"Every natural force which we call a law is itself invisible · - the idea of it in the mind arising by way of necessary inference out of an observed order of facts."

II.

SUPPLY AND DEMAND.

SUPPLY is positive, and demand negative. All negatives are seeking for satisfaction and completeness in their corresponding positives. Evil is a demand for good, disorder for order, and darkness for light. Ugliness seeks beauty; weakness, strength; and hunger, food. All positives are waiting to bestow themselves. These two principles never rest easily until united. Each will wander to the end of the earth to find compensation in its counterpart.

The law of supply and demand is perhaps the most general and fundamental of all the brotherhood of natural laws, and we have direct relations with it at all times and under all circumstances. It lies at the foundation of all modern commerce, civilization, invention, and science. It has been the main-spring in every transaction, trade, and exchange, back to the time when man existed under the most primitive conditions. It was the basis of the first exchanges of flint arrow-heads and skins among savage and barbarous tribes, as it also is of all the multiform currents and counter-currents of modern economic life. Its force cannot be measured. Its pressure impels mankind to work its behests, in gathering, transporting, and exchanging the products of the globe, in order that these two principles may meet and find satisfaction. Men will penetrate to the heart of tropical Africa, or the frigid regions of the Arctic zone; they will dive to the bottom of the sea, or delve in the bowels of the earth, to bring forth all the complex materials of supply, in order to meet the grand aggregate of

universal demand. No enterprise is too venturesome, no effort too daring.

Supply and demand are like the halves of a sphere, neither being complete without the other, and each waiting for the other, as necessary to produce roundness and perfection. Throughout the whole cosmic economy each of these factors is not only incomplete without the other, but each is evidence of the existence of the other. Even in the spiritual world, universal analogy teaches that as man was created with a natural desire or demand for future existence, that this demand will be satisfied. Demand was created for supply, and supply for demand, and they have an unerring affinity for each other. A vacuum is a demand for air, and cold for heat. Man's natural constitution has many demands, and all these are easily supplied when it is in a normal condition.

Applying these principles more specifically, let us for illustration take the problem of furnishing the food supplies of a great city like London or New York. We find that just the required amount and variety are forthcoming from every quarter of the globe, and all without any system, design, or forethought. The Chinaman is gathering the tea, the Brazilian the coffee, the Dakota farmer is raising the wheat, and every other quarter and country of the globe are striving to make up the supply to fit this never ending demand. It does this as perfectly as if it were regulated by a pair of colossal balances. The element of price comes in and smooths off the inequalities, so that the two surfaces come together perfectly as though polished for the purpose. If a temporary, or even expected, surplus of any article occurs, the price drops just enough to increase the demand to the point of perfect equilibrium. If there be a temporary or foreseen future deficiency, the price rises, and the inevitable equilibrium is restored as before. It is the element of price which always determines the point at which the

equilibrium is reached, and price is modified by still another element, which is competition. In the event of a tendency toward excess, competition takes place among sellers; and, on the other hand, a predominance of demand causes competition among buyers. All commercial transactions and prices, not only of material products, but of everything that has value, like rates of interest, rents, salaries, brainwork, as well as that of muscle, are so regulated. The salary of the clergyman, the fees of the lawyer, and rates of transportation, as well as wages for manual labor, are all controlled by this law. Great talent brings a high price because of its scarcity. Price is a relative quantity, and not an abstract amount. Competition among buyers may cause strawberries to bring a dollar a quart in April, and among sellers may bring them down to ten cents in June. They were relatively as cheap at the one time as the other, the price at which supply and demand became equal varying by so much in the different months.

These laws are elastic and beneficent; and they adapt themselves to all conditions in a natural and easy way, if allowed to operate without interference. Not that they will do away with all the ills of society, or give to every man employment at good wages, or always give success in business; for all such drawbacks are incidental to human fallibility and imperfection. The effect, however, of an attempt to put any forced or artificial laws in their place, is to increase tenfold the friction and difficulty. Such an effort always reacts, and is harmful to those who mistakenly hope for benefit. Let us adduce a few illustrations. Legislative interference in trying to fix rates of interest or rather, one might say, in trying to take away the freedom of individual contract - in the different States, is now generally admitted to be worse than useless, although years ago it was regarded as necessary. The effort to substitute artificial rates for natural ones, under penalty, not only did not ac

complish the purpose intended, but actually made interest dearer, by obstructing supplies, injuring confidence, and by natural reaction. When the peculiar conditions in any State make money worth really more than the maximum legal rate, the practical rate is still further enhanced, to equal the risk of the penalty which the lender incurs. Both parties also feel that they do no moral wrong by evading a statute which interferes with the first principles of personal freedom. So generally does this view of the case now prevail, that this form of legislative interference with Natural Law is practically a dead letter, although in some States the ill-advised statutes are nominally still in force. Legislative interference — except to enforce impartiality— with rates of transportation, and with passenger, telegraph, and telephone service, is in the same line, and will, in the long run, be found to produce similar results. Aside from legislative enactment (which will be considered more fully in the chapter on Economic Legislation), the most formidable attempts to force artificial prices occur in the cases of railway pools or combinations, speculative corners in food products and coal, and in labor unions. The results of these efforts are in the main unsuccessful, and in any case but temporary, and, of course, they lack the moral dignity of legislative interference. In the case of railway combinations, statistics show that in all instances where pool rates were put at a point much above that which may be regarded as normal, they were very short-lived. Such a variety of disintegrating and competitive influences come in, that even the most binding agreements to maintain artificial rates soon have to yield. In the case of speculative combinations and corners, or efforts to control market prices, it may be admitted that in a few instances they have been apparently successful, but in a vastly greater number they have not succeeded, and often have ruined their projectors. In the successful cases, where one clique of operators has succeeded in cornering the