accompanied not only by no advance but by a decline in the price. Take, for example, the corn crop of 1895. Owing to the drought, the crop in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana was seriously cut short; but, because of the inflow of surplus from the West, not only was no relief obtained in these states from an advance in the price, but corn sold at a rate considerably below the average. From the social point of view it is, of course, a distinct gain that the distribution of the yearly food supply is so far perfected that local shortages seldom raise the price. But looked at from the standpoint of agricultural interests, the extension of transportation facilities throughout the West, by intensifying the adverse influence of unfavorable climatic conditions in the older states, rendered their agriculture less profitable, and thereby contributed in still another way to the depreciation of their farm lands. 6. The migrations of European peoples during the last fifty years and the land policy followed by the government of the United States in the disposition of the public domain are facts pertinent to the subject we are here considering. Migration, as here discussed, is a social phenomenon characteristic of the present century. Its origin was dependent upon means of transportion, and its volume has steadily increased with the extension of modern transportation facilities.1 By 1840 the United States was just entering upon her career of railway construction. At that time there were 2818 miles of railway in operation, while in 1892 there were 175,204.2 It is a significant fact that of the 16,750,000 immigrants who came to our shores between 1783 and 1892, less than 1,000,000 came prior to 1840.3 The reduction in the cost and discomfort of the ocean voyage, owing to the displacement of sailing vessels by steamships, has been scarcely less important in its influence upon immigration than railway construction itself.4 1 Prof. R. Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, p. 45. 2 Statistical Abstract, 1894, p. 305. 3 Quarterly Reports of the Bureau of Statistics, 1892-93, pp. 391, 393. 4 Prof. R. Mayo-Smith, Emigration and Immigration, pp. 45-47; The United States of America, edited by N. S. Shaler, vol. i, p. 303. But immigration is not a fact to be viewed solely in connection with rapid and cheap means of transportation. The inducements and motives that give rise to its flow deserve consideration. Chief among these are the migratory instinct, the desire to escape compulsory military service, the yearning for greater political and religious freedom, and especially the hope of bettering one's social and economic condition.1 In connection with the last, the marked liberality to the settler of the United States government in the disposition of the public domain is of paramount importance. No policy better calculated to stimulate immigration and promote the settlement of the public lands could well have been devised. The land grant act of 1850,2 which led to the construction of the Illinois Central Railroad, and the Homestead Act of 1862 were events of the first importance. The former was the chief measure in the inauguration of a movement which dedicated 155,500,000 acres of the public domain to railway construction 1; the latter appealed powerfully to the imaginations of men both at home and abroad by offering a home on the most liberal terms. These two acts, especially the latter, marked the abandonment of the policy which obtained in our earlier history of making a profit for the treasury out of the sale of the public lands. The debates in Congress upon the Homestead Act clearly recognize the profound economic truth that lands become a basis upon which the financier can maintain the credit of a nation only as they are brought under cultivation, and thus become a source of revenue through the taxing power of the state." The more remote social and economic consequences of modern transportation and immigration, and of the Homestead Act, were not, however, so clearly foreseen. The immediate effect 1 Emigration and Immigration, United States Government Publication, 188586, passim. 2 Donaldson, The Public Domain, pp. 261-265. 3 John Gilmer Speed, The Chautauquan, vol. xvi, 1892–93, p. 311; Charles C. Mott, The Nation, vol. xlix, 1889, pp. 406, 407. 4 Donaldson, The Public Domain, p. 268. 5 See speeches of Mr. Windom and Mr. Grow in the House of Representatives, Congressional Globe, second session, Thirty-seventh Congress, 1861-62, Part II, p. 1033 and Part I, p. 909. was the settlement, as if by magic, of a region greater in territorial extent than the combined area of any five of the leading powers of Europe, Russia alone excepted. An avenue was opened for the overflow of the surplus population of Europe to a region where the soil responded bountifully to the exertions of the farmer. While there is a marked tendency for European emigrants to flock to cities,1 yet in a number of American commonwealths where agriculture is the most important phase of industrial life, the inflow of foreign-born population has been very remarkable. In. 1890, of the population of Michigan, 26 per cent were foreign born; of Wisconsin, 31 per cent; of Minnesota, 36 per cent; of Iowa, 17 per cent; of North Dakota, 45 per cent; and of South Dakota, 28 per cent. If to the foreign born are added natives born of foreign parents, the percentage in Michigan is 55; in Wisconsin, 75; in Minnesota, 75; in Iowa, 45; in North Dakota, 78; and in South Dakota, 60.3 These figures afford substantial evidence of the important part foreign immigration has played in the settlement of the great agricultural states of the Northwest. A vast storehouse of latent economic force has thus been rendered available; each emigrant has greatly increased in efficiency as a food-producer, and, as a consequence, is able not only to produce enough to satisfy his own necessities, but also to contribute to the wants of others. To appreciate adequately the forces thus called into action, it should be borne in mind that immigration and governmental policies attractive to the immigrant are facts not peculiar to the United States. Immigration has been going on in recent years to Australia, the Argentine Republic and Canada. Australia, by lessening the cost of transportation at state expense, has endeavored to attract the stream of immigration to herself *; the Argentine Republic has followed a similar policy, besides advancing capital to immigrants of a certain class to the 1 Eleventh Census, volume on population, Part I, p. lxxxix. 2 Ibid., p. lxxxii. 8 Ibid., p. lxxxiv. • Emigration and Immigration, United States Government Publications, 188586, pp. 510, 512, 514, 516. amount of $10001; and Canada, in addition to a land policy generous to the immigrant, has expended public money in cheapening his cost of transportation.2 The relationship of such facts as these to the subject we are considering is clear. Had Europe not had a surplus population eager for the opportunities of the new lands of the world, and had the land policy of the United States and the inducements to immigration of other nations been less liberal and attractive, the enlargement of the cultivated area would have been less precipitate, the increase in the per capita food supply less rapid, and the depreciating influence of transportation upon the value of the older farm lands of the world far less marked. In our analysis of the relation of agriculture to means of transportation we have arrived at the following conclusions: I. The development of modern transportation facilities has been the prime agency in causing a migration of agricultural industry, and in tending to concentrate it geographically in new fields of production. II. The American railway system has been the indispensable condition for the settlement and development of the greater part of the United States, and its extension throughout the central and western states has contributed towards increasing marvelously their agricultural wealth. III. The value of farm lands in the older states of the Union has enormously decreased, chiefly because of the cultivation of virgin soils made possible by the extension of modern means of transportation throughout a large portion of the world. The conclusion is warranted that the economic condition of the agricultural interests of a number of states has been on the decline, and is much inferior to what it was some years ago. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. C. F. EMERICK. 1 Ibid., p. 661; Bureau of American Republics, Argentine, pp. 88–90 and 148– 157. 2 Emigration and Immigration, United States Government Publications, 188586, pp. 573, 574, 580, 589; Donaldson, The Public Domain, pp. 483–485. FREE SILVER AND WAGES. HAT his income is, and what his income will buy, are WHAT interesting questions for each individual. The answers express the net result of his business conduct, of his economic action, and measure his command over the material sources of happiness. What wages are, and what wages will buy, are life questions for the mass of the community. The answers enable us to measure social well-being, the standard of living, the real prosperity of a nation. The "condition of the laboring class" has become the absorbing thought of modern civilization, and the greatest living English economist declares that "the question whether poverty is necessary gives its highest interest to economics." In like manner a leading German economist lays down the axiom that to secure a comfortable minimum of subsistence for every individual is the fundamental principle of economic politics. Economists have welcomed and applauded trades unions, coöperation and profit-sharing as means for bettering the condition of the laborer, and have given a sympathetic hearing to the wildest socialistic schemes for the regeneration of society with the same end in view. Public opinion has not been far behind, and seems ready to sanction by legislation almost any plan that claims to benefit labor. The proposal to begin the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to I must be tested largely by the effect it is likely to have on the working man. This is acknowledged alike by friends and opponents of the measure. The silver men declare that free coinage is necessary in order to restore the prices of commodities, whose present low level is due to the scarcity of gold, and thus to stimulate business; and that from such stimulation of business will result a greater demand for labor, full employment and higher wages. The gold-money men predict that the free coinage of silver will cause a financial panic, destruction of credit, stoppage of industry, lack of employment, and |