Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/673

 POPULATION AND WAGES 6S7

production of men produces just as many men as are wanted, and no more. Such, indeed, is the case, if by men we under- stand full - developed individuals — perfect articles for the population market. But these articles are not the only ones produced ; they are the results of many trials, the survivors of many unsuccessful competitors reduced to the required number by the leveling hand of death.

The question whether population so presses on the means of existence as to live on what is strictly necessary to sup- port life is involved in much ambiguity, owing to the char- acter of relativity attaching to any solution of the problem — the diversity of standards by which living is, and can be, judged. If we consider the question in the light of modern civilization, and of the knowledge we possess of the conditions of full exist- ence, it must be admitted that very few, if any, laborers in the world receive for their work what is required for the complete sustenance of life — including abundant and wholesome food, good lodging and clothing, as well as sufficient r£st to repair the losses caused by muscular exertion. As, however, man will gratify his sexual instincts, and this usually in marriage, he shares with a family the scanty wages that, even if spent exclu- sively upon himself, would not meet all the demands of his physiological wants. The members of such a family, being necessarily underfed (using the term " food " in a general sense to include all means of existence), fail, in the majority of cases, of attaining to their complete development. That they do not receive all the necessaries of life is plainly shown by their great mortality. How, under these circumstances, population can actually increase is not difficult to understand. For if the means which would support one generation to an average age of thirty years are shared with a new generation, the result will be that both the new and the old generation will, on the average, be more short-lived than they could otherwise have been ; i. e., other things being equal, the working population increases at the expense of the mean duration of life.

It follows, then, that, if we take into account only the num- ber of individuals that attain to a working age, the supply may