Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/37

 THE REVERSAL OF MALTHUS 2$

nent location of the home, the establishment of the family center, the esteem of the present and the grateful remembrance of pos- terity, more attractive than slow and tedious accretion. It is possible that the American farmer, forced to be content with small and uncertain profits in the present, might be willing to invest more of his time and labor on the chance of future bet- terment ; that towns and villages, seeing the futility of large expenditure in "booms," might grow to appreciate small invest- ments in permanently improving what they have, in comfort- bringing social clubs and arbor societies.

Of such things one must of necessity speak with doubt. The changes which must come are so radical, antagonistic to the present, that no man can forecast the results. Two things may be safely predicted ; first, that the increase of the unemployed will be very great; and second, that when the cost of farm lands is sufficiently reduced to render hopeless such profit on capital as we have come to expect, the number of those who will turn from salaried occupations to the cultivation of the soil, because of the certain assurance which agriculture offers of obtaining at least a support that is, the satisfaction of physical necessities, will be very great. Farming will be pursued not as at present, chiefly for sale of the surplus, but mainly to secure a living, an existence.

In nearly all lines of manufacture, the necessity of restrict- ing the collective output has already become clearly apparent. The continuation of conditions similar to those of the past four years will immensely reduce the volume of high-priced salaried labor. Superintendence, accounting, sales and all expenses of this class, will be cut down. The army of middle men will be reduced and those thus thrown out of employment must either join the ranks of wage-laborers or unite with them to develop co6perative or profit-sharing industries not from sentinu nt but from necessity. In like manner the number of those who live by traffic in money, sharing the profit of invested capital, will become less. All these things and many other changes must result if the conditions that have been outlined are, as they would seem to be, "universal, and the inevitable result of a