scarce and hard to find that the average business enterprise must wait on his will) he will be in so strong a position that he can dictate terms to all the others who participate in the enterprise. He will then, without resort to force, really direct its management on a purely voluntary and contractual basis. There is not a very good prospect for coöperation among laborers under any other conditions. There is a strong probability that, with the rapid accumulation of capital (especially if habits of frugality and saving are encouraged) and with the growing scarcity of labor (especially if wise immigration laws are passed and a high standard of living among laborers is encouraged), there will come a time when capital will be almost superfluous because of its great abundance, and every individual laborer will become almost indispensable because of the scarcity of labor. Then we must expect that capital will lose the power to direct the management of industries and will take the position of a hireling. The laborer will then gain control and assume the position of the master. This mastery, however, will not be acquired by force, unless we lapse into savagery. It will be acquired as a logical result of the fact that the individual laborer, instead of being superfluous and easily spared, as is the case when labor is oversupplied, has become either indispensable or difficult to spare because of the scarcity of laborers. By voluntary agreement in the free and open market he can then get his full share of the control of industry. CHAPTER XV ECONOMICAL USE OF LABOR ON LAND Product per acre and product per laborer. The economical use of land presents two somewhat distinct but closely related problems: first, the economical use of labor on land; second, the economizing of land itself. The first problem is that of so managing labor on land as to get the maximum product per unit of labor; the other is that of so handling the land as to get the maximum product per acre. In a country where there is an abundance of land still unused and of good quality, the first is the only problem of immediate importance. In an older and more densely populated country, where land is becoming scarce, the second problem rises to importance. Even in the latter case, however, the main problem is always that of getting the maximum product per unit of the population. It is this which will give the maximum average well-being for the population. But if land is strictly limited and very scarce, a large product per acre is absolutely necessary in order that there may be the maximum product per unit of the population. What does "land" include? In most economic discussions the word "land" is used to include all natural agents,-forests, waterfalls, minerals, and everything else provided by nature for man's occupation and use. But under our legal system the ownership of a piece of land or a section of the earth's surface carries with it the use of the air above it, the sunlight that falls upon it, the rain, the dew, and everything else that cannot be separated from it. In some cases this ownership includes the minerals that lie beneath the surface. Colonizing. The problem of getting the most out of these natural resources with the prevailing supply of labor is one of the most important of all questions of national economy. The problem of getting the maximum product per unit of labor has been discussed in the preceding chapters under such headings as The Division of Labor, The Use of Power, The Use of Capital, and Forms of Business Organization. There are many other methods, however, by which the product per unit of labor may be increased. Among these must be mentioned that of territorial expansion of the population or the sending out of colonies. This is a means by which more land is made available for the existing population than would be the case if it did not expand or colonize. It is probably no accident that every great race has been a colonizing race. There is no reason to believe, however, that it was the colonization that made it a great race, rather than that the greatness of the race enabled it to colonize. A great race must be made up of vigorous and efficient people. Such people are likely to succeed wherever they go. They make successful colonists, for the simple reason that when they emigrate and come into competition with other races they are more than likely to succeed in that competition. Having great physical vigor and energy, a high degree of mentality, considerable knowledge of and control over the forces of nature, and a temperamental development that enables them to work together efficiently, they are very likely to succeed in competition with outlying races. If in addition to this they waste less of their energy in distrust and suspicion of one another, if they have a keener sense of justice and no disposition to sacrifice the interests of society for the weak and inefficient, such people may easily spread over outlying lands, buy them from the natives, and succeed by virtue of their superior mastery of the arts of production. On the other hand, the members of a weak race are not uniformly successful when they emigrate and come into contact with other peoples. Such individuals incline to stay at home, where they can protect themselves by special political and legal institutions against the competition of outside peoples. The surplus population, instead of moving out and colonizing those sections of the earth where its labor would be most productive, remains within the confines of its own country and tends to overpopulate that territory. Expanding and pent-up civilizations. This difference in the characteristics of the members of different races will explain two very different types of civilization, one of which may be called the expanding type and the other the pent-up type. Under the expanding type of civilization the people spread out. They go where the natural opportunities for the productive use of labor are greatest. They are vigorous and capable enough to be willing to take their chances anywhere in competition with members of any other race. Under the pent-up type of civilization the people incline to keep within the boundaries of their own country or their own neighborhoods, where they enjoy at least some protection from outside competition or have some little outward advantage to help to balance the disadvantages of their own individual weaknesses or inefficiency. A country populated by such people generally tends to become overpopulated and to maintain a very low standard of living. In such a country the death rate eventually rises to balance the birth rate, or else the birth rate falls to balance the death rate. Expanding the indoor industries. When the people of a country are too far advanced in civilization to be willing to acquire new lands by military conquest or to force themselves as colonists upon other countries unwilling to receive them, and are therefore unable to acquire any new land, one of the most important of all questions is that of economizing the land already in their possession. One way of accomplishing this is to turn from the industries that require much land in proportion to the product to those industries that require little land. A mechanically expert nation may turn to the manufacturing industries, bringing the products of land from distant countries where land is still abundant, working them over in the factories at home, and selling the finished products again to other outside people. By this process a country can support a vast population for which its own land would not provide food enough. This method, however, is always more or less hazardous because of the possibility of a cutting off of its sources of raw materials or of the market for its finished products. A country is in a much safer position if it can so utilize its land as to support its population from the products of its own soil. Making better use of soil. In most countries, especially in the United States, the soil itself is by far the greatest physical resource. The products of the soil exceed in value many times those of the mines and the fisheries. Besides, if the soil is properly treated it may continue producing its wealth and maintaining its population for indefinite periods of time. One of the first methods of securing a more economical use of the land of a country is that which is generally known as reclamation; that is, the bringing into use of land hitherto unfit for cultivation. The methods of reclamation are determined chiefly by the kinds of waste land or the reasons why the land has been unfit for cultivation. These reasons are in the main as follows: 1 Bad physical conditions CAUSES OF Bad chemical conditions { Bad social conditions { Too stony Too dry Too much acid Too much alkali Bad taxation Too much speculation Causes of waste land. If all the land of a country were once brought under cultivation, there would be no way of economizing it except by making each acre produce more. But this is a condition which has probably never been reached in any country, certainly not in the United States. Therefore we have first to consider the question of bringing waste lands into use. Let us assume that the country is all "settled"; that is, that the population has increased and spread until all the land which is sufficiently productive to attract cultivators has 1 Compare the author's work, "Principles of Rural Economics," pp. 132 et seq. Ginn and Company, Boston. |