Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/35

 THE REVERSAL OF MALTHUS 21

labor by increasing the area of non-productive labor, as applied to the construction of roads and other public works. It is prob- able that both these methods will be employed in the solution of the problem. But, as Malthus counted legislative and govern- mental restriction on the natural tendency of the human family to increase in numbers a matter of secondary importance, relying more on the moral and ethical obligations to improve the common lot that rest with individuals, so in the solution of our problem, so far as it may be solvable by human effort, the chief hope lies in a modification, if not a general reversal, of existing tendencies. Profit is the keynote of modern civilization, especially in the United States. The acquisition simply of wealth, not of comfort, reputation nor opportunity for display, is the general incentive. The struggle is not for enough, but for accumulation without regard to its use, save as the instrument for farther accumulation. Little is done for lasting improvement. A very small propor- tion of our wealthy men, for instance, have country homes which they regard with pride as family seats. Nearly all that is done by the individual is for immediate profit or present ostentation. The farmer, the merchant, the manufacturer, the speculator all consider immediate profit the thing to be sought in any investment. The home-place, as a sentiment, is rapidly dying out of our life, because, for a generation at least, there has been nothing to encourage it. When he cannot make it pay six per cent, on its value without his personal attention, the man of wealth sells the family mansion and its accompanying acres without any regard to memories which attach to it. The farmer builds and plants only with regard to his present interest and convenience. On account of this tendency, the volume of labor employed for permanent improvement and beautifying of homes and estates in this country is amazingly small. We take from the soil, the forest, the home and the farm, whatever will tend to present profit paying back none of it in the erection of home- centers, the planting of forests, the prevention of waste or the establishment of permanent improvements, for the profit and delight of future generations.