The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-28
EcOSOMTCs IN SESSION.
Professor Hadiey Read Paper on Popuia-
 ton and Capital.

tion .. U. WriSht, couiiiissioner UT labor. made the opening remarks and read the first paper. His subject was the recent Chicago strike. which he de- scribed as combination of strike and boycott" He reviewed the cause of the trouble and It's growth.
 A discussion of Prof. Dewey's paper was then held. The fact was brought out very strongly that persons who had lived in the city did not care to go into the country to work.
 This afternoon Prof. A. T. Hadley of Yale university read a paper on "Popu- lation and Capital" Prof. Hadley said:
 T wish to point out how the use of sociological methods of Inquiry has en- abled us to connect the discussion of the causes affecting the growth of cap ital with the study of the Malthusian theory and how the combination of two things has enabled us to present the essential truth of the Multhusian theo- ry in a more guarded. but at the same time, .n more convincing and useful form than Is otherwise possible. We has taken share necessarily in the &C., emulation of capital. For such &C., emulation, which Is socially necessi- tated we must restrict population and increase production. The first form of the family, known as the matriarchate. restricted population but did not pro- vide for production. The military fam fly, which was the second form pro- vided for the accumulations in the hands of the strongest. The modern family provides for accumulations in the hands of the producers as a class.
 'The prudent man or woman who works hard, invests wisely and does not marry till assured of the ability to sup port family insures himself and his children against the danger of pressure of population upon subsistence. He les sens his contribution to the national birth-rate and still more conspicuously lessens his contribution to the national death rate. And as more of his children survive in spite of their smaller num- bers there is a cumulative effect from generation to generation, by which the nation as a whole grows more prudent and its morality more intellectual.
 "It is in these ways dhat the institu- tion of individual capital has proved the best means of accommodating the capi- tai of the community 4a
 This progress has been marked by the lowering of the general birth rate, still greater lowering If the death rate and ansirnprcvemeftt in tile arts which have enabled population, though increased, to live in greater comfort than before. But it has left certain parts of the populatio in state where they are constantly on the verge of starvation. Is this to be regarded as a necessary incident to progress, or as an unnecessary evil which constitutes the indictment against the modern indus- trial system? Malthus holds the for mer view The successive points in the Malthusian theory may be summed up as follows:
 "U low death rate is a necessity for national prosperity A high death rate means a low average duration of life.
 "(2) Any excess of birth rate over death rate means increased popula- tion and, in long established communi- ties, Increased density of population. When this increase is more rapid than in the arts it means less food per unit of labor. more disease and stoppage of the accumulation of capital.
 "(0 The physiological possibilities of the birth rate are so far in excess of the death rate, which is consonant with social prosperity that the improvement in the arts of food supply has not kept peace with this possible excess and cannot be expected to do so. This difference must, therefore, be reduced by ''preventive checks" to lessen the birth rate. Otherwise the individual is to blame and must expect to see his family suffer the checks of disease and famine.
 '"The socialistic criticism upon the theory may be fairly sum- med up in two heads:
 70 There os almost never, in civilized society, a present or immediate pressure of population upon subsistence. There Is always food enough to go around if It were only distributed
 "(2) If such distribution were made there is no likelihood of future pressure of population on subsistence because increased comfort is accom- panied by a lower birth rate instead of a higher one.
 The last point is erroneous. It is rue that as society exists at present nigh comfort and low birth rate usually go together, because comfort is made .o depend upon prudence. Let the comfort be made independent of pru- lence, as in the case of English poor aw at the beginning of this century, md the birth rate tends to increase 'ather than diminish It may not be .qually true as some Malthusians would nave us believe that the low birth rate s the cause of the comforts, but 1t is much further from the truth to assert hat the comfort is the cause of the ow birth rate. Both are the results of , common cause.-the exercise of pru- lence, which gives high comfort and ow birth rate to those who are capa- ,le of practicing 1t; while those who ire incapable of so doing have at once ligh birth rate and lower level of l ornfort." a Leaking Heavy Strokes.