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races of the world, this doctrine is becoming untrue through the rapid decline in the birth-rate, but, apart from this decline, there are many other reasons why the doctrine cannot be accepted, at any rate as regards the near future. The century which elapsed after Malthus wrote, saw a very great increase in the standard of comfort throughout the wage-earning classes, and owing to the enormous increase in the productivity of labour, a far greater rise in the standard of comfort could have been effected if a more just system of distribution had been introduced. In former times, when one man's labour produced not very much more than was needed for one man's subsistence, it was impossible either greatly to reduce the normal hours of labour, or greatly to increase the proportion of the population who enjoyed more than the bare necessaries of life. But this state of affairs has been overcome by modern methods of production. At the present moment, not only do many people enjoy a comfortable income derived from rent or interest, but about half the population of most of the civilized countries in the world is engaged, not in the production of commodities, but in fighting or in manufacturing munitions of war. In a time of peace the whole of this half might be kept in idleness without making the other half poorer than they are at present, and if, instead of being idle, they were productively employed, the whole of what they would produce would be a divisible surplus over and above present wages. The present productivity of labour in Great Britain would suffice to produce an income of about £1 per day for