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with suitable recreation, and accompanied by the discharge of civic, social, and religious duties. The importance of the social side comes from the fact that through that we in a great measure shape the lives of our youth. Recreation they will have, and if they deteriorate it will almost certainly be through companionships formed in pursuit of recreation in which parents do not participate. The economic importance of this chapter grows out of the danger that under present social conditions the drain of vigor from the farm to the city will be greater than the farming class can endure without impairing its power of survival. The weaker residue left may not be able to sustain themselves in competition with other classes. As the lack of social enjoyment on the farm is unquestionably the main factor in driving boys away from the farm, it is best to frankly recognize the fact. Rational recreation is an economic factor of great power.

CHAPTER III.

I'

THE FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS.

F, in a certain town upon a certain day, two men need loads of hay and two farmers are in town with hay to sell, the demand is exactly equal to the supply.

what he needs or sell what he has to spare.

Each can buy

If the hay n

the two loads is of the same quality it would seem that the element of competition hardly entered into the transaction. As a matter of fact, it is operating as strongly as ever. The competition of sellers prevents a rise in price and that of the buyers a fall. It is also evidently true that neither buyers nor sellers would probably know that the market was in exact equilibrium, and consequently would act under the full influence of the competitive feeling.

Aside from the competition of these buyers and sellers in reference to these loads of hay, in any town there is likely to be grain and straw for sale, which may entirely take the place of hay, and would do so if the price of the latter were placed too high. If, instead of considering the competition merely with reference to the business of one day, we consider it in the long run, as in fact it always operates, we see that timothy hay, for example, competes in the market with all other forms of forage and grain which will serve for stock food. It is the same with food for human beings. All food materials compete in the market with all other food materials. So also the fibers suitable for clothing compete among themselves. When wool is extremely high as compared with cotton, more of the latter will be used in cloths. As the business of the farmer is mainly the production of raw material for clothing and for food for men and animals, all farmers are in competition with all other farmers for the sale of their products. The wheat farmer does not merely compete with other wheat or even with other breadstuffs, but with all other food products.

But there is another way of looking at this matter. The combined labor of mankind for a given time, together with the use of the accumulations of ages, results in the power to obtain a certain number of satisfactions which those belonging to the race may enjoy during that time or reserve for future enjoyment. Each one of us is struggling to obtain for himself in each year the largest possible portion of this common stock of satisfactions.* In common language we do not use the term "satisfactions," but "money," which, so far as they are objects of economic thought, will procure them. What, however, we really seek is the satisfaction which we obtain by the use of money.

When a farmer who has hay to spare deals with one who desires to buy hay, we do not usually think of the temporary relation as one of competition, but as an exchange of satisfactions for the mutual benefit of both, as in fact it usually is; but the farmer desires to get the highest price possible for his hay, with no thought for the profit which the buyer may obtain for its use, while the buyer desires to purchase as cheaply as possible without regard to what it may have cost the seller. They are competing with each other for the possession of

money.

The economic transactions of modern times have become so inextricably interwoven with each other that they can by no possibility be separated, and the result is that all men are competitors of all other men. This competition which pervades all nature is called the struggle for existence. Its only limit is that imposed by affection, which leads men to forego personal satisfactions for the sake of their families and friends, and by an altruistic† feeling which impels a comparatively few men and many more women to prefer the general welfare to their personal gain. Economic science recognizes the existence of this influence but does not deal with it. It assumes competition to continue unhampered.

*"Satisfaction" is a term used in economic science to denote anything which is the object of human desire, even though its use may be actually injurious.

† Altruism means "regard for others."

It is not necessary to my purpose to consider the farmer as a man competing with all other men, but only in the narrower view of a farmer competing with all other farmers. We shall find this wide enough.

Among an ideal race of beings the object of each party to an exchange of commodities would be to get for himself and for another exactly what would fairly pay each for the necessary cost of acquirement. As human beings are now constituted, however, it would be a waste of time, from a merely economic standpoint, to discuss exchanges on the assumption that such moves will control their character. Any such

discussion belongs to the science of ethics, which deals with human affairs from the standpoint of what ought to be. Economics deals with facts as they are, and therefore necessarily assumes universal competition.

The relation of the farmer to his competitors is, then, the relation of one struggling with another, not necessarily in an unfriendly spirit, but with intent to beat if possible, regardless of the feelings or interests of the competitor. In such struggles the fundamental requisite for success is to keep watch of the opponent. An athlete who should pay no attention to the actions of his opponent could only hope to win by means of very great superiority of strength. This principle of watchfulness as a condition of success is universal, applying equally to physical, intellectual, and business contests.

It is in neglect of this principle that farmers fail most completely. Very few farmers know what their competitors are doing. In this respect they are immeasurably inferior to the mercantile and manufacturing classes. The cause of this is not altogether intellectual inferiority, although it is true that the most alert and vigorous men tend to engage in other occupations than farming, but it is also true that men of no great mental endowments may and do succeed fairly well in business. Merchants and manufacturers watch their competitors more closely than farmers because they are compelled to. Competition is such that failure to watch is ruin. When a manufacturer finds a competitor persistently meeting him with goods of equal quality but lower price, he knows at once

that the competitor is in financial difficulty and striving to realize, regardless of cost, or that he is producing cheaper than himself, the latter involving his own ruin unless he can himself reduce cost. He is, therefore, constantly on the alert to discover the details of the manufacturing and business methods of all his competitors in order to promptly avail himself of any improvement which any one of them may make. He is able to do this much easier than the farmer, because he is himself, through his agents, the year round, in close competition in all markets, and his place of business will be in some populous center of intelligence. The majority of farmers live in a rather isolated way, do not mingle freely with well-informed business men, and make their principal sales of produce but once a year, and they are, therefore, greatly handicapped in such efforts as they do make to inform themselves in regard to markets and competition. Their main reliance is the columns of the daily and agricultural press, which are of very little value except as to conditions affecting a few staple crops, such as cotton, grain, and, to a less extent, tobacco and wool, which are the objects of speculation on a large scale. Even as to these things the press obtains very little information which has not been obtained by the trade and used for its own purposes, and to the disadvantage of the farmer, before publication. The journals of general circulation do not obtain this information in advance because it would cost too much.

The farmer, also, is greatly hampered in ascertaining the cost of his competitor's products because such costs vary so greatly from year to year. It requires more labor than most farmers are willing to bestow to ascertain their own yearly costs of produce, much more to discover the costs of others; and if by any means they may ascertain substantially the cost of competing products raised in some distant section in a given year, it may never be correct for any other year.

The fact is it is far more difficult for a farmer to find out what his competitors are doing than for merchants or manufacturers, and yet it is equally necessary. The competitors of the American wheat farmer are, first, his own neighbors, then

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