“The condition readjusts itself,” said the other. “The men have to go into some other trade.”
“But then—the cotton mills are on half time, too!”
“Yes, there are too many cotton mills.”
“But then—in the end there will be too many everything.”
“That is the tendency,” said the professor.
“There are foreign markets, of course. But the difficulty really goes deeper than that.”
Professor Stewart paused and looked at Samuel wondering, perhaps, if he were not throwing away his instruction. But the boy looked very much interested, even excited.
“Most of our economists are disposed to blink the truth,” said he. “But the fact is, there are too many men.”
Samuel started. It was precisely that terrible suspicion which had been shaping itself in his own mind.
“There is a law,” went on the other, “which was clearly set forth by Malthus, that population tends continually to outrun the food supply. And then the surplus people have to be removed.”