conducts the postal business. Most American cities supply water to their inhabitants, while some own and operate electric light and gas plants.

The question of extending or contracting the sphere of government participation in industry is one of the leading questions of our time, which will be discussed in a subsequent chapter.

Indirectly the State is a partner in all production of wealth. Among the services which it renders may be mentioned the following:

I. It provides courts whereby contracts may be enforced. There could be no production of wealth in the modern sense without assurance that agreements will be kept.

2. It regulates the holding, transfer, and bequest of property.

3. It provides a system of currency, a standard of weights and measures, builds and repairs roads, bridges, lighthouses, makes rules of navigation, etc.

4. It protects persons and property from violence both by internal and external foes.

5. It provides agencies to extinguish fires, to protect the public from the peril of floods.

6. It maintains agencies to keep the people informed concerning weather conditions, trade opportunities in other countries, crop conditions, methods of fighting insects and fungus, etc.

It constructs irrigation works, improves rivers and harbors, etc.

8. It cares for the public health by creating agencies to prevent the spread of contagious diseases and by providing means for the care of those who are ill.

Summary.-Business may be conducted in many ways. There may be a single proprietor, a partnership, or a corporation. Most business in towns and cities is done by corporations. Farming is chiefly managed by a single proprietor. Each form of organization has its advantages and disadvantages.. Stocks are evidences of ownership in corporations. Bonds are claims against a corporation. Profit-sharing is the admission of employees to a share in the profits. Co-operation is the management of a business by the working men. Its weakness is that it generally dispenses with the services of an entrepreneur. The giving of workmen a share in the management of business may be secured by a shop committee, chosen by the employees. This brings about a degree of democracy in industry. The State is an important participant in all industry. Without it there could be little production of wealth.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION, DEBATE, AND SPECIAL REPORTS I. Why are drug stores almost universally organized as corporations? Is there any reason why more drug stores are corporations than grocery stores?

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What welfare work is done by corporations in your city? How do the employees regard it?

Make an investigation of profit-sharing in your city.

Give an account of any plants in your city in whose management the laborers have a share.

What lines of business activity are undertaken by your city? Does the city do this work well? What improvements in its methods can you suggest?

6. The post-offices of the larger cities are conducted at a profit to the national government, but in many parts of the country

7.

the postal service is managed at a loss. Show why it is socially desirable that the postal service be maintained even at a loss? Why may it be economically desirable? Local dealers often complain that mail-order houses hurt local trade. They say that local dealers pay taxes and are entitled to local patronage. Give your opinion of their arguments.

8. Show some services which the government renders to indus

try not mentioned in the text.

CHAPTER X

THE PRINCIPAL AMERICAN INDUSTRIES—HUNTING,
FISHING, MINING, AND LUMBERING

There are economic and uneconomic ways of securing a living. The person who makes a living by an economic method renders some service to the community. This service may be the production of some material thing or the rendering of some personal service. Unfortunately some people render no economic service but live at the expense of others. In this latter class belong loafers, thieves, gamblers, and swindlers of all kinds. They are an injury to the economic life of a people not only because they render no service but because they prey upon those who are rendering a service. Though small in number they are a direct and an indirect expense to every community.

Classification of Economic Industries.-Industries may be classified as follows:

I. Those which make available elementary utility. Such industries are hunting, fishing, lumbering, mining, agriculture, and cattle-raising.

2. Those which produce form, place, and time utility. Such industries are those engaged in manufacturing, transportation, storing, and merchandising.

3. Those rendering personal services. To this class. belong the services rendered by physicians, teachers, clerks, servants.

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4. Risk-takers. To this class belong all those engaged in any line of insurance.

Extractive and Genetic Industries. An industry which reduces the amount of material furnished by nature, without any replacement, is called an extractive industry; an industry which replaces any loss, or increases the supply, is a genetic industry. Mining is an extractive industry. Lumbering is extractive, but forest culture is genetic. Hunting is extractive, as is also fishing, at least in inland lakes and rivers, but cattle-raising, poultry-raising, and fish culture are genetic. The future of industry depends upon economy in using materials that cannot be replaced and in extending the genetic industries.

Hunting. Hunting was the first employment of man. His chief want was to secure food and he took the direct method of getting it. Hunting included searching for nuts, fruits, and edible plants as well as for animals. Able to overtake few animals and unequal in strength to most of the larger animals, the lot of primitive man was a hard He hunted for food and was hunted by strong and fierce animals. His brain alone made him superior to other animals. Unless his brain had been superior, he would have been exterminated. The unknown benefactor who invented the bow and arrow gave man supremacy over the beasts. This invention, some historians think, has surpassed any other in its services to mankind.

one.

The American Indians before the time of Columbus lived chiefly by hunting and fishing, though they already had a crude knowledge of agriculture. The early colonists were mighty hunters and the demand for furs for Europe made the fur trade very important. Great fur-trading com