New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-28

orn World has been living in fancied
security from famine. 1t was con-
fidently believed by almost everybody
,hat the steam engine and modern sci
ence had forever banished from our
midst the old spectre of starvation
which has frightened the men of the
preceding ages from the time of the
primitive savage TO that of James
Watt. Malthusianism was out OF date
except for few calamity howlers.
We do not live by bread alone, but
bread we must have. In recent years
the city population has grown much
more rapidly than the farming popula-
ton. Middlemen, statesmen, personal
servants and producers Of luxuries
have multiplied and the distance from
The producer to the ultimate consumer
has been stretched enormously, while
the number Of farmers has increased
slowly. The result has been an invert,
cd pyramid condition of unstable
equilibrium. And, finally, after the
cost Of foodstufs has been rising Tor
some years, the world suddenly en-
cages in that most costly of all luxu-
lies-war.
This nation and other nations have
been rudely awakened to the simple
fact that waste and luxury are costly
and must be paid for by necessities.
The United States may still possess
an enormous heritage of unused natu-
raj resources and acres OF virgin land.
Rut many Of the men who should be
in touch with these fundamental re-
sources of the nation are now IN cities
and in occupations which do not pro-
duce the basic necessities of life-food
and clothing. Our boosted civilization
Is like top-heavy tree whose roots
do not sink deep into the earth.
The faint cry of "back 10 the land"
has been voiced by faithful few from
time TO time; now il swells in loud and
frantic chorus. demanding more land
under cultivation. the mobilization OF
an army of agricultural workers and the
production of more and more food
stufFs. A new era is upon us, and re-
adjustments are inevitably painful.
Little is said or written in this emer-
gency about increase of population and
the Malthusian checks; much Is urged
in regard TO luxury and the need OF
more and better farm work. 1t is the
distribution Of population and the
choice Of occupations mobilization
rather than the increase in numbers
which attracts the attention. Malthu-
sianism is returning in new garb.
Unless the nation, and, indeed, the
world, reduces waste and unnecessary
forms of work and of make-work, un-
less ii ceases TO multiply middlemen
and producers of luXuries faster than
workers in the basic and fundamental
industries, unless it quits forging addi-
tionel links in the chain connecting the
primary producer and the ultimate con-
sumer, famine and deprivation await
only an extraordinary emergency or a
war.
The great war of to-day is forcing
drastic measures upon US. The avoid
ance of world scarcity depends upon
cur ability TO meet the situation with
an extraordinary specialization of effort.
The expert is due to come into the
limelight. Economic internationalism
is Just ahead. What percentage of
workers must be in basic occupations,
such as farming, mining, fishing lum-
herring? How many can be spared for
manufacture, transportation and pro
fessional service? How can unneces-
sary workers be transferred to other
tmployments? To what extent can ad-
vertising, soliciting, specializing and
personal service be cut down? How
may the number of middlemen be re-
duced 10 a minimum? Do We have too
many professional amusers and too lit
tie of recreation by and for each man
and woman? These and other similar
problems crowd for solution.
Economists have been loath 10 take
the social point of view. Gradually
they have been edging closer and closer
TO the idea that a producer is one who
gets an income-by personal exertion,
ownership of property or special priv
ileges, begging, borrowing or stealing.
And wealth, according TO the econo-
mists, is anything which satisfies hu-
man wants-whether those wants make
for efficiency and good health or for
ineficiency and degeneracy. But the
economies of the new regime, of the
new internationalism, must reject this
naive conclusion. The economist should
draw a definition OF a producer which
will put outside the ranks unnecessary
workers. Clearness of vision is need
ed 1t is not only important that
man get a living, but it is essential
that he get it in a way that does not
burden the community and the nation.
The war has made it clear that no ma
ton, as we'll as no individual, lives unto
itself This neglected truth must be
presented so plainly that the man in
the street can read as he rides. a new
Malthusian doctrine is being formu-
lated because Of the necessities of war.
The economics Of the immediate future
must rcvolve around the problems of
directing human effort into channels
which make for international or world
efficiency.