Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/30

 16 THE AMERICA* JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

lion of the glob r that this condition is likely to

prove continuing.

A scientific survey of the food-producing capacity of the earth, even with little if any enhancement of the present supply of labor, makes it evident that the present supply might be largely increased, possibly doubled, within the scope of existing

I. Startling though the thought may be, the statement depends for its verification on a few simple and universally conceded facts. We know now that the most productive por- tions of the earth's surface are as yet practically undeveloped. It is asserted by the highest authorities that the tropical regions of Africa and South America alone could supply food sufficient for the whole world. At present only an insignificant amount of what is actually consumed is derived from these regions.

The productive capacity of the agricultural laborer has been increased five, probably ten times, since the days of Malthus, by improved mechanical appliances, by the discovery of new meth- ods of cultivation and the use of better fertilizers. Taken alto- gether, it seems beyond question that one-tenth of the labor required to supply the world's demands for food one hundred years ago would easily meet an equivalent demand today.

The use of steam and electricity in transportation, which has reduced in an equal or greater ratio the amount of labor required for handling and marketing the products of the soil, has in effect enhanced available production by preventing waste, and has reduced consumption by substituting non-consuming motors for the innumerable hosts of draft animals formerly an essen- tial feature of transportation.

The effect of decrease of consuming labor is especially noticeable in this matter. It is easily demonstrable that the food- consuming capacity of the force needed to move the crops of the great West to the seaboard by existing instrumentalities, includ- ing the labor necessary to mine the coal, make and keep in order the railways, and manufacture the machinery, is not one-twentieth, probably not one fiftieth, of that which would have been required under the conditions prevailing a century ago. It has been