f workers in his day as
to anything which he himself said. It was small comfort to know that,
under the law of population, wages might conceivably become higher and
remain so because of a higher standard of living, provided the higher
standard was never attained. Facts for a long time were discouraging.
In due time they changed for the better. The opening of vast areas of
new land made its influence felt. It raised the pay of labor faster
than the growth of population was able to bring it down. This had the
effect of establishing, not only a higher standard, but a rising
standard, and as one generation succeeded another it became habituated
to a better mode of living than had been possible before. It was the
sheer force of the new land supplemented by new capital and new
methods of industry that accomplished this. It pushed wages upward, in
spite of everything that would in itself have pulled them down.

_A Retarded Growth of Population._--If Malthusianism, as most people
understood it, were true, population should increase most rapidly
during this period of great prosperity, and should do its best to
neutralize the effect of new lands, new capital, and new methods. In
some places the increase has been abnormally rapid, and in a local way
this has had its effect; but if we include in our view the whole of
what we have defined as civilized industrial society, the rate of
growth has not become more rapid, but has rather become slower during
this period. In one prosperous country, namely, France, population has
become practically stationary. Even in America, a country formerly of
most rapid growth, the increase, apart from immigration, has been much
slower than it was during the first half of the nineteenth century.
The growth of population, then, may proceed more slowly or come to a
halt, even while wealth and earning powers are increasing. If this is
so, a further accumulation of capital and further improvements in
method will not have to struggle against the effects of more rapidly
growing numbers, and their effects will become more marked as the
decades pass. There will be a weaker and weaker influence against
these forces which fructify labor and they will go on indefinitely,
endowing working humanity with more and more productive power and with
greater accumulations of positive wealth. Home owning, savings bank
deposits, invested capital, and comfortable living may be more and
more common among men who depend for the