,transcriber's ,note ,italic text displayed as3 italic ,bold text displayed as3 bold ,,ouroboros ,,to-,,day ,,and ,,to-,,morrow ,for the ,contents of this ,series see the end of the ,book ,,ouroboros ,,or ,,the ,,mechanical ,,extension ,,of ,,mankind ,,by ,,garet ,,garrett ,,london3 ,,kegan ,,paul1 ,,trench1 ,,trubner ,,co41 ,,ltd4 ,,new ,,york3 ,e4 ,p4 ,,dutton ,,co4 ,ouroboros was a fabulous snake1 the encircling serpent1 that swallowed its own tail4 ,it represented an infantile thought of the human mind for wish-fulfilment by magical means4 ,man's heroic business was to conquer the reptile4 ,as he did this he seized the object he most desired4 ,he might even wish himself into solid gold4 ,made and ,printed in ,great ,britain by ,m4 ,f4 ,robinson ,co4 ,ltd4 at the ,library ,press1 ,lowest ,,contents ,,page ,i ,,the ,,quest ,,since ,,adam #g ,,ii ,,the ,,machine ,,as ,,if #bc ,,iii ,,the ,,law ,,of ,,machines #ca ,,iv ,,who ,,mind ,,them ,,or ,,starve #db ,v ,,the ,,paradox ,,of ,,surplus #eh ,,vi ,,in ,,peril ,,of ,,trade #gb ,,vii ,,dim ,,vistas ,,new #hd ,,ouroboros ,i ,,the ,,quest ,,since ,,adam ,one story of us is continuous4 ,it is the story of our struggle to recapture the ,garden of ,eden1 meaning by that a state of existence free from the doom of toil4 ,so long as the character of our economic life was agricultural1 as it almost wholly was until a very recent time1 the attack was nave4 ,in the file of prayers1 if one is kept1 the thickest1 dustiest bundle is that of our supplications for plenty--miraculous plenty without worry or price4 ,we were loth to believe that the second arrangement between ,god and ,adam made at the gate of exit3 ,cursed is the ground for thy sake2 ,in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread was forever2 and for a long time afterward local weather conditions were wistfully misunderstood1 as a chastisement when they were bad and a sign of relenting when they were good4 ,it was forever4 ,nature's ring was closed1 never again to open for any darling fructuary4 ,that is to say1 man's taking from the soil is an arbitrary wage4 ,he may increase the gross of it a little by exerting himself more3 the scale he cannot alter4 ,if tilth for the individual has been made easier somewhat and more productive by the use of wheeled implements1 power tools and now airplanes to dust the orchard with insecticide1 these1 you must remember1 represent a tremendous increase of effort by mankind at large upon the principle of limited fecundity that governs the earth4 ,when at length the realistic mind perceived that here was a natural fact upon which prayers1 thanksgiving1 sacrifice1 idolatry1 and the pretentions of magic were all alike wasted1 the spiritual part of us no doubt had been willing to accept the sentence4 ,not so the earthy and lusty part4 ,the curse was heavy4 ,there was never a risk man would not take1 no kind of heroic exertion he would spare himself1 to escape the evil1 the boredom1 the drudgery of repetitious toil4 ,from such puerile motivation came the ,age of ,discovery1 then physical science1 purposeful mechanical invention1 the industrial era1 and all the artificial marvels of the modern world4 ,these effects are historically traceable2 and1 if it should occur to you to wonder why they are so much more vivid and astonishing in the ,west than in the ,east1 that is easily explained4 ,the ,european mind went on with the phantasy of an earthly paradise of plenty and leisure after the ,oriental mind in weariness of wisdom had given it up4 ,until four hundred years ago the ,europeans believed that somewhere in the world was a fabulous land whose inhabitants lived as in dreams1 eating and drinking from golden vessels1 wearing priceless jewels like common beads1 sated with ease and luxury4 ,king1 courts1 astronomers and navigators believed this4 ,the vulgar fancy was for a place such as ,cockaigne of the medieval ballads1 where all features of the landscape were good to eat or drink and nobody ever was obliged to work4 ,in quest of this mythical region the pioneer feats of circumnavigation were performed4 ,what a disparity between the character of the motive and the shape of the dead6--or is it that men do not know their motives8 ,the earth was explored4 ,it was found to be round and full of labour4 ,this1 of course1 was a terrible disappointment4 ,the ceaseless mind then turned to alchemy with the idea that base metals were changeable into gold2 from this came chemistry and the study of matter and physical phenomena in a new way1 taking nothing for granted4 ,this was the beginning of true ,science4 ,as to what might come of it practically there was at first only the rudest kind of notion4 ,dimly it was understood that exact knowledge must somehow increase man's power1 give him control of the elementary circumstance1 enable him perhaps to command that which hitherto he had got by hazard4 ,when a great body of fact-knowledge had been accumulated1 men began to see little by little how it might be dynamically applied4 ,then the epoch of ,mechanical ,invention4 ,the idea of machines was not new4 ,long before the beginning of the ,christian era the ancients had produced many wonderful automatic devices2 but mechanical knowledge with them was a department of magic4 ,the use of machines was to mystify the multitude4 ,brazen figures were made to move1 dragons to hiss1 temple doors to open and close1 trees to emit musical sounds1 and lamps to trim themselves perpetually by means of floats1 cogwheels1 cylinders1 valves1 and pistons--all acting on sound principles of pneumatics and hydraulics4 ,much of this ancient technology was lost or forgotten4 ,the ,european mind rediscovered it gradually in a spirit of scientific curiosity1 with no clear economic intention4 ,and1 but for a simple practical idea1 one that was very slow to come through1 the machine no doubt would still be what it anciently was--an object of superstition1 the toy of wonder1 an accessory of priestcraft4 ,and what an obvious idea it was6--merely to exploit the machine's slave value4 ,merely to see an engine as a beast of burden and the loom as a projection of the hand1 both instruments of magnified production1 to spare the labour of mankind4 ,that moment in which the use of mechanical energy came to be so conceived was one of elemental significance4 ,all the chances of human life were altered1 though not as anyone supposed or as they were meant to be4 ,the course of internal evolution requires to be imagined4 ,it is slow beyond perception4 ,it may not be a fact2 or1 for aught we know1 it may be finished in the species4 ,suddenly man begins to augment himself by an external process4 ,his natural powers become extensible to a degree that makes them original in kind4 ,to his given structure--the weakest among animal structures in proportion to its bulk--he adds an automatic1 artificial member1 responsive only to his contact1 answerable only to his will1 uncontrolled by nature1 fabulous in its possibilities of strength1 variation1 and cunning4 ,his use of it in three generations has changed the design of civilization out of recognition4 ,that change alone which sets our time off abruptly from all time before is the fact of potential plenty4 ,we take this for granted as if it were a natural fact1 whereas1 instead1 all the circumstances have been invented4 ,we who are born to the view cannot see it4 ,we cannot imagine what it was like to live in a world where famine was a frequent visitation and all things were scarce4 ,yet never until now has the human race known what plenty was4 ,immemorially the word has signified food4 ,see1 the smell of my son is as the smell of a field the ,lord has blessed4 ,god give thee of the dew of the heaven and the fatness of the earth and plenty of wine and corn4 ,the cornucopia1 horn of plenty1 never contained a fabricated thing--only the fruits of the earth4 ,that old meaning of the word has been recently lost4 ,modernly we speak of #8goods'2 we talk of the standard of living1 which is understood of course to include proper quantities of food1 and to mean1 besides food1 an endless number of artificial things which people increasingly require for their comfort and well-being4 ,mechanical energy does not produce food4 ,nor has the principle of limited fecundity that governs the earth been suspended4 ,yet the machine has enormously increased the food-supply in two ways3 first1 agriculture is equipped with power--tools1 so that one man now may perform the labour of many2 second1 transportation has made all the food-producing areas of the world accessible1 so that grain from the middle of the ,north ,american continent and grain from ,argentina are mingled unawares in the ,european loaf4 ,this use of the machine to distribute food swiftly over the whole world from where there is a surplus to where that surplus is needed has had profound political1 economic1 and social consequences1 beginning with an increase of the human species vastly beyond any number that had at any time previously existed or could ever before have been sustained upon the earth4 ,that is the one most awesome phenomenon of the industrial era4 ,the ,north ,american continent has been peopled from ,european stock4 ,its present population is equal to that of all ,europe in #ahjj4 ,this drain of emigration notwithstanding1 the population of ,europe in the same time has trebled4 ,and still there is plenty4 ,where it is not actual1 it is potential4 ,who have not plenty are either too inert or too ignorant to put forth the modern effort4 ,what people may use1 enjoy1 and consume now is an x quantity1 determined neither by the rhythms of nature nor any biological principle1 but simply by the free total of their own exertions4 ,faster than the race has multiplied the powers of the machine have increased4 ,one of these is the power of transportation1 whereby the food product of the whole earth is made uniformly available4 ,the other power is represented by a divisible product of artificial things tending to exceed the sum of effective human desire4 ,to wishful desire there is no limit whatever2 but there is a point at which the effort necessary to obtain the object--that is1 the toil--will be weighed against the desire to possess it1 and only when and if the object is deemed worth the effort is desire effective in the economic sense4 ,from the paradox mentioned--that tendency of the machine's divisible product to overwhelm the sum of effective desire--we get a series of complex phenomena of which there is nowhere yet a complete understanding4 ,this now is a buyer's world where formerly it was the seller's4 ,business no longer sits in ,asiatic dignity waiting for its customers2 it must up and seek them4 ,the buyer is pursued4 ,as ,i write1 the strains of a ,liszt rhapsody float through my window4 ,they come from a farmer's cottage a little way down the road4 ,yesterday a motor-truck stopped at his house and unloaded a self-playing piano4 ,i saw it and noticed that it got slightly damaged squeezing through the tiny doorway4 ,what does this mean8 ,first1 it means that the day before yesterday a salesman from the city went through this road selling self-playing pianos for a nominal cash sum down and the balance on monthly instalments4 ,he sold one there1 another in the next house but one1 and a third further on4 ,how many he sold to the end of the road ,i do not know4 ,but what does it mean that the city sends a man through a country road in southern ,new ,jersey to sell pianos in this beguiling manner to people who cannot afford them8 ,those who bought them ,i know were all in debt for other things bought on the instalment plan4 ,it means there is a necessity to sell this industrial product4 ,it is the necessity of a factory that has overtaken the normal demand for self-playing pianos and must force the sale of its surplus4 ,it is the necessity of all who work in that factory and live thereby4 ,it is the necessity of industry in general1 governed as it is by a principle it did not invent4 ,the principle is that the divisible product of the machine is cheap in proportion to the quantity4 ,remember that principle4 ,we shall meet it again4 ,as with player-pianos and radio-sets in my country road1 so with all manner of artificial things1 with the whole divisible product of the machine1 in every road1 every street1 every market of the world4 ,how to produce enough is no longer any problem at all4 ,how to sell what is increasingly produced--that is the problem4 ,evidence thereof is the commonest thing we see4 ,it is painted in the landscape4 ,it illuminates the cities at night4 ,it is in our marginal vision when we read4 ,there is no lifting one's eyes to heaven1 no casting them down in shame1 no seeing whatever without seeing it4 ,each day a forest is cut down and consumed for wood-pulp to make the paper on which producers advertize their wares4 ,the use of advertizing is to stimulate in people a sense of wanting4 ,selling is a high profession to which men are trained in special schools4 ,to exchange goods for money over a counter1 to higgle with the individual buyer--that is not selling4 ,clerks and peddlers do that4 ,selling is to create new ways of wanting1 new habits of comfort and luxury1 new customs of having4 ,this is done by agitating the mass-imagination with the suggestive power of advertizing4 ,business reserves its most dazzling rewards for one who can think of a way to make thousands1 millions1 whole races of people want that thing to-day which they knew not the lack of yesterday4 ,why is this so8 ,because there is never enough wanting4 ,and why is there never enough wanting8 ,because the divisible product of the machine tends to increase faster than wanting4 ,what advertizing cannot accomplish governments may undertake4 ,there are backward1 inert1 idle races that do not want much4 ,they are content to do with little4 ,it becomes therefore the diplomatic and military business of the powerful industrial governments to change the ways of such races4 ,they must be brought forward1 modernized1 electrified1 taught how to want more4 ,why8 ,in order that they shall be able to consume their quota of the machine's divisible product4 ,plenty shall be put upon them4 ,there is no limit to that blessing4 ,those who have it are anxious to share it1 must share it in fact1 in order to keep it for themselves1 under the principle that the cheapness of things is in proportion to the quantity produced4 ,the more the cheaper2 the fewer the dearer4 ,are you beginning to suppose that man has found what he sought8 ,since in this extraordinary manner he appears to have provided himself with plenty1 shall that dusty bundle of prayers be recalled or sent to the furnace8 ,as to his prayers1 they were never frank4 ,perhaps for that reason he should wish he had them back4 ,he prayed for plenty2 what he secretly associated with the thought of plenty was leisure--freedom from toil4 ,and once more he is disappointed1 thwarted by his own inventions4 ,plenty he has achieved4 ,toil he has not escaped4 ,the machine that was to have been a labour-saving device becomes an engine of production that must be served4 ,it is as if you could not save labour at all--as if you could make it only more productive1 thereby achieving an abundance of things with no effect whatever upon the necessity to perform monotonous labour4 ,all this labour-saving machinery we live with notwithstanding1 never were people more complaining of their tasks4 ,that might mean only that they were increasingly conscious of an abating evil2 but there is no certainty that the abatement even where it is noticeable is permanent4 ,the signs are otherwise4 ,in all material respects people are better off than ever before4 ,their bodies are more comfortable1 their minds are free from the terror of hunger1 they have much more to enjoy and consume and hope for1 because their labour is more richly rewarded in things4 ,see the amazing quantity and variety of things such as only the rich could once afford now circulating at the base of the human pyramid4 ,not necessaries only4 ,silks1 watches1 ornaments1 shoes like those of queens and ladies1 plated ware1 upholstered furniture1 soft beds1 besides things that were formerly non-existent and therefore beyond the reach of kings1 sultans and nabobs1 such as electric lights1 plumbing1 motor-cars4 ,in the ,united ,states a motor-car to every six persons6 ,and still no sign that the curve of human contentment is rising2 no sign that the curse of toil will ever be got rid of4 ,instead of saving labour the machine has multiplied it4 ,true1 the hours of industrial labour are fewer than they were1 e4g4 now eight where they were ten and twelve a day2 but this is merely to compare worse with better where better is1 and that is not everywhere4 ,for a proper contrast compare the industrial with the idyllic task4 ,even eight hours of labour a day continuously performed by the industrial worker represents a much greater sum of annual effort than his ancestor put into the soil4 ,consider also how the machine1 directly or indirectly1 has laid new work upon races hitherto naively existing in a state of nature4 ,the riddle is that industrial civilization1 having created to its unknown ends a race of mechanical drudges1 requires nevertheless a contribution of human toil more intense1 more exacting1 more irksome than ever4 ,as toil it is more productive--there is more to consume4 ,life has been expanded4 ,it is safer4 ,physically it is inconceivably richer4 ,was that the goal8 ,what else is gained8 ,you would think that when man had found a way to provide himself with artificial things in unlimited plenty and a way at the same time to spread the food supply evenly over the face of the earth1 the gift of universal peace might follow4 ,never was the peace more frail2 and this1 as we shall see--the frailty of the peace--is also a product of the machine4 ,what force is this by fumbling found that man has put in motion8 ,its pulsations he controls2 its consequences so far have controlled him1 and modern life has become so involved in a mechanical spiral that we cannot say for certain whether it is that we produce for the sake of consumption or consume for the sake of production4 ,,ii ,,the ,,machine ,,as ,,if ,either the machine has a meaning to life that we have not yet been able to interpret in a rational manner or it is itself a manifestation of life and therefore mysterious4 ,we have seen it grow4 ,we know it to be the exterior reality of our own ideas4 ,thus we are very familiar with it1 as with our arms and legs1 and see it in much the same way--that is to say1 imperfectly and in some aspects not at all4 ,certainly it would look very different if for a moment we could see it from an original point of view with the eye of new wonder4 ,fancy yourself a planetary tourist come visiting here1 knowing beforehand neither ,god nor man1 unable therefore to distinguish intuitively between their works4 ,would you not think the machine that spins silk threads by the ton from cellulose more wonderful than the silkworm similarly converting the mulberry leaf in precious quantities1 or a steel ship more amazing than a whale8 ,what of the mechanical beast with a colorless fluid in its tail and a flame in its nose that runs sixty miles an hour without weariness8 ,would it not seem superior in many ways to the horse that goes forty miles in a day and falls down8 ,suppose1 moreover1 that you know the tongue of men and are able to ask them questions4 ,you ask particularly about the automobile1 which you have mentally compared with the horse2 whereupon they take you to the factories in ,detroit to see the automobile in process of becoming1 under conditions of mass-production1 two or three taking life with a snort every minute4 ,in this factory1 they tell you1 they make only one hundred a day1 very fine ones2 but in another they make five hundred1 and in another five thousand a day4 ,you ask them who makes the horse4 ,they do not know4 ,they teach their children to say ,god makes it4 ,the horse is a natural thing4 ,then the automobile is an unnatural thing8 ,they say no1 smiling a little4 ,not an unnatural thing4 ,the automobile is a mechanical thing because they make it themselves4 ,you ask them why they say they make it4 ,at this they are distressed4 ,there has been some slip of understanding in the use of language4 ,they explain it carefully4 ,the horse is born4 ,there is no horse-factory4 ,the automobile is made1 as you have seen1 in factories4 ,still it is not explained4 ,you argue it with them4 ,what is it they do in the factory8 ,they perform certain acts in relation to automobiles4 ,these1 of course1 are necessary1 vital acts4 ,if they were not performed1 automobiles could not be4 ,and yet1 how does this prove they make automobiles8 ,you ask them4 ,they ask you to say what else it could prove4 ,you may say it proves only that they are fathers of automobiles2 and1 since they seem mystified greatly by this answer1 you remind them that in relation to their own children also they perform certain vital acts1 essential to beget them and without which children could not be1 yet they are never heard to say they make children4 ,they say children are born4 ,this has to be left as it is4 ,further explanations lead to worse confusion4 ,you ask them certain other questions4 ,how long have they been on the earth--themselves8 ,how long have they had machines8 ,what did they do before they had machines8 ,by their replies certain facts are established in your mind1 and from these facts you make certain deductions1 all clear enough to you but incomprehensible to them4 ,the facts are as follows3 ,people have been here on the earth a very long time1 millions of years they think4 ,machines they have had for only a very short time1 or1 as you now see them1 for only two generations4 ,before they had machines nearly everyone tilled the soil4 ,there was no industry save handicraft4 ,in the space of one hundred years these conditions have so remarkably changed that now only half the people are required to till the soil2 the other half live by industry4 ,this does not mean what you thought at first2 it does not mean that half the fields have been abandoned so that half the people might go into industry4 ,you are careful to get this straight1 for it is very important4 ,on the contrary1 since machines appeared whole new continents of land have been opened to cultivation4 ,this was necessary in order to feed the industrial workers who live in cities1 far off from fields1 and buy their food1 whereas formerly everyone generally speaking produced his own food1 even the people of what once were called cities going forth seasonally to till and reap the earth4 ,actually1 the number of people engaged in agriculture has greatly increased2 yet it is only half the population where before it was the whole of it4 ,what does this mean8 ,it means that since the advent of machines the human race has enormously increased in number2 it has so increased that the half of it which now is agricultural is greater than the whole of it was before4 ,the new1 non-agricultural half is the industrial part3 it is the part that serves machines4 ,this fact is so astonishing that you wish to verify it4 ,you ask them what would happen if all the machines in the world should vanish suddenly away4 ,their answer is that half the people living would perish in a week4 ,and that is what you thought4 ,what may you deduce from these facts8 ,first1 you will be amused that people are so nave as to think they make machines4 ,then you may say there are two kinds of people here1 agricultural and industrial4 ,the earth makes one kind2 machines make the other4 ,and you will feel as sure of this as if you had proved it to your senses when you have looked at a typical industrial city where people live densely in compacted habitations with no visible errand on earth but to run to and fro tending the machines that hum night and day in the factories4 ,those tall1 cylindrical1 erupting forms called smokestacks will appear to you as generative symbols4 ,if they were not there1 neither would the people be there4 ,not only would the people not be there4 ,they would be nowhere4 ,they could never have existed4 ,if the smokestacks disappeared1 so would all these people1 the industrial part of the population1 leaving only the agricultural part--the part belonging to the soil--as it was before4 ,as a planetary tourist1 you may be at least as certain these thoughts are true as men are that they are untrue2 and even if they were true that would make no difference really4 ,the problems are practical4 ,we must think of machines as machines act1 logically4 ,one difficulty is that whereas the machine is automatically1 unerringly logical1 and nothing else1 man has only a little logic2 he has1 besides1 emotions1 sentiments1 instincts4 ,in his unlogical character he has often opposed himself to the machine1 meaning to destroy it4 ,at the opening of the ,liverpool and ,manchester ,railway1 the first railroad in ,great ,britain and the first in the world1 the anti-machine feeling of ,british craftsmen was dramatically symbolized by a lone weaver seated at a loom on a high hill4 ,england was the industrial machine's first habitat on earth4 ,there fanatical men led mobs against it4 ,frail and clumsy as it was at first1 its life was indestructible4 ,and now man would not dare destroy it if he could4 ,his own life is bound up with it4 ,steadily it has grown more powerful1 more productive1 more ominous4 ,it has powers of reproduction and variation which1 if not inherent1 are yet as if governed by an active biological principle4 ,machines produce machines4 ,besides those from which we get the divisible product of artificial things1 there are machines to make machines1 and both kinds--7both the machines that make machines and those that transform raw materials into things of use and desire7--obey some law of evolution4 ,compare any kind of machine you may happen to think of with what its ancestor was only twenty-five years ago4 ,its efficiency has doubled1 trebled2 its shape has changed2 and1 as it is in the animal kingdom so too with machines1 suddenly a new species appears1 a sport1 a freak1 with no visible ancestor4 ,man's sense of material power within his environment has increased proportionately4 ,it is colossal4 ,benefits such as formerly he would have thought beyond supernatural agency if he could have imagined them at all he now confers upon himself4 ,more without end presents only technical difficulties4 ,no physical circumstance forbids him4 ,nevertheless the fact1 and only the more strange it is1 that for reasons which he names economic or political he seems powerless to inform the augmenting body of machine phenomena with a rational or benign spirit4 ,,iii ,,the ,,law ,,of ,,machines ,no longer do we speak of machines4 ,they are too numerous and too different4 ,we speak of industrial equipment1 which means machine-power in general4 ,as you may know1 the industrial equipment of the world is increasing by terrific momentum4 ,the machine is spreading over the face of the earth like an idea new truth4 ,and this is so notwithstanding the fact that the industrial equipment already existing in the world is so great that if for one year it were worked at ideal capacity the product could not be sold for enough to pay the wages of labour1 to say nothing of the cost of material1 overhead charges1 or profit4 ,markets would be glutted with goods4 ,producers would be ruined4 ,it follows that the pressing anxiety of industry is how to regulate and limit production in order not to overwhelm its markets4 ,its chronic nightmare is overproduction1 meaning a quantity of divisible products in excess of the immediate sum of effective desire4 ,hence combines1 pools1 rings1 cartels1 committees1 and associations of manufacturers1 which the courts are powerless to prevent even where they are forbidden by law4 ,these are a vital measure of mutual preservation4 ,yet they are but protocols of truce4 ,they very soon break down and have to be made all over again4 ,control of production1 save here and there for a little while1 is a myth4 ,it could be managed only in case there was a monopoly of machine-power4 ,once there was4 ,there is no longer1 and never will be again4 ,industrial production1 taking it broadly1 increases in an uncontrollable manner4 ,the evidence is notorious1 first in the efforts of national industry to increase the sale of goods in its own country1 and then in the strife among industrial nations for access to foreign markets4 ,a steam calliope jamming its way through the crowded street of ,new ,york ,city to advertize a new model of a popular motor-car at a reduced price is a spectacle to bear reflection4 ,it is a symptom of saturation in the home market4 ,when ,henry ,ford was making only a thousand cars a day1 he did not advertize4 ,there was a ready cash-demand for the whole of his product4 ,when his output passed five thousand cars a day1 he began to advertize on billboards and to sell on the instalment plan4 ,as the natural cash-demand for a thing is overtaken1 it begins to be pressed for sale on credit4 ,at this point finance steps in4 ,credit companies with millions of capital are formed expressly for the purpose of lending buyers the money with which to buy4 ,desire shall be made effective4 ,selling on credit in this manner has latterly and suddenly assumed such proportions as to represent in the affair of business a new pattern4 ,some old-fashioned minds have been debating it as an evil4 ,they attack it on the ground that it betrays the virtue of thrift4 ,but thrift has ceased to be a virtue4 ,to consume--to consume more and more progressively--to be able to say in the evening 8,i have consumed more to-day than ,i consumed yesterday01 this now is a duty the individual owes to industrial society4 ,for see what would happen if people all over the world should return of a sudden to the former ways of thrift--to the habit of doing without8 ,there would be depression in industry4 ,machines would stop4 ,millions who tend them would be disemployed4 ,nothing would be safe1 not even your own money1 for there would be panic on the exchange and trouble at the bank4 ,one is not speaking of the ,united ,states alone4 ,the multiplication of things is greater here than anywhere else because we make machines faster and work them harder2 but you will find the same necessity acting also in ,france1 the very cradle of thrift1 where now cheap motors are sold on credit3 anyone who will buy may borrow the money to buy with4 ,why is this in ,france8 ,to stimulate the motor habit8 ,to serve a private profit-motive8 ,the habit will follow2 the profit may4 ,but there is another reason1 touching foreign trade1 which we are coming to elucidate4 ,in order to sell abroad1 an industrial nation must be able to produce cheaply4 ,to produce cheaply1 it must produce in large quantities by a multiple method called mass-production4 ,and you can safely manage this mass-production only provided you have a fairly large and constant base of domestic demand4 ,so the sale of ,french motor-cars in ,france1 though it be on credit1 must be large enough to support the method of mass-production1 for otherwise ,france would be unable to meet the competition of ,ford1 who now exports motor-cars to ,europe--even builds them there4 ,then the ,british manufacturers1 to meet the competition of both ,france and ,ford1 also undertake against their genius to produce motor-cars by the quantity method1 and1 having achieved the method1 their next dilemma is what to do with the product4 ,they advertize at home to create a popular motor-car habit and at the same time press their cars for sale in foreign markets1 even in ,france and ,germany1 as these countries press theirs for sale in ,great ,britain4 ,competition among industrial nations to exploit one another's internal markets is but one profile of all that dangerous activity taking place in the name of foreign trade4 ,the industrial powers holding their feet in ,china's doorway and ,france fighting the native in ,morocco are other aspects of the same thing4 ,china so long as possible shall be an open market for the surplus product of western machines2 there shall be more wanting in ,morocco4 ,the industrial equipment of the world meanwhile goes on increasing1 though it is already so great that its capacity cannot be fully utilized4 ,in the ,united ,states alone there is probably enough surplus machine-capacity to satisfy the whole demand of ,great ,britain's foreign customers for staple merchandise1 such as textiles1 iron and steel manufacturers1 rubber tires1 motor-cars1 electrical apparatus1 machinery1 glass1 garments1 shoes1 cutlery1 and so on4 ,great ,britain not only has a surplus of machine-power2 she has besides an excess of man-power represented by say one and one-quarter millions unemployed4 ,she could easily take on the entire foreign trade of ,france2 but in ,france also there is a surplus of machine-power4 ,both ,great ,britain and ,france dread the competition of ,germany1 whose production of goods with her existing equipment could be increased1 under incentive1 nobody knows how much4 ,the exterior facts do not make sense4 ,they represent industry to be witless1 in that1 while dreading surplus as the evil that devoureth profit1 it is at the same time bent to push supply to a point beyond saturation4 ,industry does not do this4 ,necessity does it4 ,there is an interior fact4 ,the tendency of the divisible product of machines to exceed the sum of effective desire is the last thing that industry wishes for4 ,it is owing to a principle hitherto mentioned1 namely1 the principle that the cheapness of things is in proportion to the quantity produced4 ,which now is to be explained4 ,it is the economic function of the machine to cheapen production4 ,there is otherwise no point to it4 ,but1 if we say things are more cheaply made by machine than by hand1 we speak very loosely4 ,what we mean is that a quantity of things is more cheaply made by machine than by hand4 ,for example1 the cost of a single yard of cloth produced by machine is hundreds of times greater than the cost of a single yard of it produced by hand4 ,obviously1 the power-loom is a very costly piece of machinery to build1 and so is the engine that drives it4 ,if you produced on a power-loom only the amount of cloth a weaver could make by hand1 nobody could afford to buy it4 ,but when you produce on the power-loom a quantity of cloth one hundred times greater than a weaver can make by hand1 then1 of course it is much cheaper4 ,and the more you produce the cheaper it is4 ,so with anything4 ,the greater the quantity1 the lower the cost4 ,hence the terms quantity1 or mass-production1 meaning1 first1 to standardize the product1 as to make it all black1 all one texture1 all one width or shape1 and then to bring a chain of machine-power continuously to bear upon its multiple production4 ,observe the working of this principle4 ,take watches4 ,at one time they were made by hand1 slowly1 laboriously1 in stances being not uncommon of a craftsman spending half his lifetime to make a very fine one4 ,under these conditions watches are rare and costly4 ,only the very rich can buy them4 ,suddenly they began to be made by machines4 ,a very good watch can be made for fifty dollars4 ,there are a million people who want watches at that price4 ,this is an original demand1 a kind of vacuum1 represented by a million people who have never had watches and now for the first time may possess them4 ,watches cannot be made fast enough to meet this want4 ,the industry1 for that reason1 expands very fast4 ,then all at once the demand is satisfied4 ,the million have watches4 ,the vacuum has been filled4 ,hereafter the demand will tend to be static3 it will increase slowly as the population increases or as people in general grow richer1 little by little4 ,the watch-making industry1 therefore1 is depressed4 ,it has to limit production4 ,now comes someone with the idea that by carrying the machine method further a watch can be made for ten dollars4 ,there are twenty million people who can afford to buy watches at that price4 ,the ten-dollar watch appears4 ,the demand again is like a vacuum1 twenty times greater than the first4 ,for a while ten-dollar watches cannot be made fast enough4 ,the makers of fifty-dollar watches throw away their old machines1 install new ones1 increase their production1 reduce their costs1 and not only make what was a fifty dollar watch for twenty-five but contribute also1 in a competitive manner1 to the supply of ten-dollar watches4 ,suddenly what happened before happens again4 ,the twenty million have watches4 ,the vacuum is filled4 ,then someone says3 8,but there are one hundred million who would buy watches at two dollars04 ,so the process is repeated1 still lower in the pyramid4 ,the two-dollar watch is not a fine watch1 but it will keep time2 and as you would know1 with the improvement that has taken place in machine practice the cost of making any kind of watch1 even the finest1 has been greatly reduced4 ,a watch ceases to be a luxury or a token of caste4 ,it is a necessary part of man's personal equipment1 all the way down to the base of the pyramid4 ,there you have the cycle4 ,the use of the machine is to cheapen the cost of production4 ,the sign is quantity4 ,when the supply at a given price has overtaken the effective demand you have either to idle your machinery1 in which case your cost of production will rise1 or open a wider demand at a lower price4 ,to lower the price and keep a profit you have to cheapen the cost of production still more4 ,this you can do only by increasing the quantity1 which again overtakes the demand1 creating again the same necessity to cheapen the cost by increasing the quantity in order to be able to make a lower price for greater demand4 ,thus supply pursues demand1 downward through the social structure4 ,there is at last a base to the pyramid--its very widest point4 ,when that is reached--what8 ,well1 then you need bazaars in a foreign sun1 heathen races of your own to train up in the way of wanting the products of your machines1 new worlds of demand4 ,you turn to foreign trade4 ,and if you are an aggressive country that has come late to this business1 as ,germany was1 and find that most of the promising heathen races are already adopted and that all the best bazaar-sites are taken1 you may easily work yourself into a panic of fear and become a menace to the peace4 ,,iv ,,who ,,mind ,,them ,,or ,,starve ,what is it you will fear8 ,that you will be unable to sell away the surplus product of your machines8 ,that industry will be unable to make a profit8 ,no4 ,the fear is that you will starve4 ,your machines have called into existence millions of people who otherwise would not have been born--at least1 not there in that manner4 ,these millions who mind machines are gathered in cities4 ,they produce no food4 ,they produce with their machines artificial things that are exchanged for food4 ,it is usually the case1 too1 that they have to buy the raw materials on which their machines act1 as ,great ,britain buys raw cotton from the ,united ,states and ,egypt1 and wool from ,australia1 to feed her great textile industries2 having manufactured this material1 she sends it forth again as cloth1 to be exchanged for wheat in ,canada or beef in ,south ,america4 ,as you begin with machines your population divides4 ,it becomes part rural and part industrial1 and so long as the rural part of it can feed the industrial part there is no trouble4 ,but a time soon comes when the need of the industrial workers for sustenance is greater than the native production of food4 ,this time inevitably comes because the machines call up people so rapidly4 ,then you have to look abroad for food4 ,that means you have to go into other countries--peasant-countries--where there is a surplus of meat and grain1 and exchange there your manufactured goods for food4 ,and you begin to think and speak of your economic necessity4 ,there is no such necessity really4 ,to assert it is to say a preposterous thing1 namely1 that when your industrial population has increased beyond the native food-supply1 to a point at which you are out of balance1 you are obliged to import food so that your industrial population may continue to increase and your cities to grow and your necessity to become greater and greater in an endless spiral4 ,it cannot be endless4 ,one of two things will determine the sequel4 ,either presently the resources of those peasant-nations that produce a surplus of food will be exhausted or they will in time think to become industrial nations1 too1 and eat their own surplus4 ,there is no lucid reason why a population should not disperse as it begins to exceed the native food-supply--that is to say1 migrate to the sources of food4 ,in this new political dogma of an absolute economic necessity to import food and raw materials in exchange for manufactures the ancient myth-wish reappears4 ,the machine does not abolish the curse of toil4 ,it was not the escape men sought4 ,but it does create a preferred task4 ,traditionally1 the peasant-task has been despised3 it bore the curse direct4 ,and1 when the machine made it possible for many to embrace instead what was deemed the lesser affliction of industrial labour gregariously performed in cities1 the impulse thereto was headlong4 ,hence the rise of that angular phenomenon called the industrial nation--a nation able to buy its food1 therefore delivered from the fate of peasantry and for that reason entitled to consider itself of higher caste than agricultural nations4 ,hence the tumescent city as one of the most alarming appearances of our time4 ,hence1 also1 that idea of economic necessity1 which1 getting control of the political mind of ,europe1 inevitably involved the world in a machine-war4 ,what made that war so terrifying1 so destructive1 so extensive1 was the power of the machine--an inconceivable power except as it disclosed itself from day to day4 ,no one beholding the event from a firmamental point of view could have supposed it was a war between races of men4 ,man in contrast with the machines he served was pitifully insignificant4 ,in ,germany the task of bending the country's industrial equipment to the uses of war was assigned to a man who possessed one of the very brilliant ,jewish minds in the world4 ,in him were combined the three high characteristics of his race1 which are loyalty1 intellectual realism1 and dreaming imagination4 ,his practical job was more complex than that of the ,chief of ,staff4 ,yet his mind was not wholly occupied with this care4 ,his critical faculties and his imagination were always free4 ,reflecting on the economic meaning of the war1 he was led to examine the essential character of international trade1 and so perceived clearly how wasteful1 preposterous1 and dangerous a great deal of it was--,germany pressing the surplus product of her machines for sale in ,great ,britain1 the ,british doing likewise in ,germany1 both competing at home and abroad with the industrial surplus of the ,united ,states1 ships passing on the seas with cargoes of similar goods endlessly duplicated1 and all the machine-craft nations seeking peasant-nations to be exploited for food in exchange for manufactures4 ,it was true in this way the world had been growing richer in things1 and yet the cost was frightful4 ,the resort to force was a confession that international trade was bankrupt in reason and understanding4 ,he was competent to reach a conclusion standing himself at the head of one of ,europe's great industries4 ,and he made a dream4 ,it was that1 when the war had come to an end and people were themselves again1 they would see the vital importance to civilization of dividing among them the work of the world agreeably to their special aptitudes and the facts of environment--those to produce a surplus of whatever it was they had a genius for making and the materials ready2 these others another kind of thing in which their skill and situation gave them an advantage2 and so on through the whole series of natural and artificial things with which human wants are satisfied4 ,thus duplication and strife would be eliminated4 ,not only would there be enough of everything3 from the elimination of senseless waste in private and public war there would be a saving of power and capital sufficient to water all the deserts of the earth and recreate man's vistas here4 ,as a dream1 it was most alluring4 ,as a plan it was worthless1 for it contained two fatal assumptions1 namely1 that you could always find a ,solomon to administer it and that people would submit to the benevolent tyranny of his wisdom4 ,he himself was destined by his end to illustrate how people really behave4 ,shortly after the close of the war he was murdered in the name of fanatic nationalism4 ,it was a sign4 ,the war released a flood of repressed passions in nationalism4 ,great and small groups of submerged people asserted rights of self-determination and clothed themselves with frontiers and nationhood4 ,nearly all of these1 together also with old countries whose character until then had been agricultural1 were concurrently seized with the thought of economic independence--that is to say1 with the thought of having machines and industries of their own1 for they had seen a new thing4 ,industrial nations and none other were powerful in the world4 ,nations without machines were helpless1 subject1 in fact1 to those that had them4 ,enormously stimulated in its function of reproduction by the onset of this human idea1 the machine broke bounds4 ,no one now has any control of it4 ,only a few years ago ,great ,britain alone controlled it4 ,she had a monopoly of its power and use by right of having been the first to develop it1 and she was for a while the only nation having a large surplus of manufactures to sell in foreign countries4 ,then came ,germany1 ,france1 and ,belgium4 ,of these ,germany was ,great ,britain's most aggressive rival1 making nearly all of the same things and most of them cheaper4 ,after #ahgj the ,united ,states developed industry very fast but for twenty years more her exports were principally agricultural because she herself consumed the entire product of her machines1 besides importing manufactured goods from ,europe in exchange for meat and grain and raw cotton4 ,it was not until about #ahij that ,american machine-products began to invade the markets of the world in a large way4 ,and at about the same time ,japan appeared as an industrial nation1 having in a few years equipped herself with ,western machines and trained her imitative hand to mind them4 ,such1 roughly1 was the economic state of the world at the outbreak of the ,war4 ,the powerfully industrialized nations were four in ,europe1 counting little ,belgium2 one in the ,west2 and one in the ,east--six altogether1 representing hardly more than one-fifth of the world's total population4 ,if we regard only the countries where the industrial population had so outrun the native food-supply that the sale of manufactures in foreign lands to pay for food had either become1 or was believed to be1 a vital transaction1 then we count out the ,united ,states4 ,this country is still self-nourished4 ,that leaves only five1 and the competition among these five for markets1 for colonies1 and heathen tribes to be instructed in wanting1 for private pathways by land and sea to the sources of food1 for access to the raw materials required by their machines1 was already desperate and dangerous4 ,between two of them it was deadly4 ,even then it was so4 ,since then the machine has multiplied tremendously where its habitat was and has gone migrating1 besides1 all over the earth4 ,in those six countries that were already intensively industrialized what appears8 ,their machine equipment has greatly increased4 ,during the ,war it increased for obvious reasons4 ,god was on the side of the most machines4 ,since the ,war it has continued to increase for other reasons4 ,one reason was peculiar to ,germany4 ,there the building of furnaces1 factories1 and machine-works by a dynastic method1 as the pyramids were built1 without credit or gold1 simply by command of the industrialists over labour and material1 was a way of baffling the ,allied creditors4 ,another reason was peculiar to ,france4 ,restoring the industries of the devastated regions meant building them a second time1 since they had been already once reproduced elsewhere in ,france during the ,war4 ,but the reason over all lay in that fixed idea of economic necessity1 not changed in the least by anything that had happened1 only now more desperate than ever1 owing both to the intensified competition of the older countries among themselves and to the spread of the machine into other countries4 ,how the competition among themselves has been intensified may be illustrated in the case of textiles as between ,great ,britain and ,france4 ,before the ,war both imported raw cotton and exported fabrications of cotton2 but1 whereas ,great ,britain exported principally the cotton cloth of universal commerce1 ,france exported special products representing her genius for style and artistry4 ,now1 however1 having made large additions to her general textile equipment1 ,france feels obliged to compete directly with ,great ,britain in cotton-cloth of common commerce4 ,to do this she must extend her foreign trade parallel to ,great ,britain's and divide the markets hitherto dominated by the ,british4 ,as with cotton-cloth1 so with other manufactures1 particularly those of iron and steel1 wherein ,france proposes to compete and is equipped to compete with both ,germany and ,great ,britain as never before4 ,each step she takes in this direction augments her economic necessity1 for now almost the last thing you would expect to see in ,france is taking place4 ,the native population as a whole is static1 but its character is changing4 ,the industrial part of it is growing2 the agricultural part is waning4 ,people are deserting the fields to embrace industrial life--to mind machines4 ,in every city there is a housing problem2 public credit is employed to build small dwellings for the wage-earners2 yet in the country1 two hours from ,paris1 you will see houses empty and going to ruin1 whole rural villages in the way to be abandoned1 vineyards perishing for want of care1 fields going to grass instead of grain4 ,their industrial power is rising2 their agricultural power is falling4 ,before the ,war they were1 or might have been1 self-nourishing on their own soil like the people of the ,united ,states4 ,that precious security they cast away4 ,in place of it they take on the anxieties of empire4 ,they must impose upon ,morocco the blessings of ,european civilization in order to have an outlet there for the surplus of their machines4 ,dramatic are the migrations of the machine and not unlike the migrations of natural species1 men and beasts1 in search of food4 ,the machine seeks either cheaper raw material or people to mind its processes4 ,there is ,italy1 with a population greater than that of ,france1 growing half-a-million a year4 ,it is the most fecund race in ,europe4 ,suddenly the ,italians wake up and are resolved upon an industrial career4 ,before the ,war this thought was dim among them4 ,in the crisis it took shape4 ,since the ,war it has become an enthusiasm1 and now smoke-towers are rising very fast4 ,definitely they have turned their minds from agriculture to industry1 not merely in order that they may become self-supplied with manufactures instead of buying them from other countries with lemons and olive oil1 but in order to grow rich and powerful in foreign trade4 ,they propose hereafter and progressively to exchange machine-wares for food4 ,italy will be a formidable rival for ,great ,britain1 ,germany1 ,france1 and ,belgium1 who are already beginning to feel it4 ,poland perceives her destiny to be industrial3 she has already a large surplus of manufactured goods to sell4 ,likewise ,czechoslovakia4 ,these are instances of new countries4 ,spain and ,greece are importing machinery1 and ,spain is so anxious to develop industry that she considers paying a bounty out of the public treasury on exports of textiles4 ,india1 whose historic economic function had been to send raw cotton to ,great ,britain and buy cotton cloth from ,manchester1 now consumes half her own raw cotton in her native mills2 she not only satisfies three-quarters of her own want for cotton cloth but is beginning actually to export that commodity1 even to the ,united ,states4 ,this will seem very wasteful1 indeed1 when you pause to set it against the historical background of the ,united ,states4 ,for a long time we exported raw cotton and imported cotton cloth4 ,that was to have been the pattern of our economic life as a ,british colony2 we were to produce only raw materials1 ship them to ,great ,britain and buy from her the surplus of her machines4 ,we were forbidden1 in fact1 to weave cloth for sale or to have iron mills4 ,now we are an industrial nation2 we consume more and more of our own raw cotton and export enormous quantities of cotton cloth4 ,ultimately we shall have no raw cotton at all to sell2 our mills will require the whole of our annual crop2 we shall have nothing but cotton cloth to sell4 ,to whom shall we sell it8 ,not to the ,indians2 they wish to make their own4 ,probably not to the ,egyptians4 ,the ,japanese manufacturers of cotton goods have recently invaded the ,egyptian market that was formerly ,great ,britain's own1 and are underselling the ,british there4 ,you would think ,china would be ,japan's natural outlet for cotton goods4 ,so it is4 ,the difficulty is that ,japan must be looking further because ,china is beginning to supply herself4 ,the ,chinese instance is poignant4 ,a few years ago--until the ,war1 in fact--,china exported food and raw materials and imported manufactured goods--nothing else to speak of either way4 ,this was as the ,western industrial nations wished it to be4 ,so anxious were they to have it so that they bound ,china by treaty not to put tariff barriers against the goods they wished to sell in the ,chinese markets1 except by mutual consent--that is to say1 with their consent4 ,the ,war suspended this thraldom4 ,the ,chinese imported machines and began to make their own things1 especially cloth4 ,power-looms appeared as by magic4 ,and after the ,war1 they continued to appear4 ,during three years after the ,war the number trebled1 and in #aibb1 the table of ,chinese imports and exports presented a strange face4 ,among her imports were machines and machine-parts2 also semimanufactured goods to be finished in ,chinese factories4 ,and one-fifth of her total exports consisted of manufactured goods4 ,china an exporter of machine products6 ,and so up and down the earth4 ,in ,brazil1 where there was hardly any visible production of artificial things before #aiad1 the whole outlook has changed4 ,that country is now able from her own machines to meet the whole of her want for matches1 textiles1 footgear1 wallpaper1 phonograph-discs1 hardware1 hats1 and playing cards1 and will soon be self-supplied with practically everything she needs4 ,the ,colonial ,system that was to have answered forever ,great ,britain's need for raw materials and food in exchange for machine-products will not hold in that character4 ,in ,india the revolt is political2 elsewhere it is peaceably economic4 ,canada is already powerfully machined2 she is exporting motor-cars4 ,australia1 going in the same direction1 is beginning to export shoes4 ,the ,union of ,south ,africa takes steps to subsidize local industry4 ,ireland no sooner gains control of her economic life than she puts a tariff-wall around herself to limit the sale of foreign goods1 meaning ,british goods as well1 thinking thereby to foster infant industries4 ,well1 everyone now is doing that4 ,the old industrial countries1 too1 are protecting themselves against one another's goods1 the last to come to it being ,great ,britain herself4 ,for more than half-a-century she was the protagonist of free trade1 abhoring tariffs1 because she was paramount in machine-craft and could beat her rivals both in their own markets and in her own4 ,that advantage having departed from her1 she is driven to tariff-protection3 she puts up barriers against other people's goods if they are too cheap1 because they are too cheap1 and calls it ,safeguarding ,home ,industries4 ,v ,,the ,,paradox ,,of ,,surplus ,what does it mean8 ,can there be too many desirable and useful things8 ,can things be too cheap8 ,you would say ,no4 ,surely1 so long as any human want remains unsatisfied1 things cannot be either too plentiful or too cheap8 ,but there is another dimension4 ,everything that is not still or dead must exist in a state of rhythmic tension4 ,it is true of the plant1 it is true of the animal1 it is true of each race of plants and each race of animals1 it is true of the kingdom of plants against the kingdom of animals4 ,it is true of people1 as individuals1 as races1 as a species4 ,and it is true1 also1 of the machine4 ,in the living organism growth of tissue at a normal rate consonant with the rhythm is vital4 ,a wild growth of that same tissue will be fatal4 ,in the aggregate of life there is equilibrium among millions of different forms1 each form striving but never succeeding and is possessing every other form and taking the world4 ,the oyster1 if unhindered1 would displace every other living thing on the earth in maybe ten generations1 and then1 of course1 perish for want of space in which to contain itself4 ,what hinders the oyster and at the same time preserves it is that principle of tension in nature1 without which it would be impossible for innumerable forms and varieties of life1 the relations of which to one another are reciprocal1 neutral1 hostile1 anonymous1 to exist together all in one great taut pattern4 ,now regard the third kingdom1 artificial1 implanted with mechanical beasts1 that contains civilization4 ,life in this environment is economic4 ,its characteristic behaviour is a progressive differentiation of labour4 ,tasks are divided and subdivided until1 at length1 there are countless separate groups of people1 each one performing a singular function to which it is trained and tending to become unable to perform any other4 ,the subdivisions are beyond enumeration4 ,they multiply so fast that the book of the census cannot keep up with them4 ,the shoe-industry1 for example1 does not consist in shoemakers4 ,you might search it in vain for a shoemaker--that is1 one who should know how to raise a pair of shoes from flat leather4 ,in the shoe factory the material passes through a train of machines4 ,each machine is minded by an operative who performs one little specialized part of the work in endless repetition4 ,the product is shoes by thousands of gross4 ,but who determines what kinds of shoe and how many shoes shall be made8 ,what becomes of them when they are made8 ,who knows they can be sold8 ,what if they are not saleable8 ,if you address these questions to one of the operatives minding a machine you will find him dumb4 ,he knows only his own function4 ,it is very complicated4 ,there are two industries here4 ,one is the shoe-industry2 the other is the shoe-machine industry4 ,one could not exist without the other1 yet they are separate and very unlike4 ,the shoe-industry itself1 that has dispensed with shoemakers1 will have a finance department1 an economic department1 a buying department1 a department of production science1 a style and designing department1 a chemical department1 a department of distribution1 a sales department1 an advertizing department1 and others we do not think of4 ,it is all about shoes4 ,these are all shoe people4 ,they agglomerate in shoe towns4 ,they think shoes4 ,the world is a foot4 ,the more it can be shod the better4 ,they live by shoes4 ,but to do this they must be able to exchange shoes for the things they want4 ,shoes1 therefore1 must have a relation of value to every other thing in the economic world4 ,it follows that1 in order to have this exchange-value1 shoes must have also a relation of quantity to all other things4 ,if for any reason the production of shoes becomes suddenly abnormal that exchange-value is lost4 ,it is like one kind of tissue growing wild in the organism4 ,shoes are necessary2 but an excessive quantity cannot be absorbed by the economic body4 ,there will be in that case a morbid pathology in the shoe-industry1 unemployment in the shoe town1 despair among the shoe people1 many of whom have never learned to do anything else4 ,left to themselves1 without shoes to make1 they might even starve4 ,it may be in the same way a soap town1 a textile town1 a garment town1 an iron town1 a motor town like ,detroit1 a rubber-tire town like ,akron1 a furniture town like ,grand ,rapids4 ,it may be all of these--that is to say1 industry as a whole1 increasing its output at an abnormal rate4 ,as you project the thought you begin to see1 first1 the vital importance of rhythm1 equilibrium1 tension1 in the realm of industry1 and then the inverse meaning of a sudden competitive increase in the machine-power of the world4 ,ask the ,italians what it means4 ,they are an old people coming to it with a fresh mind4 ,the conversation that follows took place in ,february1 #aibe4 ,talking are1 on one side1 the ,italian ,minister of ,finance1 and on the other1 a visiting journalist3 8,the industrial idea is new in ,italy4 ,it is since the ,war4 ,you had a clean slate4 ,you could have done anything you had the imagination to do4 ,first you might have made a scientific survey of ,italy's latent genius and resources1 and then you might have thought of producing goods that should be uniquely ,italian and therefore non-competitive4 ,but what have you done8 ,you have gone in for the great staples of world commerce1 such as cotton and woollen textiles1 artificial silk1 and motor-cars4 ,don't you see that in doing this you take on the competition of ,great ,britain1 ,germany1 ,france1 ,belgium1 the ,united ,states80 8,yes1 we see that40 8,those countries have the field and the experience and better access than ,italy to sources of raw material40 8,that we know1 also40 8,then how can you hope successfully to compete with them8 ,what have you that they have not8 ,what advantage against theirs80 8,one you haven't thought of40 8,what is it80 8,a man can live on less in ,italy than anywhere else4 ,we don't know why that is4 ,it may be the way the sun shines on him4 ,but it is a fact4 ,that is our advantage4 ,with that we shall succeed40 8,do you realize what that means8 ,you are saying that ,italy proposes to found an industrial career on the lowest terms of human existence4 ,your people will not accept it40 8,but they will40 8,how do you know they will80 8,because they will do anything sooner than starve40 ,what a finish for the morning hope of the machine-age6--if it were4 ,monotonous tending of the machine on the lowest standard of living2 alternative1 starvation4 ,suppose it were true4 ,suppose the ,italian people did accept the terms and acquired the knack and skill4 ,then ,italian manufactures1 being cheaper than any other1 would sweep the markets of the world4 ,the older industrial nations--,great ,britain1 ,germany1 ,france1 the ,united ,states1 et al4--could protect their domestic markets by tariff-barriers1 but they would find themselves losing their foreign markets to the ,italians4 ,for such industrial countries as are obliged to exchange a machine-surplus abroad for food the loss of foreign markets would be fatal4 ,they would have to meet the ,italian competition4 ,they would have to say1 as the ,italians now are saying3 8,it is that or starve40 ,they would have to let down the standard of living to meet ,italy's wage-cost4 ,this would oblige ,italy to make her standard lower still1 and thus1 in a cycle1 until all of them were sunk in misery4 ,and this is by no means an impossible progression of events4 ,it has once taken place on a lesser scale4 ,beginning about #ahgj1 there was a sudden and uncontrollable increase in the output of industry from two principal causes4 ,one was the rapid rise of competitive industry in ,germany and the ,united ,states2 the other--much more potent--was the discovery of a new and cheaper way of making steel4 ,this one discovery transformed the aspect of industry by increasing its potential power as much1 perhaps1 as one-hundred fold4 ,until then people spoke of the iron age2 after that it was the steel age4 ,for a quarter of a century prices fell continuously1 while solemn economic bodies sat pondering the phenomenon4 ,in that time all the capital employed in industry was lost at least once1 probably twice or three times4 ,the producer's only hope was to improve his machines and increase production1 for as he did that his cost per unit fell and for a little while he could undersell his competitor4 ,in methods of production and in the efficiency of machines there was necessarily amazing progress2 nevertheless1 when all other means of reducing costs had failed1 it had to be taken out of labour4 ,in the ,united ,states it was not so bad because here the domestic demand for manufactures was unlimited1 and a tariff-wall protected industry from foreign competition4 ,in ,germany it was very bad4 ,germany then was where ,italy now is4 ,her advantage was that the ,german people would work harder and longer for less money than the ,british4 ,the competition was between these two4 ,the ,british ,government1 disturbed by her new rival's success in foreign trade1 made a study of labour conditions in ,germany4 ,it found ,sunday labour very prevalent in the factories4 8,only the hours of divine service are excluded01 said a report from ,saxony4 ,commenting1 ,the 7,london7 ,economist said3 8,the question of ,sunday labour is one of considerable interest for ,england1 for it is unquestionable that among the causes of ,germany's ability to compete with ,england as a mercantile and industrial country the fact that here more hours are worked for less money is not the least important4 ,the prohibition of ,sunday labour would1 of course1 mean increased cost of production1 and every increase in the cost of production will render it more difficult for ,germany to outrival older manufacturing countries in the markets of the world40 ,what might have happened does not detain us4 ,what did happen was very fortunate4 ,first1 the food-supply from free virgin land in ,north and ,south ,america increased at the same time in a prodigious manner1 so that1 notwithstanding the wild energy of the machine1 the equilibrium between agriculture and industry was fairly well maintained4 ,second1 there was still room in the world for colonial development on a vast scale4 ,this occurred1 and the outlets thereby created for the surplus product of machines were most timely4 ,third--and this is very important--finance1 to save itself from deluge1 got control of industry4 ,it was unable to buy industry out4 ,all the banks in the world had not money enough to do that4 ,this apparently insuperable difficulty it solved in a simple manner4 ,it formed industry by groups into great joint-stock corporations and sold the stock to the public4 ,and1 although generally finance did not keep control in a literal sense1 it did so centre it as to make the management responsive thereafter to financial counsel4 ,the classic instance in the ,united ,states was the formation of the ,steel ,trust1 which was in very earnest a measure of desperation4 ,the steel-making machine had become a demon whose pastime was panic4 ,by this feat of finance1 which occurred in all industrial countries1 a new rhythm was established4 ,it was most imperfect3 absolute control of production was impossible4 ,but panics from overproduction were thereafter episodic1 not continuous1 and this was a great improvement4 ,and now a second time the machine has got away4 ,but how much more powerful it is and widely planted than before4 ,the industrial capacity of the ,united ,states alone is greater than that of all ,europe twenty-five years ago4 ,there are no more such virgin continents as ,north and ,south ,america to be exploited for food2 and1 besides1 countries that were then content to play an agricultural part1 exchanging meat and grain and raw materials for machine-made wares1 now are resolved to have industries of their own--nay6 more1 to have an industrial surplus for sale abroad1 engaging in that game themselves4 ,colonies are no longer docile4 ,and as to finance1 there is little probability that it will be able again to lay its hand upon the throttle4 ,there are several reasons why4 ,the significance of industry has changed4 ,formerly it was a private affair in which the ,state was but dimly concerned1 and so concerned only in a social sense1 whereas now the idea of industry is basically political4 ,it associates with thoughts of security independence in all circumstances1 national welfare1 power1 and grandeur4 ,a factory is like a ship to be privately enjoyed in time of peace1 subject to mobilization for war4 ,the ,war did that4 ,great ,britain now subsidizes so-called key-industries as before she subsidized ships under the eye of the ,admiralty if they were so built as to be easily converted into cruisers4 ,all this is beyond the control of finance4 ,for another reason1 there are signs that industry in the future is more likely to command finance than finance is to dominate industry4 ,by finance it shall be understood that we mean organized influence--in short1 banking4 ,its occult authority has been seriously impaired4 ,the high day of its priestcraft is gone4 ,formerly it was consulted in war4 ,you could not manage a war without a gold-chest3 it was the banker who said whether that could be filled or not4 ,now one of the first steps you take in case of war is to suspend the bank1 declare a moratorium1 and print paper money to pass from hand to hand4 ,when the ,world-,war started it was the opinion of finance that it could not last above ninety days3 it could not be financed beyond that limit4 ,it lasted four years and did not stop then for want of money4 ,after the ,war international finance was morally powerless to prevent the colossal mark swindle1 ,germany printing and selling all over the earth billions of paper marks that were to be flatly repudiated4 ,nor was it able to visit the slightest penalty upon the authors of this financial enormity1 for immediately afterwards it was obliged1 on political grounds1 to float a large gold loan for ,germany and thereby restore her to solvency and credit4 ,in ,germany finance was unable to prevent the industrial dynasts from appropriating to themselves all the middle-class wealth that was invested in bonds1 mortgages1 annuities1 and savings banks3 they simply borrowed it and then paid it back in worthless paper money4 ,it is very significant this humiliation of finance4 ,in situations where the political will is dominant and in those where economic forces act alone the omens are the same4 ,henry ,ford is the extraordinary instance of an industrialist who proceeds without benefit of finance4 ,he creates his capital as he goes along2 what he does not create he commands4 ,he does not borrow4 ,,vi ,,in ,,peril ,,of ,,trade ,so now what will happen8 ,from the excessive power already existing to produce industrial commodities1 from the continued increase of that power nevertheless for political and national reasons1 from the raising of trade-barriers by one nation against another because every one fears the effect upon its own industries of receiving cheap goods from another1 from this running of people out of the fields to tend more machines1 from the amazing growth of urban tissue in the economic body--from all of this what follows8 ,the ,italians suggest a bitter competition in terms of living1 those to survive who will accept most patiently and at the lowest wage the drudgery of minding machines4 ,that might go rather far2 ultimately it comes to absurdity4 ,to whom at last should they sell their goods8 ,not to the impoverished workers of other industrial countries1 defeated in the struggle4 ,to whom else8 ,to the agricultural countries8 ,but these1 for the reasons we have seen1 are tending as such to disappear4 ,they are buying machines4 ,italy brings nothing to the solution4 ,she is merely coming tardily to do what others have done to excess4 ,a brilliant ,belgian economist suggests that only the most efficient equipment will survive1 and only enough of that to satisfy the natural demand for goods4 ,all the rest must be abandoned because there will be no profit in working it4 ,well1 it remains to be seen if people will abandon their machines without a struggle1 purely for rational reasons4 ,much more is it likely that the higher cost of working the less efficient equipment will be compensated by a lower wage-rate1 unemployment being the workers' alternative4 ,moreover1 if all the inefficient and unnecessary machines were scrapped that would mean only postponement of the sequel4 ,the competition would begin all over again4 ,there are those who suggest that we are facing toward the mercantile system of the ,middle ,ages1 when it was the custom for each nation jealously to protect its home-market from the competitive handicrafts of other nations1 and to prohibit or punitively tax the exportation of raw material to rival countries4 ,so we are4 ,to say it is merely to indicate the rock upon which1 if nothing happens1 the ship of trade is bound to wreck herself4 ,a growing light on the actions of trade as it is organized by the industrial powers now impels nations hitherto agricultural to found industries of their own4 ,as producers of foodstuffs and raw materials to be exchanged for machine-products they came to have a sense of being exploited4 ,in academic theory this was an exchange by which the industrial nation satisfied its food wants and the agricultural nation its industrial wants1 to mutual advantage4 ,but how came the industrial nation also to acquire wealth by the transaction8 ,performing the preferred industrial task1 it got not only its food but a profit over4 ,what else could it mean but that after a series of years the industrial nation should come to have large interest-bearing investments in the agricultural country1 owning its railroads1 tramways1 water works1 and banks8 ,what else could it mean but that the richest country in foreign investments was the one that had been for the longest time engaged in exchanging the surplus product of its machines for the food and raw materials of other countries8 ,how was it that those other countries1 after having served her for many years with food and raw materials1 invariably owed her a great deal of money8 ,or1 if you approach it from the other point of view1 you find in the economic literature of industrial nations a certain finished doctrine1 which is that the exchange of manufactured goods for food and raw materials is a business that pays4 ,it is not primarily a vital transaction4 ,it becomes vital by extension--that is to say1 when in the course of time the industrial population has increased beyond the native food supply4 ,but in the beginning the motive is gain4 ,nakedly1 it is an exchange of skilled labour for unskilled labour1 to the enrichment of the former2 it is a division of labour among nations on a kind of caste plan4 ,there is much to be said for it4 ,in no other way could civilization have been spread so fast2 by no other method could the world have become so rich in a few years4 ,there was much to be said1 also1 for piracy4 ,it diffused1 manners1 customs1 and wealth2 it made peoples acquainted with one another2 it made a flat world round and laid the foundations of modern commerce4 ,in the modern case all difficulty begins when the peoples to whom the less profitable tasks have been allotted become intelligently dissatisfied and resolve to change their status1 as the ,american colonists did1 as the ,japanese did1 as now all lusty nations are doing1 last of all the ,chinese4 ,modern trade evolved from piracy4 ,there was a time when all transfer of goods between nations was by joyous might4 ,it is pleasant to believe that the cause of the decline of piracy was a rise in the moral sense of mankind4 ,it is more likely to have been the other way--that as piracy declined for rational reasons rules to govern commercial conduct became necessary4 ,to enforce the rules became everyone's duty4 ,to break them was punishable4 ,from this would germinate a moral sense4 ,piracy was bound to fail4 ,on a large scale1 continuous and competitive1 it simply was not feasible4 ,competition ruined it4 ,there was a marginal time in which one was either pirate or trader1 agreeably to circumstance4 ,the early ,greek in his dangerous ship never knew which he was2 nor did anyone else4 ,he took when the taking was good2 when it was not1 he bartered4 ,the ,romans finally abolished piracy in the ,mediterranean1 but on the high seas it was the great romantic enterprize down to a very recent time4 ,some of its heroes are venerated as daring navigators1 pathbreakers of empire4 ,it takes some effort to remember that trees are still standing that were already old when the world was a place where finding was keeping4 ,if what you found was in the possession of savages or heathens1 you exchanged for it the hope of civilization1 maybe a few glass beads4 ,toward the end1 this wonderful business began to be hedged about with restrictions4 ,you had to be careful not to take anything forcibly from people who had treaties of amity with your own country1 for if you did they made trouble for you at home1 diplomatically1 and you might even be hanged at the end of an otherwise glorious voyage4 ,but if you swindled them in trade1 that was all right4 ,naturally1 the first theory of trade was to give the least and get the most4 ,there was else no point to it4 ,the significance of trade has fundamentally changed in our time4 ,what was a private adventure has become a national necessity1 vital to the existing form of the principal industrial states of the world4 ,and yet that first rude theory of it1 representing the step from piracy to commerce1 universally survives4 ,this1 at last1 is the crucial fact4 ,it has been impossible to part with the notion that there must be gain in trade--a profit on one side beyond the mutual satisfaction of unlike wants with unlike goods4 ,hence the term1 balance of trade1 meaning the balance in your favour1 or against you1 from the transactions of commerce4 ,the rule is that the industrial nations come out each year with a balance in their favour4 ,the countries with whom they have been exchanging machine-made goods for food and raw materials owe them money4 ,this simply means that the industrial nations charge more for what they sell than they pay for what they buy4 ,hence the gain4 ,that is how they get rich4 ,it is more than a rule3 it is the very principle of trade2 and if you say there is any other principle the commercial mind becomes instantly stark4 ,what would activate trade if not the hope of gain8 ,nevertheless1 trade on that principle is bound to fail1 as piracy failed1 and for the same practical reason4 ,on a vast scale1 with unlimited participation1 it is not continuously feasible4 ,every nation cannot have a favourable trade-balance4 ,so long as three or four nations had a monopoly of machines and machine-craft1 it could be managed2 it could even assume such colossal proportions as to create the illusion of being permanent as the way of the world4 ,that monopoly is broken4 ,the machine is increasingly a common possession4 ,its power is dispersed1 and there is much new and unbidden ecstasy in the exercise of it4 ,and whereas it was that a few nations exploited many1 what now opens to view is the prospect of all nations simultaneously engaged in the effort to exploit one another4 ,every frontier a trade wall4 ,each nation forbidding others to do unto it that which it is bent upon doing to them4 ,so we return to the middle of the sixteenth century1 no wiser than the ,british were when the ,parliament voted ,an ,act ,avoiding ,divers ,foreign ,wares ,made by ,handicraftsmen ,beyond the ,seas 7#e ,eliz4 c4 #g1 ,statutes of the ,realm1 ,vol4 ,,iv1 ,part ,i1 pp4 #dbh-dbi71 #aefb4 ,it reads3 ,whereas heretofore the artificers of this realm of ,england 7as well within the city of ,london as within other cities1 towns1 and boroughs of the same real7 that is to wit1 girdlers1 cutlers1 saddlers1 glovers1 point-makers1 and such like handicraftsmen1 have been in the said faculties greatly wrought1 and greatly set on work1 as well for the sustentation of themselves1 their wives1 and families1 as for a good education of a great part of the youth of this realm in good art and laudible exercise3 ,yet notwithstanding so now it is1 that by reason of the abundance of foreign wares brought into this realm from the parts of beyond the seas1 the said artificers are not only less occupied1 and thereby utterly impoverished1 the youth not trained in the said sciences and exercises1 and thereby the said faculties and the exquisite knowledges thereof like in short time within this realm to decay2 but also divers cities and towns within this realm of ,england much thereby impaired1 the whole realm greatly endamaged and other countries greatly enriched4 ,for reformation whereof1 be it enacted by our sovereign lady the ,queen's ,highness1 and by the ,lords ,spiritual and ,temporal1 and the ,commons of this present parliament assembled and by the authority of the same1 that no person or persons whatsoever1 from or after the feast of the ,nativity of ,st ,john ,baptist now next ensuing1 shall bring or cause to be brought into this realm of ,england from the parts of beyond the seas1 any girdles1 harness for girdles1 rapiers1 daggers1 knives1 hilts1 pummels1 lockets1 chapes1 dagger-blades1 handles1 scabbards1 and sheaths for knives1 saddles1 horseharness1 stirrups1 bits1 gloves1 points1 leather laces1 or pins1 being ready made or wrought in any parts of beyond the seas1 to be sold1 bartered1 or exchanged within this realm of ,england or ,wales2 upon pain to forfeit all such wares so to be brought contrary to the true meaning of this act1 in whose hands soever they or any of them shall be found1 on the very value thereof4 ,shall it be either this again1 or from a universal war of machine-competition the survival of one titanic industrial nation with a monopoly of foreign trade and the might to force its surplus goods on other people's markets8 ,that nation would fall in time and not altogether from its own weight4 ,it would1 of course1 abuse its power2 but1 moreover1 it would be unable to collect its favourable trade-balances from all the rest of the world4 ,logical extremes are fictions of thought4 ,it is always another thing that happens4 ,the one impossibility is for trade to wear in its present character4 ,it has come to the end of its theory1 witness the dread with which ,european statesmen1 economists1 and industrialists regard the payment of ,german reparations4 ,how shall ,germany pay8 ,in goods4 ,there is no other way4 ,she cannot pay in gold4 ,there is not that much gold in the whole world4 ,the ,allied creditors actually lend her a little gold in order that she may recover from her amazing act of bankruptcy and get back to the way of producing exportable wealth4 ,but to whom shall she deliver her goods1 or sell them8 ,great ,britain does not want them4 ,her anxiety is how to keep her own factories going4 ,they make the same goods4 ,france does not wish them1 nor ,belgium1 nor ,italy1 nor the ,united ,states1 and all for the same reason4 ,they have a potential surplus of industrial commodities from their own machines4 ,then shall ,germany sell her goods in other markets and turn the money proceeds over to ,great ,britain1 ,france1 et al8 ,but they themselves need those other markets on which to sell their own industrial products4 ,german competition is not wanted there4 ,thus an impasse4 ,if1 in desperation1 the ,allied creditors forgave ,germany her reparation debt1 or so much of it as she should be obliged to pay in competitive goods1 that would be still worse4 ,for ,germany would then compete in those other markets on her own initiative and keep the profit4 ,and all the time those other markets1 in ,asia1 ,africa1 ,south ,america1 tend to become less and less exploitable because they belong to people who have begun to found industries of their own and are in the way to be natively supplied with manufactures4 ,,vii ,,dim ,,vistas ,,new ,it must occur to you that what the world requires to find is a new conception of commerce among nations--one that shall be free of the predatory impulse1 above the exploiting motive1 competitive in some nobler sense4 ,it need not be magnanimous or unselfish--not yet2 but only enlightened enough to comprehend the latter meaning of events4 ,for a superseding principle the perfect pattern is represented in nature1 where you see dissimilar organisms existing together in a state of symbiosis1 one sustaining the other1 vitally interdependent1 yet neither exploiting the other4 ,there is no accrual of advantage to one side1 no gain1 no favourable balance of trade4 ,one gives exactly as much as it receives and two wants are equally satisfied1 with nothing to boot either way4 ,this is very different from parasitism1 which is one-sided1 for gain only4 ,and there is a very curious suggestion that organisms now existing together in a state of permanent symbiotic union were once parasitic and learned better4 ,it cannot be supposed that nations will ever deliberately substitute a principle of mutualism for the principle of gain in trade4 ,they could not if they would4 ,those that have the advantage must fight for it to the end4 ,commerce itself1 if you look to it1 is a complex structure of growth for which there is nowhere any original accountability4 ,it cannot change its philosophy1 any more than a tree1 for it has none4 ,it has instead a vital instinct for opportunity and a flexible way with necessity and circumstance4 ,there is no hope of its being reformed ideally by mass intelligence4 ,the conglomerate mind is irresponsibly1 impersonally selfish2 it cannot act without experience4 ,there is no experience of peoples sustaining one another on a sympathetic plan1 each willing to give as much as it takes1 with no balance favourable or unfavourable to be settled in gold or debt4 ,this has never happened4 ,it is an idea only4 ,but if now we move our point of view from the centre to the circumference1 we shall see already taking place1 with the force of natural events1 momentous alterations in the scheme of economic life--one of decay and one of revaluation4 ,we witness almost unawares the ruin of that classic enterprise of empire which is founded upon the theory of a balance of trade and a division of labour whereby the colonies1 the dominions1 the subject and mandated peoples are hewers1 drawers1 and food-bringers1 serving those who live in cities1 practise machine-craft1 and think themselves wholly benevolent4 ,the machine has betrayed it4 ,nothing more unexpected has occurred since the discovery of a simple chemical reaction that was to destroy the privileged warrior-caste among mankind4 ,when a splendid knight in armour was powerless against the peasant with a musket and a knight with a musket no better than a peasant1 the romantic profession of arms was doomed4 ,gunpowder ended the age of chivalry4 ,ultimate military power passed to the people4 ,and now for hundreds of millions of people hitherto inferior in status the machine is a symbol of liberation1 freedom1 independence1 recognition1 racial power4 ,japan is the thrilling example in ,asia4 ,did it not deliver her from a thraldom imposed by the ,western ,powers in the interest of their own trade8 ,did it not make her in one generation their equal1 a nation to be feared8 ,certainly for these reasons use and possession of the machine will increase in the world beyond any natural economic ratio1 and both the power and profit of empire will cease4 ,the other alteration1 already beginning to be visible though not yet adequately understood1 is a change in the value of food4 ,three causes henceforth will be operating together to make food dear4 ,first1 as cities continue to grow and the industrial population of the earth continues to augment faster than the agricultural population1 the need to import food will be always greater2 second1 the exportable surplus of food will be always less because as the agricultural and low-craft nations progress toward their ideal of industrial independence they will consume more and more of their own food products2 and third1 the supply of those industrial commodities that are exchanged for food will enormously increase4 ,in the language of the economist1 the agricultural index will rise and the industrial index will fall4 ,it will require a greater quantity of manufactures to buy a bushel of wheat2 fewer bushels of wheat to buy a manufactured article4 ,this will not be for one year or two4 ,it will be lasting4 ,it will affect the status of great groups and classes of people4 ,in the cities and industrial centres the cost of living will move in a vertical manner4 ,the difficulties of food-importing countries may1 almost certainly will1 become desperate4 ,the people of ,great ,britain1 for example1 will pay dearly for the wealth they have amassed by industry in the last seventy-five years4 ,if the value of food1 priced in ,british machine-wares1 should double1 then for the same quantity of food as before they would have to give twice the quantity of manufactured goods1 which would mean twice as much labour and no more to eat4 ,the same difficulties will beset all countries not self-contained in food4 ,they will exhort their people to return to the fields1 which the people will be loth to do1 having tasted cities4 ,they will expect their governments to make food cheaper by edict1 or to buy it out of taxation and distribute it gratis4 ,moreover1 in some countries1 taking again the case of ,great ,britain as notable1 there may not be enough land4 ,the people perhaps could not feed themselves no matter how intensively they worked their fields1 industry having multiplied the population beyond the utmost potentiality of a native food supply4 ,obviously indicated is a movement of dispersal together with a limitation upon the increase of industrial population4 ,more power will pass to countries1 like the ,united ,states1 ,canada1 ,brazil1 and ,australia1 that have the advantage of enormous food-reserves4 ,their problems will be internal4 ,none of this can happen without much blind and violent resistance4 ,but1 of course1 it will not happen all at once1 not all in one place1 nor in every case with a clear meaning4 ,and it is not certain that any amount of experience1 however painful1 will bring nations to adopt what we have called a symbiotic principle of commerce with one another4 ,there is at first the danger that agriculture in its turn will exploit industry as industry has exploited peasantry and that those who possess or control resources of food and raw materials will hold them too dear1 thereby taking the industrial nations into their debt or provoking them to insane measures4 ,thus the opportunity to go forward might be lost in passion4 ,the fate of retrogression is possible4 ,this has happened many times4 ,it is much less probable than ever before1 however1 for many reasons that seem permanent4 ,when knowledge was a precious torch borne aloft by a few hands through storm and stress1 it was easily quenched4 ,then darkness4 ,you can hardly imagine destruction of the existing body of science1 technology1 and fact-knowledge4 ,the mass of it is too great to be lost4 ,that1 of course1 has nothing to do with wisdom4 ,by knowledge alone man might extinguish himself utterly4 ,but to suppose that he will not find a new way to go on with1 that he will either move the old struggle to new ground or return to medievalism1 is to believe there is no law of human progress4 ,the probability is that he will find the way unknowingly1 by groping1 and will be well upon it before he has had time to formulate any clear idea or theory of what he is doing4 ,he will have found little by little that it pays1 better than any other way1 not as he once understood profit1 but in terms of enduring satisfactions1 which may include peace4 ,critical understanding of it will come later with reflection1 and as it comes he will rid his mind of the phantasy in pursuit of which he has made the world so much richer in things than in happiness4 ,seeing now only how relentlessly the curse pursued him still and how the affliction of monotonous toil if it be lifted in one place is made heavier in another1 he is torn with a sense of frustration4 ,but the view is wrong--false to his first nature4 ,he forgets the truth of his own myth4 ,somewhere down the ages it got turned upside down4 ,once he dwelt in the ,garden of ,eden1 or supposed he did1 and cared not for it4 ,he was bored there and beguiled to his fall4 ,the figure at the gate forbidding his return is a symbol of self-knowledge2 it was set there by his own forethought1 lest he should be tempted to go back4 ,if the machine with which he has believed himself to be storming a childish wish ever brought him to a state of effortless ease on earth1 that would be his last4 ,it may be a power he is yet morally unprepared to exercise4 ,how strange at least that with an incentive so trivial and nave in itself he should have been able to perform an absolute feat of creation6 ,the machine was not4 ,he reached his mind into emptiness and seized it4 ,even yet he cannot realize what he has done4 ,out of the free elemental stuff of the universe1 visible and invisible1 some of it imponderable1 such as lightning1 he has invented a class of typhonic1 mindless organisms1 exempt from the will of nature4 ,we have no understanding of creation1 its process or meaning4 ,the machine is the externalized image of man's thoughts4 ,it is furthermore an extension of his life1 for we perceive as an economic fact that human existence in its present phase1 on its present scale1 could not continue in its absence4 ,and what are we ourselves1 life to begin with1 if not an image of thought8 ,perhaps it is true as a principle of creation that the image and its creator must co-exist1 inseparably4 ,in any light1 man's further task is ,jovian4 ,that is to learn how best to live with these powerful creatures of his mind1 how to give their fecundity a law and their functions a rhythm1 how not to employ them in error against himself--since he cannot live without them4 ,each1 pott #hvo1 #b_/f net ,occasionally illustrated ,,to-,,day ,,and ,,to-,,morrow ,this series of books1 by some of the most distinguished ,english thinkers1 scientists1 philosophers1 doctors1 critics1 and artists1 was at once recognized as a noteworthy event4 ,written from various points of view1 one book frequently opposing the argument of another1 they provide the reader with a stimulating survey of the most modern thought in many departments of life4 ,several volumes are devoted to the future trend of ,civilization1 conceived as a whole2 while others deal with particular provinces1 and cover the future of ,woman1 ,war1 ,population1 ,clothes1 ,wireless1 ,morals1 ,drama1 ,poetry1 ,art1 ,sex1 ,law1 etc4 ,it is interesting to see in these neat little volumes1 issued at a low price1 the revival of a form of literature1 the ,pamphlet1 which has been in disuse for #bjj years4 ,published by ,,kegan ,,paul1 ,,trench1 ,,trubner ,,co41 ,,ltd4 ,broadway ,house3 #fh-gd ,carter ,lane1 ,london1 ,e4,c4#d ,,to-,,day ,,and ,,to-,,morrow ,,volumes ,,ready ,daedalus1 or ,science and the ,future4 ,by ,j4 ,b4 ,s4 ,,haldane1 ,reader in ,biochemistry1 ,university of ,cambridge4 ,sixth impression4 8,a fascinating and daring little book40--,westminster ,gazette4 8,the essay is brilliant1 sparkling with wit and bristling with challenges40--,british ,medical ,journal4 8,predicts the most startling changes40--,morning ,post4 ,callinicus1 a ,defence of ,chemical ,warfare4 ,by ,j4 ,b4 ,s4 ,,haldane4 ,second impression4 8,mr4 ,haldane's brilliant study40--,times ,leading ,article4 8,a book to be read by every intelligent adult40--,spectator4 8,this brilliant little monograph40--,daily ,news4 ,icarus1 or the ,future of ,science4 ,by ,,bertrand ,,russell1 ,f4,r4,s4 ,fourth impression4 8,utter pessimism40--,observer4 8,mr4 ,russell refuses to believe that the progress of ,science must be a boon to mankind40--,morning ,post4 8,a stimulating book1 that leaves one not at all discouraged40--,daily ,herald4 ,what ,i ,believe4 ,by ,,bertrand ,,russell1 ,f4,r4,s4 ,second impression4 8,one of the most brilliant and thought-stimulating little books ,i have read--a better book even than ,icarus40--,nation4 8,simply and brilliantly written40--,nature4 8,in stabbing sentences he punctures the bubble of cruelty1 envy1 narrowness1 and ill-will which those in authority call their morals40--,new ,leader4 ,tantalus1 or the ,future of ,man4 ,by ,f4 ,c4 ,s4 ,,schiller1 ,d4,sc41 ,fellow of ,corpus ,christi ,college1 ,oxford4 ,second impression4 8,they are all 7,daedalus1 ,icarus1 and ,tantalus7 brilliantly clever1 and they supplement or correct one another40--,dean ,inge1 in ,morning ,post4 8,immensely valuable and infinitely readable40--,daily ,news4 8,the book of the week40--,spectator4 ,cassandra1 or the ,future of the ,british ,empire4 ,by ,f4 ,c4 ,s4 ,,schiller1 ,d4,sc4 8,we commend it to the complacent of all parties40--,saturday ,review4 8,the book is small1 but very1 very weighty2 brilliantly written1 it ought to be read by all shades of politicians and students of politics40--,yorkshire ,post4 8,yet another addition to that bright constellation of pamphlets40--,spectator4 ,quo ,vadimus8 ,glimpses of the ,future4 ,by ,e4 ,e4 ,,fournier ,d',,albe1 ,d4,sc41 author of 8,selenium1 the ,moon ,element10 etc4 8,a wonderful vision of the future4 ,a book that will be talked about40--,daily ,graphic4 8,a remarkable contribution to a remarkable series40--,manchester ,dispatch4 8,interesting and singularly plausible40--,daily ,telegraph4 ,hephaestus1 the ,soul of the ,machine4 ,by ,e4 ,e4 ,,fournier ,d',,albe1 ,d4,sc4 8,a worthy contribution to this interesting series4 ,a delightful and thought-provoking essay40--,birmingham ,post4 8,there is a special pleasure in meeting with a book like ,hephaestus4 ,the author has the merit of really understanding what he is talking about40--,engineering4 ,lysistrata1 or ,woman's ,future and ,future ,woman4 ,by ,,anthony ,m4 ,,ludovici1 author of 8,a ,defence of ,aristocracy01 etc4 8,a stimulating book4 ,volumes would be needed to deal1 in the fullness his work provokes1 with all the problems raised40--,sunday ,times4 8,pro-feminine1 but anti-feministic40-- ,scotsman4 8,full of brilliant common-sense40--,observer4 ,hypatia1 or ,woman and ,knowledge4 ,by ,,mrs ,,bertrand ,,russell4 ,with a frontispiece4 ,second impression4 ,an answer to ,lysistrata4 8,a passionate vindication of the rights of women40--,manchester ,guardian4 8,says a number of things that sensible women have been wanting publicly said for a long time40--,daily ,herald4 8,everyone who cares at all about these things should read it40--,weekly ,westminster4 ,thrasymachus1 the ,future of ,morals4 ,by ,c4 ,e4 ,m4 ,,joad1 author of 8,common-,sense ,ethics10 etc4 8,his provocative book40--,graphic4 8,written in a style of deliberate brilliance40--,times ,literary ,supplement4 8,as outspoken and unequivocal a contribution as could well be imagined4 ,even those readers who dissent will be forced to recognize the admirable clarity with which he states his case4 ,a book that will startle40--,daily ,chronicle4 ,the ,passing of the ,phantoms3 a ,study of ,evolutionary ,psychology and ,morals4 ,by ,c4 ,j4 ,,patten1 ,professor of ,anatomy1 ,sheffield ,university4 ,with #d ,plates4 8,readers of ,daedalus1 ,icarus and ,tantalus1 will be grateful for an excellent presentation of yet another point of view40--,yorkshire ,post4 8,this bright and bracing little book40-- ,literary ,guide4 8,interesting and original40--,medical ,times4 ,the ,mongol in our ,midst3 a ,study of ,man and his ,three ,faces4 ,by ,f4 ,g4 ,,crookshank1 ,m4,d41 ,f4,r4,c4,p4 ,with #bh ,plates4 ,second ,edition1 revised4 8,a brilliant piece of speculative induction40--,saturday ,review4 8,an extremely interesting and suggestive book1 which will reward careful reading40--,sunday ,times4 8,the pictures carry fearful conviction40--,daily ,herald4 ,the ,conquest of ,cancer4 ,by ,h4 ,w4 ,s4 ,,wright1 ,m4,s41 ,f4,r4,c4,s4 ,introduction by ,f4 ,g4 ,,crookshank1 ,m4,d4 8,eminently suitable for general reading4 ,the problem is fairly and lucidly presented4 ,one merit of ,mr4 ,wright's plan is that he tells people what1 in his judgment1 they can best do1 here and now40--,from the ,introduction4 ,pygmalion1 or the ,doctor of the ,future4 ,by ,r4 ,,mcnair ,,wilson1 ,m4,d4 8,dr ,wilson has added a brilliant essay to this series40--,times ,literary ,supplement4 8,this is a very little book1 but there is much wisdom in it40--,evening ,standard4 8,no doctor worth his salt would venture to say that ,dr ,wilson was wrong40--,daily ,herald4 ,prometheus1 or ,biology and the ,advancement of ,man4 ,by ,h4 ,s4 ,,jennings1 ,professor of ,zoology1 ,johns ,hopkins ,university4 8,this volume is one of the most remarkable that has yet appeared in this series4 ,certainly the information it contains will be due to most educated laymen4 ,it is essentially a discussion of 444 heredity and environment1 and it clearly establishes the fact that the current use of these terms has no scientific justification40--,times ,literary ,supplement4 8,an exceedingly brilliant book40--,new ,leader4 ,narcissus3 an ,anatomy of ,clothes4 ,by ,,gerald ,,heard4 ,with #ai illustrations4 8,a most suggestive book40--,nation4 8,irresistible4 ,reading it is like a switchback journey4 ,starting from prehistoric times we rocket down the ages40--,daily ,news4 8,interesting1 provocative1 and entertaining40--,queen4 ,thamyris1 or ,is ,there a ,future for ,poetry8 ,by ,r4 ,c4 ,,trevelyan4 8,learned1 sensible1 and very well-written40--,affable ,hawk1 in ,new ,statesman4 8,very suggestive40--,j4 ,c4 ,squire1 in ,observer4 8,a very charming piece of work4 ,i agree with all1 or at any rate1 almost all its conclusions40--,j4 ,st4 ,loe ,strachey1 in ,spectator4 ,proteus1 or the ,future of ,intelligence4 ,by ,,vernon ,,lee1 author of 8,satan the ,waster10 etc4 8,we should like to follow the author's suggestions as to the effect of intelligence on the future of ,ethics1 ,aesthetics1 and ,manners4 ,her book is profoundly stimulating and should be read by everyone40--,outlook4 8,a concise1 suggestive piece of work40--,saturday ,review4 ,timotheus1 the ,future of the ,theatre4 ,by ,,bonamy ,,dobr,e1 author of 8,restoration ,drama10 etc4 8,a witty1 mischievous little book1 to be read with delight40--,times ,literary ,supplement4 8,this is a delightfully witty book40--,scotsman4 8,in a subtly satirical vein he visualizes various kinds of theatres in #bjj years time4 ,his gay little book makes delightful reading40--,nation4 ,paris1 or the ,future of ,war4 ,by ,captain ,b4 ,h4 ,,liddell ,,hart4 ,a companion volume to ,callinicus4 8,a gem of close thinking and deduction40--,observer4 8,a noteworthy contribution to a problem of concern to every citizen in this country40--,daily ,chronicle4 8,there is some lively thinking about the future of war in ,paris1 just added to this set of live-wire pamphlets on big subjects40--,manchester ,guardian4 ,wireless ,possibilities4 ,by ,professor ,a4 ,m4 ,,low4 ,with #d diagrams4 8,as might be expected from an inventor who is always so fresh1 he has many interesting things to say40--,evening ,standard4 8,the mantle of ,blake has fallen upon the physicists4 ,to them we look for visions1 and we find them in this book40--,new ,statesman4 ,perseus3 of ,dragons4 ,by ,h4 ,f4 ,,scott ,,stokes4 ,with #b illustrations4 8,a diverting little book1 chock-full of ideas4 ,mr4 ,stokes' dragon-lore is both quaint and various40--,morning ,post4 8,very amusingly written1 and a mine of curious knowledge for which the discerning reader will find many uses40--,glasgow ,herald4 ,lycurgus1 or the ,future of ,law4 ,by ,e4 ,s4 ,p4 ,,haynes1 author of 8,concerning ,solicitors10 etc4 8,an interesting and concisely written book40--,yorkshire ,post4 8,he roundly declares that ,english criminal law is a blend of barbaric violence1 medieval prejudices1 and modern fallacies4444 ,a humane and conscientious investigation40--,t4,p4's ,weekly4 8,a thoughtful book--deserves careful reading40--,law ,times4 ,euterpe1 or the ,future of ,art4 ,by ,,lionel ,r4 ,,mccolvin1 author of 8,the ,theory of ,book-,selection40 8,discusses briefly1 but very suggestively1 the problem of the future of art in relation to the public40--,saturday ,review4 8,another indictment of machinery as a soul-destroyer 444 a gloomy prospect1 but ,mr4 ,colvin has the courage to suggest solutions40--,westminster ,gazette4 8,this is altogether a much-needed book40--,new ,leader4 ,birth ,control and the ,state3 a ,plea and a ,forecast4 ,by ,c4 ,p4 ,,blacker1 ,m4,c41 ,m4,a41 ,m4,r4,c4,s41 ,l4,r4,c4,p4 ,just published4 ,a discussion of the arguments for and against ,birth ,control1 considered from the personal1 social1 and international aspects1 and in its bearings upon the future4 ,summing up in its favour1 the author contends that the only adequate solution rests in the hands of the medical profession throughout the world4 ,atlantis1 or ,america and the ,future4 ,by ,colonel ,j4 ,f4 ,c4 ,,fuller4 8,many hard things have been said about ,america1 but few quite so bitter and caustic as these40--,daily ,sketch4 8,the whole of ,america as his subject4 ,he can conjure up possibilities of a new ,atlantis1 controlled by the gods2 but he requires a few centuries for the communication40--,clarion4 ,midas1 or the ,united ,states and the ,future4 ,by ,c4 ,h4 ,,bretherton1 author of 8,the ,real ,ireland10 etc4 ,a companion volume to ,atlantis4 8,full of astute observations and acute reflections 444 this wise and witty pamphlet1 a provocation to the thought that is creative40--,morning ,post4 8,packs a punch in every paragraph4 ,one could hardly ask for more #8meat'40--,spectator4 ,nuntius1 or the ,future of ,advertising4 ,by ,,gilbert ,,russell4 8,another booklet which looks wisely on the world of to-morrow4 ,the future of advertising is very sanely considered here4 ,we are heartily in agreement with the main thesis40--,spectator4 8,a thoughtful little book40--,daily ,sketch4 ,pegasus1 or ,problems of ,transport4 ,by ,colonel ,j4 ,f4 ,c4 ,,fuller1 author of 8,the ,reformation of ,war10 etc4 ,with #h ,plates4 8,the foremost military prophet of the day propounds a solution for industrial and unemployment problems4 ,it is a bold essay 444 and calls for the attention of all concerned with imperial problems40--,daily ,telegraph4 8,with a broad imaginative grasp he finds the solution of unemployment in #8tracked' vehicles40--,westminster ,gazette4 8,right up to the high standard of the rest of this series40--,clarion4 ,,ready ,,shortly ,artifex1 or the ,future of ,craftsmanship4 ,by ,,john ,,gloag1 author of 8,time1 ,taste1 and ,furniture40 ,after a suggestive sketch of the history of craftsmanship1 the author examines the possibilities in the use of machinery to extend craftsmanship and make beautiful articles of commerce4 ,plato's ,american ,republic4 ,by ,j4 ,d4 ,,woodruff4 ,a series of witty dialogues in the ,platonic manner dealing with aspects of ,american life and manners4 ,sybilla1 or the ,future of ,prophecy4 ,by ,c4 ,a4 ,,mace1 ,university of ,st4 ,andrew's4 ,an examination of the possibilities of scientific forecasting1 with special reference to certain volumes in this series4 ,orpheus1 or the ,future of ,music4 ,by ,w4 ,j4 ,,turner1 author of 8,music and ,life40 ,,in ,,preparation ,ouroboros1 or the ,mechanical ,extension of ,mankind4 ,by ,,garet ,,garrett4 ,machine civilization has filled the world with its products4 ,what will happen when markets are over-flooded8 ,gallio1 or the ,tyranny of ,science4 ,by ,j4 ,w4 ,n4 ,,sullivan1 author of 8,a ,history of ,mathematics40 ,an attack on the values which science is so successfully imposing upon civilization4 ,mercurius1 or the ,world on ,wings4 ,by ,c4 ,,thompson ,,walker4 ,a brilliant picture of the world as it will be when inevitable developments in aircraft take place4 ,the ,future of the ,english ,language4 ,by ,,basil ,,de ,s,,lincourt1 author of 8,the ,english ,secret10 etc4 ,an analysis of the present condition of the ,english language and the paths along which it is progressing4 ,the ,future of ,architecture4 ,by ,,christian ,,barman1 editor of 8,the ,architects' ,journal40 ,a survey of the condition of architecture and developments to be expected in the future4 ,delphos1 or the ,future of ,international ,language4 ,by ,e4 ,,sylvia ,,pankhurst4 ,caliban1 or the ,future of ,industrial ,capitalism4 ,by ,,hilaire ,,belloc4 ,the ,future of ,futurism4 ,by ,,john ,,rodker4 ,the ,future of ,films4 ,by ,,francis ,,betts4 ,transcriber's ,notes pg #cc ,changed3 ,it is a sympton of saturation to3 ,it is a symptom of saturation pg #cg ,changed3 costly piece of machinary to build to3 costly piece of machinery to build pg #eh ,changed3 ,it is true of people1 as indivuals to3 ,it is true of people1 as individuals pg #ei ,changed3 never succeeding ind is possessing to3 never succeeding and is possessing pg #fe ,changed3 ,for a quarter of a century prices feel continuously to3 ,for a quarter of a century prices fell continuously pg #fe ,changed3 while solemn ecomomic bodies to3 while solemn economic bodies pg #fe ,changed3 economic bodies sat pondering the phenomenom to3 economic bodies sat pondering the phenomenon pg #gf ,changed3 ,to enforce the rules bcame everyone's duty to3 ,to enforce the rules became everyone's duty pg #gf ,changed3 ,from this would germinate a moral sensel4 to3 ,from this would germinate a moral sense4 pg #ha ,changed3 whose hards soever they or any of them shall be found to3 whose hands soever they or any of them shall be found pg #hc ,changed3 much of it as she she should be obliged to3 much of it as she should be obliged pg #h ,changed3 requires a few centuries for the communation to3 requires a few centuries for the communication