1 8 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
the apparent enhancement of the world's productive capacity. The introduction of tropical fruits and cereals, which now enter largely into the world's supply, may also be added to this accumulation.
What is true of agricultural production is also true, perhaps to even a greater extent, of mechanical production of all kinds, with the exception of those things composed chiefly of wood, the growing scarcity of which tends to keep them at a cost rela- tively equal to what it was before the introduction of labor- saving and non-consuming machinery. Of iron, steel, brick, tile, cements and all materials used in building except wood, the world's labor-force, applied by improved methods, is suffi- cient to much more than meet the world's consumtion, and might easily be extended to an unknown limit without appreci- able increase of labor. The same is true of the manufacture of clothing and the yield of all substances that enter into it. Improved machinery has made it possible to produce in five years more cloth stuffs than the world can reasonably consume in ten, without drawing on the labor of any other field of employment.
There are other influences, tending toward the same superfluity in the things of earth. Some of these are of a social and political character, and on that account have received less consideration than they deserve. Chief among them is the breaking down of those traditions of society which up to the middle of the present cen- tury restrained large elements of the population of all great commercial nations from personally engaging in productive labor. Feudalism, slavery and caste, until within a very recent period, restrained a notable proportion of civilized humanity from engaging in business competition with each other. The 41 gentleman," whether his right to the distinction came from legal rank or inherited sentiment, could not openly engage in the universal scramble for gain. The professions, the trade of war and the field of politics, were the only occupations open to him. Until a generation ago, even in our own country, only domestic service, teaching and a narrow fringe of commercial employment was open to women. They were shut out, not by
