Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1889-05-04
LAND AND MACHINERY.
BY LUCIEN SANlET.

The chief physical needs Of man are
three-food, shelter and raiment,
OF food we can to-day produce an
unlimited supply; and, as we progress,
facts not only disprove the Mathusian
doctrine, that population naturally
tends to increase faster than the power
to produce subsistence but prove in
versely that, taking the world as whole,
"the power to produce subsistence in
creases faster than population.' There
are, it Is true, some countries Of small
extent, densely inhabited, where the
soil, however productive, cannot be
made to yield sufficency of food for
its people. Such is Belgium, for in
stance, where the density of population
has reached the apparently large figure
of 4S5 to the square mile. But the ex-
istence of such countries, like that of
large cities, is made possible by the
mechanism Of exchange, through which
the surplus production of coal here, or
of cloth there, is readily bartered for
the surplus of food produced elsewhere.
Therefore, these eptions-more i'm
aginary than real, since they exist on
political lines only-Contirm our prOpo-
sition. Even in Great Britain, we are
assured by the highest authorities that
there is land enough to sustain all its
population if applied to the production
of food and cultivated to the height of
its caracity. "But Great Britain" under
capitalist management, ''prefers to make
cloth and build ships; to practise land
scape gardening, and hold game pre-
serves; to grow mutton in Australia;
fence in the mountain parks of Colorado
and Wyoming for beef production, and
establish great granaries in Dakota"
AS to raiment, in the present condi-
ton of manufacturing industry, the pos
sibilities of production are not more
limited than in the matter of food The
scarcity of raw material could alone
curtail its supply. But what are the
facts? Wool, flax, cotton and other
textiles are grown in abundance, and
their production might be multiplied
indefinitely, Even to-day there is an
enormous waste. As much flax as is
grown in Russia is burned on the
ground in our Western States, where it
is cultivated for the seed only. Our
wool product increased skiold in TWEEN
ty-tive years, and it is generally admitted
that the repeal of the Customs duty ON
foreign wool, by stimulating ito excess
| its production in foreign countries,
would very soon result in doubling that
! of Mexico, South America and Austria
/ liza. From which it Is seen that abund
ance, not scarcity, is deemed under our
present system the danger Of the time
even to the extent of preventing it by
legislation,
As to shelter, its possibilities are more
infinite still than those of food and raj
ment. There is room, to b" sure, on
this continent for one dwelling house to
each family. The supply Of wood is un-
limited. Millions of acres of virgin for
est are every year ruthlessiy burned
down by the pioneer. And where is
the end of stone, or of clay. or of any
material which enters into the ConstruC-
ton of a building: In their TRANSFORMED
ton and transportation nothing is re-
quired but labor, the very surplus Of
which constitutes the problem Of the
age,
Why is it, then, that in such a world
and at a time when human ingenuity
has enslaved the forces of nature, men
have to go hungry, ill-clad and home
less?
This question. we know, has become
commonplace from its frequency, and
sounds deciamatory to those who will
not answer it. But millions of people
are asking it to-day, and the thunder Of