entirely suspended. No crisis can exist without extended credit, since a crisis is no other than a general pressure for payment. Unsafe credit is the common quality, the provoking cause, of all crises. Anything which reduces credit, destroys its systematic application, and makes it firm, though not able to impart a uniform prosperity, will largely remove these destructive scourges of the commercial world. Whatever are the dangers and evils of our American credit system, yet it is one of the most commendable features of our national life, when not abused. It brings money into 388 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. the form of capital, and makes it available for the increase of wealth. Widows, minors, aged persons, professional men, otherwise occupied, and unfamiliar with manufactures and trade, are often the owners of property from which they need an income ; but they cannot, by their own labor, make it productive. By means of credit this wealth is made produc- tive capital for the benefit of all parties. Credit also gathers up the small savings of many, and puts them into union with labor for profitable use. Credit enables industrial talent to be used, which other- wise would lie dormant. By means of it many a poor man, of strength and skill, obtains the needed capital, by which alone his powers can be employed and developed. A large portion of the most successful business men in our country have begun with only their own faculties and energies, and a character to command confidence, and bring them capital on credit. In the light of these two of its functions, credit is indis- pensable, both to the full drawing out of the capital of a country, and to the full development of its industrial talent. Thus it touches both the springs of productive industry: capital and labor. Credit, to a limited extent, may be safely put into the form of currency or paper money. It is a rule of sound economy, to use the cheapest tools which will serve the desired purpose. If promissory notes of banks, to an amount equal to double the specie they hold, will effect exchanges well and safely, the real value of half the gold and silver, fixed in money, may be devoted to other purposes. So far the instrument of exchange is cheapened, to advantage. This use of credit, however, runs close upon the line of danger, and needs careful restrictions. For all these functions of credit a basis of sound money is indispensable. Nothing but real money, made of gold and silver, can furnish the universal standard of value required. This is the ballast of the ship of trade. Credit furnishes the sails. Any ballast that easily shifts in a storm brings danger TRUE BASIS OF CREDIT. 389 to the ship. The credit which circles the world, and binds all civilized nations together by the common interests and mutual service of universal commerce, must be sustained by the all-pervading presence of money, whose value is uniform and stable. CHAPTER XXXIV. BANKS AND BANKING. THE word bank is of Italian origin. In the beginning of European commerce, the Jews in Italy were in the habit of assembling themselves in the market-places of the principal towns, and, seated on benches, loaned and exchanged money. From this we have the term bank, from banco, a bench. It was a custom to break the bench of any one of these money-lenders who failed, and from this we have the word bankrupt. The origin of modern banking may be traced to the money-lenders of Florence, who were in high repute as receivers on deposit and lenders of money, in the fourteenth century ; and banking was known at Florence in the thir- teenth, if not even in the twelfth, century. In 1345 the two greatest mercantile houses in Italy failed. Citizens and kings had deposited with, or had loaned to, these houses over a million florins in gold. The fall of these two leading commercial pillars well-nigh crushed the commerce of Flor- ence. The city, however, recovered from this terrible disaster, and the faith in banking was so far restored that at one time there were eighty bankers in Florence, and yet not one public bank. But the business of banking, if not the name, was known long before this. Banking appears to have reached a high state of development among the ancients. The bankers of Greece and Rome exercised nearly the same functions as those of the present day, except that they do not appear to have issued notes. They received money on deposit, to be repaid on demands made by checks or orders, or at some stipulated period, sometimes paying interest for it, and sometimes not. Their profits arose from their lending the 390 THE BANK OF VENICE. 39 1 balance at their disposal at higher rates of interest than they allowed the depositors. They were extensively employed in valuing and exchanging foreign moneys for the cities of Athens, Corinth and Rome, and in negotiating bills of exchange. In general, they were highly esteemed, and great confidence was placed in their integrity. The rate of interest charged by the bankers was sometimes very high, but that was not a consequence, as has been alleged, of their rapacity, but of the defective state of the law, which, as it gave every facility to debtors disposed to evade pay- ment of their debts, obliged the bankers to guarantee themselves by charging a proportionally high rate of interest. Banking again reappeared in Italy upon the revival of civilization. The Bank of Venice is reputed the first in date in the history of modern Europe, but it did not become a bank, as we understand the term, till long after its foundation. Historians inform us that the republic being hard pressed for money, was obliged, on three different occasions, in 1156, 1480 and 1 5 10, to levy forced contributions upon the citizens, giving them in return perpetual annuities at certain rates per cent. The annuities due under the forced loan of 11 56 were, however, finally extinguished in the sixteenth century ; and the offices for the payment of the annuities due under the other two loans having been consolidated, eventually became the Bank of Venice. This might be effected as follows : The interest on the loan to government being paid punctually, every claim registered in the books of the of^ce would be considered as a productive capital ; and these claims, or the right of receiving the annuity accruing thereon, must soon have been transferred, by demise or cession, from one person to another. This practice would naturally suggest to holders of stock the simple and easy method of discharging their united debts by transfers on the ofifice books, and as soon as they became sensible of the advantages to be derived from this method of accounting, bank-money was invented. It will, however, be seen that the establish- 392 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. ment thus described was at first no more than the transfer office of a national debt, transfers of which were accepted at par in discharge of private debts, and it is indeed said that the funded debt transferred sometimes commanded a premium above the current money of the republic. This establishment was ruined, after passing through many changes, by the invasion of the French in 1797. The business of banking does not appear to have been introduced into England until the seventeenth century. Its first appearance in that country was under the management of London goldsmiths, who borrowed the idea from Holland. It found bitter enemies at first. In a pamphlet published in 1676, entitled, "The Mystery of the New-Fashioned Gold- smiths or Bankers Discovered," there is this passage : " Much about the time of the civil commotion the goldsmiths, or new-fashioned bankers, began to receive the rents of gentle- men's estates remitted to town, and to allow them, and others, who put cash into their hands, some interest for it, if it remained but a single month in their hands. This was a great allurement for people to put money into their hands which would bear interest till the day they wanted it ; and they could also draw it out by one hundred pounds or fifty pounds at a time, as they wanted it, with infinitely less trouble than if they had lent it out on real or personal security. The consequence was that it quickly brought a great quantity of cash into their hands, so that the chief or greatest of them was now enabled to supply Cromwell with money in advance, on the revenues, as his occasion required, upon great advantages to themselves." From this it is seen that upon its introduction into England, banking was regarded as a*selfish, questionable scheme for money-making, without any benefit accruing to the country. The foundation of the Bank of England was practically the beginning of modern banking. And the distrust with which banking was at first regarded in England must have speedily turned into favor, for the Bank of England was established by act of Parliament in 1694, receiving its charter, THE BANK OF ENGLAND. 393 under the great seal, on the twenty-seventh of July, of that year. This is the greatest bank of circulation in Europe, and the greatest bank of deposit in Great Britain. Its principal projector was a William Patterson, a Scotchman. At the time of its establishment the English government was heavily embarrassed for want of money, partly arising from defects of taxation, and partly from the supposed instability of the revolutionary establishment. The Bank grew out of a loan of nearly six million dollars, for the use of the public service. The subscribers were to receive eight per cent on the sum advanced as interest, and also about twenty-three thousand dollars a year to meet the expense of management. The subscribers were incorporated into a society denominated the governor and company of the Bank of England. In 1697, the Bank was allowed by renewal of charter, under William III., to enlarge its capital stock by an engraft- ment of about six million dollars. This engraftment is said to have been made for the support of the pubHc credii. In 1708, the credit of the government was good, and it borrowed at six per cent. In this year the Bank canceled exchequer bills to the amount of ten million dollars, and at the same time doubled its capital. In 1716, the Bank can- celed about twelve million dollars of bills ; while the interest was reduced to five per cent. In 1 72 1, the Bank purchased stock in the South Sea Company, to the amount of over twenty million dollars ; and the following year, in consequence of the subscriptions it had taken in to enable it to purchase this stock, its capital was again enlarged, which now amounted to nearly fifty million dollars ; and it had advanced in about a quarter of a century over fifty million dollars to the public. The capital of the Bank on which dividends are paid has never exactly coincided with, though it has never differed very materially from, the permanent advance by the bank to the public. The Bank of England has been frequently affected by panics ; at one time being reduced to the necessity of paying 394 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. in sixpences. In 1745, the alarm occasioned by the advance of the Highlanders, under the Pretender, as far as Derby, led to a run upon the Bank; and in order to gain time to effect measures for averting the run, the directors adopted the device of paying in shillings and sixpences. Subsequently the Bank derived effectual relief by the retreat of the High- landers, and from a resolution agreed to at a meeting of the principal merchants and traders of the city, and very numer- ously signed by them, declaring the willingness of the sub- scribers to receive bank notes in payment of any sum that might be due to them, and pledging themselves to use their utmost endeavors to make all their payments in the same medium. This public confidence undoubtedly saved the Bank's credit in that panic. During the terrible riots of June, 1780, the Bank incurred considerable danger. Had the mob attacked the establish- ment at the commencement of the riots, the consequences would have been fatal. But in the delay of the attack time was afforded to provide a force sufficient to insure safety. Since that time a considerable military force occupies the Bank every night as a protection in any emergency that may occur. The dividend of the Bank has varied according to the variations in the rate of the interest which it has, at different times, received for the money it has advanced to the public, as well as according to other circumstances. This rate of interest has gradually been reduced from eight to three per cent. The stability of the Bank of England is equal to that of the British government. All that it has advanced to the public must be lost before its creditors can sustain any loss. No other banking company in England can be established by act of parliament, or can consist of more than six mem- bers. It acts not only as an ordinary bank, but as a great engine of state. It receives and pays the greater part of the annuities which are due to the creditors of the public, it cir- culates exchequer bills, and it advances to the government COUNTRY BANKS IN ENGLAND. 395 the annual amount of the .land and malt taxes, which are frequently not paid up till some years thereafter. In those diflerent operations its duty to the public may sometimes have obliged it, without any fault of its directors, to over- stock the circulation with paper money. It likewise discounts merchants' bills, and has upon several different occasions supported the credit of the principal houses, not only of England, but of Hamburg and Holland. Upon one occasion, in 1763, it is said to have advanced for this pur- pose, in one week, about six million dollars, a great part of it in bullion. Banks were early established in towns outside of London. The still existing house of Smith and Company, of Notting- ham, claims to have been founded in 1688. Most of these banks issued their own notes, payable only to bearer. Up to 1759 the Bank of England had not issued any notes for less than twenty pounds — about one hundred and thirteen dollars and sixty cents. In this year it issued notes for ten pounds. The country bankers put in circulation notes for such small amounts that parliament enacted that none should be issued for less than one pound. In 1777 this mini- mum was raised to five pounds, but in spite of this restric- tion the issues of the small country bankers become danger- ously multiplied. At the close of the war of 1776 with America the trade and business of England rapidly increased, this gave fresh impulse to small banking establishments. The number increased in less than ten years from under one hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty. A banking house was opened in almost every town. The commercial affairs of these establishments were conducted very loosely. All sorts of bank-paper was forced into circulation, and enjoyed nearly the same degree of esteem. Credit of every kind was most severely strained. The financial panic which followed was a legitimate con- sequence. The great redundancy of currency created a dis- trust in the exchanges in 1792. Men were afraid to exchange one commodity for another. The country bank issues soon 396 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. found a difficulty of being recognized in London. Notwith- standing the Bank of England tried to mitigate the pressure, a violent revulsion to bank issues took place in the latter part of 1792 and the beginning of the following year. The failure of one or two leading houses brought the panic to open dis- aster, and general distress followed in all branches of trade. Out of three hundred and fifty banking houses in England and Wales, fully three hundred were compelled to stop payments, producing by their fall an extent of misery and bankruptcy till then unknown in England. The history of this financial crisis in England clearly shows that it was produced by the excess of paper money which was forced into circulation. The year 1797 was a critical one for English banking. Owing to the pressure of the late war, heavy loans to Ger- many, large demands on the Bank by the British agents in other lands, and the constant advances made the government, large sums were drawn from the Bank. Fears were enter- tained of an invasion, and this gave fuel to the grave appre- hensions. Runs were made on the country banks, and a number having failed, the panic became general, and extended to London. Demands poured in with such per- sistency that the Bank, on Saturday, February 25, 1797, had less than six million dollars in cash and bullion in its vaults, with every prospect of a violent run taking place on the Monday following. The council of the Bank hastily met and passed orders to prevent any more payments in cash until the opinion of Parliament could be taken on the crisis. Par- liament hurriedly assembled and went into private session on the question of the hour. When the decision was finally reached, it was to determine that the restriction should continue as long as the country was unsettled by war. Measures were taken, and successfully, to make the Bank notes equivalent to cash. In this way the crisis was bridged over. This run did not occur through any over issue of paper money, but through a combination of circumstances which produced a panic. Therefore the action of the gov- THE BANK CRISES. 39/ ernment in stopping payments was only a measure of public interest, and was perfectly justifiable. It had been thought, prior to the passage of this restric- tion act, that bank notes would not circulate unless they were convertible into cash at once. This crisis showed the error of this supposition. Though the notes of the Bank of England were not by this act declared to be legal tender, yet they were virtually made so by the habit of the govern- ment in receiving them as payments in cash. For a few years the confidence in these notes was so strong that they not only were on a par with gold, but actually bore a small premium. In 1801 the number of these notes was so increased that their face value fell to a discount which gradually run down to ten per cent below par. In 1804 they recovered, and until 1808 stood at a discount of two and a half per cent. In 18 10 the directors made a blunder and increased the circulation from one hundred million to one hundred and thirty million dollars. The issues of country bank paper increased still more rapidly; as there was no proportionate increase in the business of the country, the pressure became violent, and in 18 10 the discount run as low as sixteen per cent below par. This fall of paper money greatly disturbed the exchange, and consequently the industry of the country. Finally the house of commons appointed a committee to examine into the state of affairs. The report charged the trouble this time to an over issue of paper money, and advised that the Bank be directed to return to specie payment. The advice was unheeded. The issue went on ; and the maximum of depreciation was reached in 18 14, when it was twenty-five per cent below par. At this time there were nine hundred banking establishments in England. These were, with the trade of the whole country, mostly swallowed up in the general bankruptcy of 18 16. The Bank of England sought relief by extending the field of its operations. In 18 19 the bill of Sir Robert Peel provided for a return to specie in 1823. The Bank having a large quantity of gold in its 39^ THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. vaults, actually began specie payments on the first of May, 1821. The failure to make provision by which this paper money would be curtailed, and what was in circulation, to some extent, at least, lifted, produced fresh trouble. The resump- tion in 1823 produced a public confidence that extended to the infatuation of all sorts of wild schemes. Every person thought the time had come to become wealthy. Money was wanted at any price, and in 1825 the paper money afloat was eighty per cent more than in 1823. This redundancy of money brought a reaction as speedy as it was severe. The l^ank of England entered into an agreement with the government to pay off all holders of four per cent stock of the Bank as dissented from converting it into three and a half per cent stock. When the depression occurred, the Bank was compelled to advance a large sum to meet the fall. This produced a recoil from the flush condition of three years before that was appalling. All classes of depositors hurried to take up their deposits. The ruin was so sudden that in less than two months seventy banking establishments Avent under. This terrible crash swept away nearly fifty millions of dollars for the Bank of England, and it is a wonder how it stood the frightful test. On the twenty- eighth of Februar}', 1826, the bullion in the Bank only amounted to a little over ten millions of dollars. The impression had settled into a conviction throughout England that the financial panics were hastened and made more severe by the loose system of country banking than by aught else. This was lifting part of the fault from the Bank of England, where it largel}- belonged. Measures were taken to restrict, and for several j'cars the direction of nearly all legislation on the money question was to restrain the country banks. A law was passed favoring joint stock banks. But 1835 brought a panic Avhich left only eleven in the whole country. The drain on the specie of the Bank of England set in again with frightful fury. The history of the distress of 1835 in THE LONDON CLEARING-HOUSE. 399 England shows the folly of leaving the issue of paper money to the selfishness and greed of bank directors. The best legislation the money question in England ever received was in 1844 and 1845, when Robert Peel undertook its entire revision. The substance of the policy of Peel was to provide against the danger of an over-issue, by making paper money dependent on the amount of coin and bullion in the Bank of England. Under this policy, the notes of the Bank of England are made equivalent to gold, and are practically legal tender. Since that year the bank manage- ment of England has been sound and wise, and the failures have been few. Banking, as conducted in England for over thirty years, has wonderfully developed the methods for economizing money. Persons having small sums can deposit them for interconvertible paper and secure a constant interest. Since it is known that an over issue of bank notes cannot be made, the public confidence is strong in the banks, and persons readily deposit sums of a small amount. One peculiarity about the banking business in London is the clearing-house. It was established over a century ago. Before it existed the clerk of each bank had to go to the places of business of all the other bankers in the city to collect the sums payable by them on checks and bills. Much time was consumed by this process, a large quantity of money was in constant carriage on the street and subject to risk. In 1775 the clearing-house was established, as a place where the clerks of the different banks could daily assemble to exchange the checks drawn upon, and bills payable at, their respective houses. In this way but little money is carried over the street, and the business is done in a few moments, while before the risks of carriage were great and the work frequently took the time of one clerk for a whole day to do the collection for a single bank. In the management of the Bank of England, as conducted at present, there is observed no difference except that its bank notes are now legal tender everywhere, except at the 400 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. bank. By this it is thought that a note will be considered equivalent to its face in specie in the remotest part of Eng- land as readily as at the desk of the cashier of the bank. In no country is the value of public banking more plainly seen than in the history of Scotland. The business of the country is almost entirely carried on by means of the paper of the banks. Silver and gold very seldom appear. It was estimated that the trade of the city of Glasgow was doubled in fifteen years upon the establishment of banks there. The two main public banks of the country are the Bank of Scot- land and the Royal Bank, both located at Edinburgh. The commerce of Scotland was most lamentably incon- siderable when the two first banking companies were estab- lished ; and those companies would have had but little trade, had they confined their business to discounting bills of exchange. They invented, therefore, another method of issuing their promissory notes ; by granting, what they called, cash accounts: that is by giving credit to the extent of a certain sum to any individual who could procure two persons of undoubted credit and good landed estate to become surety for him, that whatever money should be advanced to him, within the sum for which the credit had been given, should be repaid upon demand, together with the legal interest. Credits of this kind are commonly granted by banks and bankers in all different parts of the world. But the easy terms upon which the Scotch banking companies accept of repayment are peculiar to them, and have, perhaps, been the principal cause, both of the great trade of those companies, and of the benefit which the country has received from them. Whoever has a credit of this kind with one of those com- panies, and borrows a thousand pounds upon it, for example, may repay this sum piecemeal, by twenty and thirty pounds at a time, the company discounting a proportionable part of the interest of the great sum from the day on which each of those small sums is paid in, till the whole be in this manner repaid. All merchants, therefore, and almost all men of busi- ness, find it convenient to keep such cash accounts with them. THE MISTAKE IN SCOTLAND. 401 and are thereby interested to promote the trade of those companies, by readily receiving their notes in all payments, and by encouraging all those with whom they have any influence to do the same. The banks, when their customers apply to them for money, generally advance it to them in their own promissory notes. These the merchants pay away to the manufacturers for goods, the manufacturers to the farmers for materials and provisions, the farmers to their landlords for rent, the landlords repay them to the merchants for the conveniences and luxuries with which they supply them, and the merchants again return them to the banks in order to balance their cash accounts, or to replace what they may have borrowed of them; and thus almost the whole money- business of the country is transacted by means of them. Hence the great trade of those companies. For by means of these cash accounts every merchant can carry on a greater trade than he otherv/ise could. Banking in Scotland had an experience just opposite of that in England. While the tendency in England had been, until restrained by government, to over-issue, that of con- servative Scotland was to have an under-issue of notes, and to exercise great prudence in granting credit. This finally brought down upon the banks the public censure. The distress of trade, which had been felt for a short time, it was said, was owing to the bad conduct of the banks, which did not give sufificiently liberal aid to the spirited under- takings of those who had public enterprise at heart. It was thought to be the duty of the banks to lend for as long a time and to as great extent as was wanted by any person. The banks, however, by refusing to give more credit to those to whom they had already given too much, took the only method by which it was possible to save their own credit and that of the country. In the midst of this clamor and distress, a new bank was established in Scotland for the express purpose of relieving the distress of the country. The design was generous ; but the enterprise was imprudent, and the nature of the causes 26 402 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. of the distress which it meant to reheve, were not, perhaps,, well understood. This bank was more liberal than any other had ever been, both in granting cash accounts, and in dis- counting bills of exchange. With regard to the latter, it seems to have made scarce any distinction between real and circulating bills, but to have discounted all equally. It was the avowed principle of this bank to advance, upon any reason- able security, the whole capital which was to be employed in those improvements of which the returns are the most slow and distant, such as the improvements of land. To promote such improvements was even said to be the chief of the public-spirited purposes for which it was instituted. By its liberality in granting cash accounts, and in discounting bills of exchange, it, no doubt, issued great quantities of its bank notes. But those bank notes being, the greater part of them, over and above what the circulation of the country could easily absorb and employ, returned upon it, in order to be exchanged for gold and silver, as fast as they were issued. Its coffers were never well filled. The capital which had been subscribed to this bank at two different subscriptions, amounted to one hundred and sixty thousand pounds, of which eighty per cent only was paid up. This sum ought to have been paid in at several different installments. A great part of the proprietors, when they paid in their first install- ment, opened a cash account with the bank; and the direc- tors thinking themselves obliged to treat their own propri- etors with the same liberality with which they treated all other men, allowed many of them to borrow upon this cash account what they paid in upon all their subsequent install- ments. Such payments, therefore, only put into one coffer, what had a moment before been taken out of another. But had the coffers of this bank been filled never so well, its excessive circulation must have emptied them faster than they could have been replenished by any other expedient but the ruinous one of drawing upon London, and when the bill became due, paying it, together with interest and commis- sion, by another draft upon the same place. Its coffers hav- FALL OF THE AYR BANK. 403 ing been filled so very ill, it is said to have been driven to this resource within a very few months after it began to do busi- ness. The estates of the proprietors of this bank were worth several millions, and by their subscription to the original bond or contract of the bank, were really pledged for answering all its engagements. By means of the great credit which so great a pledge necessarily gave it, it was, nothwithstanding its too liberal conduct, enabled to carry on business for more than two years, when it was obliged to stop. This was called the Ayr Bank. In a little over two years it had advanced to different people, about four million dollars, at five per cent ; while for the money it was con- stantly drawing from London it was paying in the way of interest and commission eight per cent, and was consequently losing more than three per cent on its dealings. The operations of the bank, therefore, instead of bringing relief, brought still greater distress. The only way out of this financial misery was the natural laws of trade. The prevailing system of banking in the United States before the late war, was that of each state permitting the establishment of banks for the issue of notes payable in specie on demand. The constitution gives to congress the right to regulate and control the money and coinage. Under this provision, in the year of 1791, the United States Bank was established. When the charter expired, at the end of twenty years, in 181 1, many wanted it renewed, while many were just as bitter against it ; and it was not till after several years' experience of the monentary embarrassments which ensued, that the Bank of the United States was rechartered, in 18 16, for twenty years. Its capital was to consist of seven millions of dollars in gold and silver, and twenty-eight millions in specie, or United States stocks, to be received at various rates. The government was to subscribe seven millions of this capital, and to draw from it a proportionate income. One and a half millions of dollars were paid in installments by the Bank for its charter. In addition to the general reasons in favor of the usefulness and necessity of such an institution, it was affirmed 404 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. that a national bank creates a uniform medium of exchange between the different states of the Union ; facilitates all the transactions of commerce ; takes charge of the surplus funds of the government, attends to its receipts and payments in the several states, and compels the smaller and local banks to adopt a reasonable and just course of proceeding, which, hitherto, they had by no means done. In 1817 the Bank had entered into such wild speculations that its paper fell from one hundred and fifty-six to ninety. And again was repeated the evil of the English bank system — the insatiable passion for issuing paper without limit. The tendency of this has always been to produce a disorded state of the currency. Webster strongly says : " A disorded currency is one of the greatest of political evils. It under- mines the virtues necessary for the support of the social system, and encourages propensities destructive of its happi- ness. It wars against industry, frugality and economy, and it fosters the evil spirits of extravagance and speculation. Of all the contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none has been more effectual than that which deludes them with paper money. This is the most effectual of inventions to fertilize the rich man's field by the sweat of the poor man's brow. Ordinary tyranny, oppression, excessive taxation, these bear lightly on the happiness of the mass of the community, compared with fraudulent cur- rencies and the robberies committed by depreciated paper. Our own history has recorded for our instruction enough, and more than enough, of the demoralizing tendency, the injustice, and the intolerable oppression on the virtuous and well disposed, of a degraded paper currency, authorized by law, or in any way countenanced by government." There were a few facts in confirmation of these just com- plaints. In the years 1812 to 18 14 most of the banks stopped payment; between 181 1 and 1830, one hundred and sixty-five of them became entirely bankrupt or contracted their busi- ness. In 1787, there were three banks; in 1839, there were eight hundred and fifty, and, together with the branches. STABILITY OF AMERICAN BANKING. 405 about one thousand. Of these, four hundred and ninety- eight continued specie payments, fifty-six stopped alto- gether, forty-eight afterward resumed payments, while sixty partially stopped specie payments, and three hundred and forty-three wholly stopped specie payments. With these there were connected in New York, between January and July, about one thousand bankruptcies. The entire capital of a bank in lUinois consisted in the plates for striking off the notes. In another branch bank two dollars only were paid in, which were kept as curiosities. But this bad showing only covered a period when unbridled speculation ran rife everywhere. The general showing of the United States banking system, especially for the last twenty-two years, has been a good one. English travelers in this country have expressed a surprise that while a provincial bank note of some English country bank can hardly be passed in London, a bank note in the United States finds currency in New York or Dakota without being questioned. And while there have been periods of fluctua- tion and times of panic, they have mostly been caused by circumstances lying outside of the monetary system of the country. And it is one of the things of which an American may justly feel proud that for a new country there has been less mismanagement of the finances than can be exhibited by any other modern nation. CHAPTER XXXV. DIFFERENT KINDS OF BANKS. BANKING has several functions, which really give form to different classes of banks. These functions may exist separately or together. The four leading kinds of banks are: The bank of deposit, that of exchange, of dis- count, and the bank of issue. In most cases, perhaps, two or more of these ofifices are transacted in one bank. A bank of issue is almost always a bank of loan, also a bank of deposit is one of loan. Banks of deposit are a public benefaction. To reduce the labor and danger of the transfer and carriage of specie, especially in large sums, these banks are brought into requi- sition, and in their vaults there may safely be deposited the united treasures of a community or a nation. The parties making these deposits are credited in the bank's books, with the sums received of them. To the extent of this credit they can at any time draw upon the bank, and their draft is honored at sight. But the very reason that this draft may be at any time presented, and the money obtained upon it, while in its present form it is more convenient than that money, would dissuade most from seeking its payment ; and the draft, passing from hand to hand, may accomplish a large amount of exchange, and finally, falling into the hands of one already having deposits, be presented and payment be made by a transfer of its amount in the books of the bank to his credit. Or, certificates of deposit may be given, and these pass from debtor to creditor, in the place of the sums represented in them. Or, without either certificate or draft, the transactions of a community may represent them- selves in dumb show in the records of the bank, and a few rep- resentative figures take the place in transfer of large weights 406 THE BANK OF AMSTERDAM. 407 in coin. In connection with any or all of these methods, at the close of each year a rapid balancing of accounts in the books of the bank or banks, with a few slight specie pay- ments, will adjust the complicated exchanges of a whole year. A few strokes of the pen are equivalent to the count- ing out and transfer of gold and silver, in any sums whatever. Thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars can pass and repass with as much facility and safety as the incidental payments of the hour; and while the specie lies untouched and untarnished in its vaulted chambers, the certificate of ownership may be transferred and retransferred, added and divided, and through all the shifting phases of exchange, strew the coin in petty purchases, or heap it in heavy pay- ments. The largest transactions are so quickly accom- plished, and represented in so brief a compass, that they possess the ease of a penny purchase. For the safety, facility and economy of time, labor and wear, which it affords, the bank obtains a slight percentage on deposits, according to the period for which they are made, or makes a charge on each transaction. The Bank of Amsterdam was purely a bank of deposit. It received the specie of the merchants of the city, and gave them acknowledgments which were transferable like specie; and, by the transfer of these on the books of the bank, all large payments were universally made. And so great was the confidence in the management of the Bank that certifi- cates of these deposits were current throughout Europe. Adam Smith attributes the origin of this Bank to the desire of the Dutch to prevent their coin from migrating into the surrounding states, and being replaced by the inferior and debased coin, with which they were liable to be inundated. The extent to which drafts and various kinds of bank paper are used in preference to money, is shown in a little incident in the career of James A. Garfield. In 1871 Mr. Garfield asked the comptroller of the currency to issue an order to fifty-two banks, to be divided among large cities, small cities and country towns, to report their receipts, ■;ijr. 408 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. analyzed for six consecutive days. And when the report came in it was found that during those six days one hundred and fifty-seven milHon dollars were received over the counters of the fifty-two banks ; and of that amount, nineteen million three hundred and seventy thousand dollars — twelve per cent only — was in cash, and eighty-eight per cent was in checks, drafts and commercial paper. From this it is seen what an important part bank paper takes in the vast exchange of the United States. The bank of exchange is that which deals in drafts on banks. This is frequently simply a function of banks of loan and discount ; while in the large cities this ofifice of exchange becomes the distinct function of a bank. The coin of one nation cannot meet with general favor in another nation, because the relative value is not known. An immigrant from Europe coming to the United States, will find difficulty in making payment with his thaler; but he can exchange his thalers for American dollars in the exchange banks of New York city, and he is supplied with American money. Persons going to Europe from this country will shortly call at the exchange banks for those same thalers. But a more important and extensive business of this kind is needed to provide for payments to be made in distant and foreign places, by drafts and bills of exchange. A genuine draft on Chicago is acceptable in all the northwestern states. A draft on New York is good in any part of our country. A bill of exchange on London will command money for its possessor in any city of the civilized world. Banks, through the credit they have with each other, are prepared to furnish their customers with orders of this kipd as they may desire, their payment being for the most part actually made by the exchange of goods shipped to and fro. The banks charge a slight premium for exchange of this kind, the rate varying with the balance of trade between different places. The daily newspapers of leading cities give the prices-current for exchange as they do for goods bought and sold. The advantage of this kind of banking every man who is ADVANTAGE OF SAVINGS BANKS. 409 compelled to travel is conversant with. Were it not for the exchange office of banking, every man going to the far west would have to take with him money to meet all his expenses until his return home. Besides this, if he desired to use a large sum while in the west to purchase property, he would be compelled to take it 'all with him. This would be extremely hazardous. It could seldom be done without risk of loss of his money, and frequently the risk of life. _ For the rufifian will not only rob for money, but kill as well. Bank paper, which the robber has taken from a traveler, is worthless in his hands. But with our system of exchange banking, the man who needs money while in the west may purchase a draft on the Chemical Bank of New York and at any point in the west, where he can identify himself, he can have it cashed. Thus saved the risk of carrying money on his person, he is relieved of a great deal of anxiety. A third specie of banking is that of discount, or loan. In this class the largest representation is that of the savings banks. These banks, when well conducted, are highly benevolent; but they are also intended to remunerate the skill and capital employed. These banks have been much resorted to by the working classes, and they afford a method for saving and accumulating which could not otherwise be had in this country. A well-known bank presents a conven- ient and constantly accessible place at which money and applications for money may be presented, and the debtor and creditor are mutually relieved of all labor in finding each other, and adjusting the securities of the loan. Very much money existing in scattered sums is gathered into these institutions, and, while yielding a revenue to the owners, quickens production and swells the available capital of the country. Sums so small as not to be otherwise capable of a loan, here accumulated in large amounts, compounded and divided to suit the demand, are sent on services profitable to the creditor, the debtor and the bank. There are few insti- tutions in which the principles of economy have fuller play than in these. The skill and constant labor of a few persons 410 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. take the place of the unskilled and random labor of very many. All the remnants of money are gathered in an avail- able form, and while stimulating industry at one point, and strengthening it at another, are made to yield a triple revenue. Such institutions are primarily fitted to act as agents for the working classes, and to reach the savings of labor and those small sums which are redeemed from a limited business or narrow revenue. Large sums in the hands of the wealthy can find a more profitable investment than these banks can afford. Owing to the necessary loss of time in effecting loans, and the loss of interest on the money retained in the bank, or constantly returning to it, with which sudden demands for payment are met, the bank cannot realize in its gross funds the full current rate; and as there must be a further deduction to meet the expenses of the bank, the terms offered to customers must always be sensibly below the rate of profits which capital, directly loaned or employed in business, is able to command. This class of banks, there- fore, can only present adequate inducements to those who chiefly wish to have their money securely kept and within reach, or who possess it in such small quantities as to make it incapable of profitable investment elsewhere. These banks have usually regulations restricting the amounts received, and are not meant to possess the function of deposit, as it belongs to banks of issue. Some banks, like those of Scotland, have kept a cash account bearing interest with customers, and, so far, been banks of loan. In that case, the money, from the time of deposit, drew a certain rate ; the person making the deposit was at liberty to increase it or to draw from it, according to the exigencies of his business, and the bank rate was allowed, at the close of the year, on the sums deposited in the bank, for the time in which they had been suffered to remain. It is evident that nearly all accruing on such an account would be to a business man a net gain, and that, with the most careful and skillful management on the part of the bank, the percentage allowed by it must be materially below that FAULT OF SAVINGS BANKS. 41I obtained by it. The funds reserved by business men for incidental expenses, or realized during the progress of the economic year, may, by this system, be made immediately available. Amid the multiplicity of customers, conditions tend to cancel each other; the rapid drawing of one finds compensation in the slowness of another; and the funds of the bank, discounted on short time, and flowing rapidly in and out, are able to meet the exigencies of all without sensi- ble abatement or interruption of its own loans. The skill required for the successful management of such an institu- tion, is of a high order, and it combines the functions of deposit and loan in their most economic form. The record of the savings banks in the United States has not been able to correspond with that of the savings banks of England. There does not seem to be afforded any sub- stantial security to investors. There seems to be no limit,, in most cases, to the investments which the directors may make, and they have frequently been of a speculative nature. The legislation of the country has, perhaps, been more faulty here than on any other side of the banking question. There have been so many of these institutions going down within a few years that it would, perhaps, be wise for the laboring class to carefully examine them before trusting to them their earnings. In many cases the failures have arisen from the enormous depreciation in the value of property, which has been accelerated by the rapid appreciation or increase in the value of greenbacks. But in far more cases it has been from mis- management, or the result of sheer and barefaced fraud. One of the largest of the savings banks at Chicago had a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, and deposits of over six millions of dollars. It occurred to an ingenious speculator that sixty thousand dollars, or twelve thousand pounds, invested in the capital of the bank would command the whole concern. He, therefore, bought shares to that amount, appointed himself and his friends directors, lent the money to himself, lost a good part of it, and when he could 412 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. keep matters no longer afloat pocketed what was not lost, and went off to Paris, where he has since been living in good style, laughing at the credulous people who took him for an honest man. The fourth kind of banks is the bank of issue. Promissory notes are issued for general circulation ; these are a substitute for specie. Because the bank that issues bank notes, which is a kind of paper money, acts upon the currency of the country, it comes under the regulation of the government, and can only be established by charter. When the capital of a bank of issue is determined upon, it is divided into a given number of shares and opened for subscription. The subscribers of these shares become the stockholders of the bank. These shares pay annual dividends, and are themselves transferable, being at, above, or below par, according to their market price, which depends upon the profits of the bank stock. The basis of the operations of this kind of a bank is specie. This specie is really the security for the good faith of the promissory notes issued by the bank. As long as these are payable at the counter of the bank, and actually paid, when demand is made, in gold and silver, they readily circulate, and become a cheap and convenient currency. It is necessary to keep on hand large amounts of the precious metals, that these bills at all times and in all amounts may be redeemed. If the gold equals the bills, there is entire safety, but there is also no profit to the bank. If the gold is somewhat less than the bills, there is reason- able safety, and a profit to the bank equal to its discount on the difference. It is in the highest degree improbable that all the bills of the bank will be returned at any one time. Even in times of panic, when the run is general and pro- tracted, but a fraction of the bills actually out is usually presented, and, in all ordinary states of the money market, but a very small fraction is at any one time presented for payment. The reserved gold and silver can, therefore, be something less than the circulation of the bank. How much less? In the answer daily and practically made to this THE EVILS OF BANKS IN A PANIC. 413 question lies the great difficulty. Theoretically, a safe num- ber might undoubtedly be given ; but how shall it be secured that all banks shall adhere to this number? We might say that gold, to the extent of one half, or even of one third," of the bills in circulation, would be sufficient ; but having said it, we do not thereby remove the temptation or the ability to exceed this number. The profits and the danger lie in the same direction ; it is the extra bills which endanger the currency and enrich the banks. The arguments by which these profits are reached are exceedingly plausible. To correct this tendency of over-issue, or this excess of bank circulation, as compared with the specie retained, various methods have been devised, some more, some less, successful. Certain amounts of specie have been enjoined by law, and officers appointed to inspect the banks and enforce the regulation. In practice, such laws have been found to be generally and easily evaded, and unable to reach the end proposed by them. The honesty of the government is never so great as to atone for the want of honesty in the people. A thing once permitted will be well or illy done, according to the character of those to whom it is permitted. A specu- lating, money-loving people, with only ordinary honesty, will do what is entrusted to them, when a strife arises between their own and the public interest, with no more than ordi- nary integrity; nor will they often so appoint a committee over themselves, as much to modify their action. A second, and not more successful, device has been that of requiring certain state stocks or land securities to be pledged for the redemption of bills. This remedy does not provide for the principal danger. It is not a question of ultimate, but of immediate, payment, which is at issue in a panic. The fear is not allayed by the assurance that all demands shall be finally met ; it regards it rather as a con- fession of present weakness. With a class of persons from whom most danger is to be apprehended, those who them- selves are under pressure, or who act ignorantly and by impulse, swelling the throng without knowing why, this 414 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. consideration would avail little. Neither is the safety fund — a very similar scheme, by which the banks are mutually pledged to each other — so far as it looks to the ultimate redemption of bills, any more able to give aid in the pressure of a general panic. Coin, instant, solid and unrestricted, is the remedy, because at this point lies the doubt. The point of interest and danger does not consist so much in the amount of the circulation of a bank as in the relation of that circulation to its specie. A bank cannot at pleasure enlarge its circulation. The forces which receive or reject its bills are not under its control. It may make every effort to push its bills out, but it cannot determine that they will remain out. If these bills are redeemable, and at par, they must take the place of equivalent amounts of gold, and therefore can only work themselves into circu- lation by expelling gold from the currency, or by occupying the new ground which business in a growing community may present. A given amount of business of exchange demands and will suffer only a given amount of money. If any addition is made, there is an immediate and correspond- ing depression in the aggregate value of the medium ; and if that medium is gold, and therefore its value sustained by its price in the world's market, any attempt to force bills into a full circulation will result, first, in their rejection ; later, if the effort is continued and vigorous, in the exportation of gold, that these may take its place. The bills forced upon the circulation will tend to reduce the currency in value ; that is, the value of gold and silver at home, as compared with the foreign value. This will natu- rally result in an exportation of the precious metals, and in order that these may be obtained, many bills will be returned to the banks. These banks will then be under the necessity of replacing their specie. The specie so removed, together with that already transported, which was before in the hands of individuals, will make room in the currency for the perma- nent presence of bills. As this process proceeds, specie will be obtained with increasing difficulty, and the burden of ADVANTAGE OF SMALL BILLS. 415 furnishing it for exportation and replacing it in their vaults, thrown more and more exclusively on the banks. When this movement is passing to its completion, and specie is no longer readily obtainable, any bank that enlarges its issue will find its bills almost immediately returned to its counter, and the power that throws them from the currency invinci- ble and stubborn. Its specie will be rapidly extracted, its deposits made in its own bills, and all its movements cramped and embarrassed, indicating that it is operating in a field already occupied. If two thirds of the whole currency is to be paper, and this paper currency is to have a basis in the precious metals of one third of its own nominal value, then there is four ninths of the whole currency which is open to the circulation of banks beyond the bills representing their reserved specie. Here is a certain amount of circulation of profits to be divided among all banks, and in proportion as these banks are few, the share of each will be large, as they are many, small. This is the aggregate of gain ; and banks may com- pete with each other for it, but they cannot increase it. To secure a larger share of circulation, banks have several devices. Chief among these is the use of small bills. The larger bills being mostly employed in the wholesale trade, and hence confined to the cities, are constantly passing as deposits or in payments of loans, into the banks. Small bills, however, go out into the byways of the retail trade, and may go far and remain out long before finding their way back again to the bank which issued them. This has given a decided preference to small bills among bankers. They pay better. And it gives an advantage to a country over a city bank, and enables it to have out a larger constant circu- lation. The tendency resulting from this pressure of the circulation of small bills is unfortunate in the currency. These small bills expel gold and silver from transactions whose necessities they can perfectly meet, and, by narrowing the basis of the currency, make it proportionately insecure. The restriction of issues to bills whose lowest denomination 41 6 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. should be ten dollars, would help also to remove the tempta- tion and the ability from banks to unduly enlarge their circulation. The abandonment of its function of establishing and regulating currency, on the part of the general govern- ment, and our division into states here works a mischief. The action of no one state can relieve the difficulty, but only prepares the way for the enhanced profits of its neigh- bors, and a yet worse attitude of its own currency. The circulation between the states often dooms us to the evils of the worst of their several currencies, and robs us of the benefit of the best. There are four principal ways in which banks make their profits. First, they make large profits from their deposits. As banks are extensively used for this purpose, they must have on hand at all times a considerable amount from this source lying idle. This may be considered a part of their capital which they may use in their business. If a bank have on an average fifty thousand dollars of deposits, it may loan to a considerable amount beyond what would otherwise be in its power, because it has this additional amount of means wherewith to meet the demands made upon it. The first source of profit is therefore interest gained on deposits. A second source of profit is from exchanges. As these are to be made between different places and as they must be made in drafts or in specie : if two banks in different places undertake to transact this business in concert, they may greatly facilitate the means of payment between two places. For this accommodation they charge a percentage, varying with the rate of the market. In some banks this produces quite a revenue. Another means of profit is that of discount, and interest on notes discounted, as well as on regular loans. If a man takes a note on some reliable person, not due for one year, to a bank, he may get money for it, less a certain discount. The amount of this discount is profit to the bank. And the bank also secures the interest on that note from that date until it is paid. This is a great source of revenue. BANK CIRCULATION. 417 It has been seen that a bank may with safety loan an amount of its notes greater than that of its capital. The interest of this excess is an additional source of revenue. Thus, if a bank have one hundred' thousand dollars paid in, and issue notes to the amount of one hundred and twenty- five thousand dollars, it receives interest on twenty-five thou- sand dollars more than its stockholders have deposited. This is an addition to its revenue, by its amount, whatever it may be. S7 CHAPTER XXXVI. THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL BANK SYSTEM. BY an act of February 25, 1863, a bureau was established^ charged with the execution of the laws passed by congress relating to the currency, the chief officer of which is called the comptroller of the currency. His salary is five thousand dollars per year, and he performs his duties under the general direction of the secretary of the treasury. The comptroller is appointed by the president on the recommend- ation of the secretary of the treasury and with the consent of the senate. He holds his office for five years, unless removed by the president upon reasons communicated by him to the senate. He gives bonds in the penalty of one hundred thousand dollars for the faithful performance of his duties. He has a deputy with a salary of two thousand five hundred dollars per year. The comptroller is charged with the examination of the national banks and the custody of all the plates and " other valuable things" belonging to his department. He has to make annually to congress a report of the most elaborate character, occupying a closely printed volume about three inches in thickness. It is his business to make arrangements for the examination of all the national banks, and upon him devolves the very responsible duty of recommending that banks, under certain circumstances, shall be liquidated or allowed to continue their business. The law provides that any number of natural persons, not less than five, may form a national bank. The capital must not be less than fifty thousand dollars where the population does not exceed six thousand, one hundred thousand dollars where the population is over six thousand, or two hundred thousand dollars where the population exceeds two hundred 418 SCIENCE OF NATIONAL BANKING. 419 thousand, and in all cases one half of the amount must be paid up before a bank can commence business. The shareholders are held individually responsible, equally and rateably, and not one for another, for all contracts, debts, and engagements of such association to the extent of the amount of their stock therein, at the par value thereof, in addition to the amount invested in such shares. The private property of trustees is not liable, as the national bank act distinctly provides that, "persons holding stock, as executors, administrators, guardians or trustees, shall not be personally subject to any liabilities as stock- holders ; but the estates and funds in their hands shall be liable." All national banking associations, designated for that purpose by the secretary of the treasury, are depositories of public money. They must give satisfactory security, and must take and receive at par all national currency bills by whatever association issued. That is, a national bank must accept a bill issued by any other national bank in the country. Every national bank, before it commences business, must deposit with the treasurer of the United States any United States registered bonds bearing interest, to an amount not less than one third of the capital stock paid in. Powers of attorney are given to such a national bank to receive the interest on the bonds so transferred to the treasurer. Upon a deposit of bonds the association making the same are entitled to receive from the comptroller of the currency cir- culating notes equal to ninety per cent of the current market value of the bonds, but not exceeding ninety per cent of the par value thereof, if bearing interest of not less than five per cent per annum ; but the proportion of notes to the capital of the bank must not be more than 'ninety per cent on a capital not ejcceeding five hundred thousand dollars, eighty per cent where the capital does not exceed one million of dollars, seventy-five per cent where the capital does not exceed three millions, or sixty per cent where the capital exceeds three millions. 420 THE SCIENCE OF NATI(3NAL LIFE. The expenses of printing notes and other expenses of the currency bureau are paid out of the proceeds of the taxes or duties collected on the circulation of national banking associations. A provision of the national bank act was, that " not more than one sixth part of the notes furnished to any association shall be of less denomination than five dollars. After specie payments are resumed no association shall be furnished with notes of a less denomination than five dollars." After the notes supplied by the treasury have been signed Dy the president or vice-president of the bank receiving these notes, they must be received at par in all parts of the United States, in payment of taxes, excises, public lands, and all other dues of the United States, except duties on imports. The imitation or defacement of any circulating note is prohibited. When a note becomes worn out or multilated, upon being returned to the comptroller, by the bank having issued it„ it is canceled and destroyed by maceration, and another note of equal amount is given in return. In all the large cities the national banks are required to have on hand, at all times, in lawful money of the United States, an amount equal to at least twenty-five per cent of the aggregate amount of its deposits, and banks in other than the larger cities must have fifteen per cent^ Whenever the amount falls below the standard required, the bank must not make any loans or discounts, nor make any dividend until the required proportion has been restored. And the comptroller is to notify any bank having this deficiency to make good such rule ; and if the bank shall fail, for thirty days thereafter, to make good its reserve of lawful money, the comptroller may, with the concurrence of the Secretary of the Treasury, appoint a receiver to wind up the business of the association. National banks may charge the rate of interest allowed by the laws of the state in which they carry on business; where no rate is fixed by the laws of the state, the banks may charge a rate not exceeding seven per cent. Twice the HOW NATIONAL BANKS ARE TAXED. 42 1 amount of interest fixed may be recovered by any person who has been charged more than the legal rate. One tenth of the net profits made must be carried to the reserve fund, until that amounts to twenty per cent of its capital stock. Loans to one person or company must not exceed one tenth of the capital. Loans on their own stock are prohibited. All debts on which interest is past due, and unpaid for six months, shall be considered as bad debts. A list of shareholders is kept for inspection, and a copy sent annually to the comptroller. Every association must report to the comptroller five times annually, giving in detail the resources and liabilities of the association, which reports must be published in a local newspaper at the expense of the association. National banks can hardly be said to be taxed, yet every association pays to the treasurer of the United States, in the months of January and July, a duty of one half of one per cent each half year upon the average amount of notes in circula- tion, and a duty of one quarter of one per cent each half year upon the average amount of its deposits, and a duty of one quarter of one per cent each half year on the average amount of its capital stock beyond the amount invested in United States bonds. In the Bank Act is this clause: ." Nothing herein shall be construed to exempt the shares or real property of associations from either state, county, or municipal taxes." The efificient management of this great banking system is largely due to the judicious exercise of discretion on the part of the comptroller. The exigencies of the agricultural population require very large advances during the few weeks immediately preceding the harvest, and in some of the national banks the amount is often reduced to four or five per cent, with the knowledge and consent of the comptroller. From about 1875 to 1880, national banks like all other financial institutions in the United States have been sub- jected to a strain of almost unprecedented severity. The reaction of inflation had been destructive to credit, and had 422 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. brought about reductions in values enough to account for the overthrow of any financial enterprise. The laxity of morals occasioned by the war, and the carelessness which resulted from exceptional prosperity, produced a tendency to fraud which was perhaps without parallel in commercial and political history. Throughout this tremendous test the national banks have maintained their credit to a remarkable degree. If there is a tax on national banks it is not easy to under- stand the principles upon which it is founded. These banks are supplied by the government with notes to which the attributes of currency are legally attached. It is true that the banks give security for these notes ; but the revenue from the bonds which are deposited as security is received by the banks and therefore they suffer no loss by giving this security, and they derive a benefit by the use of circulating notes to the extent of the interest which they receive for their use. The tax upon them ought, therefore, to be nearly equivalent to the ordinary rate of interest. The notes of the national banks put out of circulation about an equal amount of the United States legal tender notes, upon the issue of which the government has the benefit of the interest on their value ; and unless the national banks pay an equivalent, the government loses by the transaction. But while the government taxes the circulation of the banks one per cent per annum only, they place a tax on their deposits of one half per cent, and they also tax their capital stock one half per cent, except such portion of it as is invested in United States bonds as security for the circu- lation. The effect of this arrangement of taxation is to give the banks an excessive profit on the issue of notes, which they are, therefore, unduly tempted to force into circulation, while it deprives them of their legitimate profit on deposits. The banks are, therefore, the less disposed to receive deposits, and, in consequence, they pay to depositors less interest than they would otherwise pay. In short, the circu- ORIGIN OF THE SYSTEM. 423 lation of notes is unduly stimulated and the deposits are checked. The comptroller of the currency reports that the losses from the state and savings banks of the country for one year, that of 1879, 3.re known to have been greater than the total loss resulting from all the failures which have occurred of national banking associations since their establishment. The government has had large amounts on deposits continually with a great number of national banks throughout the coun- try, for its convenience in making disbursements, but has suffered no loss during the past twelve years. Upon the circulating notes of the national banks there has been no loss whatever. It will be seen from this statement that the national bank system of the United States compares favorably not only with that of other countries, but shows to great advantage when compared with banks in this country. A little more than twenty years ago banking in America was gloriously free ; all kinds of banks were in existence, each state did that which was right in its own eyes. In establishing the national banks, and giving legal circulation to their notes, the Federal government was unable to control or supersede the operations of other banks which were often established by charters granted by the different state governments. The government did, however, put a stop to the issue of bank notes by these banks, by imposing a tax of ten per cent upon the issue of all notes other than the notes of national banks. This valuable system of banking had its origin with a law in the state of New York, which required the banks in the state to deposit bonds to an amount greater than the amount of bills issued, with the state treasurer; Secretary Chase, then in the Cabinet, induced Congress to provide a like law for the country. CHAPTER XXXVII. PAPER MONEY. PAPER money has both its advantage, and its disadvan- tage. There are principally two things which constitute the desirability of paper money : economy and convenience. The advantage of economy is a great one. The material used for paper money is of much less value than the material in a specie circulation. A bill worth one thousand ounces of silver may not have cost more than two cents. The cost of paper, plates and printing constitute the cost of a piece of paper money. The cost of a piece of silver represents the labor and cost of mining, which may be heavy. Now, in just so far as a paper circulation accomplishes the same result as specie, and accomplishes it at a less cost, the community is the gainer in using paper money. The wear and tear of paper money, as well as the original cost, is less expensive than that of silver and gold. Were silver and gold trans- ported and in actual use as paper money now is, the friction would reduce the weight so rapidly, that new issues would be a constant necessity. Paper money is more economical ; hence, as its introduc- tion renders a considerable part of the specie formerly employed useless, it may be exchanged for other capital. Specie is, in itself, incapable of production. If a part of it will answer the purposes of exchange, all the remainder may be exchanged for productive capital. Hence the gain, as has been shown in the preceding section, is equal to the amount of this difference employed in productive, and the same amount employed in unproductive, capital. If five millions can be without injury dispensed with, the benefit is equal to the difference between five millions in productive and five millions in unproductive capital. 424 DISADVANTAGES OF PAPER MONEY. 425 Paper money has a great convenience over specie. It is much more easily transported. To travelers and men in the ordinary affairs of life, this is a matter of considerable conse- quence. Specie is heavy and burdensome. Any amount of paper money which a man needs may be comprised in as small a bulk as he chooses. When large transfers of money are to be made between distant places, the additional convenience and security are still more evident. It is far safer to carry paper money than specie. It is less liable to robbery. As we can render its bulk whatever we please, it can be more readily concealed, if we doubt the honesty of our associates. Specie is heavy, bulky and noisy, and hence its presence is unavoidably discovered. Paper money, if stolen, is more easily identified, and hence more easily recovered. A man, by noting the number and marks of a bank bill, may safely swear to its identity; but, inas- much as coin is intentionally alike, this would be impossible in the case of specie. Paper money has three disadvantages which specie has not, viz : its liability to forgery, to fraud and to fluctuation. Paper money will always be liable to forgery. The risk, in this respect, from the use of bank paper, is considerable. The security from signatures is small, since good penmen, by practice, can easily learn to imitate any signature. The principal security arises from the quality of the engraving and of the paper. But, as any one who can engrave suffi- ciently well can so engrave a false bill that no ordinary examiner can distinguish it from a true one, every man is liable to be imposed upon, and to suffer a total loss to the exact amount of the imposition. It is true that coin is also liable to be falsified, but the process is much more difficult and expensive than that of engraving. False coin, being liable to detection from its color, weight and sonorousness, is more readily detected. Inasmuch, therefore, as the liability to counterfeiting is greater in paper money than in specie, this difference is to be set down in the list of the disadvantages with which it is chargeable. 426 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. On this account, banks which issue paper money are under obligations to take every precaution to render their bills as little liable to be counterfeited as possible. The greatest security, as we have remarked, is in the excellence of the engraving, and in the peculiarity of the paper. Hence they should employ, for the engraving of their bills, none but the best artists ; and thus employ talent which would be under no temptation to engage in counterfeiting. They should never use plates which have been so much worn as to render the impression coarse, indistinct, and easily imi- tated. A bank which, to save expense, uses a worn-out plate, enriches itself at the expense of the public. Banks may fraudulently commence issues when only a part, or when not even any part, of the capital has been paid in. If only a part of the capital be paid in, the public, instead of having a guarantee equal to the whole amount of its capital, over and above the notes of individuals held by the bank, has a guarantee equal only to the amount paid in. If the capital of a bank be one hundred thousand dollars, and only ten thousand dollars be paid in, and the bank issue one hundred and fifty thousand in bills, it holds only a guarantee of ten thousand dollars, to insure the payment of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars by the debtors of the .bank. Upon the least commercial pressure, or in case of loss by accident or robbery, such a bank must fail, and the holders of the bills must suffer a loss equal to the deficiency by the failure of the debtors of the bank, the costs of closing its concerns, and the loss of interest until its bills have been paid. Again, suppose that none of the capital stock had been paid in, but that the stockholders simply gave their notes for their shares. The security would then be precisely equal to the average goodness of the notes of individuals received by the bank in exchange for its bills. It would have no capital on hand to redeem these bills, and on the least press- ure for specie payments it must fail. The notes of individ- uals in a time of scarcity of money would be worth much FAILURE OF THE PENNSYLVANIA BANK. 427 less than par, and as the stockholders would pay for their notes which they gave for shares by surrendering up the shares for which they gave them, the whole loss would fall on the holders of the bills. Again, suppose that, as in the last case, no stock were paid in ; that the stockholders were the directors themselves, and that they accommodated themselves with money with- out ever requiring notes of each other. Here there would be no security whatever, either in bank capital or in the notes of individuals. In such case, the bank must speedily stop payment and the whole loss of its issues would fall upon the holders of its bills. This, as well as the last case, is nothing more than a fraudulent arrangement for picking the pockets of the public on an extensive scale. It is noth- ing more nor less than downright swindling, and should expose a man to the same punishment as house breaking. Nor is this danger merely imaginary. The amount lost by the public from the failure of banks is actually enormous. The most able and competent authority on this subject says that between January, 1811, and July, 1 830, one hundred and sixty-five banks failed. The capital of one hundred and twenty-nine of them amounted to more than twenty-four millions of dollars, stated as having been paid in. The fail- ures were more than one fifth of the whole. About the year 1840, the "United States Bank of Pennsylvania" failed, and its shares of the par value of one hundred dollars, and which cost the holders in many cases one hundred and twenty dollars, sold at the nominal price of five or six dollars. Bills of the bank sold at sixty cents on the dollar. Thus the whole capital of this institution, thirty-five million dollars, van- ished in three years. And this mismanagement or fraud was committed by men who were celebrated as models of finance, ability and disinterested patriotism, and in a city proud of its mercantile faith. Fluctuation is the most dangerous thing that can affect money. The reason is obvious. He who contracted debts when money bore one ratio to products, would pay them 428 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. when it bore another ratio ; and hence, though he might pay the same nominal amount, yet he might pay twice as much in value as he had promised. So, also, he who had loaned money while it bore one ratio, and received his pay- ments while it was at another, though he might receive the same nominal amount, might not receive half the amount in value which he loaned. And hence, all civilized communities have denied to governments the right of altering or in any manner interfering with the value of coin ; for the reason that this cannot be affected without causing a variation in the value of money, and thus interfering with private contracts. Were this allowable, is evidence that credit must be at an end ; because, whatever a contract might mean to-day, no one could possibly predict what it would mean to-morrow. Hence all fluctuation in the value of any substance, renders it, by the amount of this fluctuation, unfit for the purposes of a circulating medium. If gold and silver were as fluctuating in value as cotton or wheat, they would, their bulk only excepted, be as unfit for the purposes of money, as these substances themselves. The great disadvantage of paper money is that it is exposed to sudden and heavy fluctuations in value. In order to accomplish a given amount of exchange it is neces- sary to have a certain amount of circulating value. If, to accomplish the exchanges of a community at a given time, one thousand ounces of silver, equal to one thousand bushels of wheat, are necessary, and twice this quantity be introduced, the value will remain the same, though the quantity varies ; and the result will be, that the price of money, in relation to other products, will fall one half; that is, if we gave five dollars for a hat before, we shall give ten dollars now and for other things in proportion. And if half the quantity were removed, the reverse would be the case : that is, the price of money would be doubled ; if we gave five dollars for a hat before, we should give two dollars and fifty cents for it now ; and so of all things. If we bear this in mind we shall easily see the nature of THE FLUCTUATION OF PAPER MONEY. 429 the fluctuations to which paper money is Hable. Metallic money, or specie, has a natural price, which is not liable to any fluctuation within short periods. The fluctuation of paper money may arise, on the part of the bank, innocently, or otherwise ; from want of skill and forethought, or from want of integrity. Suppose that, at a given period, the circulating medium in a community is properly proportioned to the necessities of exchange, and that this medium, through paper, is perfectly sound that is, that there exists, in all the banks, sufficient specie to pay all debts of the bank, on demand, in the precious metals. Let now, from some cause, the productiveness of labor be greatly increased, so that a much larger amount of annual products is brought into the market. If the amount of money remain the same, while the amount of products is increased, the price of money will rise ; that is, every thing will be cheap. As soon as products become cheap, every one is anxious to buy. Merchants will be desirous to borrow money, with which to buy, because, when products are cheap, it may be reasonably expected that the price will rise ; and, if the rise in price be greater than the interest paid for money, the purchaser may reasonably hope to be able to repay what he borrowed, with interest, and yet realize a handsome profit. Besides, when an article is low in any country, then is the time to export it with advantage ; and this prospect of increased advantage will induce men to borrow, in order to export, in the expectation that the usual profit will enable them to realize far more than the interest they have paid for borrowed capital. In such a season, every one is desirous of borrowing, and banks can most profitably employ their capital. They are called upon to loan, to the utmost extent of their power, both by their own interest and by the universal wish of the public. Now, in such a state of things, it is not to be supposed that the directors of the banks are endowed with greater prudence than other men, or that they are not as likely to be influenced by the hope of large dividends. The example 430 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. of one stimulates the others. The risk that one institution runs another will be willing to run. A bank will scarcely be willing to make a dividend of six per cent while its neighbor is making eight. And when disconnected banks, all over a nation, are animated by these principles, it is evident that a very large amount of loans must be effected ; that is, a very large amount of paper money must be issued. For the same reason, at such a time, a great number of additional banks will be incorporated, and all will be watched over with less than usual vigilance. But just so fast as, beyond the neces- sary amount, the quantity is increased, the value of each portion of it diminishes, and thus prices rise ; that is, money becomes abundant, and a dollar will purchase no more than it would in a time of scarcity. Thus the amount of circulat- ing medium becomes too great for the amount of exchanges, and money is cheaper than any other article in the market. But we have before seen that the cheapest article in the market will always be exported. As this is now money, money will be exported. But as the bills are redeemable in specie, specie is worth no more than bank bills; and as the bills are worth nothing abroad, the whole exportation will be in coin. In a short time, a large portion of it has left the country. The banks then find themselves liable to pay in specie, a vastly greater amount than they were liable to pay, a month or two since, and they find that they have much less specie wherewith to pay it ; and the demand for specie still continues. They are, of course, in danger of stopping payment, and their only means of safety is in diminishing their loans ; that is, loaning no more, and requiring payment of those who owe them. Hence those who had borrowed with the hope of paying by means of their sales, are called upon to pay, before these sales are effected, and as the banks refuse to loan, very few are disposed to buy. Thus, the debtors of the bank are required to pay their debts sooner than they expected, and the means of making those pay- ments are curtailed. The money goes back into the bank, and does not come out of it. Thus, with every day, the EFFECT OF BANK SUSPENSIONS. 43 1 quantity of the circulating medium is diminished. The scarcity of money increases. The price of goods falls, as men will sell for lower and lower prices rather than hold their wares, and distress is a sure result. The method which has been sometimes resorted to, when banks have either viciously or innocently become unable to pay their bills, is to suspend specie payments, and then prevail upon the state legislatures to pass laws exempting them from the consequences of their failure. This expedient has been resorted to, for the second time within two years, by the greater part of the banks in the United States. Although excuses may be rendered for such a course, under a universal and unexpected calamity, there can be no doubt that the bank suspensions must work the direst mischief to the community. The following considerations are sufficient to show the nature and tendencies of such a measure. The obligations of a bank are as binding as those of an individual. There is no reason why it should be exonerated from them more than an individual. If a merchant fail to pay his note at the bank, his credit is dishonored and he is expected to pay interest from the time of his failure. There can be no reason why a bank should not abide by the rule which it enforces upon others. The only circumstance which gives any value to the bills of a bank, is the assurance that they will be paid in specie. But if the bank is allowed, at will, to absolve itself from this obligation, what is this assurance worth. This very power conceded to banks, would render a paper currency worthless. The only restriction upon unlimited issues of paper money, is the obligation imposed upon banks to redeem their bills at sight in specie. So long as this is enforced, the currency could not readily become injuriously expanded. If it be not enforced, or if the bank may be easily sheltered from the results of its imprudence, a paper currency may be expanded inimitably. In this manner, as in the case of the continental money, the circulating medium may be rendered good for nothing. 432 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. The fluctuation of paper money, arising either from fraud or unskillfuhiess, makes the bank reprehensible. If by fraud the management of a bank produces a fluctuation of money until false values terminate in distress, the act is criminal, and no measure of punishment could well be too severe for such intentional wrong. If the fluctuation be produced merely by incompetency, while the charge of criminality could hardly be made, yet it may be remarked that a set of men finding themselves unskilled in banking are dishonest if they persist in making the public suffer the direful consequences of their unskillfulness. There is a defense to be made for banks which in times of peril carefully guard their funds. In a time of scarcity, banks are sadly abused because they will not loan more money. A bank, if it be honest and mean to pay its debts, has its limit, which it cannot safely pass, as truly as an indi- vidual. When it has arrived at this limit its loans must cease. A merchant who has involved himself in large transactions, expecting that he could borrow as much as he chose, is now disappointed because his expectations are not realized. But what reason has he to complain ? The bank never promised to lend him when it had nothing to lend, nor to ruin itself for the sake of saving him from the conse- quences of his own headlong improvidence, especially when, by doing this, it must involve not only itself but him also in ruin. The bank was no party to his engagements; it derives no benefit from them, and it is under no obligation to enable him to fulfill them. The only remedy for these evils mani- festly is for both parties to be willing to grow rich more slowly, and thus to assume less formidable risks. When a whole community has run into transactions beyond its means, and has become embarrassed, there is very little gained by the abuse of banks and of bank directors. In our currency there is but one element, the metallic, that is self regulating. The paper depends upon this and is wholly artificial, and has no security save that which is given it by wise and firm laws. Uniformity and steadiness in the PAPER MONEY DEPENDENT ON COIN. 433 regulating law can alone impart these qualities to the currency, and make it for a moment worthy of the adoption of a civilized and reflective people. Most of its evils may be overcome, most of its advantages may be gained ; but not without careful theory and broad experience, combined in a steadily and widely applied law. Nothing could be surer to precipitate a people into every evil of which a currency may be the prolific source, than to leave every partial community enfolded in a broader community, to try its own experi- ments and follow out its own theories. Nothing of consist- ency and universality can be so gained. Every experiment conflicts with and embarrasses every other, and nothing can be a better proof of our unbounded strength than the success with which our emphatically mixed currency has met, or, rather, than the limited difiiculties in which it has succeeded in involving us ; we have tripped without falling. The more the paper money is made to feel its dependence upon the metallic currency the safer will be the condition of the exchange. Paper money can have but little self- regulating power. It is the creation of human law, and must share its defects and mistakes. It cannot, indeed, be issued in unlimited amounts, as business cannot take it up in every amount ; but it can be issued and forced into circu- lation in very excessive and injurious amounts. Paper can circulate without any specie basis, but only by virtue of the most rigorous restriction ; and the instant this restriction is removed, it flashes into smoke with all the destructive force of powder. With a specie basis it is less volatile ; but what ratio this basis shall bear to the issues rests solely on regula- tion and very easily escapes all regulation. If left to private bankers, under the regulations of a general or specific law, the interests of these bankers are in direct conflict with the restrictions of the law ; and this artificial restraint, perhaps judicious, perhaps injudicious, fails in its application. Indi- vidual cunning, ever awake, is too much for the slumbering justice of law. If the government takes this function of issue to itself, the diffiiculty is by no means removed'; the 38 434 I'HE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. temptation is then transferred from individuals to tlie state, and in this conflict between what is deemed an immediate and certain and an uncertain and future good, the latter is not always more successful than the former. A large insti- tution like the Bank of England, or the United States national bank system, in the hands of individuals, but under the immediate inspection of the government, by the balance of interests, promises and gives the greatest security to any regulations which may be adopted. CHAPTER XXXVIII. BANK NOTES AND GREENBACKS. THE business of issuing bank notes or bills is a peculiarly profitable enterprise for banks, for a bank bill bears no interest ; it is liable to be destroyed by fire or water ; it is likely to remain out for a considerable period — indeed, issue banks often take pains to cause their bills to be circulated at a great distance from the bank, in order to keep them out the longer; and finally, as the bank bill becomes a medium of exchange, the people are in a manner compelled to accept it. But if a bank fails, the laborers for wages, the non-capi- talists, are sure to suffer most of the loss which occurs from the depreciation of the bills. A bank note or bill has there- fore some of the features of a forced loan by the bank from the public. In the United States we have been so long accustomed to see the issue of bills made the most conspicuous business of a bank, that in the common apprehension a bank is synon- ymous with a paper-mill, a machine to create shin-plasters, and to suspend specie payments whenever, by granting unwise credit and imprudent loans, it has helped to create a commercial revulsion. It is seriously thought by some that the issue of notes is not necessary, and hardly a legitimate part of the banking business ; that the most solid and also the most profitable banks in the world do not issue notes at all, and that bank notes, though a convenience, are not absolutely necessary to any people. California, for instance, had in 1873 a number of remarkably solid, useful and profitable banks, but it had only two banks of issue, and as it might have had many more, their absence is a proof that they were not needed. A bank note is not money. On the contrary, it is only a 435 43^ THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. promise to pay money. It is one of several kinds of promises to pay, and differs from the others mainly in these particu- lars: that it bears no interest, and that the holder has no security in his own hands. A twenty-dollar gold piece is of itself that much in value. Its value is no more than a smooth piece of gold without any stamp weighing the same amount. The value is inhe- rent in the gold. But a bank note for twenty dollars is only a certificate that a bank somewhere promises to pay you twenty dollars. If we wish to carry about with us one hun- dred dollars, it would obviously be more convenient to carry- bank notes to that amount than money; for the paper bills being lighter than coin are more easily carried and concealed. And this convenience of carriage and concealment, with economy, are the chief excuses for the existence of bank bills. When a bank issues notes or bills, its object is to gain money by borrowing without interest of the general public. If it issues one hundred thousand dollars in bills, that implies that it holds one hundred thousand dollars in money in its vaults, or till ready to redeem these bills. In practice, how- ever, banks do not keep so much money idle; they keep on hand only such a smaller sum as general experience has shown to be usually sufficient for redemption. But experi- ence has also shown that all bankers are not prudent or wise ; and hence the government now rightly requires that a bank, before it issues bills or notes, shall deposit a sum in property at all times readily convertible into coin, which shall be held for the redemption of the bills. United States bonds, which are the best security we have, and most readily convertible into money, are used for this purpose. With the management of banks which confine themselves to the business of receiving deposits and making loans, the government has no right to interfere, any more than it does with the business of a merchant, farmer or shopkeeper. Banks of issue, however, stand in a different category. They exercise a power over the public so great and so liable to abuse, in the privilege granted them to issue non-interest- FOLLY OF THE CRY AGAINST NATIONAL BANKS. 437 bearing notes, without security in the holders' hands, things which take the place of money, that the people have a right to demand that such issues shall be made only under rigid checks. It is proper, therefore, that the government shall require the deposit of United States bonds to an amount greater than the amount of bills issued. Should the bank fail, these bonds would be sold by the government, and out of the proceeds the bill-holders would be paid first. Under this, which is called the national banking system, the bill-holders are secure against loss by failure of the bank, and there is no doubt that this system is more secure and of greater public convenience than any system of state banks. Here is manifest the ignorance of those who raise a hue and cry against national banks as monopolies, making huge profits out of the people. That this is the rankest of follies will be plain if we remember that a bank note is used only as a convenience by the people ; and that, under proper regula- tions promptly enforced, banks of issue are a real and impor- tant convenience ; while banks of deposit and credit are of the greatest and most positive advantage to the mass of people, both capitalists and laborers. Just as unwise is the cry against banks, and for the reason of increasing greenbacks. A greenback is a non-interest-bearing promise to pay money, issued by the government, and for whose redemption the holder has no security in his own hands. It is, so far, precisely like a bank note ; but it has one feature which makes it differ from a common bank note : you can not sue the issuer of the note — the government, namely — that has used its power to make it a legal tender. If a banker issues one hundred thousand dollars in bills, that is evidence that he is the owner of one hundred thousand dollars in money or other property, which- — or, more correctly, one hundred and ten thousand dollars — he has deposited in the treasury as security that he will redeem his notes on demand. And this is what the government does in issuing greenbacks. It issues promises to pay ; and these promises 438 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. are evidence that it has, in the confidence of the people, the power to pay. That the greenback is simply a certificate that the govern- ment owes so much, is shown by the reflection that in order to call in and redeem the greenbacks the government would have to first raise money by taxes, or by the sale of bonds. And we can see from this the deception resting in the minds of those who cry for more greenbacks. In a time of war, when the expenditures of the government enormously exceeded the largest sum it could raise from taxes, it was authorized to borrow money. It borrowed many hundreds of millions, upon bonds, or obligations promising to repay the lenders at a certain time, with interest at a stipulated rate. This was perfectly legitimate and honest. But the government also chose to borrow money by a loan from its citizens, for which it gave, not interest-bearing bonds, but notes promising to pay, but neither stipulating time of repayment nor granting interest for the use of the money. Such a note made by an individual would be void ; made by the government, it was tolerated, on the express ground that the government needed vast sums for its current expendi- tures, and must get money where and in whatever way it could. But circumstances have changed. The taxes now equal the expenditures, and there is an annual surplus even. How then can we have more greenbacks? On what excuse, in what way, for what purpose, can the government borrow money? What shall it do with the money for which it is to issue more greenbacks ? The people in favor of more green- backs seem to have perceived this dilemma, and to meet it they have begun to urge a great system of public works — canals, railroads and other costly improvements. But if we are to run in debt for these, surely it is better to do so honestly, by selling our bonds, than dishonestly, by increas- ing the amount of a forced loan which ought long ago to have been paid out of the surplus revenue, instead of redeem- ing bonds not yet due. CHAPTER XXXIX. INTERNATIONAL TRADE. THE growing conviction that the nations of the earth are of one blood ; that this family of nations have common and mutual interests ; that these common interests can best be served by a universal commerce: this has developed international trade. Political economy finds here a broad field in which can be operated industrial principles for the highest welfare of mankind. The discoveries of science and the activity of invention have astonished the whole world by the new facilities furnished to give extension and freedom to the mutual inter- course and trade of nations. All civilized people hail with joy the beneficent changes which have come to each country and to the world by the introduction of steam to give speed and certainty to navigation, of the locomotive and rail-car to shorten distance as measured by time, and of the electric telegraph which annihilates time and distance, and permits contracts and all commercial negotiations to be adjusted to present facts in all parts of the world. The common sense of men expressed by their instinctive prompt adoption of these inventions, pronounces universal freedom of trade a common blessing. In accord with this principle, the civilization of the world is advancing with rapid strides. Until a comparatively recent period there was nothing which could properly be called international trade. We do, indeed, read in history, as far back as its records go, of over- land merchantmen, like the caravan of Ishmaelites to whom Joseph was sold ; of cities like Tyre and Carthage, and some of the Greek cities, which grew rich and great by a sort of world-wide commerce ; and in the mediaeval time of the Italian cities, Venice, Genoa, and others, whose trade swept 439 440 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. the seas, and brought in to individual merchants and to the coffers of the state wealth untold. But those merchant caravans and fleets of commerce were mere go-betweens for people who stood aloof, in antagonism toward each other. These traders went everywhere, buying whatever they could at the cheapest, and selling what they could at the dearest, and took the chief advantage to themselves. They grew rich out of their contact with all, but they awakened no common interest between the different peoples they visited. They left only the incidental benefit of furnishing each with some things they did want, and carrying away some things they did not want. That trade fostered no international good will, and gave rise to no free international intercourse. False doctrines then prevailed, as, that '' Nations are natural enemies to each other;" *' In trade, one nation can gain only what another nation has lost ; " "A nation's wealth is increased only as money is brought in and held fast ; " " Better to give two dollars which remain in the country for a commodity than only one dollar which goes out of the country." These false doctrines led to the most harrassing restrictions on all commercial intercourse. Different trades were organized as rival guilds, each guarding carefully its own secrets, and eager to secure special privileges. Tolls were collected at every city's gates on all goods brought in. Each nation sought to build up its own industry by breaking down that of others. Strange and absurd laws were enacted, defining what things the people should and what they should not consume, and resisting or distorting all the natural laws of trade. Happily other and better views have now, in great measure, supplanted the old false doctrines, and the absurd regulations have for the most part disappeared. The two main theories of political economy, relative to international trade now remaining, and both of which have strong advocates, are what is known as protective tariff and free trade. The theory of protection is, that in order to promote THE CONDUCT OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 441 home industry, the importation of certain articles from countries where they can be produced cheaper than at home should be prohibited or restricted by duties. The theory of free trade is, that a nation's industries are best promoted by maintaining the utmost freedom in the exchange of all commodities at home and with other countries. These two theories have been in conflict through all our history as a nation. The constitution of 1787 put itself on the side of at least a mild protection, by determining that congress should have power to "levy and collect duties." In the first custom law passed, that of July 4, 1789, it was decided to impose duties for the payment of the public debt and the encouragement and protection of manufacturers. This was the beginning of the protective policy. The idea of the constitution was to impose duties for the purpose of driving many to pay the debt ; the idea of this first tariff law included, in addition to this, protection for home prod- ucts. In each of the years 18 16, 1824 and 1827 the tariff was raised. The consequence of these new custom laws was, that on the coast, and particularly on the Canadian border, an immense contraband trade sprang up, and thus honest merchants suffered to benefit a few smugglers and manufacturers. At last South Carolina lost all patience, and in December, 1832, adopted the bold resolution to declare the custom laws of the country null and void, and renounced all obedience to them. This resolution, which foretold a dissolution of a great and happy Union, and indeed partially carried it into effect, naturally created the greatest excitement. This spirit of opposition was carried throughout the country; and so there came to be formed two opposite theories of international trade. The argument for a protective tariff is based on the propo- sition that it is necessary in order to develop the industries of the country. This was more especially the case in the infancy of this country. The doctrine of home protection was introduced from the practice of England in her deahng 442 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. with the colonies. That country prohibited the establish- ment of all kinds of manufactures, and imposed a heavy duty on tea and fabrics which were brought to this country in English vessels to be bartered away by English trade. At the close of the war our whole system of life grew and developed in antagonism to English life. To encourage home manufacture, and the consumption of home manufact- ures, duties were imposed on articles imported from other countries. If it was found that guns could be manufactured in England twenty per cent cheaper than in the United States, and as a consequence would sell cheaper in this country than the home article, the remedy clearly lay in imposing a duty of twenty per cent on the English gun as it was brought in port. Then the American manufacturer could compete with the English, and the home article would be bought. Another advantage of a protective duty is that it allows free competition at home, uninfluenced with foreign compe- tition. The Canadian farmer cannot take his horses and cattle to New York to compete with the American farmer without first paying a duty. This delivers American industry from the competition of foreign trade. The whole later genius of American commerce is, how- ever, against at least a high tarifT. A perfectly free trade, a complete annihilation of duties is, in the United States as in other countries, impossible. This income cannot be dis- pensed with, neither can its place be supplied by an excise or by direct taxation. If, on the other hand, importation is prohibited or rendered impossible by excessively high duties, this equally results in a destruction of all revenue. Although individuals of either party may have pushed their views to one or the other of these extremes, yet the friends of free trade in general are as far from meaning by its adoption to abolish all duties, as the advocates of a high tariff are from desiring to put a total stop to importation. But between these extremes there are many intermediate points on which men can unite and come to an understanding. That in HIGH TARIFF HURTFUL. 443 drawing up tariffs respect should be had to the proceedings of other countries, is natural and proper; but it is by no means advisable or advantageous to imitate those foreign measures or even go beyond them. Care must be taken especially not to be seduced by uncertain statistical enu- merations, brief experiments, and partial conclusions, into sweeping and erroneous measures. The endeavor to attain complete commercial independ- ence is both foolish and impious ; commerce binds together countries and nations for their mutual advantage, and none but an unpractical philosopher like Fichte could regard a wholly exclusive commercial state as the triumph of human development. The entire independence of countries with respect to each other destroys all foreign trade ; the condition of China for centuries is proof of this. An American historian observes, far more correctly than the German philosopher: " Mutual intercourse creates mutual dependence, mutual gain, and mutual friendship." Protective duties prohibit or render difficult the introduc- tion of articles because they are good and cheap, and close the market of the world to favor that of monopolists. A people who do not raise the raw materials, but are forced to buy them, cannot manufacture to advantage, if their sales are confined to the home market ; neither can a people that raises far more raw produce than it can use or work up, seclude itself from other nations by excessive protecting duties. If, in the United States, capital is less abundant and wages higher than in England, still other things are nearer at hand and cheaper, as the raw produce of the country ; and we have found that manufactures have flour- ished most when duties were low. The cheaper a man can supply one want, the more he has left for satisfying the rest; and natural right and natural prudence are not to be violated, to satisfy the selfishness of a few who wish to sell dear. He who cannot carry on a business with free competition, should let it alone; the contrary principle is, in fact, destructive of trade, it sets the 444 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. costly and artificial above the natural, and takes much from many in order to bolster up what is unsuitable in itself. All trade is founded on buying where the articles are cheap and abundant,; the contrary principle leads to rearing vines in hot-houses, and making sugar out of substances that contain but little of the saccharine matter. This was shown when a high duty was laid on foreign lumber and timber, with the result of breaking up an important trade in finished lumber which our merchants had established with Australia and the West Indies, but which was driven to Canada by the tariff which made lumber dear here ; making all houses dearer and house rents higher for the laboring men and their families ; and causing the needless destruction of our own forests, which we ought much rather to have preserved with great care so long as our neighbors would sell us theirs. Extreme measures are always evil. Truth and justice, sound politics and wisdom, are always to be found in the middle path, the juste milieu. All ultraism is destructive, and is even attended with injurious consequences. We must reject as well the doctrine of extreme free trade, as that of excessive duties. A tariff with moderate rates and carefully prepared, is useful for the country. If the proceeds of the customs add to the surplus revenue, the duties must be reduced, even at the hazard of injuring some branches of manufacturing industry. The prosperity of the whole coun- try is of more consequence than that of any one industry. Until within the last half century the protective policy has ruled the industry and trade of the world, with only here and there an exception, like Holland in her best days. Low tariff has had scarcely a chance to try its experiment. Its principles are, however, illustrated and sustained in the hun- dred years' history of our nation's independent life. The states of our republic, in their extent of territory, their divers- ity of resources, the varied races and endowments of their people, and their distinctive interests, constitute a world by themselves. Fortunately our constitution forever forbids SAFETY OF LOW TARIFF. 445 the protective policy to restrict their trade with each other. Here is a broad arena for the experiment of low tariff, or even free trade. By trade each nation avails itself of the advantages and resources of the whole earth, and enters in for a share of the blessings bestowed on every soil, clime and people. It feels also the stimulus of every form of industry; not only rival industries, but that which, crowding its markets with new utilities, new enjoyments, invites anS^ draws out its purchas- ing power. Commerce keeps in lively motion all the wheels of industry, and supplies both the motives and means to a large share of production. That the greatest commercial, social and moral advantages be secured from a trade with the whole world, it is necessary that commerce be obstructed as little as possible. The most magnificent and conclusive example of the benefits of unobstructed commerce is afforded by our own country. The constitution of the United States provides carefully for the most entire and unobstructed freedom in the interchange of products over the greater and most fertile part of the American continent, and among thirty- seven different political communities; and no one doubts that it is to this absolute freedom of exchange, guarded with the utmost jealousy against every exaction and interference, that we owe our wonderful advance in wealth, as well as in the ingenuity and intelligence of our people. CHAPTER XL. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. TWO of the most emphatic propositions of political econ- omy are: First, any traffic which is harmful to the welfare of a majority of the people of a community ought to have restrictive or prohibitive legislation ; second, any industrial enterprise which cripples the industrial forces of a country needs the same restrictive or prohibitive legislation. These propositions themselves scarcely need discussion. Modern civilization has implicit faith in majorities. The right of the majority to control all measures of the people's choice is a doctrine no longer questioned. In our national life we have thoroughly preached this principle into our political and industrial systems ; it is the gospel of right by which we decide all great matters, and to its standard we relegate all issues for approval or rejection. This being so unquestionably settled in our convictions, the rule is like- wise settled that the selfish interest of the minority has no right to infringe on the welfare of the majority. Hence the proposition that any traffic which is harmful to the majority ought to be suppressed. The logic of the second proposition is just as conclusive. The two main classes of the industrial forces are those of capital and those of labor. Any trade introduced in a com- munity which should so cripple the powers of capital, or those of labor, or of both, as to weaken their efficiency as productive forces, should receive the most restrictive laws that could be passed. No man, or party of men, has any right to destroy the industrial forces of a community. For them to do it, is criminal ; for any community to allow them to do it, is suicidal. Any traffic that will make a man so inefficient as to make his labor incapable of furnishing his 446 MAGNITUDE OF THE TRAFFIC. 447 family with at least the necessities of life, demands legal restriction or prevention. Hence the second proposition, that any industrial enterprise which cripples the industrial forces of a country needs restrictive or prohibitive legislation. Therefore, these two propositions are established. In the light of these propositions, as held by political economy, how appears the liquor traffic? The magnitude of this traffic must first be estimated. There are one hundred and sixty-six thousand liquor sellers in the United States ; with the manufacturers and clerks of all description the number of persons making their support by this traffic, may reach that many more, making three hundred and thirty-two thousand. Now, the question which political economy puts, is, have these three hundred and thirty-two thousand persons any right to engage in a traffic which is harmful to the economic welfare of all other persons ? The following is a detailed statement of the consumption of liquors in the United States for the year 1877. The prices quoted are the average retail prices : Whisky and other spirits, 56,848,525 gallons, at $6.00 retail $341,091,150 Fermented liquors, 9,074,306 barrels, at $20.00 retail 181,486,120 Imported brandy and other spirits, 1,386,670 gallons, at $10.00 13,866,700 Wines, 5,723,469 gallons, at $6.00 34,340,814 Domestic wines, brandies 25,000,000 Total $595,784,784 The consumption in Great Britian for the same year was as follows : British spirits, 29,889,176 gallons $146,446,180 Foreign spirits, 10,618,564 gallons 63,711,385 Wines, 17,671,273 gallons 79.520,730 Beer, 30,267,641 half barrels 408,613,160 British wines, cider, etc., estimated at 17,500,000 gallons 8,750,000 Total $710,040, 155 This contrast shows that the consumption of liquor is vastly more in Great Britain than in this country. But the traffic, heavy as it is in this country, is in conflict with the 448 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. economic welfare of the entire people, and is destructive of the industrial forces of the country. These two things are proven by the same facts. A first observation to make is, that liquor is destructive of the organs and powers of the body. Shakespeare takes up the role of a philosopher when he makes Cassio say in the play of Othello : " O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains ! That we should, with joy, pleasance, revel and applause, transform ourselves into beasts." This is the calm judgment of physiology to-day relative to liquor in the human system. The first effect of liquor on the brain is on that portion known as the cerebrum. This is the front and upper portion of the brain, and is the seat of the intellect. Here are the lobes which give life to reason. Here is the dome of thought, the palace of the soul. And here is first felt the evil effect of hquor. That effect at first is an undue quickening and agitation of the nervous action, producing a stupor, in which state all the powers of thought suffer from stupefaction. At this point thought is injured ; the finer feelings of virtue-, integrity and patriotism are deadened, and the whole intellectual force of life is greatly weakened. Webster's massive brain had its eloquent machinery of thought clogged by the effect of liquor. It is the liquor of moderate drinking that affects first this portion of the brain. This was lamented by Jefferson when he remarked: *'The habit of using ardent spirits by men in office has occa- sioned more misery to the public than all other causes. And were I to commence my administration again, with the experience I now have, the first question I would ask respect- ing a candidate would be, 'Does he use ardent spirits?'" In this land political thought has been sadly demoralized by the effect of liquor upon the brain of political thinkers. It even deepens beyond moderate drinking. Civil, appellate and supreme courts have lost their sense of dignity in drunken riots. Legislative halls have resounded to mad revel. Gubernatorial chairs have been dishonored, and the EFFECT OF LIQUOR ON THE BRAIN. 449 senate turned into bacchanalian debauches. Cabinets have been lashed with the red tongue of wine. Even the head executive of the people put odium on the nation he ruled by being crazed with rum. Statesmanship exhibits the highest genius to be attained by man. It is here that wisdom is exercised in all its col- lateral parts to produce, defend and execute laws wholesome and wise. Law makers and law executors should have the balance power of the mind on the side of calm and temper- ate thought. When this holy purpose of law is defeated, and the ofificers of law are wrecked in drunkenness, a more pitiable scene is not to be witnessed in modern civilization. Not strange that he who was wise among the wisest of our statesmen should want his cabinets filled by men with nerves unshattered, conscience unseared, brains unpoisoned and thoughts untainted by ardent spirits. If it unfits for ofifice, it unfits for citizenship; if it unfits for citizenship, it is treason. If this traffic carries the armed force of treason through the country, through its effect upon the cerebrum of the brain, it is a traffic antagonistic to the highest interests of the whole people. The second effect of liquor on the brain is on the cere- bellum, which is the upper centre portion of the brain. This part of the brain controls the muscles of the body. A press- ure on the lobes of the cerebellum affects muscles at the extremities of the body. When a man is observed stagger- ing under the influence of liquor, it is proof that the poison of the liquor is doing its work on the lobes of the cerebellum of his brain. A third effect, and the last stage of the history of liquor in the brain, is when it passes from the cerebellum to the medulla oblongata. This is the back and lower portion of the brain. This portion of the brain controls the nerves of respiration. When liquor, in passing through the brain, comes to affect the lobes of the medulla oblongata, sleeping and snoring are produced. The movements of the lungs are deranged. The effect here is to stupefy the whole moral and 29 450 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. intellectual activity. The courage of Booth failed him as he went to assassinate the president. Rushing into a saloon he drank brandy, and was ready for the crime. Harden the brain in alcohol and you harden the moral nature. The alcohol of liquor, by its affinity for water, hardens all the albumenous substances of the body. It paralyzes the nerves, produces arterial relaxation and deranges the circula- tion of the blood. In a careful post mortem examination of seventy persons who had died from the excessive use of liquor, the following facts were reported : The brain was white and firm, as though it had lain in alcohol for several hours. The lungs in most of the cases were congested or inflamed. The heart was flabby, enlarged and loaded with heavy fat. The stomach exhibited patches of inflammation, and in many cases thickened. The liver in most cases was greatly enlarged; in some instances weighing from six to twelve pounds. The front of the abdomen, known in medical science as the omentum, was loaded with fat. The kidneys were enlarged and infiltrated with foreign matter. The blood overcharged with albumen. This terrible revela- tion of the effect of liquor in the human body puts it as the most positive foe to man. Mental acuteness, accuracy of perception and delicacy of the senses, as well as the vital forces of the system, are all diminished and finally break under the effect of liquor upon them. The average life of persons not given to the use of liquor is sixty-four years and two months ; the average life of persons addicted to its use is thirty-five years and six months, a showing in favor of abstinence of over twenty- eight years. Now the bill of indictment that political economy makes against the trade of liquor right here, is: It deranges the whole physical organism of the body by interfering with the normal movements of its machinery, and thus it subtracts a large part from the working ability of the body; it injures the faculties of the brain, and therefore disqualifies it for labor ; it takes twenty-eight years from the average working ARRAIGNMENT OF THE TRAFFIC. 45 1 period of life ; and, therefore, the industrial forces of man's body are immeasurably curtailed by the traffic. In this count the science of political economy is most emphatic and uncompromising in its arraignment of this traffic. It is the province of this science to carefully econo- mize all the forces of production in order to add to a nation's wealth and contribute to its prosperity. To have the mental and physical forces of the body incapacitated for labor, is to insure the most vindictive condemnation of this science. Another fact that political economy considers is, that the traffic is a constant drain on all the industrial movements of the country. It makes a constant demand on the resources of the country. There are nearly seventy million gallons of liquor manufactured yearly in this country. The amount of grain required to manufacture this liquor, estimating the yield at three and a half gallons to the bushel, will show an annual consumption of about twenty million bushels. The value of this grain would be fifteen million dollars. To manufacture this amount of liquor would require over six million bushels of coal, at a cost of over one million dollars. In addition to this, the cost of cooperage, hoop iron, teams and wages must be calculated, making in all an annual sacri- fice of values to the enormous extent of at least seventy-five million dollars to enable this article to reach the hand of the retail dealer. In regard to the consumption of soil, the entire acreage used for growing grain for the manufacture of liquor would reach four million acres. The grain raised on this immense acreage, ground into flour, would be sufficient to feed two and a half million people. There is a vast capital invested in this traffic which, if set free and applied to the varied branches of commerce, would ease the country of the burden of this trade, and offer capital to carry on other great and needed enterprises. The total capital held by this traffic is three hundred and sixteen million six hundred and ninety-two thousand five hundred and sixty dollars. 452 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. Its effect on trade and commerce is felt wherever our commerce extends. It knows no satiety; it is never a glut in the market. In this it differs from all other articles of commerce. Goods of all kinds, and the most valuable, have often glutted the market, but this never. Instead of the demand determining the supply, the consumption seems to increase on the increase of the supply. The trafific is at war with all other commercial interests. The profits are deter- mined, not by the laws of value and demand, but by the greed of the manufacturer and dealer, and are beyond all proportion to the profits of labor and capital elsewhere. Labor that is under the influence of liquor can never expect to secure a rise in wages. A number of musical instrument makers have lately for- bidden their workmen to use beer under pain of dismissal, and is done only on the economic reason that such labor, however skilled, cannot produce the best results in such delicate mechanism. The loss to labor here is heavy. A parliamentary report estimates that the loss in money and labor, to employer and laborer in England, is five hundred and sixty-three million three hundred and fifty thousand dollars per annum. In 1868 England imported food to the cost of one hundred and eighty-five millions of dollars, and destroyed sixty-three millions of bushels of grain to manufacture liquor. In any other direction such an unwise measure in economics would have been derided over the world. It has been computed that a half million of dollars per annum in steamboat and railroad disasters have been lost to our nation through carelessness and incompetency resulting from the use of liquor. The burning of the British ships, the George, the Kent, the East India, the Ajax and the Edgar, was the result of the same thing. In our commerce with savage nations in foreign lands, by first deceiving them with liquor we have blocked up our own way for trade, and lost incalculably. The science of economics is interested in keeping the COST OF CRIME. 453 peace, in order to have all the attention of the country, as well as its money, devoted to the industries. And it has something to do with the fact that at least two thirds of the crime of the United States is the result of liquor. It is in this country the great king of crime, whose sceptre is flung with measureless confidence across the path of peace. With the nerves excited, the heart silenced, and the reason dethroned, man is fully equipped for the midnight deed. The late Judge Cady, of New York, eminent in criminal prosecutions, has left the record that the greater portion of trials for murders and assaults and battery, which came before his cognizance during his long service as a criminal lawyer, originated in liquor. The cost of crime in England is thirty millions of dollars per annum, and the governor of Canterbury prison reports that ninety per cent of the prisoners of England were made criminals through the use of liquor. At least five hundred millions of dollars are required annually in the United States to pay the cost of punishing that proportion of crime which is produced by liquor. Political economy puts in two strong protests against this, simply on the ground of economics, and without considering the moral issues of the matter. This immense sum must be gathered by taxation. It was an old maxim in the economy of politics, and in which our fathers fully believed, that taxation without representation was unjust. This tax to provide a fund to hunt down and punish crime caused by liquor is unjust when it falls on the whole people, as the whole people are in nowise represented or interested in the traffic which makes necessary this taxa- tion. And again, this five hundred millions of dollars, if not demanded for this purpose, would find its way into the capital of the various industries, and would become produc- tive. Any project which keeps money from the industries is an unwise economic measure. It is one of the most sad commentaries on American life that we are rapidly running up our percentage of insanity. And it is just as sad that nearly fifty per cent of our insanity 454 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. is caused by liquor. This would seem to demand severe restrictive measures. The fact that this traffic is engrafting on the brain a disorganization of its powers which tends in the direction of insanity, is not a pleasant thing to contem- plate on either moral or economic grounds. This liquor traffic has produced a large per cent of the pauperism of the country. A large per cent of the laboring class have carried from one fourth to one half of their earn- ings to the village saloon. A few years ago the mines and factories were in full operation, and under the direction of thousands of hands were keeping measure to a nation's enterprise. The numberless cottages along the mountain sides had but the passing comforts; the surplus was spent at the corner grocery. Then came the panic of 1873. A few days carried alarm into every part of the land. Then the energies of the coun- try were taxed to their utmost and finally staggered beneath the general crash. And then it was that spindle stood still in the factory, and the fire went out in the furnace, and the miner's lantern no longer glimmered, and his pick lay unused in the mine. And poverty walked up and down the mount- ain passes and sent a chill around the cottage walls. The husband and father had not thought of this hour, and the purse was kept empty to fill the goblet. The flour soon run low in the chest. The last piece of bacon was taken down from the pantry shelf. The credit was gone at the little store. And then "grim want looked in at the window and smiled." And in a few months up and down that country went an army of beggars. This state of pauperism was produced by liquor, and with this traffic political economy insists on settling the account. This is the charge which, so far as the science of econom- ics is concerned, is brought against this traffic. The relation of the traffic to morals and religion is not considered, as it does not belong here. This drain on the industrial forces of the country is resulting in unmeasured harm to the entire people, without one compensating feature about it. THE REMEDY. 455 Hence the final conclusion on the ground of the double proposition given at the outset : the liquor traffic is held by political economy to be harmful to the majority of the people, and drains constantly the industrial forces of the country, and on this account it ought to be dealt with by strong restrictive or prohibitive legislation. Such a traffic demands, under the condemnation of industrial science, a strong remedy. What shall the remedy be? For many years the sober thought of good, honest men has been pondering over this^ evil. Since the formation of the Union, various licensing laws have been passed in the several states, all, however, so far unsatisfactory that they have been made the subject of fre- quent change. Legislators seem to have studied the charac- ter of the publican rather than the nature of the liquor which he sold ; they appear to have thought that if the seller was a good man alcohol would do no harm. After taking infinite pains to obtain pious publicans, and constantly failing in the attempt, the clever device was adopted in Massachusetts of requiring the county commissioners to take an oath that they would ** faithfully and impartially, without fear, favor or hope of reward, discharge the duties of their office, respecting all licenses and respecting all recommendations " ; but after all this swearing, the evils of the traffic continued to grow. This license systen is objectionable. It is a ques- tion whether government has an economic right to license such an evil. It does not rest on an economic right, but exhibits an economic outrage. The policy of this theory is to increase the revenue. But as the traffic paralyzes instead of stimulates industry, it is unwise to license it. It is an unprofitable source of revenue. It puts in with one hand and takes out with a myriad. It produces in Chicago one hundred and ninety-four thousand dollars revenue per annum, and it costs the city nine hundred and thirty thou- sand dollars. As an economic policy, license is a failure. Another remedy which is growing in favor is out and out prohibition. This may become the pohcy of the future ; that 456 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. it can be the means of the present is exceedingly doubtful. In legislating upon this traflfic, a wise law-maker would remember that the craving for stimulants is universal among mankind ; that the right of a man to decide whether or not he needs a stimulant cannot be declared by any general law, because each case must necessarily be judged upon its own features, and it must therefore practically be left to himself; that it is not a function of law to prevent a man injuring himself — else the government would have to interfere in every act of our lives: but only to prevent him from injuring others ; and that, finally, a law prohibiting the sale and use of an article in universal demand cannot be carried into effect without vexatious and justly hateful searches in private houses and interference with individual desires and tastes. To a wise law-maker, therefore, greatly as he might be impressed with the evils arising to society out of the misuse of spirituous liquors, a general law totally prohibiting their use and sale within a state, or the United States, would seem inexpedient, because it could not be enforced. Prohibition has been made a test of popular feeling on the trafific; and in spite of the seeming objections, it may come into more general favor. The first prohibitory law was enacted in Maine in 1851, and, with the exception of the two years 1856 and 1857, has been continued, and it remains the law of the state to the present time. After the two exceptional years, legislators were chosen by large majorities, who, in 1858, reenacted the prohibitory law, and since that time Governor Dingle states that, " The opposi- tion to the law obviously grew weaker from year to year, and although there were frequent attempts to secure a legislature favorable to its repeal, yet they always failed." The state of Maine contains thirty-five thousand square miles, with a population in 1880 of six hundred and forty- eight thousand nine hundred and thirty-six. Throughout the whole of the state there is not a single distillery in operation. The law is not actively enforced in every town or district in the state, but that it has upon THE EXPERIMENT AT VINELAND. 457 the whole been effective in a degree which must be highly satisfactory to its advocates is evident from the fact that the liquor revenue from Maine in 1873 was forty-nine thousand two hundred and thirty-seven dollars, whereas, from Connect- icut, with a population of ninety thousand less than that of Maine, the revenue was three hundred and thirty-six thousand seven hundred and forty-three dollars, and from Maryland, where the population is one fourth more than in Maine, the revenue was one million two hundred and eighty-five thou- sand seven hundred dollars. In the year ending June 30, 1876, the revenue from Maine was twenty-seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-three dollars. It is clearly seen that it is popular opinion that has enabled the prohibition of the trafific to be a success in Maine. Until popular demand calls for this kind of legislation in other states, economic reasons would suggest resort to other, and restrictive, measures. Almost any^ county, or town, except the larger j;:ities, may adopt the permissive, or local option, poHcy, which is always practical. The permissive principle appears to afford the most suitable and effective form in which social legislation can be applied. It is useless to attempt the enforcement of a law which is opposed to the pecuniary interests of a large class of traders, unless the principle on which it is founded is abundantly sustained by public opinion. This is not likely to be the case in every town throughout a large state ; and, therefore, a permissive bill, allowing its adoption where public sentiment is sufficiently advanced, may be useful when legal prohibition for the whole state may be a failure. Public sentiment would here, by providing for an annual vote, 'have the keeping of the law. This course has been pursued for a number of years in the township of Vineland, in New Jersey, and the people annually vote to refuse all licenses to sell liquor. They have found, as the result of their firmness, that crime and pauperism are almost entirely banished from their town. This policy would bring us back to the town-meeting system of New England, and thus one 458 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. of the most important political reforms possible in our system would then be brought about ; for thus the people of a small locality, in public meeting assembled, would once more discuss their local affairs, and vote directly upon the policy they wish to pursue and the money they are willing to spend for public purposes. In this way each citizen has opportunity to bring up such suggestions as he pleases, recommending them with his best ability; there alone the people act directly, and not by delegates, and by this demo- cratic parliament the local affairs of the township — its roads, schools, police, health — can and will be the most efificiently and economically managed. Under the inspiration of the integrity, patriotism and spirit of industry, and with a careful scrutiny, and a speedy and constant correction of the evils, as shown to be constit- uent parts of our national life, our nation is destined to become the great republic of history. It is to continue in the same general career it has hitherto pursued. The same great truths its history has developed and realized in civil, industrial and moral life are to still further emerge. The proposition that all are created equal is to be still further developed, and give shape to other and grander truths. Human rights are to be still further vindicated, and freed from the oppression of evils of all kind. No law that asserts the dignity of human character is to be abrogated, no principle of industrial honor is to be repudiated. The republic is to become a still brighter and clearer sign to the nations to show them the way to liberty, peace and prosperity. Our forefathers — God bless their memory — were inspired to make an experiment. It was a pure experiment. "Whether the clear definitions of civil and political rights could be reached by the representatives of the people; whether a few feeble colonists could resist the oppression of a mighty nation, and, by eight years of bloody war, establish their independence; whether the 'constitution adopted could be sustained as the fundamental law of the land, until it had THE HOPE OF THE NATION. 459 triumphed over and worked out its own vices ; whether the freedom of the ballot and elections could be maintained; whether minorities would submit to majorities ; whether the permanence of executive government could be secured with- out a dynasty and an hereditary nobility ; whether a nation made up of people separated by state lines could vindicate its sovereignty ; whether the people could put down a great rebellion ; and whether a republic could grapple with and ultimately destroy the intensest form of despotism known among men — were questions of most critical experiment. But under the control of Providence they are settled ; and wise men abroad have just ceased to speak of the republic of America as a grand experiment, destined to a signal fail- ure. It has passed through the severest tests to which a nation has ever been subjected, and endured them all, emerging at last with the smile of a seraph from its baptism of blood." The spirit of liberty is aggressive, the principles of our industries are progressive, and the patriotism of our people can be trusted. Under these strong industrial and moral forces and divine Providence, our National Life will grow through the centuries. CHAPTER XLI. THE MALTHUSIAN THEORY. A LITTLE past the middle of the eighteenth century in the crowded county of Surry, England, was born Thomas Malthus ; his father, a man of broad learning, was the friend and correspondent of Rousseau, and shared with the French scholar a liking for social problems. The child inherited the same mental trait. He became a clergyman, but devoted his time to the study of social and moral evils. Some of the most able writers on political economy have felt the important connection between the social evils and the industries of a country. But Malthus was the first since Plato to see the desire of putting a check on rapid increase of population. In 1798 he brought out his great work on the " Principle of Population," in which he argued that the population was increasing at a faster rate than the supply of food. He drew a most doleful picture of what must happen if population continued to increase and land did not. This had such an effect on Mill that he was forced to the conclu- sion that it would become necessary to put a check on popu- lation ; and he urges the duty on the laboring classes to bring fewer children into the world. The work of Malthus met with a great deal of surprise, and received a good deal of attention. The idea of his theory was suggested by reading Hume on the " Populousness of Ancient Nations," and it was called out in his teaching by a provoked assault upon the theory of the school of Rousseau that nature was regen- erate enough to correct its own evils, unaided by legal restraint or moral interference — gross optimism, which, in fatal blindness to the real conditions which surround life, was responsible for the French Revolution. The central idea in the system of Malthus is one which 460 THE THEORY OF MALTHUS. 461 concerns political economy very closely ; that is, the improve- ment of society. This is the moral side of industrial science. In this discussion Malthus recognized two considerations : first, the causes which have impeded the progress of the race ; and second, the partial or entire removal of these causes. He thought he could reduce the first to a single proposition : that is, the tendency in all life to increase beyond the nourishment provided for it. Life on this planet if unre- stricted would fill a million worlds in a few hundred years. In this rapid increase there is reached a point beyond which, if it continues, unmeasured misery will result. There is only one limit to the indefinite increase, and that is necessity. In plants and irrational animals, which are directed only by blind instinct untroubled with doubts about providing for their offspring, the problem is simple ; in their case increase is checked only by want of room and nourishment. In the case of man, to whose instinct is added reason, the question is more complicated. Here increase, if hindered at all, must either be checked by preventive restraint, which is apt to lead to vice ; or a constant check, arising from the difificulty of acquiring food, must be in operation. Malthus thought that unchecked population does tend to increase beyond the means of subsistence. This is shown by a comparison of natural increase of population, when left to exert itself with perfect freedom, and the increase of subsist- ence under the most favorable conditions. It is likewise shoAvn by a study of the different states of society in which man has existed. . In showing that the natural increase of the race was faster than the possible increase of food, Malthus calculated that population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every twenty-five years. It has been estimated by some that population may, and actually has, doubled itself in thirteen years. If population will double every twenty-five years, what means can be effectual for such a rapid increase in food. No improvements in agriculture can keep pace with such marvelous increase. If a small section of country 462 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. be taken for an illustration, it may be supposed that the second twenty-five years of its cultivation the production of the soil may be double what it was the first twenty-five. But no amount of skill and labor can make the production for the third period of twenty-five years double what it was for the second period. If a population of ten thousand inhabit a section ten miles square, the production of the soil of that section may quite support this people. But where at the second twenty-five years this population reaches twenty thousand persons, it may require the most careful tilling to make the production of the soil sustain this number. And where at the third period this population reaches forty thou- sand, the capacity of the soil fails, and there are more people than can be sustained. If we apply this, as Malthus did, to the whole earth, we would have an increase of population much greater than the means of subsistence ; and the world would soon present a condition of starvation. This was the doleful picture drawn by Malthus. He thought that the most fertile spots of country are first occu- pied ; as population increased the best soil lost its fertility and the poorest came into use; and so the more mouths the less food. In this struggle the weakest would perish — and here Malthus and Darwin are one. The theory of Malthus here is that on which Mills bases his appeal for a decrease in the growth of population. If there is a probable danger of the population of the world outgrowing the means for subsistence, then population can be kept down to the level of the means of subsistence only by a legislative law, or by the strong law of necessity operating as a check and compelling a restraint. There are some strong objections to the theory of Malthus. In the first place, in making his estimates of the rapid increase of population, he makes them from observa- tions of some special section, where the increase is unchecked, and then applies the results to the whole race. His mistake here is that he does not take into consideration those customs, diseases and evils which so greatly destroy the THE MISTAKE OF MALTHUS. 463 human race. An earthquake will destroy an entire island : a famine will depopulate a whole region ; a plague will cut off half a country; a pestilence will greatly reduce a whole continent ; a war will kill off the able men of two nations ; the customs and habits which impair health, break up the life forces, and breed disease, will cut down the years of a genera- tion vastly, as well as reduce the generative powers. The plagues of Egypt carried full five hundred thousand from the cradle to the grave in a few hours ; on the single night of the twenty-fourth of August, in the seventy-ninth year of the first century, the Vesuvian mount vomited a stream of fire and ashes which ere morning had buried the thirty-five thousand inhabitants of Pompeii ; though it took Troy ten years to fall, a whole nation fell with the Trojan fate; Napoleon reduced the male population of France one third ; the famine of India destroys a million and a quarter of lives in one year. This is but a small chip from the world's history of disasters. Famine, pestilence and war have been acting as checks on the increase of population to an extent that cannot be estimated. The vices, customs and evil habits are another series of restraining forces on the increase of population. To every thirty persons born in the United States one person is killed by drinking. These vices not only shorten life but transfer tendencies to weakness and short life to offspring. All these restrictions must be weighed in considering the Malthusian protest against increase of population. And with them all must be taken such checks upon the longevity of life as exposure to the seasons, extreme poverty, bad nursing of children, large towns, and excesses of all kinds. Another mistake in the Malthusian argument is the claim that the most fertile lands are taken first, and that after the first fifty years of the settlement of a country the best soil is already under its best cultivation. As a rule, the opposite is the fact. Settlements are made first along the coast and on the uplands, which are never so fertile as the interior sections of a continent. Almost the first portions of the 464 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. American continent which received careful cultivation were the New England hills, and no poorer soil, in its natural state, can be found in the New World. The rich woodland of the interior, and the valleys and prairies of the west, are only coming under cultivation within the present generation ; and some of the finest soil of America, soil of prodigious productive power, will lay unoccupied for a quarter of a century yet. Nor is it true that the best soil will wear out under the most advanced art of agriculture. Under the most perfect art of farming, soil of the best composition will retain a high grade of productiveness. The history of civilization shows that as population increases and has a greater demand for food, agriculture is improved most wonderfully; morasses are saved, barren spots are supplied with soil, old lands are redeemed, and all parts are made to bear larger crops. The most fertile parts of the globe still lay largely uncul- tivated, and are in the hands of savages. When Malthus was teaching his theory, the great continent of Australia lay unoccupied ; now it supports millions, and adds enormously to the clothing and food supply of the world. When Mills was writing a plea, under the influence of the teaching of Malthus, for a check on population, California was occupied only by cattle and a few Mexicans. Texas, a territory larger than France, is almost empty, and the soil of Texas is as productive as the Valley of the Nile. South America, whose products are as yet hardly known in the markets of the world, could support a people larger in numbers than those of Europe and America together. Oceanica, now having a few hundred thousand, will seat in the lap of its alluvial soil half as many million. As much may be said of the future awaiting New Guinea. Africa is a massive conti- nent — as yet the dark continent — but remarkably fertile, with a climate as healthy as any in the world, and yet it is unoccupied except by a tribal people. The United States could locate within her domain the four hundred millions of China, and feed them most sumptuously on the fat of the THE OUTLOOK. 465 land. Every farm in this country has wasted land enough to support a family. The world lies open, under better management, to a hundredfold increase of population. But there is one proposition, not expressed by Malthus, that does give a grave side to the problem of population. In the process of the improvement of agriculture there is reached a point beyond which productiveness cannot be increased, while in the increase of population there is no point where it will stop. Hence there may come a time when the food supply of the whole earth will not be sufficient to feed the people inhabiting the earth. This being a possibility, it is a part of the science of national life to consider means preventive, if there are any. Malthus had two remedies for over-population: one was emigration. But this is clearly only a postponement of the evil, and is of consequence only in maintaining a balance of population in all countries proportioned by the food supply. His other and strong method was moral self-restraint. His single precept was, " Do not marry till you have a fair pros- pect of supporting a family." The greatest and highest moral result of his system is that it clearly and emphatically teaches the responsibihty of parentage, and curses the sin of those who bring human beings into the world for whose physical, intellectual and moral well-being no satisfactory provision is made. One of the sciences of most prodigious benefit to the race, and one yet hardly noticed, is that of the propagation of human life. In the near future it will receive more atten- tion. Moral obligation will be the flaming tongue of this new science. Any legal restraint at this date would likely result in great vice. To educate is the only hope. It may at least be a suggestive observation, if it will not some day be rightly considered a crime, for one set of parents to bring into the world a dozen human beings. Moral science will here have to take the lead of economic science. 30 CHAPTER XLII. TABULAR ANALYSIS OF THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. THE following table gives a summary view of the Amer- ican system of government, according to the different civil divisions and subdivisions recognized in our system, and with their duties and ofificers. It will be seen by this table how we proceed, step by step, from the smallest possible civil division — that of the school district, where the people act directly upon measures which most immediately concern their growth and happiness, to the largest, to which general powers only are intrusted, and having reference solely to the welfare and security of the whole Nation, and which covers the entire policy of a great general government in its relation to both home and foreign affairs. It will be observed by this table that by this wise division of the powers, functions and duties of this system, first, government is made less cumbrous and heavy, and is for this reason likely to be more efificient and economical; second, that as the power of a subdivision becomes more formidable, it is less intimately brought in contact with the people. Hence the state government does not concern itself with roads, and the Federal Government has no charge of the schools or the police. Third, that the people are accustomed as much as possible to act directly upon their local and private interests, leaving only matters of more extended interest to the charge of the more distant and representative divisions of the government. From all this it will be noticed how well our system is adapted to the progress and propriety of the people. 466 DIVISIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 467 Name of Division. Has charge of Officers. School District. The free or public school. School trustees. To-dunship. Local peace, small offenses in justice's court; roads, grounds, local nuisances, paupers, taxes, schools. Trustees, justice of the peace, constable, clerk, road-master, assessor, and collector of taxes. County, Main or county roads and bridges ; nuisances, pub- lic health, general police, crimes and general offenses, county court, clerk for pub- lic records, administration of wills, superintendence of schools and of paupers, col- lection of taxes for state and county jail, poor-house, orphan home. Judge, prosecuting attor- ney, clerk, public ad- ministrator, sheriff, su- perintendent of schools, coroner, treasurer, su- pervisors or commis- sioners, surveyor. State. General peace and order; the enactment and enforce- ment of all laws applicable to the whole state, and under which all local bodies act, and to which they are subject (the state laws are the supreme law of the state, all county or town- ship laws to the contrary notwithstanding), militia drills, corporations, right of suffrage. Governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, attorney-general, super- intendent of education ^ circuit courts and courts of appeal, public works, legislature. Federal, War and peace, foreign re- lations, public lands, In- dians, army and navy, light- houses, customs' duties, coinage, weights and meas- ures, post-offices. President, secretaries of state, treasury, interior, war, navy, postmaster- general and attorney 1 general, postmasters, revenue collectors of different kinds, and a multitude of other offi- cers and clerks. CHAPTER XLIII. STATE GOVERNMENT. AS the cabinet, congress and the bench constitute the three important departments of our National Govern- ment, so they form the three particular branches of all local government — state, county and town. The executive department of a state consists of a gov- ernor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor, treas- urer, attorney-general and superintendent of public instruc- tion. These officers are elected by the people direct, for terms of different length in different states. In most of the states the term is either two or four years. In the New England states the term is but one year. The qualifications are unlike in the different states. The eligibility consists in being of a certain age, a certain length of time a citizen of the United States, a certain time a citizen of the state, and in some states a property qualification. The chief of the executive department of a state is the governor, who sustains the same relation to his state that the president does to the United States. He represents the state in its dealings with other states. He is commander-in- chief of the military force of the state, and can call it out in times of insurrection. He has charge of the execution of the laws, and can require the chiefs of the different branches of the executive to give information concerning their respect- ive departments. He sends annually a message to the legis- lature giving ofificial information relative to affairs in the state, and recommending needed measures. His signature, in most states, is necessary to a legislative act before it can become a law. He has the power to call the legislature in extra session, upon the occurrence of extraordinary occa- sions which require immediate legislative attention. He 468 STATE OFFICERS AND THEIR DUTIES. 469 has power to grant reprieves, commutations, and pardons, except in cases of impeachment, and in some states, of trea- son. To reprieve is to postpone the execution of a sentence. To commute sentence is to exchange one penalty for another of less severity. To pardon is to annul the sentence and liberate the offender. In most states all under officers are appointed by the governor, subject to the approval of the senate. He fills vacancies in elective offices which occur by removal of the occupant. He may, in some states, remove for misconduct. In a few states he has an executive council, but this is rapidly disappearing from our state systems. The lieutenant-governor is not a provision of all the states, as he has but few duties. He presides in the senate, where he has merely a deciding vote. The chief intention of the provision is, to be prepared for the contingency of the removal of the governor. The secretary of state is the most important of officers in the state, next to the governor. He has charge of the seal of the state, state papers and records, and keeps a record of the acts of the legislature, and the executive. He con- firms and distributes the copies of law, as directed by the legislature. The auditor manages the finances of the state, and directs all business relative to the money, debts, land and other property belonging to the state. He examines and adjusts all accounts against the state, superintends the collection of all money, and when money is to be paid out, draws a warrant on the state treasurer. The treasurer has charge of the money belonging to the state, pays out all money drawn upon him by the warrant of the auditor, as determined by law, and keeps an accurate account of all such disposition of the state's money. With the auditor he is required to give bond for the faithful per- formance of duty, so if he in any way defaults the state the bondsmen secure the people against loss. The attorney-general is the attorney for the state in all cases in which the state may become involved in law. He 470 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. prosecutes all parties indebted to the state when prosecution is necessary, and brings to trial persons charged with crimes against the state, or who are in open treason against the established acts of the legislature. He is expected to deliver an opinion on questions of law submitted to him by the legislature, the governor, or any of the chief officers of state. The superintendent of public instruction is at the head of the school system. He has under his control the school matters of the state, gives an opinion on all questions rela- tive to school law, directs the preparation of papers for examinations, and superintends the educational interests of the state in general. The executive of a state, as the executive of the nation, is well qualified and equipped to manage the affairs of the commonwealth. It is upon the large powers conferred within the limits of the constitution of a state upon the executive that increases the responsibility of the executive head, and responsibility is apt to produce faithfulness. Each state in the Federal Union has a legislative depart- ment composed of two houses — the senate and the house of representatives. Though both are representative bodies, only the lower house is called the house of representatives. The reason for this is, that in the colonial government there was but one representative body. The other branch of the legislature was called a council, and comprised a small num- ber of men appointed by the king. After the colonies became incorporated under the constitution in the national government, the states substituted the senate for the old council, and the lower house kept its former name. The members of both branches of this department are elected direct by the people, and to serve a term of years, which is different in the different states. The senate is the smaller body, mostly elected according to the congressional districts. They are chosen with reference to their superior ability and experience in public affairs. The basis of appor- tionment for both houses is that of population. The qualifications for membership to either branch of the DUTIES OF THE LEGISLATURE. 471 legislative department are of the same character as those relative to the executive, but lower in degree. Vacancies in either house may be filled by special or regular election, as the constitution of each state may provide. The legislature meets as often as the respective state constitutions require, and always, except when the state is involved in war, at the capital of the state. When the two houses meet in their respective halls, and the oath has been administered, they proceed to organize and listen to the governor's message. The legislative power of each state extends to the right to enact any law, on any subject whatever, not forbidden by the constitution of the United States, its own constitution, or at variance with any law of congress. Most of the work is placed in the hands of committees, who meet in private rooms, during hours when their bodies are not in session, and any person wishing to argue a meas- ure before a committee may appear before the committee having it in charge. If a committee reports favorably on a measure, it brings in a bill and recommends its passage. A bill is the form or draft of a law. A bill before it is voted on is read three times on three separate days. In some cases of minor importance the first and second readings are on the same day. Amendments to a bill can only be introduced on the first and second readings of it. The passage of a bill in most of the state legislative bodies requires a majority of all the members elected to each house. When a bill has passed one house it is sent to the other, where it is placed in the hands of a committee, reported by the committee to the house, and acted on after the third readine. The bill is returned to the house with which it originated. If it has been amended, the amendments must be agreed to by the house originating the bill, when it becomes a law, subject to the approval of the governor. Upon the governor signing a bill, or if he vetoes it, then, upon its passage of both houses by a two-thirds vote, it 472 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. becomes a law, either the moment of receiving the gov- ernor's signature, or on its passage over his veto, or at a stated time after its passage ; the date for it to take effect determined either by the constitution or by the law itself. The judicial department of a state government consists of the courts of a state. The higher courts of a state are usually established by its constitution, the lower by the legislative. No two states are exactly alike in the names given the different branches of this department. Those in most states are the supreme court, the circuit court and the justices" court. The supreme court fills in the state judiciary the same place as the national supreme court does in the United States judiciary. It usually has three judges and the court has only appellate jurisdiction. Any case, either civil or criminal, may be appealed to it from the lower courts. There are a number of circuit courts in each state, one for each district into which the state may be divided. In some states they are called district, in other states superior, courts. They have original jurisdiction in all civil and crim- inal cases, and are the courts in which the largest number of cases are tried. The circuit courts also hear appeals from the lower courts. The justices' court is the lowest branch of the judiciarj. One is established in each township, and it has charge of civil cases involving small amounts, and has the jurisdiction to try parties indicted for small offenses. They have pre- liminary jurisdiction in cases of graver criminal character, and in ascertaining criminal evidence can bind over to the next higher court. A probate court is established in each county. Its powers and duties relate to the settlement of estates of deceased persons ; it being the function of this court to see that they go to the parties entitled to them. It is required to take proof of wills and empower executors to act. In case a person dies without a will the probate court appoints WHERE THE STATE HAS EXCLUSIVE AUTHORITY. 473 an administrator who distributes the personal property among the relatives to whom it belongs by law. It has power to remove an executor or administrator if he fails to attend to duty. It also takes charge of the estates of minors and appoints guardians for them. In some few states there are what are called county courts, courts of common pleas, and courts of terminer, which have jurisdiction in special direction, but whose functions are, in most instances, discharged by the circuit court. In some states judges are elected by the people, in some by the legislature, in some appointed by the governor. The terms of office vary from six to ten years for the higher courts. In a few states the judges of the supreme court are elected for life. A state government has the exclusive authority to main- tain peace and order within its limits, to punish crimes, except those committed against the United States or against the laws of nations ; to appoint the police and maintain the prisons; to regulate the tenure of lands and the rules of inheritance. It has charge of education and the public health ; it creates and regulates all corporations, such as rail- road and insurance companies, within its limits ; it declares who of its citizens shall vote ; it may regulate the sale of liquors and poisons, and abolish nuisances. In all these matters and others of the same kind, the state has jurisdic- tion and power, to the exclusion of the Federal Government ; and the governor, the state courts and the state legislature have abundant power to perform all their duties. CHAPTER XLIV. COUNTY AND TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT. EACH state in the American Union, except Louisiana, is divided into counties, and these are divided into townships, in some states called towns. This is a great convenience in the legislative, executive and judicial work of a state. Laws may be needed in one part of a state which would be uncalled for in other parts. Local laws can best be formed by each district for itself. Counties in England were formerly districts governed by counts, from which comes the name county. A county was also called a shire, and an offtcer was appointed by the count to have jurisdiction over criminals in bringing them to justice, who was called shire-reeve, or sheriff. He was a more important ofificer than is the sheriff of a county in this country. The principal town in a county was called a county seat. The most important of^cial authority in a county is the board of county commissioners, which usually consists of three members. The board have full charge of the county property, contract for county buildings, and direct all county improvements. Each county has a treasurer, who receives and pays out county funds; an auditor, who adjusts and passes upon the accounts and debts of the county; a recorder, who preserves records of wills, mortgages, deeds and all important docu- ments ; a sherifT, who issues all writs and warrants directed by the court, to apprehend parties charged with crime and to have charge of the jail and prisoners; a coroner, who holds an inquest over persons suddenly and mysteriously meeting death ; a district or prosecuting attorney, who conducts in the court all cases of prosecution for crime. 474 RESPONSIBILITY OF COUNTY GOVERNMENT. 475 In most of the states all county officers are elected directly by the people, for terms of from one to four years. In some states some of the county officials are elected by boards provided by the provision of the constitution of the state. A wise exercise of the functions of law and a prompt administration of justice in the county will greatly enhance the interests of peace and justice in the state and in the nation. The prompt arrest of crime by the local authorities would prevent its growth and spread. For this reason the selection of county officials should not be left to selfish designers or political demagogues, but the men best qualified by honesty of purpose, economy of management and firm determination to hunt down criihe with the sternness of the law, should be called to the service of the people. In the county, above all other divisions of our commonwealth, the interests of party ought to be subservient to the concern for justice. The hardest thing for the American people to learn is to do right in the small things of politics. When politics rule the local conventions and elections, honor and principle take their departure. American citizenship is yet to be trained to the duty of its responsibility in the exercise of its local privileges. In all the states except those of the far west, and some of those of the south, the county is divided into townships. In those states where the townships do not exist, the county directs all the local governmental powers. The government of the township is directed by local officers, called so widely different in different sections as to preclude a classification that would meet any great number of states. The duties of the township government are very simple and refer mostly to schools, roads and small civil and criminal disturbances. CHAPTER XLV. CITY GOVERNMENT. A CITY is a civil corporation created by the states, and governed according to a charter framed by the state legislature, and which may be altered or repealed by that body at will. This charter prescribes the duties and defines the powers of the rulers just as any other civil constitution does. In our system cities have become the strongholds of misrule. This arises from two causes: First, the city govern- ment concerns itself more intimately with the lives of the inhabitants than any other, wherefore there is a proportion- ately greater possibility of corruption and maladministration ; second, city charters, almost without exception, subdivide power and responsibility among boards or commissions, and thus disable the people from discovering the authors of corruption and misrule, and from punishing them even if they are known. The inhabitants of a city depend upon the central civil authorities to make, repair and clean the streets, to regulate the police, to abate nuisances, to protect them against fires, to adopt and enforce health regulations, to grant licenses to sell liquor, to provide public markets, to regulate street cars and gas pipes, to care for the water supply, to manage the parks and other public places, to take charge of paupers, to control hospitals, to manage the free schools, to control wharves and piers, if it is a seaport ; and to do a number of other things, of which some, outside of cities, are done by each citizen for himself, or by the private enterprise of citi- zens united for that purpose, and others are divided among county, township and school-district authorities, each inde- pendently and directly responsible to the people. Moreover, all public work in a city is on a large scale, and involves 476 u..-i RESPONSIBILITY OF CITY GOVERNMENT. 477 very great expenditures, compared with those of a rural district. Finally, the population of a city is less homo- geneous in character than that of a rural district ; the proportion of poverty is much greater; the number of people who live from hand to mouth is larger; the average of comfort is lower; the dependent part of the population is more numerous. At the same time little or nothing is left for the people to determine in the smaller divisions — the wards and school districts — and they are thus made politically ignorant. Under such circumstances it is of great importance that the central power, to which so much is assigned, shall be clearly visible to the people, in order that they may always and easily hold it responsible. The entire executive power and responsibility ought to be given to a single man — the mayor — because, then, every citizen who had cause of com- plaint would know whom to blame. The mayor ought to have the appointment of all his subordinates, because thus only can he hold them to their duty. The executive powers — that is to say, the enforcement of the laws — ought not in any detail to be assumed by the council, for this is a m.ost fertile source of corruption. The council, which is the city's legislature, ought to be a numerous body, so that each coun- cilman or alderman should be personally known to his small constituency, who could then oblige him to care for their interests, and punish him for neglect or corruption. Finally, the courts in a city ought to possess a very high character, and neither judges nor justices of the peace ought to be elected, but should be appointed — probably by the gov- ernor of the state — and for hfe or good behavior, and they should have large salaries. With such a system, the city government would be amenable at all times to the will of the inhabitants, who could punish extravagance, and inefficiency, or any kind of maladministration, at the elec- tions, if they chose, and could at any rate make as good a government as they wished. Moreover, where great power is given to an executive, able men like the place and will 478 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. seek it ; for able men like to exercise power. But if the people make of a governor or mayor a figure-head, and give the real power to others, the office falls into contempt. Now almost all our city governments in this country are framed on principles directly contrary to those stated above. The executive powers, which ought to be concentrated in a mayor, are divided among different boards and commissions, and are thus frittered away. The council is usually a small body; the judges and justices of peace are elected, together with a large number of executive officers ; the different parts of the executive hold office for different periods, and the people can never, at a single election, remove all the officers who have been concerned in maladministration ; and finding themselves thus disabled, and compelled, moreover, to vote for a great number of officers of whose character and fitness they cannot inform themselves, they presently lose all interest in public affairs, and resign th:: political power to knaves and their tools. The mayor of a city like New York, did he have the powers which belong to the office, would have authority and patronage almost equal to that of the presi- dent of the United States, and the office would be one for which the ablest citizens would strive. But if he has no power, or but little, really able men will refuse the place. City governments are made needlessly cumbrous and currupt, also, by performing some duties which might well be left to private effort. For instance, the fire-insurance companies could manage a fire department much more cheaply and effectively than a political government. Again^ the question of licensing drinking-shops might well be left to the people in the wards. Street cleaning could, perhaps, be left to the wards, also, though, as it has to do with the general health, this might not be possible unless the city government assumed not only the inspection of streets, but the punishment by fine of those ward authorities who neg- lected this duty. Finally, the city ought not to own market spaces, docks, piers, or other property used by private indi- viduals. The city government should exercise, of course, HOW TO REFORM CITY GOVERNMENT. 479 the right of police and inspection, but it cannot own and manage such property either profitably or efficiently. Municipal governments greatly need to be reformed, and a way in which this may be effected is, first, by relieving them of work which they cannot do well, and next by fixing power and responsibility upon the mayor. What is wanted is to enable the people readily, and at a single effort, to change the whole administration ; then they can really punish maladministration, and they undoubtedly will, when- ever it begins to oppress or offend them. For the mass of the people are vitally interested in moderately good govern- ment, and will inevitably get it if the machinery of gov- ernment is so arranged that they can, by willing it at the polls, punish the inefficient or corrupt rulers. I CHAPTER XLVI. THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. N all the constitutions, Federal and state, the people have reserved to themselves certain rights and immunities, which none of their governments are allowed to interfere with ; and it is important that these be should understood. As an American citizen, every man is a free man ; and no one has a right to enslave his person, except for crime, for which he must first be convicted, upon a fair trial in open court ; or to take from him his property, except by due process of law. He has a right to believe what he may please ; to worship God as he may please ; to express his opinions on all subjects freely (but he may be punished for libelous attacks on his fellow-men); to print what he may please (with the same restriction) ; to assemble with whom he may please, for lawful and proper objects ; to petition the state or Federal Govern- ment for redress of grievances. He has a right to be arrested only for cause mentioned in a proper and legal warrant, served by an authorized officer of the law, who must show him his authority. He has a right to be released on bail, unless charged with a capital crime ; and to be produced before the nearest court, on a writ of habeas corpus, in order that that court shall decide whether his arrest and confinement were properly made, and for sufficiently probable cause. He has a right to a speedy trial by jury, to be confronted with the witnesses against him, to engage a competent person for his defense, and to. know at once and definitely, before his arrest, what he is charged with. He has a right to appeal to the proper court for protection to his person and property ; and if the constituted authorities 480 SACREDNESS OF PERSONAL RIGHTS. 48 1 fail to protect him, he has a right to damages for their neglect. He has a right to be secure in his house against searches by officers of the law, except on proper warrant, which must first be shown him, and for sufficient cause. He has a right to keep and bear arms, but not to keep them concealed upon his person. He has a right to sue for damages any officer of the law who arrests or tries him in an unlawful manner. These are the sacred and inalienable rights of every Amer- ican citizen, and no constitution or law can deprive him of them. They make each citizen secure against unjust or usurping officers. They enable the citizen to be safe against injustice, or to obtain, by summary and immediate methods, redress against unjust attacks. They are possessed by all the people — by women and children, as well as by men. 31 CHAPTER XLVII. TERRITORIES, PUBLIC LANDS, COLONIES, AND MANIFEST DESTINY. ONE of the greatest and most important of the things connected with our great commonwealth is the vast quantity of public lands belonging to the government, and in the wise and liberal policy under which these lands have been thrown open to settlement. The Federal Government is the original owner of waste or unsettled lands — both those in the territories and those which lie within constituted states. It has made a free gift to every state of a large quantity of these public lands, to be used for the support of public schools and of agricultural colleges ; it usually gives to a state all the swamp and over- flowed lands within its bounds which were public or congress lands at the time of its admission into the Union ; and it gives to every actual settler one hundred and sixty acres from the surveyed lands, free of cost, except the trifling charges for proofs of actual settlement and continued culti- vation. It has also, within a few years, given a great quantity of land to railroad companies, on condition that they should construct and work railroads through these lands, and thus open them to settlement. The political advantage of our possession of so vast a quantity of wnld lands lies in this: that it leaves open for many years a broad field for the exertions of the more advent- urous, enterprising and restless part of our community. A hired laborer to whom the condition of dependence has become hateful has no refuge in a thickly settled European state except emigration to a distant country, and abandon- ment of his own nationality. This ought not to deter a European from emigrating; but the American workman is 482 ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY. 483 happy that he need not leave his country, but may, under the protection of its flag and laws, settle himself on the public lands, and there, with very little capital, achieve inde- pendence at least, and perhaps more. He has not to fear unequal or strange laws ; for the farthest western territory is ruled by congress upon well-defined principles, and becomes a state as soon as it has acquired a sufificient population. The flag which floats over him commands peace and order, and the whole power of the Federal Government is ready to make his life and property secure. A territory is organized politically by permission of congress: Its governor and other executive ofificers and judges are appointed by the president ; it has a legislature which enacts laws of local application, but congress has the right to reject any of these acts. When the people of a territory desire to form themselves into a state, they are allowed by congress to frame and adopt a constitution. This they present to congress for its examination and approval ; and congress may, in its discretion, reject the instrument, and thus refuse to create the state; and from this decision there is no appeal, except to another congress. Some territories, as Colorado, have applied several times for admission. The people of a territory do not vote for president. We have been fortunate in territorial acquisitions, for we have gained land encumbered with but few inhabitants, and well fitted by climate, soil and other natural properties, for the prosperous settlement of our own farmers and mechanics. In this way not only our laws, but what is of infinitely greater importance, our manners and customs, have been transferred to and made dominant in these new lands. The manifest destiny of the American national life is not that we ought to, or could, without hurt to ourselves, annex indiscriminately all the states adjoining us, but that it is a part of our natural and sound policy to possess ourselves, for the use of our own people, of all the waste and desert lands lying near our boundaries. 484 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. Plainly, the annexation of tropical islands like Cuba, San Domingo, or the Hawaiian group, does not fall within this policy ; for (i) these countries have already a tolerably dense population. (2) This population is alien to ours in race, and in all its habits and customs as well as in language, (3) These islands are not suitable to make homes for our farmers and mechanics ; on the contrary, their products are grown on estates where a few planters employ, at very low wages, great numbers of rude laborers, and need but a very few intelligent mechanics — nor could their industries be profit- ably pursued in a different way. Finally, the people whom we should have to accept with the land, in annexing these islands, or the thickly settled parts of Mexico, are not fitted by character or training for the duties of American citizen- ship ; and, as they occupy the land, there would be but a slender possibility of assimilating them to ourselves. But, on the other hand, we could not with security to ourselves refuse them political rights, if we made them a part of our body politic. It is repugnant to our political theory to hold territories except with the expectation of their speedily becoming states ; because otherwise local government would be impaired, and the Federal administration would unduly increase its patronage and means of corruption. Thus, as we want land and not people, sound policy tells us not to annex territory which has already an independent and tolerably dense population. But sound policy also urges us to cultivate intimate and friendly relations with our neighbors ; and this we can do with advantage to ourselves as well as to them by establishing with them the utmost freedom of commercial exchange. Commerce makes sure and faithful allies, and if we were wise enough to establish and maintain absolute free trade with Canada and Mexico, with the Sandwich islands, with San Domingo and Hayti, and with Cuba, we should greatly extend our own commerce and should have the use of all these countries without the responsibility of ruling them. We should find them willing and trustworthy allies in case of war ; and our own course OUR NATIONAL DUTY. 485 toward them would preserve them from the aggressions of European powers. In this way we should best fulfill our manifest destiny, and what is of still greater importance, meet our manifest duty. CHAPTER XLVIII. NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES. THE natural resources of the United States excel those of any other country. It is the mineral garden of the world. Its geologic formation favors this varied and rich production of minerals. Other countries have larger deposits of some one or two minerals, but no country has such large deposits of all the most useful minerals. Italy will surpass in marble, Australia in copper, while Africa's production of ivory has no counter claim at all in the United States. In many countries a certain mineral is found in such vast pro- portions as to distinguish the country, in which it is found, in the trade of the world. But the United States can produce minerals sufficient, if- properly worked, to provide the world for centuries. Iron, coal, gold, silver, copper, salt and tin, are all resting, like kings of industry, in the bowels o^ this portion of the earth. In both richness and variety the minerals of the United States are unequaled. The abundance of gold in California is a proverb through- out the world, while it abounds in other sections, as Nevada, Colorado and Washington territory. A large deposit of gold was discovered in Upper California in 1847, j^^t prior to the date of its being ceded to the United States. The deposit extends through the valley of the Sacramento, and that of the Joaquin, and is two hundred miles in length. In its virgin state the gold is here found under three different situations. First, it is found in sand and beds of gravel, where the small particles are ready for the assay when found, so pure are they. In this large deposit the gold is also found in granite, which has become decomposed or disintegrated by process of time and the action of heat, cold and water. In this situation it is found in large quantities. In the third 486 THE CALIFORNIA GOLD DEPOSIT. 487 place it is found intermixed with a dark slaty rock, which largely forms the bed of the streams. Here the gold is found in the largest pieces, and the wash of the water frequently exposes them to sight. The finer particles and scales are washed down to the lowest part of the valleys, where they can be found in drifts of sand and wood. The wonderful richness of this deposit was discovered in 1847, in making a mill-race on a small branch of the Sacramento river. It created such an excitement that the world bent to the valley of gold, and the population ran in two years from fifteen thousand in 1848, to ninety-two thousand in 1850. This gold deposit is perhaps the richest of the globe ; at least it has produced more and with more ease than any other lead known. It is only at the small cost of one dollar per ton for mining, or washing from the sand or dirt, and one-half dollar for hauling, that this precious metal is obtained from this deposit. Next to this deposit, the richest in the United States, if not in the world, is the deposit at the Black Hills. The vein of ore here is from ten to twenty feet in thickness, running horizontally. Above this bed are porphyry rocks, below it slate. A ton of this ore contains from half an ounce to an ounce of gold, which is seperated from the ore by stamps, of which more than six thousand are working at the Black Hills. This mineral belt is but three miles wide and not six miles long, but is perhaps the most valuable spot on the earth, as it contains gold to the probable value of two billions four hundred millions of dollars, and which can be obtained at a cost of less than one third of its value. In the year 1881 the total production of gold in the United States was thirty-four million seven hundred thousand dollars, from the deposits of nineteen states and territories, and of which more than half of the entire amount came from California. From the estimate of Doctor Adolf Soetbeer, the great German statistician, the production of the whole world exclusive of the United States for the same year was only seventy-two million two hundred and eighty-four thou- 488 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. sand dollars, which gives the showing that the production of the whole world outside of the United States is only about twice the amount of this country. From the organization of the United States mint in 1793 until 1882 the production in the United States amounted to one billion one hundred and seventy-six million thirty-three thousand nine hundred and fifty-four dollars and forty-five cents. This is a showing of splendid proportions, and gives an idea of the important place held by the United States in the mining interests, and therefore in the monetary systems, of the world. The production of silver in the United States is for any series of years far heavier than that of gold. The silver mines were not discovered until 1858, though for three years there had been a small annual production. The amount produced in 1858 was five hundred thousand dollars, and from the year 1866 the increase has been steady and reliable until in 1881 it reached forty-three million dollars, or eleven million dollars more than the production of gold for the same year. In the whole world, exclusive of the United States, the silver deposit worked in 1881, according to Doctor Soetbeer, amounted only to forty-four million five hundred and forty-three thousand dollars, which exhibits the production as almost as heavy as the whole remainder of the globe. Since their establishment in 1793 the mints of the United States have received silver, from domestic production, amounting to two hundred and fifty-six million eight hun- dred and sixty thousand dollars, most of which come from the mines of Nevada. The state classing next in the pro- duction, as now worked, is Colorado ; while Utah and Cali- fornia range third and fourth. In a little more than twenty years this natural resource has developed, under the genius of American enterprise, into one of the greatest and most useful industries of the country. The mining for this ore has been the romance of immense wealth written in the silver-veined lines of splendor in mountain and sand-bar. It is part of the great story of the COPPER AND LEAD DISTRICT. 489 vast measure of wealth hid in the soil and rock of the United States, and of which not one half has been told. The purest and best copper in the world is produced in the United States, on the shores of Lake Superior. Here the mines are so rich and pure that the native metal has been cut out in great masses, weighing as high as one hun- dred and fifty tons of almost unadulterated copper. These mines are in their infancy, yet they produce over two thou- sand tons of copper in a single year. In geologic formations the beds showing the remains of animals of the earliest period, contain large deposits of copper. It seems from the formation to which it belongs that it was formed by heat under certain chemical conditions of gaseous pressure. Where these peculiar conditions were the strongest, the metal was created in immense quantities. This has made the Lake Superior region the most extraordi- nary in the world for its copper. It is here found in vertical seams in the sand-stone. From this region one large mass has been taken out, the weight of which was two hundred tons. It was forty feet long, six feet wide, and sixteen inches in thickness. The copper of this territory is largely spotted with silver, nearly one half per cent of that metal being found in it. This run of copper of itself is quite enough to last the country for centuries to come. It was already worked by the Mound Builders. New York and Indiana contain fair deposits of copper. In Tennessee and North Carolina the mines are well worked, and are largely productive. While it runs in sections begin- ning in New Mexico and extending north, through the western mountains it is found in greater richness. The great lead district, occupying the northwestern portion of Illinois and the adjoining parts of Wisconsin and Iowa, is, for richness, unsurpassed on the globe. The ship- ments from this district average more than fifty million pounds annually. This is a rare deposit, as the lead is mostly in the pure state of the metal; elsewhere it is generally in combination with other ores, mostly sulphur. 490 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. The extent of the deposit here is co-extensive with the Hme- stone cHff, which reaches through Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. A portion of this deposit in Missouri, was discovered as early as 1720, by Francis Renault and M. LaMotte; and the LaMotte mine is still worked. This deposit is eighty-seven miles from east to west, and fifty-four miles from north to south, and is well nigh inexhaustible, as there is scarcely a square mile in which lead is not found. The digging is seldom made over thirty feet deep, for the ore is so abundant that a new spot is chosen rather than meet the expense of deeper mining. From a small spot not exceeding fifty yards square, three million pounds of ore have been raised. In one mine two men raise each two thousand pounds a day. In one deposit two men raised sixteen thousand pounds in a day. Veins of considerable extent occur in Maine and through several of the New England states ; and is more or less abundant in over one half the states. The world could supply its demands for this ore from the United States for all time, and could scarcely exhaust the treasure. It is becoming an important industry for the country. In the year 1882 the United States exported lead in the raw material, and manufactured, to the value of one hundred and seventy-eight thousand seven hundred and seventy-nine dollars. As an export this increased over four times in a single year. Iron, the most useful of all the American minerals, is the most widely diffused throughout the country. About two thirds of the states are richly supplied with this valuable ore. The entire yield for 1881 was the prodigous amount of seven million two hundred and fifty-six thousand six hundred and eighty-four tons. Pennsylvania produced one third of this vast yield, Ohio ranking next in order. Besides this there is an annual production of immense quantity of steel ingots. The production of iron ore for the whole world for 1881 was over twenty-four million tons ; by which it is shown that the iron production of the United States is more than one fourth GREAT MISSOURI IRON MOUNTAINS. 49I as great as that of the entire iron producing portion of the globe. When the iron mountains of Missouri are once strongly worked, that state will furnish as much iron as any country of the globe. Indeed, it is fair to conjecture that this section alone could supply the whole world with iron for at least a century, so great is the supply. This iron ore provides over one thousand establishments in the country with the material for the manufacture of steel and iron ; these employing about one hundred and forty-five thousand men to use up the material. The United States exported in 1823, iron goods to the value of ninety-seven thousand two hundred and seventy-one dollars, and in 1882 to the value of seventeen million five hundred and fifty-one thousand three hundred and twenty-two dollars. In former years most all iron goods used in the United States were imported from England ; this importation has been reduced to a minimum, and under a growing industry of the iron production it is hoped will cease altogether. Iron ore is perhaps the most generally used of all Ameri- can minerals. It goes into the manufacture of more than nine tenths of all the industrial articles of the country, while of late years it is becoming a substitute for wood in house and ship building, and the end seems not yet. The greatest mineral resource of the United States is coal, and it is mined in greater quantity than any other mineral. The great anthracite bed in eastern Pennsylvania produces and sends to market more than eight million tons annually. In its geologic formation coal necessitated low and marshy sections. A heavily charged air, mostly of car- bonic acid gas, produced vegetable growth of loose structure and gigantic size. Most of the coal was made from the fern family of plants. This growth of plant life falling year after year, largely charged with carbon, and kept moist by the marshy beds of soil, in long periods of time produced a heat which gradually opened the great coal-making period. Then came the period of making mountains, in which these low marshy beds were thrown and torn in endless confusion. 492 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. In this way was produced the nearly two hundred thousand square miles of workable coal in the United States. A great bed of bituminous coal, commencing in the west slope of the Alleghany mountains in Pennsylvania, extends in a wide belt westward and south. In the west, Iowa, Mis- souri and Illinois cover an immense tract of bituminous coal. The bituminous coal in western Pennsylvania, near Pitts- burgh, is the greatest bed of that quality in the world. It lays in a bed about five feet thick in the hills adjoining the city, and is obtained by driving right into the hill. As the bed of coal is nearly level, wagons are easily drawn to the mouth of the mine, and then run in on an incline. From this point one small engine will take four or five hundred tons daily to the shipping point. The coal is received in flat-bottomed barges, each containing five hundred tons, and when ten of those barges are filled, they are taken in tow by a small steamer, and run down the river as far as New Orleans, a distance of two thousand miles, at a transit cost of only two cents per ton for six hundred miles, which is probably the cheapest transportation in the world. In the year 1881 the coal production of the United States was seventy-six million two hundred and twenty-one thousand nine hundred and thirty-four tons, of which Penn- sylvania gave considerable more than half, Ohio and Illinois ranking second and third. England produces in one year over one hundred and thirty-three million tons, and the whole world, including England and the United States, two hundred and ninety-seven million six hundred and ninety- seven thousand five hundred and eighty tons. While the production of England is nearly twice that of the United States, her beds of coal are inferior, but are better worked. Some very rich zinc mines have been worked in New Jersey; this mineral is also found largely mixed with the lead ore of Missouri, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. What is peculiar about this ore is that it does not belong to any geologic age, but occurs in rocks of all ages, and is associ- ated generally with ores of lead, copper, tin, iron and silver. THE SALINE SPRINGS. 493 The products of the zinc mines of Pennsylvania and New Jersey is upwards of ten thousand tons. Tin has, within the last few years, been mined in the New England States, and to a limited extent in other sections. There are evidences which may lead to the discovery of heavy tin deposits. The principal tin mines of the world are those of England. The Cornwall mines were worked as early as the fifth century before Christ. The Phoenicians traded with the Britons for this metal at that early day, and the supply is not exhausted yet. Nearly thirty centuries ago the Britons carried the tin from the Cornwall mines on horseback to the market, requiring thirty days to make the outward trip. For thirty centuries these mines have known the pick of the miner, and still it is bringing out the metal. Should such fertile deposits be discovered in the United States, it will contribute greatly to the mineral wealth of the country, and equally to the production of industry. Nickel is worked from deposits in Pennsylvania, New York and Missouri. It is mostly found with copper or meteoric iron. It is a valuable mineral for the manufacture of philosophical instruments, as it does not rust or oxydize. It is considered in China as worth one fourth its weight of silver, and is not allowed to be carried out of the empire. Articles are now plated with nickel by galvanic processes, and this will rapidly run it up in importance and value. Saline springs, lakes and undercurrents are abundant in Texas, Michigan, New York, New Mexico, California and Utah. Utah could furnish salt enough for all the world for all time. The Salt Lake in Utah is the finest salt body on the globe. It has an area of two thousand square miles, and is remarkable for its extent, considering that it is situated toward the summit of the Rocky Mountains, at an elevation of four thousand two hundred feet above the sea. The most remarkable salt deposits are those of Poland, which have been worked for over six hundred years. The deep subterranean regions are excavated into houses, chapels, and other ornamental forms, the roof being supported by pillars 494 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE, of salt, and when illuminated by torches and lamps they are objects of great splendor. The salt beds of the United States are mostly associated with gypsum, while the brines come from a red sandstone below the coal formation. The greater part of the salt manufactured in this country is obtained by evaporation from salt springs. Those of Salina and Syracuse are well known. At these springs a bushel of salt is obtained from every forty gallons. To obtain the brine, wells from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet deep are sunk by boring; it is then raised by machinery, carried by troughs to the boilers, which are large iron kettles set in brickwork, and there evaporated by heat. As soon as the water boils the impurities are removed from the surface by ladles. The salt is deposited, the water is run off, and the salt carried away to drain. Some of the brine is also evap- orated by exposure to the sun in broad shallow vats. The salt industry is undeveloped yet in the United States, the production for 1880 only amounting to four million eight hundred and seventeen thousand six hundred and thirty-six dollars, but there is no reason why the country should not export annually an amount equal to one fourth the consump- tion of the world. Petroleum is quite a resource of Pennsylvania, and to some extent of Ohio. It has passed through years of wild speculation, and its production is now likely to settle down into a reliable industry. The oil is generally reached by boring one thousand three hundred feet deep. For about five hundred feet the bore is made five inches in diameter, and lined with a five-inch wrought iron pipe. The object of this is to keep out water, which is found down to that depth. Beyond five hundred feet the bore is made two inches in diameter. When oil is reached, if it does not flow freely, a charge of dynamite is exploded at the bottom of the bore, which often has the desired effect ; a pump is then intro- duced, worked with wooden rods one and one fourth inches in diameter. Some of the wells flow naturally to the surface, and from others a vehement rush of gas takes place. This PRODIGIOUS SUPPLY OF BUILDING STONE. 495 gas is now extensively utilized, and is effective in the pro- duction of light and heat ; many towns bordering on the oil regions are illuminated by it. The pressure is so great that a pipe about an inch in diameter will supply a furnace with sufficient heat, which is intense and of the purest white, and without a particle of smoke. Pennsylvania has the largest deposit of this oil, and the production in that state reached in 1880 a hundred and a half million gallons. West Virginia and Ohio rank second and third. The entire production for that year was nearly two hundred millions of gallons. There was exported from the United States in 1882 fifty-one million two hundred and thirty-two thousand seven hundred and six gallons after the home demand was met. Almost every state has its building stone, and in a great many places there is fine monumental stone. New England granite, Kentucky marble, Pennsylvania bluestone, the sand- stone and limestone of the western states, are good in quality and abundant in quantity. In Kansas is a stone used for building purposes which is so soft before exposed to the light and air that in the quarry it is easily cut and sawed in any shape, but when in the light it gradually hardens and deepens in color, and becomes the most desirable stone for architectural purposes. The buildings put up with this stone are beautiful and substantial. The limestone formations of the Mississippi valley, and the sandstone groups, afford an inexhaustible supply of the finest stone. The utility of our underground wealth is nowhere more evident than here. Hardly a public temple or private building but stone, granite or marble from some quarry is brought into requisition. With the abandonment of wood, our iron mines and stone quarries would furnish abundant material for all classes and grades of building, and the structures, like the material, would stand all ravages of time and tests of the seasons. In the day when the United States shall double its population, the prodigious use of this underground provision for a high civilization will be incalculable. 496 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. It is one of the solid, growing industries of the country, and is one of the most valuable. It is not hard to estimate the embarrassment of American civilization in case of a limited supply of stone and marble ; it would be disastrous to a solid form of architecture. One of the chief beauties and distinctions of the United States is the timber, both in quality and variety. The Ameri- can forest is perhaps unexcelled on the globe. The extensive pineries of the north and northwest ; the cedar and cypress of the south ; the drooping elm, graceful beech, symmetrical sugar tree, defiant hickory, giant oak, massive ash, stately poplar, robust walnut, and red-hued cherry, which abound in the middle latitude from east to west ; the chestnut of the mountain and the cotton-wood of the plains, all form the most varied and extensive production of wood to be found in the world. Among these is the hard fibre and durable grain, suitable for lasting structures; and the close, fine grain adapted to a finish of the finest surface ; and among them also is the tough fibre to furnish material for bent tools and machinery. Not a single line of manufacturing needing wood can be at a loss for supplies in this country ; so that the forests of the United States abound in the capabilities of the most varied industries, and the possibilities it holds for future manufacturing growth are practically unlimited. The American wood-land exhibits the beauty and glory of landscape variety in a more extensive way than any other country. The mountain ledge, the hill slope, the river bank and the wooded level, with all the varied changes and fresh surprises, are only the groundwork of the painting of nature in the American forest. An autumn in an American wood- land is better than a year in the temples of Rome. From this brief review of the natural resources of the country, it will be concluded that they form the basis of American wealth and continued prosperity. The hill, tim- ber-crested above, rock-bound, iron-footed, marble-veined, gold-lined beneath, this hill is the corner stone for the great GREATNESS OF THE AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH. 497 temple for American industry and wealth — the temple where the whole world comes to pay compliment to the greatness of the American commonwealth. 33 CHAPTER XLIX. AMERICAN PRODUCTION. AGRICULTURE is the staple pursuit of the people of ^ the United States, and agricultural products are the principal articles of export. The first exports of the early- colonists were the natural products of the forest : furs, lumber, pitch and tar ; pot and pearl ashes, with some cattle and provisions, constituted the chief articles of trade from the northern provinces in the early part of the eighteenth cen- tury ; but rice and tobacco had even then become important items of exportation from the southern colonies. At a late period, wheat became the great staple of the middle and western states, and cotton that of the more tropical sections of the country. Flax and hemp thrive, particularly in the rich soil of Kentucky and Missouri. Maize, being suited to a great variety of soils and situations, is so universally culti- vated, as to have received the name of " corn " as a distinct- ive appellation. Oats for horses, and rye for distillation, are the prevalent species of grain in the northern states, while in the extreme south the sugar cane is found to flourish, and to supply almost all the demand for this article for home consumption. Grapes for wine, and beets for sugar, are articles of prospective culture, regarding the value of which sanguine expectations are entertained. Cotton, the great staple of the United States, is raised in small quantities in Virginia and Kentucky, but is chiefly produced in the coun- try farther south. It is the produce of the herbacious or annual cotton plant, and is of two kinds, the Sea Island or long staple, and the upland, or short staple. The former, which is of a superior quality, is grown chiefly in the Caro- linas and Georgia, on the Atlantic coast, and in some parts of Texas. Cotton was first exported in small quantities in 498 HEAVY GRAIN PRODUCTION. 499 1790 : since then its culture has become enormous. Tobacco has been the staple of Virginia and Maryland since their first settlement, and is also extensively grown in Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, and other states ; besides the quantities required for domestic use, large amounts are exported. The sugar-cane is cultivated with success in Louisiana, Florida and Texas. Rice has been so successful, that, in addition to supplying the home consumption, it affords an annual surplus for the purposes of commerce. Indigo was formerly produced in large quantities in the Carolinas and Georgia, but since the introduction of cotton, the cultivation of this plant has almost ceased. Corn takes precedence in the scale of products of the soil, and may be regarded usually as a sure crop in almost every portion of the land. The first successful attempt to cultivate this grain in the present territory of the United States, was made in the valley of the James river, Virginia, in 1608. The corn production of the United States for 1880, was one billion seven hundred and fifty-four million eight hundred and sixty-one thousand five hundred and thirty-five bushels: which was three times what it was thirty years before. Illinois produced the largest amount, while Iowa and Mis- souri ranked second and third. In 1880, twenty-eight million eight hundred and forty-five thousand eight hundred and thirty bushels of corn were exported. Wheat is the most staple product of the world, and second in importance in the United States. It has been but a few years that this grain has furnished an export for the United States, yet at the London exhibition very little wheat was exhibited equal to that of this country. In lati- tudes where the soil and climate are favorable, it is the most desirable crop, both on account of its use for food, and for its safety and convenience for exportation. Its production has not yet reached one half that of corn, being for the year 1880, four hundred and fifty-nine million four hundred and seventy-nine thousand five hundred and five bushels ; of which about one fourth was exported in the grain and flour 500 . THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. to the estimate of thirty-six million three hundred and seventy-five thousand and fifty-five dollars. Rice is the chief food for about one third of the human race, and is cultivated in this country only in the southern states. It was introduced in Virginia in 1647, by Sir William Berkeley. The yield varies from twenty to sixty bushels per acre. The Carolina rice was awarded a prize medal at the London Industrial Exposition. South Carolina is the largest rice producing state, with Georgia and Louisiana ranking next. The production for the year 1880 was one hundred and ten million one hundred and thirty-one thousand three hundred and seventy-three pounds. There is no quantity of rice yet exported to other lands. In our national economy the potato is of greater impor- tance than rice, as it is universally used. It is regarded of such prime value as an economical food that many poor families make it a substitute for wheat. It is found in a wild state in the warmer climes. It was not until the middle of the seventeenth century that it became known as an article of food either in the United States or Britain. It is produc- tive in all sections outside of the southern states. The yield is sometimes enormous, reaching four hundred bushels to the acre. The crop for 1880 reached nearly one hundred and seventy million bushels, of which less than one per cent was exported. With the enormous yield of this staple article, its ease of transportation and fair price, it is pros- pectively one of the greatest agricultural industries of the country. The time is not distant when a hundred million bushels will be annually transported to other lands, for under a proper protective policy, and with the superior grade of the American article, the foreign demand would be almost unlimited. The sweet potato, a native of the Indies, is raised in very limited quantities throughout the entire United States. It is regarded rather as a luxury than a staple, hence its small production. The best quality is raised in the southern HOME FOR THE TOBACCO AND COTTON PLANT. 50I states. The production of 1880 was only about forty-one million bushels. Tobacco was found growing in the American soil when first visited by the European. Columbus was invited on the island of Cuba, in 1492, to take a cigar. Previous to 1775, nearly all the European countries were supplied from this country, so it was one of the best paying products. But now it is cultivated throughout the world. There were raised in 1880, four hundred and seventy-two million six hundred and sixty-one thousand one hundred and fifty-nine pounds, Kentucky producing over one fourth of the entire amount. The revenue derived the same year from this product, under the government, was thirty-eight million eight hundred and seventy thousand one hundred and seventy dollars. The exports for the same year amounted to eighteen million four hundred and forty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three dollars. The production of sugar and molasses is heavy for the conditions of the country, the sugar-cane plant being con- fined entirely to the south. In most parts of Louisiana it yields three crops from one planting, the average quantity of sugar produced from an acre averaging about one thou- sand pounds. In some of the northern and western states the production of sugar and molasses from the maple is quite large, it being the finest flavored molasses produced in the country. In the manufacture of maple sugar New York state takes the lead, with a yield of over ten millions of pounds, the production for the whole country reaching to forty millions of pounds annually. The production of maple molasses approaches closely to two millions of gallons. The amount of sugar manufactured from the sugar cane is over three hundred and two millions of pounds annually, while the amount of cane molasses manufactured yearly is over sixteen millions of gallons, and the amount of sorghum molasses is somewhat more than half of this. The cotton plant, which administers so bountifully to the wants of man, and to the wealth and economy of countries 502 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. producing it, stands preeminent in the United States, both as regards its superior staple and the degree of perfection it has attained. It has been a plant of cultivation through known time. Columbus found it used by the Indians of Cuba ; Cortez, by those of Mexico; Pizarro, by the Incas of Peru, and Vaca, by the natives of California. It is not known when it was introduced into American agriculture. The amount raised in the United States previous to the introduction of the cotton gin was inconsiderable, but since that period there is probably nothing recorded in the history of industry that would compare with its subsequent increase. The average yield is about five hundred pounds to the acre. Alabama now occupies the first place as a cotton-bearing state. In Virginia the cotton crop has rapidly diminished, while for the last few years Georgia has been producing nearly equal to Alabama, and one year a very little surpass- ing it. The total crop for 1882 was about five and a half million bales. The cotton exported in 1882, both raw and manufactured, amounted to over two millions of dollars, while the imported cotton manufactured goods were esti- mated at thirty-four million three hundred and fifty-four thousand two hundred and ninety-two dollars. Besides these leading staple productions of the soil of the United States, which constitute the chief agricultural industry of the country, there are many products raised to a limited extent. The following table will show their yield for the year 1882: Oats bushels, $407,858,999 Harley " 44,113,495 Rye " 19,831,595 Buckwheat " 11,817,327 Clover Seed " 100,000,000 Flaxseed " 725,000 Hops pounds, 26,546,378 Within the last few years the tropical fruit industry has been pushed into a rivalry with the noted fruit regions of the Old World. Oranges, bananas, pine apples and dates THE FLORIDA ORANGE. 503 are being raised in quantities, and promise to became quite an industry. The Florida orange is preferred to those raised in the noted groves of the Mediterranean. In the production of cattle of all kinds, the United States has grown rapidly. In home consumption and exportation the record is very complimentary to American genius and industry. The cattle men of the United States are the kings of the earth. The number of horses in the country in 1880 was ten million three hundred and fifty-seven thousand four hundred and eighty-eight. Illinois held about one tenth of the whole number; so that this state may be regarded as the great horse-raising state of the union. It is fair to suppose that the state ships out, to eastern and foreign markets, about one hundred thousand annually. There were one million eight hundred and twelve thou- sand eight hundred and eight mules in the country in 1880, of which Missouri held the largest number. There has been but little gain in the raising of mules for twenty years, the number being almost as great at that time. The number exported in 1882 being two thousand six hundred and thirty-two. In 1880 there were in the United States twelve million four hundred aad forty-three thousand one hundred and twenty milk cows, of which the state of New York held more than one million. Illinois, with its surpassing advan- tages for raising and advantageous markets for products, had less than nine hundred thousand. The production of milk was five hundred and thirty million one hundred and twenty- nine thousand seven hundred and fifty-five gallons. The amount of butter was seven hundred and seventy-seven million two hundred and fifty thousand two hundred and eighty-seven pounds, of which New York furnished one hundred and eleven million nine hundred and twenty-two thousand four hundred and twenty-three pounds, with Pennsylvania and Ohio ranking second and third. The man- ufacture of cheese reached twenty-seven million two hundred 504 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. and seventy-two thousand four hundred and eighty-nine pounds, of which New York and Cahfornia produced the most. The exportation of butter in 1882 was two million eight hundred and sixty-four thousand five hundred and seventy dollars; that of cheese was fourteen million fifty- eight thousand nine hundred and seventy-five dollars. In 1880 there were nine hundred and ninety-three thou- sand eight hundred and forty-one work oxen in the United States, of which Alabama had the largest number. This is more than a milhon under the number in the country in i860; at that time there were over two million. In 1880 the number of beef cattle was given at twenty- two million four hundred and eighty-eight thousand five hundred and fifty, of which Texas had over three million, with Iowa and Illinois ranking second and third. The number exported in 1882 was one hundred and eight thou- sand one hundred and ten ; while with the ease and cheap- ness with which cattle can be raised in the west the number should have been a million a year. The beef exported in 1882 amounted to a little over one hundred and five million pounds, against nearly one hundred and fifty million pounds in 1 88 1. This was somewhat the result of the foreign cry against American meats, which was raised by European dealers. There were on the farms of the United States in 1880, forty-seven million six hundred and eighty-one thousand seven hundred hogs, of which Iowa had the largest number, closely followed by Illinois, with Missouri, Indiana and Ohio ranking next in order. This is nearly double the number estimated in i860. The number exported in 1882 was thirty-six thousand three hundred and sixty-eight, against seventy-seven thousand four hundred and fifty-six in 1881. The cause of the decline is the same as that in the case of cattle. The pork exported in 1882 amounted to a little over four hundred and sixty million pounds, against about seven hundred and fifty million pounds in 1881. The lard exported in 1882 was two hundred and fifty million three GROWTH OF MANUFACTURING. 505 hundred and sixty-seven thousand seven hundred and forty- pounds; in 1 88 1 it amounted to nearly four hundred miUion pounds. The sheep in the country in 1880 amounted to thirty-five miUion one hundred and ninety-two thousand and seventy- four, of which Ohio and California had the largest number, with Texas, New Mexico and Michigan ranking next. The exportation of sheep in 1882 amounted to one hundred and thirty-nine thousand six hundred and seventy-six head, while in 1 88 1 the number was one hundred and seventy-nine thousand nine hundred and nineteen. The mutton exported in 1882 amounted to one million three hundred and seventy-three thousand three hundred and eighty-four pounds, against three million three hundred and eighty thousand one hundred and forty-seven pounds in 1881. The hay produced in 1880 amounted to thirty-five million two hundred and five thousand seven hundred and twelve tons, twice what the production was in the year i860. And it is somewhat surprising that New York furnished over five million tons of this amount, Iowa coming next with three and a half million. The manufacturing production of this country is still in its beginning, yet the growth is rapid. The states most extensively engaged in manufacturing are New York, Penn- 'sylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio and Connecticut. Rhode Island, the smallest state in the Union, has the greatest number of persons employed in manufactures in proportion to its population ; Connecticut stands next. The three great staple manufactures are cotton, woolens and iron. In the production of cotton goods this country is surpassed only by Britain. These manufactures are distrib- uted through all the states and territories. There were in 1880 nearly two hundred and fifty-four thousand manufactures in the United States. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massa- chusetts and Illinois now have, in the order given, the largest number of these establishments. In all these together there is a capital invested of nearly three billion dollars. The 506 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. number of persons employed reaches nearly three million, about one seventeenth of the population of the country. The joint value of the products reaches over five billion dollars ; the amount paid out in wages nearly one billion dollars. The manufacturing industries are bound to develop them- selves wonderfully. The low cost of material, the demand for manufactured goods, and the great production of labor saving machinery determine this. The ample steam and water power are made extensively available by skillful machinists for the production of great industries. The con- struction of hydraulic machinery, of stationary and locomo- tive steam-engines, and all the machinery used in mines, mills, furnaces, forges, shops and factories, in constructing roads, bridges and railways, necessitate an immense amount of inventive energy, to be directed to the mechanical demands of the age. The great distinction of inventing the sewing machine belongs to America. It is an invention of the greatest prac- tical importance. The manufacture of the machine has become one of the great industries of the land. Though the honor of inventing the threshing machine belongs to the Scotch mind, the idea of its great practical use first wholly seized the American mind. In 1853 ^ strange instrument, invented by Obed Hussey, of Ohio, it was said, " Cradled wheat as fast as eight persons could bind it." Within the brief period since this date, inventions and improvements in machinery have wrought a complete revolu- tion in the dispatch and economy of industrial production. Fairs and exhibitions have greatly stimulated this spirit of invention ; and the " Great Exhibition of 185 1," placed Amer- ican implements for farm uses at the head of the world. The people of the United States are not professedly a manufacturing people. The country is too large yet for the population, there are too many departments of productive industry, and labor is too high. The people, moreover, are too much averse to routine and fixed positions to make the best use of their mechanical powers. In Europe, restrictions A PECULIAR NATIONAL TRAIT. 507 to certain trades amount almost to caste, and in Asia quite. The father's employment becomes that of the son, and so on, generation after generation. The boy sees little but his father's trade, knows little else. He begins to learn it by observation as soon as he is capable of intelligent percep- tion. He grows up with fellow-craftsmen, hears hardly any- thing else, and at a lawful age sits down to his seven-years' trade as a matter of course. England is in this way turned into one vast workshop. Hence, also, the great skill in manufacturing costly fabrics acquired in France, Belgium, Germany and Thibet. But it is quite otherwise in America. Here, if the boy does not like the trade of his father (and he is pretty sure not to like it), he immediately looks for something else ; and hereditary skill and experience are very generally lost. If he does not take a fancy to the occupation he has chosen, he dashes off and tries something else. Then there is a species of personal ambition and pride which is quite Amer- ican ; and though it may lead to good results in some instances, it is very likely to be injurious. Every child expects to rise higher than his parents. He knows he has better opportunities for education. He wishes a more elevated, or at least a more lucrative employment. He has no idea, therefore, of settling down on the old home- stead and making a life-drudgery of his father's trade. He will be off for the West, or to the city, or to the gold-fields of California, He has an idea that he may be in the legisla- ture or congress yet ; that he shall come back a governor or president, to visit his parents, and confer honor upon them in their old age. At least, he expects to become a great merchant and a millionaire, a lawyer, minister, doctor, school-teacher, or politician, and in some way rise to distinc- tion and usefulness, or, at the very worst, get his living by his wits. This is likely to go on at the expense of solid virtue and the patient development of our industries. If young men would 508 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. be more content jvith the industrial avocations to which they are suited, and which the country needs, there would be more stability, progress and happiness, and a much stronger development of the industrial wealth of the nation. CHAPTER L. DEVELOPMENT. THE story of the nation's development reads like a romance. It is the strangest thing in history. The first thing that appears strange about our country's develop- rfient is the growth of population. In 1775 it was only three million, of which Virginia had about one fourth. The immense capabilities of the new country soon invited enter- prise from the old world. There was in the idea of liberty, as it had been fostered, a charm, which the aristocratic governments of Europe could in no way counteract. In 1800 the population was five million three hundred and five thousand nine hundred and twenty-five; in 1810, seven million two hundred and thirty-nine thousand eight hundred and fifteen. By i860 the rapid increase carried the population to thirty-one million four hundred and forty-three thousand three hundred and twenty-two. By 1880 the population made an immense spring to fifty million one hundred and fifty-five thousand seven hundred and eighty- three, making a per cent of increase from 1870 to 1880 of thirty and eight one-hundreths. There is nothing in the settlement of the world to compare with this rate of progress, yet with the present population the inhabitants to the square mile are but thirteen, while the number to the square mile in Belgium reaches four hundred and eighty-one. This large and rapidly increasing population is about two thirds foreign birth and foreign descent. The immigration has at all times been large. Prior to 1820 no statistics of immigration were kept, but since that year the number h^as been annually growing, with the exception of a falling off here and there, mostly during the war. In 1882 the number of immigrants was not much short of one miUion. Since 509 5IO THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. 1820 England and Ireland have contributed about four million, and Germany a little over three million. The native American stock, amounting to about twelve million, may be found pervading all our communities, and mingling with all classes of immigrants in active business relations, organizing American institutions, and developing the resources of the great country. The immigrants have generally been of the industrial classes. Labor, and not capital, has been the greatest contribution from the Old to the New World. This has been a blessing, as it gives a wonderful degree of energy and enterprise to the growth of the country, and rapidly brought out the resources of the ground. The employments of the foreign-born population strik- ingly indicate their habits of thought and feehng, and the character of their influence upon American industry and society. Of, say, two millions, eight hundred and seventy-two thousand three hundred and seventeen are laborers; seven hundred and sixty-four thousand eight hundred and thirty- seven, farmers ; four hundred and seven thousand five hun- dred and twenty-four, mechanics ; two hundred and thirty- one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, merchants; forty-nine thousand four hundred and ninety-four, servants; thirty-nine thousand nine hundred and sixty-seven, miners; twenty-nine thousand four hundred and eighty-four, mariners ; eleven thousand five hundred and fifty-seven, weavers and spinners ; five thousand two hundred and forty-six, seam- stresses and milliners ; seven thousand one hundred and nine, physicians ; four thousand three hundred and twenty-six, clergymen ; three thousand eight hundred and eighty-two, clerks; three thousand six hundred and thirty-four, tailors; three thousand four hundred and seventy-four, shoemakers; three thousand one hundred and twenty, manufacturers; two thousand six hundred and seventy-six, lawyers ; two thousand four hundred and ninety, artists ; two thousand three hundred and ten, masons; two thousand and sixteen, engineers; one THE CENTRE OF POPULATION. 511 thousand five hundred and twenty-eight, teachers ; one thou- sand two hundred and seventy-two, bakers; nine hundred and forty-five, butchers; seven hundred and twenty-nine, musicians; seven hundred and five, printers; six hundred and forty-seven, painters ; six hundred and thirty-one, millers ; five hundred and eighty-eight, actors. These figures show that the people were used to work in the Old World, and that they came here to work. The centre of population of a country is defined to be the point at which equilibrium would be reached were the country taken as a plane surface, itself without weight, and loaded with its inhabitants, in number and position as they are found at the period under consideration, each individual being assumed to be of the same gravity as every other, and consequently to exert pressure on the pivotal point directly , proportioned to his distance therefrom. In short it is the centre of gravity of the population of the country. Deter- mining by this definition, the centre of the population of the United States in 1880 was eight miles southwest from the heart of the city of Cincinnati. This places it in Kentucky, one mile from the Ohio river, and one and a half miles southeast of the village of Taylorville. This centre of population is slowly moving westward, like the great star of American Empire. It will gradually push on, and in another quarter of a century will rest somewhere not far from the Mississippi river, and likely somewhat farther north than at present. With all the varied tendencies of this rapidly increasing population, and under the prestige of a mighty past, and the blaze of a mighty hope, with all the vitalizing forces it com- mands, this fifty million one hundred and fifty-five thousand seven hundred and eighty-three American people are now working out the great destiny of American Civilization, and with marvelous rapidity and prodigious vigor are pushing onward the great industrial forces toward this destiny. This is the great industrial act in the drama of modern civilization, at which the whole world is looking with amaze- 512 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE, ment. Out of it will grow the consummation of human progress, or the most gigantic wreck of empire ever known to the history of national decay. The commerce of the United States has grown with the growth of the population. The commerce of this country has great natural advantages. The extended coast-line includes innumerable bays, river entrances and harbors, so that the shipping of the world can reach our Atlantic and Pacific states with the greatest convenience. This adapts the country to a rapid increase in national resources and wealth. And yet we have but just entered upon the great career of commercial prosperity. The increase of our popu- lation, and the consequent demands for home consumption, can in no way keep pace with the rapid development of the agricultural, mineral and mechanical resources. It is fair to conclude that, as the rate of increase in exports has been greater than the increase in population, the exports will at least increase as fast as the population and the consequent increased development of our resources. A great many things have affected our commerce both at home and in our export trade, which have not always been favorable to an increase of exports. The laws of exchange must, of course, extend to distant continents and islands, and tend strongly to make a neighborhood of nations. In our growing civilization we must want articles produced or manufactured by other people, and they must want the pro- ductions of our land and industry. Equitable exchange of commodities would hence become desirable. This is the great function of external commerce. But even a superficial view of such a country as ours would suggest the super- abundance of the necessary means of life and happiness, and abundance of many of the luxuries of life, from our own soil and mines and handicraft ; and that, though the doc- trines of "free trade" were to become the law of the land, the "balance of trade" ought to be largely in our favor. And so it unquestionably would be were it not for the grow- ing follies and prodigality of our people. Preference for THE GREATNESS OF AMERICAN TRADE. 513 foreign over American fabrics and wares of equal and even superior value, and the extravagance of fashions dictated in a foreign capital, discourage home manufacturers and run up a heavy account against us in European markets. A pro- tective tariff, however high, has thus far shown but little power to combat these American vices and make up the losses they produce. Our policy in this respect has not been sufficiently settled and steady to determine historically the results of protection as compared with free trade. But our trade with foreign nations has, on the whole, advanced steadily. . The exports from the products of the soil are rapidly on the increase. In 1880 the entire exports of the country — mineral, agricultural and mechanical — amounted to eight hundred and twenty-three million nine hundred and forty-six thousand three hundred and fifty- three dollars. This indicates the future commercial great- ness of the country. The youngest of the great nations, America, has already outstripped all but one ; Great Britain alone exceeds it. Mr. Baxter, when a member of the British parliament, said : " It is astonishing to observe the vast quantities of produce in course of transit throughout the country. Huge steamboats on the Mississippi and the Alabama are loaded to the water's edge with bales of cotton. Those on the Ohio are burdened with barrels of pork and thousands of hams. Propellers on the lakes are filled with the finest wheat from Wisconsin and Michigan. Canal boats in New York and Pennsylvania are deeply laden with flour. Rail- road wagons are filled with merchandise, and locomotives struggle in the western wilds to drag trains richly freighted with the productions of every country under the sun. The United States reminded me, sometimes, of a great ant-hill, where every member of the community is either busy carry-, ing a burden along a beaten pathway, or hastening away in search of new stores to increase the national prosperity." The commerce of the United States, when it is once developed in just proportions to the immensity of the coun- 33 514 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. try, will place this republic, at a day not distant, at the lead of commercial nations, and make it the admiration of the world. The development of a nation depends greatly upon growth in learning and morals. Partridge has well said that "consent to bad government is consent to ruin. Good gov- ernment can come only of general intellectual and moral development." Education has received considerable atten- tion, and in the belief that it will receive still more lies the principal hope of the security of the government and the happiness of the people. In 1 88 1, there were fourteen million nine hundred and sixty-two thousand three hundred and thirty-six children of school age in the United States. There were nine million four hundred and twenty-four thousand and eighty-six in the public schools ; or about two thirds of the children are in school. In Russia about one child of every fifteen of school age is found in school ; in this country the proportion is about nine out of fifteen. The public school is a fundamental institution in America. It formed a part of the constitu- tional provision of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The idea of imparting the principles of an education without charge to the children was a Puritan idea engrafted on the New England life. It was opposed, on the one hand, to the neglect and degrading ignorance which pervaded the lower classes in England ; and, on the other, to the aristocractic feeling that education was for the children of gentlemen, and they were to be kept apart from the children of the common people. To the thinking philanthropist, there was a deep and destructive vice in this general ignorance and in these invidious distinctions. Schools, therefore, began to be pro- vided for all. But this idea, like all others of great value, must contend for its position. Two public enemies of the common schools have been very determined in their opposi- tion. The affectations of caste, esteeming the common mind vulgar, and the higher bred entitled to the distinction of exclusiveness in the manner if not in the fact of education, ADVERSE INFLUENCES. 515 have long withheld the support which these great institu- tions of philanthropy have needed and deserved, and in whole states prevented their effective organization. Romish bigotry contends for the right of exclusive educa- tion from public funds, that children, not merely their own, but as many others as they can control, may be educated Catholics at the public expense. The government of the states generally treats them as Americans. It makes no objections to denominational schools; but they cannot be the public schools which the people, as Americans, support. Taxes must be equal and privileges equal under the law. Differences may exist, and be provided for by individuals and churches ; but, as states and a general government, we can know but one class, and they are citizens. We can have but one basis of taxation, and that is the public interest ; and but one obligation, and that is to afford equal privileges to all. Of course, just so far as the anti-American idea of exclusive Roman-Catholic education at the expense of the state extends, it interferes with our noble scheme of equal educational privileges. It is a disguised or open public enemy of a fundamental part of our free institutions. Notwithstanding these adverse influences, public schools are moving forward with free thought, and under the protec- tion of the enlightened public opinion which they so power- fully aid in forming. So strong are they becoming in the affections of the people that any amount of money may be had for their convenience or enlargement. But the whole people will not derive the full benefit of this intellectual blessing until each state shall have passed a compulsory school law, compelling every child to attend school for a certain time each year until a given age. The child not only belongs to the parent, and as such is the property of the parent, but belongs to the state, and as such is the property of the state. If the state considers it dan- gerous to have citizens without even the rudiments of an education, it has the right to provide against this peril. The feeling of an invidious caste is gradually wearing 5l6 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. away, and the children of the wealthiest and best citizens make no objection to attending the school side by side with the poorest and most humble. As one of the strong historical facts of the republic, it should be stated that large numbers of our best business and public men have received their education only from the common schools, while multitudes of scholars and literary men are indebted to this fundamental American institution for their thoroughness in higher academic and collegiate education. The larger benefits of the common-school sys- tem appear, however, in the fact of their pervading, quiet influence upon the citizenship of our country; the general intelligence and elevation they impart to the freemen upon whom the elective franchise and the government of the nation devolve, rendering it morally impossible to deceive, and finally wrest from our patriot princes, the people, the liberties which, by reading, song, instruction and prayer, become the high trust of each individual, and of the whole combined. It would seem almost unnecessary to suggest to the American people the sacred duty of guarding and devel- oping their public schools as the source of patriotic devotion, and the indispensable means of high christian civilization. If it were possible to conceive of the wreck of this system upon the rock of sectarian bigotry, we might well say the days of the republic are numbered. True Christianity is so extensively diffused among the masses that it carries in life the sunlight through the pores of society, and extends its genial influences through the schools, and our common education is becoming largely christian without becoming sectarian. This will greatly aid in its elevation and broadening. The Sunday-school has, beyond question, become in America a truly national institution. No man writes a true history of the United States who fails to give it prominent position. As a legitimate product of the great revival of spiritual religion — first in England and then in America — it seemed very humane to assemble poor children together BENEFIT OF LEARNING AND MORALS. 517 on the Lord's Day, and teach them to read. It was most fortunate that to the devout christian minds engaged in this benevolent enterprise, the Holy Scriptures should at once be regarded as the appropriate text-book for the more advanced among the children. Soon, quite naturally, por- tions of these sacred revelations were committed to memory, lessons were explained, and the most happy results were seen in the true moral elevation and improvement of the children. One of the first statesmen of the land received his first impulse to education in the Sunday-school. Another said he regarded his seat in the Sunday-school as of more importance than his seat in the senate. The Sunday-school comes in most appropriately to supplement the public schools, and does no small part to prepare the character and form habits of life which are of inestimable value in Ameri- can citizens ; the spirit of right and justice is imbued in a way which must contribute to respect for law and patriotism for country. The academy, college and university form each an impor- tant link in .the continuous chain of the American system of education. It will be utterly impossible to account for the national development of this country if the pulpit, the com- mon school and the college are left out. They are incorpo- rated in the frame-work of our society. While the state and the church are, and must remain, separate in the United States, in the college they meet and reveal their common identity of life and development. It has been the intelli- gent liberality inspired by religion that has established these institutions out of which have grown both a christian state and an educated church, yet each distinct in powers and mission. Not only an able and wise statesmanship, but an intelligent citizenship depends on these institutions for higher learning. In the moral and intellectual uplifting of the people of the United States a power of immense influence is the press. It is perhaps the most positive of all forces at work. In 1882, Lord John Russell mentioned before the House of Lords, 5l8 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. " the multiplication and improvement in newspapers, as gratifying evidences of the augmented wealth and expanding culture of the middle classes in Great Britain." Thirty-eight years later, Mr. Kennedy said of America, **A free press has become the representative, and, for the masses, the organ, of that free speech which is found indispensable to the develop- ment of truth, either in the religious, the political, the literary, or the scientific world." Both these remarks are now receiv- ing their fulfillment in the United States. Our periodical literature has become one of our grand popular educators ; and the augmented wealth and expanding culture of our free citizens have given, at the same time, evidence of the power of a free press, and scope for the development of its power. The United States has been called " a newspaper-reading nation." In 1880 there were published eleven thousand four hundred and three papers and periodicals. New York and Illinois taking the lead with more than a thousand each. The aggregate circulation of all these amounted to thirty-one million one hundred and seventy-seven thousand nine hun- dred and twenty-four copies, all of which went out to impress the people in different directions. The book press work in the United States has no parallel in the world. It is safe to estimate that one book leaves the American press every working second for the year ; add to these the works that are imported and an approximate idea may be formed of the reading ability of the people of the United States. Watts' invention of the steam engine produced a revolu- tion in the navigation and locomotion of the world. Many unsuccessful experiments were made in different countries before success was attained, England and France experi- mented up to the near close of the eighteenth century, but without much result. In 1786 Fitch, of Pennsylvania, and Ramsey, of Virgmia, went far enough to establish the prob- ability of steam navigation. After repeated experiments, each leading nearer the success aimed at, in 1807, August 7, Robert Fulton, with a few friends and mechanics, and six passengers, started in a vessel of a hundred and sixty tons GREAT HELP OF SCIENCE. 519 burden, from New York to Albany. This was the first steamboat trip in the world, and opened a new era in travel and transportation. It was not until 18 18 that a steamer crossed the Atlantic, making the trip in twenty-six days. So that to the genius of American skill and enterprise belongs the first honor of inland and ocean steam navigation. The world is all alive to-day with the quickened activity which has resulted to both mind and commerce. This great accomplishment in maritime science has acted wonderfully upon American life, and the just pride Ameri- cans feel in this American triumph produces a constant spirit of progress that seems born in each incoming generation. In this spirit the committee of the Universal Exhibition in 1851, reported that "many persons in various coun- tries claim the honor of having first invented small boats propelled by steam ; but it is to the undaunted perseverance and exertions of the American Fulton that is due the ever- lasting honor of having produced this revolution both in naval architecture and navigation." Nothing has contributed more to the development of the commerce of the United States than the railroad. It is the path along which supply travels to reach the demand, and is truly the highway of trade. The first railroad was built in the United States in the year 1825, and the first line was opened for traffic at Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1827. In 1830 there were only twenty-three miles in operation, which rose to two thousand eight hundred and eighteen in 1840; nine thousand and twenty-one in 1850; to thirty thousand six hundred and thirty-five in i860; to fifty-three thousand three hundred and ninety-nine in 1870; to ninety-three thousand six hun- dred and seventy-one in 1880. This rapid growth in our railway system is due more than all else to the growing demand for means to carry on the trafific of the country, and to furnish means for the carriage of the products of the land and the industries of the country. It will require a still more prodigious growth of this system. 520 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. England and Ireland have but a little over eighteen thou- sand miles of railroad. All Europe, including the British Isles and the countries of the Continent, has but one hun- dred and five thousand eight hundred and ninety-five miles of road, while the United States in 1883 had one hundred and seventeen thousand seven hundred and seventeen. In the year 1882 there were ten thousand nine hundred and four miles constructed in the United States. One of the great enterprises of the age was the building of the trans-continental railroads, connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific, and as a result bringing Asia and America into relations of commerce. More than this, the vast trade of Europe with Asia must soon cross this continent, so that our great through east and west lines of railroad will bind three continents, Europe, America and Asia ; and when this day comes New York and San Francisco will hold the position of the two greatest commercial cities in the world. One of the unsettled questions in our national economy is that of the spirit of monoply in connection with the man- agement of the leading roads. The true object of the rail- way system of this country is not to make money for the management of any road, but to carry with as much dispatch,, economy and safety as possible the traffic of the country. This being the recognized mission of our railway system, it should somehow be managed to reach this end. Freight is twice as high as it needs be, passenger travel ought nowhere to be over one cent per mile. We do not yet know how best to manage our railroads; and these powerful corpora- tions in some cases have oppressed parts of our population. There are people who seek to cure this evil by making the federal government take possession of the railroads, or by making it build new lines. They would, to avoid a tem- porary inconvenience, put the transportation of products into the hands of the government ; forgetting that govern- ment does not transact its legitimate work economically and efficiently, and that to put the vast business of transporta- tion into its hands would be to corrupt it, to give it the THE TELEGRAPH AND CABLE. 52 I means of corrupting and abusing the people; to give to a bad ruler monstrous power, sure to be wickedly used, and, after all, to secure no advantage which cannot be got by- other and safer means. Telegraphy is another powerful force in our American progressive civilization. Telegraphic communication began by the use of signals. Roman generals and American Indians availed themselves of this convenient method of overcoming distance and time. Lights, flags, symbols formed of blocks of wood, illuminated letters, figures, tele- scopes, and mirrors, were used among the means adopted for this purpose. The way for the electric telegraph was prepared by the discovery, about the year 1729, that the shock could be transported long distances through conduct- ing media with great rapidity. But it was reserved for an American, Prof. Morse, in 1832, to conceive the true idea of the electro-magnetic telegraph. No sooner was teleg- raphy well established as a means of communication on land than the idea was conceived to connect Europe and America with the wire. If the trans-continental railroad is one of the great enterprises of this age first in importance, the Atlantic telegraph is the one of second importance. From the first successful experiments of Morse in New York harbor, submarine telegraphy went on rapidly. The great leading mind in the struggles of twelve years, extend- ing from 1854 to July 27, 1866, resulted in placing the Old and the New World in almost instantaneous connection, was Cyrus W. Field— a name which must ever stand high, not merely in the annals of America, but of the world. Dis- tinguished no less for his humility than for his high sense of justice, he awards to the great scientific men and noble patrons of progress in England the highest praise for their indispensable cooperation and unparalleled exertions uniting to secure for this great providential movement complete success ; but the world combines to place the crown upon the head of that distinguished American, Cyrus W. Field. Telegraphy has become one of the great energizing and 522 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. economic forces in our national life. It is alike the means of intelligence and the spur of activity. And now the world knows itself, for throughout the length and breadth of our land we can read at our homes the great events transpiring in Europe on the same day of their occurrence, and even in anticipation of time by the clock. There are about one hundred and forty thousand miles of telegraph lines in operation in the United States, against about twenty-six thousand in Great Britain. The same spirit of monopoly, which is so hurtful in our railroad system, is the perplexity in the telegraph system. And a persistent effort has been made to put the business of telegraphing into the hands of the federal government. Not only would the purchase of the present lines be very costly, and their management by the government most certainly less satisfactory than now, but this scheme would greatly increase the number of office-holders, and consequently the means of corrupting the people. What is of yet greater moment, it would give to the party in power entire control over the public news, and enable a weak or unscrupulous ruler to poison the very sources of public opinion by giving false or partial reports of passing events, thus making the people incapable, in an important emergency, of forming a just opinion of the conduct or misconduct of their rulers. Telegraph communication is likely to be greatly modified by the telephone. The time may come when telephone communication will even supersede that of telegraphy. It has the advantage of cheapness and fullness ; by telegraph the communication must be merely a message, by telephone it may be a full and satisfactory conversation, lasting as long as may be desirable. In the United States in 1883 there were in use upward of three hundred thousand telephones, with nearly one thou- sand telephone exchanges in various cities of the country. The extent in mileage of telegraph wires put up for tele- phone use in the United States, is estimated at over one hundred thousand miles. THE MEANS FOR PROGRESS. 523; So we have all the tools of the industries, the triumphs of science and art, which the cunning brain of man has invented and his supple fingers learned to use at the great industrial call of progress, and we have abundant capital, the reserved fruit of labor, seeking a chance for growth and still farther increase. CHAPTER LI. ULTIMATE AMERICA. HUGO graphically says, relative to modern freedom and government : " It is the third huge gate of barbarism, the monarchical gate, which is closing at this moment. The nineteenth century hears it rolling on its hinges." This is true, not only of monarchy in government, but of the monarchical spirit in everything. Old forms and restraints are breaking, and men, under the freshness of this freedom, are moving rapidly to the front along the whole line of progress. This is preeminently the case in America. For this nation is now the grandest combination of power, wisdom, stability, union, freedom, progress and happiness the world has seen. The destiny of the country may be positively cast by its present prosperous condition, its great capabilities, and its spirit of energy and progress. Our people have displayed a greater inventive genius than any other known to history ; and this inventive spirit is directed to the practical and use- ful. The climate, soil and lay of the country are all most favorable to a rapid and prodigious growth in commerce. The great wealth in minerals point, with the nation's industries, to a day when the world will be amazed at the commerce of America. The broad and generous international spirit adopted by the government is the best encouragement for a great trade with the countries of the whole world. The" general faith in knowledge and education is the safety- valve for the nation, when strained by evil influences or threatened by dangerous tendencies. While the moral force, working like an undercurrent in the national life, tends to check the vices and vanities of unscrupulous men, who are more attentive to their personal ambitions than to the nation's good. Great political questions will adjust themselves, if per- 524 THE NATIONAL DEBT. 525 mitted by the party managers. Years ago the financial question was thought to be showing a phaze that indicated the ruin of our monetary system ; now it is the best in the world. The public debt is rapidly running down, and there is no reason why, in a short period, it should not be liquidated altogether. The government started under the Constitution with a debt of over seventy-five million dollars. The lowest point the debt reached was in the year 1835, when it was cut down to the small amount of thirty-seven thousand five hun- dred and thirteen dollars. In 1863 the war run the debt to over one billion dollars ; the highest point being reached in 1865, when it was nearly three billion dollars. From this year reduction has been going on. The debt is now being reduced at the rate of nearly one half million dollars per month. The debt on December i, 1882, was one billion six hundred and seventy-five million twenty-three thousand four hundred and seventy-four dollars. This, if divided up, would be thirty-one dollars and seventy-two cents for each person in the United States ; the interest on this to one dollar and nine cents per person. This computation is made, less the amount in the United States treasury, December, 1882. This is a splendid showing for the 'finances of the country. The debt of Great Britain amounts to one hundred and nine dollars and four cents for each person ; that of France to one hundred and seventeen dollars and seventy-nine cents, while that of Spain amounts to the enormous proportion of one hundred and fifty-three dollars and thirty-four cents to each person. It is hard to see how financial relief can ever come to that country. In Great Britain the taxes this year amount to eighty-six million pounds, and fifty-nine million pounds are required to pay the interest on the national debt and for the needs of the army and navy. In Russia the ordinary expenditure has risen from fifty- eight and one half millions, in 1879, ^^ seventy-six and one fourth million pounds last year. This is an increase of not far 526 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. short of fourteen and three fourths millions, or over twenty- five per cent, without taking account of the war expenditure at all. The expenditure has grown under all heads, but the main increase is in the charge of the debt and the cost of the army. The charge of the debt last year was a little over nineteen and one half million pounds, out of a total expend- iture of seventy-six and one fourth million pounds, or somewhat over twenty-five per cent ; and the increase in the five years under review was somewhat over eight million pounds, or almost seventy per cent. The increase in the war expenditure was over three and one half million pounds, or nearly nineteen per cent. But here the extraordinary expenditure is left out of account. The increase in the cost of the army was, therefore, very much greater than is acknowledged. The Russian army, the debt, and the navy, added together, involve a charge of fully two thirds of the total outlay of the Russian Empire. There remains little more than twenty-eight million pounds for the civil admin- istration, including public works, the administration of justice, education, the church, and the support of the great ofifices of the state. Evidently this sum is entirely inade- quate for an empire of such enormous extent, so poor, and economically so backward. The truth is that the civil administration is starved to keep up an army and a foreign policy which are rapidly bringing Russia to the verge of bankruptcy. The revenue is eleven million pounds less than the expenditure. There is no official statement of the actual cost of the Russo-Turkish war; but it is possible to arrive at a rough estimate of the amount by noting the increase in the charge of the debt, and that makes it amount to about one hundred and seventy million pounds. As to France, the debt has risen to one billion six hun- dred and ninety million pounds, in all more than double the British debt, the annual charge being actually fifty-one million three hundred thousand pounds. The charges for the army and navy colonies have been recklessly raised, until the treas- ury has actually to provide eighty-eight million pounds a THE FUTURE IN PROSPECTIVE. 527 year — more than the entire revenue of Great Britain — for interest on debt alone. France is still burdened with the tremendous dead-weight of eighty million pounds a year, or fifty shiUings per head on her population. In addition to this, the government has temporarily swelled the outlay on public works to twenty-three million pounds a year, and the total expenditure of the treasury this year reaches the previously inconceivable sum of one hundred and forty-two million pounds. Even in France, if the extravagance does not stop, the treasury will be driven to dangerous expedients. Retrenchment in the army cannot, for the moment, be hoped for. Other countries are not much better. In Germany and Italy great suffering and discontent prevail, while their finances are far from being in a flourishing state. Yet several of these European nations want to extend their boundaries in divers directions. And next to indulging in these prowling propensities at their neighbor's expense, their favorite occupation is to watch each other with a jealous eye, and so plunge deeper and deeper into what Mr. Gladstone once called " the emulation expenditure of." So that the financial condition of Europe is in a bad condition. This contrast brings out in better light the solid condition of the monetary system of the United States. The aggregate of the debts of the several states and that of the nation made the great financiers of Europe regard repudiation and the utter bankruptcy of the country as inevitable. With this load we moved out to meet our destiny, and it seems to be a glorious one. And on this solid basis, this republic, established by the wisdom and sacrifices of its founders, saved by the heroism and blood of our fathers, shall form a great empire of liberty, love and prosperity for the patriots of all climes; here shall be solved again and again the questions of right and truth; and here shall be done a large work in the advancement of the race, the enfranchisement of humanity, the happiness of man. CHAPTER LII. COMPENDIUM OF THE TENTH CENSUS, 1880. Attested by Superintendent of Census, Francis A. Walker. TABLE A. LAND IN FARMS BY STATES. Unimprov 'd Farms. Improved Farms. Value of Farm Machinery. Value of Farms. The United States Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Dakota Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois , Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Acres. 251,310,793 13,479,628 79,502 8,465,944 5,934,044 549,304 811,a5;i 2,650,24;j 343,387 5,514 2,849,684 17,838,563 130,391 5,558,491 6,487,345 4,886,159 10,677,903 10,763,557 5,533,534 3,067,670 1,777,131 1,2;%,768 5,510,378 6,156,326 10,638,535 11,134,345 14:3,073 4,440,124 186,439 1,413,061 833,476 393,739 6,062,892 15,882,367 6,448,135 2,016,067 6,368,334 316,337 9,335,56;3 13,170,359 33,641,905 339,419 1,596,137 11,335,673 925,075 6,401,452 6,190,590 41,311 Acres. 284,771,042 6,375,706 56,071 3,595,603 10,669,698 616,169 1,642,188 1,150,413 746,958 13,633 947,640 8,304,720 197,407 26,115,154 13,933,738 19,866,541 10,739,566 10,731,683 2,739,972 3,484,908 3,343,700 3,128,311 8,296,863 7,346,693 5,316,937 16,745,031 262,611 5,504,703 344,433 3,308,112 2,096,297 237,393 17,717,863 6,481,191 18,081,091 3,198,645 13,433,007 398,486 4,133,050 8,496,556 13,650,314 416,105 3,286,461 8,510,113 484,346 3,792,327 9,162,528 &3,122 Dollars. 406,520,055 3,788,978 88,811 4,6;37,497 8,447,744 910,085 3,162,628 2,390,091 1,504,567 36,798 689,666 5,317,416 363,930 33,739,951 20,476,988 29,371,884 15,652,848 9,734,634 5,4a5,525 4,948,048 5,788,197 5,134,537 19,419,360 13,089,783 4,885,636 18,103,074 401,185 7,830,917 378,788 3,069,240 6,921,085 355,162 42,592,741 6,078,476 30,521,180 2,956,173 35,473,037 902,825 3,303,710 9,054,863 9,051,491 946,753 4,879,385 5,495,114 958,513 2,699,163 15,647,196 95,483 Dollars. 10,197,096,776 88,9.54,648 1,127,946 74,249,6a"> 262,051,283 25,109,23:3 131,063,910 33,401,084 36,789,672 3,632,403 20,291,835 lll,910,r}40 2,832,890 1,009,594,580 635,236,111 567,430,337 3a5, 178,936 399,398,6:31 58,989,117 103,a57,615 165,.503,341 146,197,415 499,103,181 193,724,260 92,844,915 375,633,307 3,334,504 105,933,541 5,408,335 75,834,389 190,895,83:3 514,399 1,056,176,741 1.35,793,603 1,137,497,353 56,908,575 975,689,410 25,882,079 68,677,482 206,749,8:37 170,4t)8,,SlS« 14,015,178 109,;346,010 216,038,107 13,844,234 133,147,175 357,709,507 8:35,895 528 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. 529 TABLE B. FARM PRODUCTS. BUCKWHEAT INDIAN CORN. The United States. Alabama. . Arizona . . . Arkansas . California. Colorado . . Connecticut Dakota Delaware District of Columbia. Florida Georgia . Idaho . . . Illinois . . Indiana . Iowa Kansas Kentucky. Louisiana . Maine Maryland . Massachusetts , Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire. New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina. Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania . . Rhode Island . . . South Carolina. Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont "Virginia Washington . . . West Virginia. Wisconsin Wyoming . Bushels, 43,997,495 5,281 339,051 1,952 13,463,561 10T,116 13,386 377,434 533 210 18,663 374,750 1,339,533 383,835 4,033,588 300,373 486,336 243,185 6,097 80,138 1,304,316 2,973,965 348 133,031 39,970 1,744,686 513,470 77,877 4,091 50,053 7,793,062 2,431 1,707,139 920,977 438,100 17,783 16,257 30,019 73,786 317,140 367,635 14,233 566,537 9,740 5,043,118 Bushels. 11,817,337 363 548 33,^7 110 137,563 3,531 5,857 403 178,859 89,707 166,895 34,431 9,943 383,701 136,667 67,117 413,063 41,756 57,640 437 17,563 94,090 466,414 4,461,200 44,668 280,229 6,215 3,593,826 1,354 33,434 535 356,618 136,004 2,498 385,398 399,107 Bushels. 1,754,591,676 35,451,378 34,746 34,156,417 1,993,335 455,968 1,880,421 3,000,864 3,894,364 39,750 3,174,334 33,303,018 16,408 335,793,481 115,483,300 275,014,347 105,729,335 73,853,363 9,889,689 960,633 15,968,533 1,797,768 33,461,453 14,831,741 31,840,800 203,414,413 5,649 65,450,135 12,891 1,350,348 11,150,705 638,786 35,690,156 38,019,839 111,877,124 136,863 45,831,581 373,967 11,767,099 63,764,439 39,065,173 163,843 3,014,371 39,119,761 39,183 14,090,609 34,330,579 Bushels. 407,858,999 3,039,639 564 3,319,833 1,341,371 640,900 1,009,706 3,317,133 378,508 7,440 468,113 5,548,743 463,336 &3,189,300 15,599,518 50,610,591 8,180,385 4,580,738 229,840 3,365,575 1,794,873 646,159 18,190,793 23,883,158 1,959,630 30,670,958 900,915 6,555,875 186,860 1,017,630 3,710,573 156,537 37,575,506 3,838,068 38,664,505 4,385,650 38,841,439 159,339 3,715,505 4,733,190 4,893,359 418,083 3,743,382 5,333,181 . 1,571,706 1,908,505 32,905,320 33,513 34 530 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. TABLE B. — Continued. FARM PRODUCTS. Tho United States. Alabama... Arizona Arkansas . California . Colorado... Connecticut Dakota Delaware District of Columbia. Florida Georgia. Idaho . . . Illinois.. Indiana . Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana. Maine Maryland . Massachsetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi . . . Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire. New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina. Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania. . . Rhode Island... South Carolina. Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington . . . West Virginia. Wisconsin Wyoming. Bushels. 19,831,595 28,403 32,.387 181,681 19,465 370,733 34,359 5,9.53 3,704 3,965 101,716 4,341 3,131,785 303,105 1,518,605 413,181 668,0.50 1,013 36,398 288,067 313,716 394,918 215,245 5,134 535,436 430 424,348 34,638 949,064 240 2,634,690 285,160 389,321 13,305 3,6a3,621 12,997 27,049 156,419 35,399 9,605 71,7:33 324,4:31 7,124 113,181 2,398,513 Bushels. 459,483,137 1,539,657 136,437 1,369,715 29,017,707 1,425,014 38,742 2,830,289 1,175,272 6,402 422 3,159,771 540,589 51,110,.502 47,284,853 31,154,205 17,324,141 11,356,113 5,0:34 66.5,714 8,004,864 15,768 35,5:32,543 34,601,030 218,890 34,966,637 469,688 13,847,007 69,398 169,316 1,901,739 706,641 11,587,766 3,397,393 46,014,869 7,480,010 19,463,405 340 963,a58 7,331, :353 2,567,737 1,169,199 a37,257 7,836,174 1,931, :333 4,001,711 34,884,689 4,674 Bales. 5,755,359 699,654 6b'8',356 54,997 814,441 1,367 508,569 963,111 30,318 389,598 532,548 3:30,621 805,284 19,595 Pounds. 155,681,751 762,207 313,698- 557,368 16,798,036 3,197,391 230,13» 157,035 97,946 163,810 1,289,.560 137,149 6,093,066 6,167,498 2,971,975 2,855,832 4,592,576 406,67S 2,776,407 850,084 299,089 11,858,497 1,&53,124 734,64:3 7,313,934 995,484 l,383,a56 655,013 1,060,.589 441,110 4,019,188 8,837,195 917,756 25,003,756 5,718,534 8,470,273 &5,680 273,758 1,918,395 6,928,019 973,246 2,.5.51,1]3 1,8:36,673 1,;5H9,13;5 2,681,444 7,016,491 691,650 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. 531 TABLE B. — Continued. FARM PRODUCTS. The United States Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Dakota Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Tons. 35,305,713 10,363 5,606 23,295 1,135,180 85,063 557,860 308,036 49,633 3,759 149 14,409 40,053 3,280,319 1,361,083 3,613,941 1,589,987 218,739 37,039 1,107,788 264,468 684,679 1,393,888 1,636,912 8,894 1,077,458 63,947 785,433 95,853 583,069 518,990 7,650 5,240,563 93,711 3,210,933 366,187 2,811,654 79,328 3,706 186,698 59,699 92,735 1,051,183 287,355 106,819 333,338 1,896,969 23,413 Pounds. 26,546,378 1,444,077 7,788 21,236 16,915 500 48,214 9,895 266,010 10,928 23,955 21,628,931 5,510 244,371 36,995 109,350 1,599 703,277 1,966,827 Pounds. 110,131,373 810,889 1,294,677 35,369,687 33,188,311 1,718,951 5,609,191 52,077,515 ■ ■ ■ ■ 63,i53 532 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. TABLE B.—Contintied. FARM PRODUCTS. The United States , Alabama . . Arizona . . . Arkansas . California. Colorado . . Connecticut Dakota Delaware District of Columbia. Florida Georgia . Idaho . . . Illinois . Indiana . Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana . Maine Maryland . Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire. New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina. Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania . . Rhode Island . . South Carolina Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington . . . West Virginia. Wisconsin. Wyoming . Pounds. 472,661,157 453,426 600 970,2*20 73,317 14,044,652 1,897 1,278 1,400 31,182 228,590 400 3,9a5,825 8,872,843 420,477 191,669 171,120,784 55,954 2.50 26,082,147 5,369,436 83,969 69,923 414,663 13,015,657 57,979 1,500 170,843 , 173,315 890 6,481,431 36,986,213 34,7a5,2a5 17,335 36,943,373 785 45,678 29,365,052 221,283 131,433 79,988,868 6,930 2,296,146 10,608,433 IRISH POTATOES. Bushels. 169,458,539 334,935 36,249 402,027 4,550,565 383,123 2,584,363 664,086 283,864 33,064 20,221 249,590 157,307 10,365,707 6,2:32,246 9,962,537 2,894,198 2,369,890 180,115 7,999,635 1,497,017 3,070,389 10,924,111 5,184,676 303,821 4,189,694 228,702 2,150,893 302,143 3,a58,828 3,563,793 21,883 33,644,807 722,773 12,719,215 1,359,930 16,284,819 60<),793 144,943 l,a54,481 338,833 573,595 4,438,173 3,016,766 l,aa5,177 1,398,539 8,509,161 30,986 SWEET POTATOES. Bushels. 33,378,693 3,448,819 5,303 881,360 86,384 910 195,937 33,347 l,687,6ia 4,397,778 349,407 344,9:30 133,368 195,325 1,017,854 1,318,110 329,.596 450 4,904 3,610,660 431,484 13,628 3,086,731 3,317 6,833 4,576,148 239,578 184,142 714 2,189,622 2,369,901 1,460,07» 1,901,521 87,2i4 7,134 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. 533 TABLE C. LIVE STOCK. VALUE OF LIVE STOCK. Dollars. The United States 1,500,464,609 Alabama 23,787,681 Arizona 1,167,989 Arkansas 20,473,425 California 35,500,417 Colorado 8,703,342 Connecticut 10,959,296 Dakota 6.463,374 Delaware 3,420,080 District of Columbia 123,300 Florida 5,358,980 Georgia 25,930,352 Idaho 2,246,800 IlUnois 132,437,762 Indiana 71,068,758 Iowa 124,715,103 Kansas 60,907,149 Kentucky 49,670,567 Louisiana 12,345,905 Maine 16,499,376 Maryland 15,865,728 Massachusetts.. 12,957,004 Michigan 55,720,113 Minnesota 31,904,821 Mississippi 24,285,717 Missouri 95,785,283 Montana 5,151,554 Nebraska 33,440,265 Nevada 3,399,749 New Hampshire 9,812,064 New Jersey 14,861,412 NewMexico 5,010,800 New York 117,868,283 North Carolma 22,414,659 Ohio 103,707,730 Oregon 13,808,392 Pennsylvania ^'^'§TI Khode Island 2,254,1^ South Carolina i^,279,412 Tennessee 43,651,470 Texas 60,307,987 Utah 3,306,638 Vermont i?'586,195 "Virginia . 25,953,315 Washington i'S^HSI West Virginia 17,742,387 Wisconsin ^'^§'?^ Wyoming ! 5,007,107 Number. 10,357,488 113,950 6,798 146,333 337,710 42,257 44,940 41,670 21,933 1,027 22,636 98,520 24,300 1,023,083 581,444 792,323 430,907 372,648 104,428 87,848 117,796 59,629 378,778 257,283 113,309 667,776 35,114 204,864 32,087 46,773 86,940 14,547 610,35rf> 133,686 736,478;, 124,107, 533,'587, 9,661 60,660 266,119 805,606 38,131 75,215 218,838 45,848 136,143 352,428 11,975 Number. 1,812,808 121,081 891 87,083 38,343 3,581 539 3,703 3,931 68 133,078 610 123,278 51,780 44,424 64,869 116,153 76,674 298 12,561 243 5,083 9,019 139,778 193,027 858 19,999 1,258 87 9,267 9,063 5,073 81,871 19,481 2,804 33,914 46 67,005 173,498 132,447 2,898 383 33,598 636 6,226 7,136 671 534 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. TABLE C. — Continued. LIVE STOCK. The United States . Alabama . . Arizona . . . Arkansas California Colorado .. Connecticut Dakota Delaware District of Columbia. Florida Georgia . Idaho . . . Illinois . . Indiana . Iowa Kansas Kentucky. Louisiana . Maine Maryland . Massachusetts . Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire. New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina. Ohio Oi'egon Pennsylvania . Rhode Island.. South Carolina. Tennessee Texas , 45 West Virginia. Utah Vermont. Virginia . Washington Wisconsin Wyoming . Number. 993,841 75,534 984 25,444 28,418 11,418 5,818 4 16,141 50,026 737 3,346 3,970 2,506 16,789 36,166 41,729 43,049 22,246 14,571 40,393 36,344 61,705 9,020 936 7,234 765 29,152 2,022 16,433 39,633 50,188 8,226 4,132 15,062 3,523 24,507 27,312 90,502 3,968 18,868 54,709 3,821 12,643 28,763 718 Number. 12,443,120 271,443 9,156 249,407 210,078 28,770 116,319 40,573 37,284 1,392 42,174 315,073 13,&38 865,913 494,944 854,187 418,333 301,883 146,454 1.50,845 132,907 150,435 384,.578 275,545 268,178 661,405 11,308 161,187 13,319 90,564 152,078 12,055 1,437,855 232,133 767,043 59,549 854,156 21,460 139,881 303,900 606,176 32,768 217,033 243,061 27,623 156,956 478,374 3,730 Number. 35,193,074 347,5.3S 76,.534 346,757 4,153,349 746,44;} 59,4;31 30,344 21,967 56,681 527,589 27,336 1,037,073 l,100,.5n 455,3.59 499,671 1,000,2«9 i:35,6;n 56.5,91,S 171,184 67,979 3,189,389 267,598 287,694 1,411,298 184,277 199,4.5;i 133,695 211,825 117,030 2,088,831 1,715,180 461,638 4,902,486 1,083,163 1,776,-598 17,311 118,889 673,789 2,411,633 233,131 439,870 497,389 292,883 674,769 1,336,807 140,225 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. 535 TABLE C. — Continued. FARM PRODUCTS. 1 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 33 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46. 47 The United States. Alabama.. Arizona. . . Arkansas . California Colorado . . Connecticut Dakota Delaware District of Columbia. Florida Georgia. Idaho . . . Illinois. . Indiana . Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana. Maine Maryland . Massachusetts . Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire . New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina. Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania. . . Rhode Island... South Carolina. Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington . . . West Virginia. Wisconsin , Wyoming. . Number. 47,681,700 1,253,462 3,819 1,565,098 603,550 7,656 63,699 63,394 48,186 1,132 287,051 1,471,003 14,178 5,170,366 3,186,413 6,034,316 1,787,969 2,235,3^5 633,489 74,369 335,408 80,133 964,071 381,415 1,151,818 4,553,133 10,378 1,241,734 9,080 53,437 319,069 7,8.57 751,907 1,4.53,541 3,141,333 156,332 1,187,968 14,121 638,198 3,160,495 1,950,371 17,198 76,384 956,451 46,838 510,613 1,128,835 .567 Pounds. 777,350,387 7,997,719 61,817 7,790,013 14,084,405 860,379 8,198,995 2,000,955 1,876,375 20,930 353,156 7,424,485 310,644 53,657,943 37,377,797 55,481,958 21,671,763 18,311,904 916,089 14,103,966 7,485,871 9,655,587 38,831,890 19,161,385 7,454,657 28,572,124 403,738 9,735,198 335,188 7,347,373 9,513,835 44,837 111,933,433 7,313,507 67,634,363 2,443,725 79,336,013 1,007,103 3,196,851 17,886,369 13,899,330 1,053,903 25,240,836 11,470,933 1,356,103 9,309,517 33,353,045 105,643 Pounds. 27,273,489 14,091 18,360 26,301 2,566,618 10,867 836,195 39,437 1,713 2,406 19,151 30,395 1,035,069 367,561 1,075,988 58,468 7,618 1,167,730 17,416 839,538 440,540 533,138 4,339 283,484 55,570 330,819 17,430 807,076 66,518 10,501 8,363,590 57,380 2,170,345 153,198 1,008,686 67,171 16,018 98,740 58,466 126,737 1,545,789 85,535 109,200 100,300 2,281,411 2,930 536 THE SCIENXE OF NATIONAL LIFE. ■J^!^ ;j r| i; :15 ^ '-" 5 - :3 ■r i- 2 V £ ,-^ ;^ g = -/ yi -^ T ? c^i' 'j: -> ^3 T S I O+i 2S — -I 2 .^ c^ 2 — 5 3 J i; z ~ ~ ;£ ■-" ; ; VJ ^ 7 l2 i ~ ?; y li ?5 ^ ^ ,v< - -r i - i~ — • ! X -r £ 2- — o^l•i•-^•^J-^■L- T^^x-rfci^'— '"*''*cc — *1— '1— '*^'— r^xi^i— rc^^i^^f"^i ^ |2 ^-^CC^r^i.-^!- Nri'pH eco'aT rf'jH' II CO < Eh --'d E^5|||]|2g riSi^Si^-i^^SisS^^sSsllri^f.^SSf ;iki$S'^5 1^ ^ o S CO -7O « t't^i--^'^'— ^i-t'x'i" a "S S S ^' S ?• ^ ^ s oS ^ t; Cj -* 30 tl — — 'f-T cit£-f i-i'lJ 1-1" rH c co-C tri^x-ccSS /i — S — _^cv-* X S ■ .?: c: 5 — 1- ■ " ri -tr *!^?i Ti X u-j ~: S 5 x l- Z O- -fOC: -»■ — x:r £"3. w'rfr:— 'ii ^■■— ';cop4 «s't^«a'i-rw etrt cc s sS""*^ 1-1 ^5 z 2 *? ;i |i : 1 — S«' :*f 2? • CO — . . s''! 5^ :co r3 . . c ?^? s i is §^\ t- : i*^ 1 • :§ M auc a'^' fS X a; Of? i^lllnl g iiii IS (5 Q iiiiiii b "So ^ S /- Zj S -2 2 3' ||}5§ 0K«0 s^'gjfs >; cl -r-5-T^.5.r: •<* e s I- ^i »^ • ■ iT 1— ( I— — •iX X 1 o . ikn^^ ■■ ■■ ?iS gg xja -* Q 11 fifiii : : i ss a'i i i s Eb 1= G^ '-<' !»> ill ii iiil i iJ §1 OS'S :i- ■ss's' •* '^^I'H I"— ' :S rt -J 'i f. Z ~ -f- T » 2 ; s 5 s .2 3 .1 1 = 3. -= 2. '{ 1 P '1? ^-^Ci-Si-^MSSSssszzzzScfr^S^^ei^^Ss; ^sSxwSi;: i-lNW-<»>u3-^t-XC!0 — MCC^L'-Jt^XCiO— MrC-*i.fiM-X3-. r- ^I" 11- ^I" ■ t- *" 11-^ r- 0- tl- 1M» (■J IS. r iij » » t THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. 537 TABLE E. GOLD AND SILVER PRODUCT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE YEAR ENDING MAY 31, 1880. Total . Alabama . . Alaska Arizona . . . California . Colorado . . Dakota . . Georgia . . Idaho Maine Michigan. Montana Nevada New Hampshire New Mexico North Carolina. . . Oregon South Carolina. Tennessee Utah "Virginia Ounces. 1,614,741.2 63.9 287.9 a 10,2.53.8 839,676.7 130,607.6 159,920.1 3,919.8 71,578.3 145.1 Washington Wyoming . . . 87,354.0 236,468.7 533.1 2,387.5 5,754.4 53,101.3 630.8 96.7 14,105.5 450.9 5,569.3 837.9 Dollars. 23,379,663 1,301 5,951 ' a 311,965 17,150,941 3,699,898 3,305,843 81,039 1,479,653 2,999 1.805,767 4,888,243 10,999 49,.354 118,953 1,097,701 13,040 1,998 291,587 9,321 135,800 17,321 Ounces. 31,797,474.3 39.4 a 1,798,920!8 890,158.3 12,800,119.8 54,770.1 256.6 359,309.1 5,569.0 a 20,000.0 2,246,938.4 9,614,561.3 13,375.0 303,455.0 108.0 31,496.2 43.3 3,668,565.5 788.6 Dollars. 41,110,957 51 a 3,325,835 1,150,887 16,549,274 70,813 332 464,550 7,200 a 25,858 2,905,068 12,430,667 16,000 392,337 140 27,793 56 4,743,087 1,019 Dollars. 74,490,620 1,301 6,003 a 2,537,790 18,301,828 19,349,173 3,376,656 81,361 1,944,303 10,199 a 35,858 4,710,835 17,318,909 26,999 441,691 119,093 1,125,494 13,096 1,998 5,034,674 9,321 136,819' 17,321 538 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. t" CO •saaq^o CO C005QOO'1050C^COt--^^^lCOQO-*C005-^COO(M5Ja) rH 00 O:a0;O*C0T— It-N-* »0 3C Qm!03205CXlfOO SO Q « 1-1 1- ff. 00 ic: •sain^a OJC0>Ct^«QI— -^lOJCMl- ss= '■* CO "^o as^50_co 00^ ODrHOJw'oOSJQli' 5iNeOCOr-lCi5*« •i<;[[BnuuB-iuias paqsiiqncl aaqran^ •vCija^jBnb paqsiiqnci aaqain^ •Ximuora-iq paqsnqnd jaquin>i paqsiiqnd jaqiiin^ •jfjmuoni-traas paqsnqncl aaqrariM paqsfiqnd aaquin>i jgj-*>o ■-iincoNooMoos C0 1-1 N rl iH ■» r-( •^[5{aaAi-iq paqsijqnd aaquin^j •jCjJiaaAV-ia^ paqsnqnd aaqiiintj; iH -(MrHr-l •XlJtaaAv-iuias paqsjiqnd jaquin^j 1— li— liHINrH • -iNCONt— 1— I -COi— It-rH • -COCO •XiJiaaAv paqsnqnd aaquin^i SI— i^QC002l~OC0QC0t-00QC0QOQ-*Qi-l0S£- i-(r-lS5 i-ll-COlOCOrl rHNCO »5 •moi ,-1 CO «o 50 cc OS t- O! in u; CO «o •SuiuaAg coco-*oQi-oinco« -lO •SuiujOH COCONOMt-^NCOCOi-l Qo^-»-^ l^SSi 5t--<*HG3r- '-^COi-^ «I-*00i-n»m-*moj5D05>oeQCO-*05-*r-i05-*^Hoo(N-*cotocooo O O tH rH CO 01 :0 ^ i-H Oi r-l 00 iC i^- CO ^ in CO t- CSl o3 OS OD 55rHT(( tH ^ OOr-nn CO i-l(M rH (M oinco-*in-*ot-comco«Dt-oooo-*(NOin>nQ'*iiMi— ICO T-t -^ tHi— ir-((M rHrHin Oi i— I SONlH ■0 05 00CT>i-IOS50-*COa5COlHincOCOCO>n (M •!— I r-i CO CO »0 r^ ^C001^ininN000«cot-!M^lM(NC0t-^iMIN»n^N05lN 6l -* IJJ -* 1— I i-H •SIBOt -poijad JO .laqranu i^e^bj, oooo5t-t-inooi-^0 C:' -jaduia^ 'diqsAvojiaj -ppo 'X.iuosBui-aajj 'osL I- CO iM -^ C^t CO :0 l-O •spuuno!." Suiuiui Suipiipui ''SDiiinqa -aiii pub' aouaios •on •jM.B{ "o^i •jCaaS -JUS puB auioipaui -o^ • rl^'-i (MOJt- •sauizBSBm Suipnioui 'ajniBaajii jBaauaS 'on •SpBO.I -IiBj puB aouB.insui -o^ •{BpuBug 'OM •apB.n puB aojauiraoD 'ojsi ■^ 1— I rH CO ;^ CO •oja '{BarninDij -joq 'iB.xn';jnoi.iSB ■O}^ ■^iC^Ot— l-> C sa 542 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. •qspAV ir •qsiuBds ^ '"' i;o iH ■UBlABll -ipUBOg PUT3 qSlUBQ S (M •^ S JOIN INt- •asanSn^Od; IM •qsROd; N n CO U5 rH rl CO " g?? §§a;^'* OS tH 10 CO oS ■qouo.i^ 5; 1(5 ^ iC ■*Mr-l '-' •qsnSaa •asauiqo IN ::;** ::::::::::::::::::::: : •UBIB^BQ '"' ■■;:::': 1 ::'::::;:::::: i : : •UBiniaqoa CO ••••■•"■:::•"*•■'"'::::::":■: < ■* >0t-t-i-l!:-0Jt-':p^>f5QOi:-l-CC05l-i0^lC0C<5t--*mc0Q States and Territories. 1 cc T a c 1- a £ < 0: c c 1 c 0: _0 c i- c C C c a, c c c 4, S "a! .2 1 c tr P c c 30 or C c a .2 C _5 C 0- 0: s > S C S c re -a 1 C a 1 1 $ c tr Oj c c 'a 1 is E THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. 543 •qsi8jV\, •qsin^dg •WBIA -BUipUBOg pUB qSIUBQ •8sanSn:;j0d; •qsnod: •UBfiBq^I •qsiJi •UBipUJ •puBiiOH •UBUIJ80 ■iH ■ 'OS ■!:- •03<^!^-r-l1— IrHCO • ?H • ■!-( -ro -00 CO th •qouaj^j •qsqSng; THt-C00005rHC0^C0t-00^Q00SC0^00G00^OC0r 1—1 i-i5>lT-ICO» t-lN rHr-IN •asamqo •UBIB^^BO •uBiraaqog i-H CO CO 00 T-* th i-H -* t- 1- £ — *oo03goiMccgojo3'-i cS oi g 0) S oj bap X, c 544 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. w Di O H Q W H O > w Q rn H -J H <; < u 1- Q c« o o a; w O CIh •IlBUBCJOaSUfl •:;sii'BS.i8Aiuxi 111 U8.im8.ia pajiufi •ireumiuxi • uBiSaoquapaAvg •(jsii^'n'^UTcIg •^u8Apv puooag •ojioq^BO UBuioa •pauijojotj •iiBi^sijqo oA^iuiia J •uBi.ia^Xqsajj •uoui.iOi\[ •UBIABJOM •:jsipoq^8IV[ •8:;inou9K •uBjaqi^ni •qsmaf •spuaia^ 'IBonaSuBAa TBdODSida •spjBuund •saidiosiQ •IBuoi^BSaaSuoo •uBusijqo •^siadBa g? ^ a cs g-O 03 3-8=3.5 ■ 1-1 CO C0 1-1 -^N IN tH -rH -iH -(Mr-I -N lO^COt-OSOOtHCO-* :|g II plfol ii, ill s-Eili THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. 545 Q P^ < Q C/J O Q Pi W W is Q 1^ f. <; w ^ w o a, •UBUB^oasuxi •^siiBsaaAiuxi ni ugjq^ajg pa^tufi •UBiJB^mji •UBlSj0qU9p8Ai.g •:;sii'Bn:^iJtdg •^u8Apv puooag •oiioq:;BO UBuiog •panijojaa •uBRSijqo aAi;irai.i OD CS OJ 546 THE SCIENCE OF NATIONAL LIFE. TABLE G. ILLITERACY IN THE UNITED STATES. The United States . Alabama . . Arizona . . . Arkansas. . California. Colorado . . Connecticut Dakota Delaware District of Columbia. Florida Georgia , Idaho.... Illinois . Indiana , Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana . Maine . . . . Maryland . Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire. New Jersey New Mexico . . . New York North Carolina Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania . . Rhode Island. . South Cai-olina. Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washing-ton . . . West Virginia. Wisconsin . Wyoming . PERSONS OF 10 YEARS OF AGE AND UPWARD. Enumer- ated. Number. 36,761,607 851,780 32,922 531,876 681,062 158,220 497,303 99,849 110,856 136,907 184,650 1,043,840 25,005 3,269,315 1,468,095 1,181,641 704,397 1,163,498 649,070 519,669 695,364 1,433,183 1,236,686 559,977 753,693 1,557,631 31,989 318,271 50,666 286,188 865,591 87,966 3,981.438 959,951 3,399,367 130,565 3,203,215 220,461 667,4.56 1,062,130 1,064,196 97,194 264,0.52 1,059,0:34 55,730 438,587 965,713 16,479 Returned as unable to read. Number. 4,923,451 Percent 13.4 370,379 5,496 153,339 48,583 9,321 43.5 16.7 38.8 7.1 5.9 20,986 3,094 16,912 21,541 70,219 4.2 3.1 15.3 15.7 38.0 446,683 1,384 96,809 70,008 28,117 43.8 5.5 4.3 4.8 3.4 25,.503 2.58,186 297,312 18,181 111,387 3.6 22 2 45;8 3.5 16.0 75,&35 47,112 20,.551 315,612 138,818 5.3 3.8 3.7 41.9 8.9 1,.530 7,830 3,703 11,982 39,136 4.8 3.5 7.3 4.3 4.5 52,994 166,625 367,H