Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/674

 658 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

be roughly said to keep within the limits of the demand (although this does not exclude the fact that both the supply and the wages are greatly kept down by competition); but if in the supply we include all the individuals produced, it is equally plain that the supply greatly exceeds the demand.

Although the data of experience do not warrant the conclu- sion drawn from them by some writers — that voluntary checks already exist in a measure sufficient to prevent all redundancy of population ; although society is still greatly under the influ- ence of that general biologic law by virtue of which inferior creatures cannot perpetuate their species except by the produc- tion of more individuals than can attain to the full development of life ; and although much human misery still exists owing to the unavoidable operation of that law ; yet there are some facts warranting the induction that, in future generations, reproduc- tion will take place within more and more restricted limits ; that the necessaries of life will be more efficiently distributed, the demands of full existence more completely satisfied, and much suffering avoided.

Of the causes at work in bringing about this result too much stress has, perhaps, been laid on Spencer's law ; the law, namely, that, in proportion as organization develops and the organic demands of the individual become more numerous and intense, a greater portion of energy is consumed in the satisfaction of individual wants, and a smaller portion remains for the pur- poses of reproduction, the result being that reproduction takes place at a constantly diminishing rate of speed.' Regarded simply as "a broad fact" (these are Mr. Spencer's own words), the law seems to be confirmed, both by a priori considerations and by the actual facts of the organic world. But it must be remembered that purely biologic laws act, as a rule, with exceed- ing slowness, and that we can scarcely expect to be able to verify them by such scanty statistical data as are at our disposal. The decreasing birth-rate of civilized countries has been quoted in

' It is curious to notice the similarity between this law and the economic law of M. de Molinari. In both cases we have a certain amount of capital devoted to the production of new individuals.