THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES AND OF EACH 1 Includes population of Indian Territory: 1890, 180,182; 1900, 392,060. 2 According to the census of Porto Rico taken in 1899 under the direction of the War Department. 3 Persons in the military and naval service of the United States (including civilian employees, etc.) stationed abroad, not credited to any geographic division or state. Estimate only, based on Federal Censuses 1910 and 1920, by the Bureau of Census. CHAPTER II ORGANIZING TO SATISFY OUR NEEDS "In striving to better our industrial life we must ever keep in mind that, while we cannot afford to neglect its material side, we can even less afford to disregard its moral or intellectual side." When you see a gang of men working on a new building, you may wonder why they are keeping at their jobs. They are -Theodore Roosevelt working partly because they have a pride in doing their par ticular kinds of work well, but still more be cause they will receive pay. This pay will represent a variety of wants satisfied-food, clothing, shelter, amusement, and something left over to put in the Ewing Galloway, N. Y. PAY DAY ON A CONSTRUCTION JOB Workmen at the paymaster's window drawing their wages for work done. bank. The larger the pay, the larger will be the variety of Let us see what some of these wants are. wants satisfied. Food. We have learned from our physiology how mental or bodily activity breaks down tissues and burns up fuel. This fuel must be replenished, physical energy restored. We satisfy our hunger in the morning only to do the job again at noon, and in the evening. Photo Eugene Hall, Oak Park, Ill. REAPING WITH A CRADLE One man would need a long time to harvest the grain on a large modern ranch. Food is a recurring want. To get this food from the sea or the air, or to grow it in the fields, requires effort. This effort we repay through the money we earn at other daily tasks. Much in the early history of the human race is explained by the struggle for food. Wars between primitive tribes were often waged to secure control of the most productive fields or of the plains where the wild animals fed. Savage tribes had either a feast or a famine, depending upon success in the hunt or upon the chance of good or bad climatic conditions. Civilization could grow up only among a people who had control over a good food supply. The "land of milk and honey" was no doubt a land in which there was plenty to eat the whole year round. It was only after man had mastered nature to the extent of being certain of the necessities of life, that he could turn his attention to getting its advantages. Fear of hunger and privation is one of the most deeply seated of human reactions. It is hard for those who have never been hungry for days at a time to understand the mental anxiety of those out of food. It is harder still to understand the mental anguish of the mother and father who see their children hungry. The Theory of Malthus. A century ago an economist by the name of Malthus proclaimed the doctrine that the human race would always tend to increase in numbers more rapidly than would the available food supply. This being true, he concluded that there must always be a portion of the people of the world starving; and that wages, in some industries at least, would always be just barely enough to supply only necessary wants. The social science of today teaches that improvements in agriculture tend to increase the food supply almost indefinitely; so that all normal people may Contrast this machine which cuts and threshes the grain in one operation with the grain cradle shown on the opposite page. earn a standard of living far above the level of mere subsistence. In the United States and Canada, and in other great food areas of the world, the soil may be made to produce much more bounteously through improved methods of cultivation. And in the tropics there are still vast stretches of land that may be made to grow human foods. Some countries produce more food than their inhabitants can eat, and other countries buy this surplus food with their surplus products. For more than a century we have produced in this country more food than we have consumed. We have sent this food to other countries in exchange for their overabundant products. In recent years our population has increased more rapidly than our food supply; and within a few years, if our population is to continue to grow, we shall have to import more foods than we export. Certain parts of China outgrew their food supply and the Malthusian law began its operation, for those sections of China were not producing goods that other countries were willing to exchange for food. As a result, many Chinese were undernourished and died. At the same time the people of the British Isles had outgrown their food supply, but were manufacturing articles that other countries were glad to exchange for surplus food. Therefore, the population of Great Britain could keep on increasing as long as this exchange of manufactures for food continued. * Clothing. Because of daily and seasonal changes in temperature, man requires clothing for protection and warmth. Comfort requires change of clothing with the seasons. The kind of clothing needed varies from the scant clothing of the savage in the tropics to the heavy furs of the Eskimo in the frigid zones. The savage supplied his clothing from the fibers of plants and from the skins and furs of animals. Half-civilized peoples learned to domesticate animals in order to supply themselves with wool, feathers, and furs for clothing. Now |