Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/377

Rh same way the spindle and the loom have kept us from freezing; and they are capital.

To sum up this part of the case, we say that in order to have development we must have capital, that the amount of capital must depend upon the extent of development, and the amount of comfort attainable upon the union of capital and labor, working along the line of development. The man who can make two shoes in a day will supply double the needs of the shoe-wearing community that the man will who can make but one shoe in the same time, and, the world over, he will be pronounced the better man. Obviously, two things will certainly follow the introduction of such a workman: the community will get its shoes with one half the number of days' labor from the expert workman that were required when they were made by the inexpert workman, and it will have a citizen who will be accumulating capital, in lieu of one who could only barely make a living; for it will cost twice as much to clothe and feed the shoemaking force of a community when it takes twice the number of men to do the work, and, with double the expense, only half the capital can be accumulated.

Many years ago a distinguished philosopher and writer said that the man who could tell how to make two blades of grass grow where but one grew before, would be a great public benefactor. With two blades of grass on the average in lieu of one, we should have double the pork, beef, mutton, hides, wool, milk, butter, and cheese, and we could raise twice the corn, wheat, and potatoes; or, if these were not needed in such quantity, we would have to spend only half the time in meeting our wants. We all understand how it works. We know that a farmer who raises, year after year, but one ton of grass to the acre, is not only a poor farmer, but must be a poor man also, compared with the farmer who contrives to get two tons to the acre. We have all seen both kinds of farmers, and are all agreed as to their relative merits. The man who can accomplish most in the least time is unanimously regarded as the best man in every occupation of life in which he engages.

Universal opinion, therefore, establishes a goal for ambition, and men strive to reach it. We recognize success to be the goal, and success depends on the ability to do the most in the least time. We must work toward success; for working against success is sure to end in disaster. No man plants corn, and then, when the crop has been gathered, sets his granary on fire and burns it up. No man goes to his field and stands all day with folded arms, expecting that the crop will grow without planting and hoeing.

We have, then, a test by which to try all the plans which are projected to advance the interests of mankind, and it is so simple that any man of common understanding can apply it. Let us