New-York tribune., 1920-10-17

beyond the food-producing capacity of
the continent on which it lived 1t is
estimated that ct the outbreak of the
Great War one hundred million people
in Europe, a population approximately
as great as The whole population of
continental United States, drew it's
food supply from outside Of Europe
Highly organized industry enabled
these increasing numbers to manufac-
ture goods, export them to new coun-
tries where agricultural development
was casv and rapid. exchange them for
food and thus TO live with a steadily
increasing standard.
The growth of world population, OF
course, was not entirely due to this
industrial development. There were
epoch making discoveries in medicine
and hygiene.
The growth in the means of trans
portaton shrunk the globe, so that
localities which had heretofore been
far distant became comparatively close
neighbors. The dcvclopment in the
means of communication wonderfully
increased the interchange o'i Tie fruits
of labor. The specialization Of effort
which the industrial order brought
about added greatly to the interdcpe
crce OF one part of the world upon
another. The complcXity Of modern
world society was not recognized
clearly until the blow of the great war
fell upon commerce. The world is
/ hardly yet awake to a realization of
the extent of that interdependence in
the light of the present size Of the
world population, nor is it clearly
understood, I believe, how dependent
upon comparatively free movement
of world commerce have become count
less millions of people.
Without restoration of something
Ike the old order of world commerce
millions Of people cannot live. Mil
lions have already literally died of
starvation because Of the interruption
in world trade. Highly developed as
world commerce has become, we here
in land largely sclf-supporting, and
on the whole, the most happily stu
ated people in all history, have as yet
failed to grasp even vaguely the in
tricacies and interrelations Of modern
economic life.
Between 1850 and to-day the capac-
ity to produce manufactured articles
on the part Of labor has vastly in
creased through the development OF
machinery. Roughly speaking, the out
rut Of manufactured goods per capita
of those engaged in industrial produc-
tlon IS between two and three times
greater than it was in 1850 On the
other hand, the production of food per
capita by those employed in agricul-
ture has not greatly increased It Is
true that modern machinery has added
materially to mans efficiency in agri-
cultural production, but, on the whole
the gain has been surprisingly small
What is the significance to the
human family Of these general facts ?
They would seem to point to at least
one obvious deduction; the present
vastly increased population of the
world has been able to exist only be-
| cause Of the Improvement in the eco
nomic organization of the world. BY
economic organization of the world
mean something of that same sort of
organization that we sec illustrated on
comparatively small scale in our in
dustrial life generally. Manufactured
goods can be produced cheaply when
produced in mass. Vastly increased
results can be obtained from human
labor when it is highly specialized
Certain parts of the world arc we'll
adapted to producing a supply of food
much in excess of the food required
in such parts Of the world. Other TO-
calities are particularly adapted to in
dustrial development. The people of
such districts acquire a high degree
of industrial facility. Their leaders
develop a genius in industrial organi-
Zation that enables them to produce
goods with a small amount of labor
expense. The labor cost is SO much
smaller than would be possible under
system of home industry such as
prevailed before the industrial era that
the total supply Of goods that is
! created by the subdivision of labor
and the organization of world COM