CHAPTER IX THE INTERRELATION OF THE FACTORS OF PRODUCTION However strongly we believe that this is the best possible world and however clearly we see that a bounteous nature has provided for the satisfaction of many of our needs we cannot help acknowledging that, at any time and in any place where we happen to be, some desirable things are scarce, some undesirable things are abundant, and some things otherwise desirable are so superabundant as to become undesirable. That being the case, the obvious thing to do seems to be to set about improving the situation, increasing the quantity of those desirable things which are scarce, and decreasing the quantity of those things which are too abundant for our well-being or comfort. The rearrangement of matter. Matter itself cannot, of course, be either increased or diminished in quantity. It can be rearranged in such ways as to become more usable or less harmful. This rearrangement may take on various forms. All the elements which are now in a loaf of bread were formerly in the soil, the water, and the atmosphere. In those forms they were of no use to man. They have been rearranged and assembled,their form has been changed. This is sometimes called formutility. The wheat from which the flour was made and the flour from which the bread was made had to be transported from places where there was a superabundance to a place where there was a scarcity, in order that they might become usable. This is sometimes called place-utility. Some goods have to be stored and preserved. At one time they are so abundant as to be unusable. At another time, unless they were preserved, they would be so scarce as to cause hardship or even famine. Their utility is increased by storing and preserving them. This is sometimes called time-utility. Time is important as well as place. A keen observer has remarked that men are engaged in the simple work of moving things from one place to another. Whether they are writing with pens, putting chemicals into test tubes, rolling steel rails, draining swamps, or irrigating dry land, all that men literally do with their hands and their muscles is to move materials. They are changing the space relations of things. This observer, however, did not see that men are also changing the time relations of things, a process which is quite as important as changing their space relations. Things must not only be moved from one place to another, they must also be preserved and held from one time to another. The time relations of things are quite as important as their space relations. Of course there are methods and purposes in all this moving of things. The mind sees method and purpose where the eye sees only materials moving. One of the wonderful things about man's activity is the vast results that follow a very slight rearrangement of materials. By stirring the soil and placing. seeds in a certain relation to it, the forces which produce plant growth are set to work supplying our needs. By rearranging a few stones and clods a stream may be diverted and made to water barren fields until they blossom and bear fruit, or the stream may be made to turn a wheel and drive machinery which can accomplish tasks far too great for human muscles. By taking advantage of his knowledge man can, by these slight rearrangements of matter, harness natural forces and compel them to serve his purpose. As stated above, it is quite as important that things be preserved and held from one time to another as that they be moved from one place to another. Crops must be preserved from the harvest season until other parts of the year; seed must be saved for next year's planting; tools must be made long in advance of their actual use, and the process of making tools is sometimes a long-drawn-out process, involving the mining and smelting of |