rate tend steadily upward, and nothing can stop the rise
but perversion of the system. Monopoly may do it, or bad government,
or extensive wars, or anarchy growing out of a struggle of classes;
but every one of these things, not excepting monopoly, would naturally
be temporary, and even in spite of them, the upward trend in the
earning power of labor should assert itself. Instead of being
hopelessly sunk by a weight that it cannot throw off, the labor of the
future bids fair to be buoyed up by an influence that is
irrepressible.

_Refutations of Malthusianism._--The Malthusian law of population has
been so frequently "refuted" as to prove its vitality. It is in the
main as firmly impressed in the belief of scientific men as it ever
was, and some of the arguments which have been relied upon to
overthrow it require only to be stated in order to be discarded. One
of these is the claim that the statement of the law is untrue because,
during the century in which the American continent, Australia, parts
of Africa, and great areas elsewhere were in process of occupation,
mankind has not actually pressed on the limits of subsistence. No
intelligent view regards that fact as constituting anything but an
illustration of the Malthusian law. A vast addition to the available
land of the world would, of course, defer the time of land crowding
and the disastrous results which were expected from it, but with the
steady growth of population the stay of the evil influence would be
only temporary.

_An Objection based on a Higher Standard of Living._--The second
objection is also an illustration rather than a refutation of the
Malthusian doctrine; it asserts that the standard of living is now
higher than it was, and the population does not increase fast enough
to force workers to lower it. Malthus's entire conclusion hung upon an
_if_. The rate of pay conformed to a standard, and if that standard
were low, wages would be so; while if it were higher, wages would be
higher also.

_The Real Issue concerning the Doctrine of Population._--There is a
real incompleteness in all such statements. Does the standard of
living itself tend to rise with the rise of wages and to remain above
its former level? When men make gains can they hold them, or, at any
rate, some part of them, or must they fall back to the level at which
they started? And this amounts to asking whether, after a rise in
pay, there is time enough before a fall might otherwise b