the Interior much has been done to increase the available land in the United States. The Imperial Valley of California is now one of the garden spots of America; before the water of the Colorado River was brought to this valley it was a desert waste. Thousands of acres have been reclaimed by irrigation in Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming and other western states. Improved methods of agriculture, such as "dry farming," may also increase available lands.

Increased means of transportation also makes available the use of land which previously could not be worked economically because of distance from a market.

The Influence of the Consumer upon Production.—Consumers, by their demands, determine to a large degree what shall be produced and how it shall be produced. Every act of production requires the co-operation of nature, labor, and capital. It is desirable that goods be produced which will make the least demand upon land, labor, and capital, and which can adequately satisfy wants. This has been called the law of the least social cost.

If the land of a community be well suited to the growing of potatoes and corn and poorly adapted to the growing of wheat, it is better that the inhabitants consume more potatoes and corn than wheat. Even though they exchange potatoes and corn for wheat grown elsewhere, there is the cost of transportation and exchange to be considered. It is equally important that men be employed at what they can do best.

Not infrequently the failure of laborers to do that which they can do best is not the lack of demand, but ignorance of opportunity or some social cause. Thousands of Italian

From photographs copyrighted by Ewing, Galloway, New York

DESERT LAND MADE FERTILE BY IRRIGATION

The picture on the left is desert land in Arizona before the waters from the Roosevelt Dam were available. The picture on the right shows seedless grape-fruit growing on the same land after irrigation,

immigrants, who were excellent agricultural laborers in Italy, come to the United States every year and take employment in the cities at work for which they never had any training and at a time when good agricultural laborers were never more needed.

The influence of the consumer upon conditions of production is shown by consumers' leagues, which are organizations of consumers pledged not to consume articles produced by child labor or where other conditions of production are socially bad. Goods produced under approved conditions sometimes bear a label, testifying to this fact. A union label is sometimes attached to goods produced by organized labor. The effort of producers to inform the public concerning conditions of production, shows that the consumers may influence the conditions of production.

Thrift versus Extravagance. Thrift is care and prudence in the management of one's resources. At no time in our history has thrift been more necessary than in these years following the Great War. War causes the destruction of many economic goods, piles up national debts, and takes millions of laborers from productive employments to be supported at public expense. But this is not all; a prosperity, often fictitious, encourages extravagance, or possibly the extravagance is caused by a desire to forget war and its consequences. This is not confined to the United States; victorious France and defeated Germany alike have been extravagant spenders, and at a time when increased production and economy in consumption were urgently needed.

As an example of the influence of extravagance upon prices and demand for labor let us consider for a moment

the extravagant use of an automobile for pleasure purposes. A man who has saved only $1,000 withdraws it from the bank and buys an automobile. His demand for gasoline tends to increase the price of gasoline for productive purposes; his car needs repairs frequently and the number of men withdrawn from other occupations into automobile repairing increases; he, like thousands of his kind, goes touring, and garages in every little village are made to minister to his wants and men are withdrawn from agriculture and land withdrawn from cultivation in order that he may be served. It is not too much to say that extravagance in the purchase and use of automobiles for pleasure purposes is a contributing cause to the high cost of living.

earn.

Mr. Andrew Carnegie remarked some years ago that our troubles were not so much concerned with the high cost of living, but the cost of living high, and if it were uttered more or less as a jest, many truths are so uttered. A high standard of living does not mean an extravagant standard of living. The road to economic prosperity is not being trod by those who think they must spend every cent they Thrift and saving are virtues to be commended. When production exceeds consumption there is economic progress; on the other hand, if consumption is greater than production there is an economic decline. With production exceeding consumption capital is accumulated and new factories, dwellings, and other utilities may be erected, but if a community is consuming more than it produces, it is living on past accumulations which will in time be exhausted. In time of war consumption usually exceeds production; vast numbers of men are withdrawn from