"All men find their good in all men's good, And all men join in noble brotherhood."
Each stage in the progress of the conquest of nature to meet human wants, from the gathering of wild fruits, through hunting and fishing, domestication of animals, herding, and tillage of permanent fields, to the manufacture of universal comforts and tools, and to general commerce, has made more important the welfare of neighbors. Even the wars of our century are waged in the name of and for the sake of humanity. The study of individual welfare involves the public welfare. Welfare of a class is dependent upon the welfare of all classes. Wealth of individuals is genuine wealth in connection only with the wealth of the world. Welfare without wealth would imply the annihilation of space, of time, and of all forces acting in opposition to wishes.
_Wealth in farming._--The subject of the following pages is wealth, how it is accumulated, how distributed to individual control and how finally consumed for the welfare of all concerned. But special reference is made to the sources of wealth as a means of welfare in rural life, and to the bearing of definite economic principles upon farming, especially in these United States of America. Farming is, and must always remain, a chief factor in both wealth and welfare, and its relations to the industry of the world grow more important to every farmer as the world comes nearer to him. We cannot now live in such isolation as our fathers loved. The markets of the world and the methods of other farmers all over the world affect the daily life of every tiller of the soil today. Commerce in the products of farm and household reaches every interest, when the ordinary mail sack goes round the world in less time than it took our immediate ancestors to go as pioneers from Massachusetts to Ohio. It seems possible to show from the experiences of farm life the essential principles of wealth-making and wealth-handling, including the tendencies under a world-wide commerce. These every farmer and laborer needs for his business, for his home, and for his country.
_Wealth defined._--If we look at the objects which men number in speaking of their wealth, we shall soon find the list differing in important particulars from the list of things which they enjoy. All enjoyable things contribute to welfare, but not all are wealth. Some, like the air and the sunshine, if never lacking, cannot be counted, _because no storing against future need is practicable_; but the fan that cools the air and the coal that gives heat are counted when they are stored as means of meeting future wants. If we could not foresee wants of ourselves or of those dependent upon us, we could not gather means of supply for those wants. If we had all wants supplied at a wish or a prayer, we should have no incentive to store. The pampered child whose every wish is met has no clear conception of wealth or its uses. Let him be without a meal, and he seeks provision for the future by an effort to save what is left over from his last meal and by exertion to add to his store in anticipation of want. Thus wants, to be met only by exertion, are the foundation of the universal ideas of wealth, and whatever we have stored as a provision against wants becomes our wealth. If hunger were our only desire, our wealth would include only stores of food, conveniences for storing, means of increasing the store, and means of utilizing the articles to be eaten. Each desire adds to the range of articles which may enter our list of objects of wealth until enumeration is impossible. None of these, however, will be stored as wealth beyond the limits of anticipated use: if so stored, they add nothing to the supposed wealth. An isolated family, able to consume only thirty bushels of potatoes in a season, is not more wealthy from having three hundred bushels stored: the wealth is measured by actual relations to wants not otherwise supplied. Even in a populous city, the three hundred bushels of potatoes become a store of wealth only when other people need them and _are able in turn to meet other wants of the owners_.
