wealth depends also somewhat on the workers and the governments of even the most distant parts of the world. This means that the American who wants to acquire wealth must be interested, if for no other reason than a wholly selfish one, in what the workers and government of other countries are doing.

Sometimes we have the money with which to buy tea, spices, perfumes, diamonds, and rugs from Europe, Asia, and Africa, and the people of these countries are anxious to sell to us, but cannot do so. This happened in 1921 and 1922. Europeans needed our wheat and machinery, and we had wheat and machinery to exchange, but something had happened to Europe's money. It had shrunk so that in some countries what had previously been equivalent to one dollar was worth only about twenty-five cents. Therefore for $10,000 worth of wheat they would have to send us $40,000 worth of rugs or diamonds or whatever they had. In some countries the shrinkage had been even greater. On December 10, 1921, an American traveler in Vienna exchanged an American dollar bill for $2000 worth of Austrian money. To save themselves from starving, these nations did buy food from us at these high prices, but they bought only what was absolutely necessary.

39. War makes Money Shrink. The shrinking of the money of Europe was due to the reason that we gave above when we said that our money in America was wealth only if we had a large number of people making the things that we wanted. For several years the European nations had been at war-part of the people making guns, shells, and poison gases, and the rest using these to destroy buildings, ships, soil, and trees and to kill people. When the fighting ceased there was only waste to show for these years of hard work. The fact that one dollar of our money was equal to $2000 worth of Austrian money meant that the possibility of getting food, clothing, houses, and other necessities in America was two thousand times as great as in Austria. For a time, so great was the lure of American dollars in Europe that unscrupulous men secured copies of New York City and Chicago telephone directories and sold the addresses

things are they true wealth

in these for five dollars each in Munich, Vienna, Warsaw, and Budapest. If a little begging for "just one dollar a month" for a sick wife or child sent to this American address was successful, the writer could live in luxury for a month.

40. The Stored-up Wealth of the Nation. In these pages we have been dealing with wealth and the means by which it is produced. There are two kinds of wealth: (1) natural resources and (2) the products made by transforming these resources into manufactured goods. We found that some of the means by which natural resources are changed into manufactured wealth and distributed to the people are in themselves a form of wealth. But we saw that money was only a symbol whose value varies according to natural resources and the use made of them.

Money is powerful in the United States because we keep it in constant use. When it is put to work again to earn more money, it becomes what we call capital. That is, if the man who works in an office uses his savings to hire a boy to plant his garden, the garden represents capital. If he puts his savings in the bank or buys stock or bonds in a telephone company, a railroad, or any other company, his money also becomes capital.

In a prosperous country there must always be large quantities of this stored-up work, or capital. If there were not, then there would be no way of repairing buildings, of erecting new ones, of trying out inventions and using these to bring additional comforts. The more money a nation has the better, if the money is put to work as capital. To waste capital or to use it for foolish or harmful things is in reality to waste hours and years of hard work.

One should get in the habit of thinking of buildings, machines, electric lights,-all made things,-as standing for the ideas carefully worked out only after hours and years of toil and hard manual labor of hundreds of thousands of people, most of whom are dead. These things are our inheritance, and are ours only to use, to improve, and to pass on to those who will come after us. Even more precious than these man-made things

are the things which nature gives us and which we can preserve and in a few cases improve, but can never replace. To use these in such a way that they can be passed on unimpaired is what the people of the past often failed to do and what the people of the present must learn to do.

PROBLEMS AND EXERCISES

1. What kind of natural wealth does your state have? Make a complete list to include rivers, lakes, soils, etc., in each case stating just why each is a source of wealth. Give a separate page in your loose-leaf notebook to each of these, and add facts in regard to (1) waste, (2) wrong use, (3) failure to use, (4) remedies, (5) what private organizations are doing, (6) what government is doing.

2. Cattle and other live stock are a part of the nation's wealth not discussed in the text. These are not natural wealth, but are directly dependent on it. Find out by writing to your state department of agriculture how extensive the raising of cattle, hogs, sheep, fowls, is in the state. Relate this to (1) the geographical features of the state, (2) the transportation facilities, (3) the local demand of large cities, (4) the demand outside the state.

3. Has your state any ponds, lakes, or rivers which yield a supply of edible fish? If so, what part does government-either state or national have in increasing and protecting this?

4. Make a careful "prosperity" survey of your community to learn all the local natural resources on which the community depends for its prosperity. On what distant natural resources does it also depend? If you live in a large manufacturing city, it would be impossible to get complete information on this point, but learn the most important sources of distant wealth that help make your community. (See page 20.)

5. To what port are the farm products, the manufactured goods, or the mined articles of your locality sent? Over what railroads, rivers, or canals are they transported? Through what ports do the raw materials and other goods from foreign countries used in your locality come?

6. Take the facts assembled in exercises 4 and 5 and find out what government departments, bureaus, or commissions are concerned (nation, state, and community).

7. Which of these kinds of fuel are used in your community-coal, oil, gas, wood? Where do they come from? If your state produces

any of these, find out (1) how much, (2) in what sections, (3) who owns it, (4) where most of it is sent. Consult your loose-leaf notebook for facts already gathered on this point.

8. How well is your community connected by railroad, roads, telephone, telegraph, wireless, canal, or river with the rest of the world? If the connection is inadequate what is the reason and what is the remedy?

9. Bridges are an important part of roads and railroads. At New York City there are more than fifty bridges over the Hudson River. Bridges which are a part of public roads are built by towns, cities, counties, states, and the nation. A bridge at El Paso which connects the United States and Mexico was built by Mexico and the United States. Bridges which are for the use of railroads alone are usually built by the railroad company alone, or else by the state and railroad company jointly. Does your state have expensive bridges? If so, can you find out who built them? Some of the bridges of the United States are among the marvels of the twentieth century. Does your state have any of these? If it does, let several students be a committee to find out some of the facts connected with one or more of these.

10. Make a special study of the largest port, the most important agricultural section, the greatest manufacturing city, in your section of the United States. Use the facts given in textbooks of geography and atlases as a basis. Add facts from newspapers and from chamber-ofcommerce and government reports. Know exactly what your state and the national government are doing in such cases. If government help is inadequate what should be done? If possible suggest new laws or revised laws that seem needed.

11. Explain how banks help make a nation prosperous. What government officials concerned with banks does your state have? Learn everything possible about some one bank in your community. Appoint a class committee to interview one of the bank's officials.

12. Select several desirable articles, conveniences, or privileges which it is either difficult or impossible to buy today. Find out the reason. Then select some one article of necessity the cost of which in your community is excessive. Trace this from its place of origin to your community to see if you can explain the high cost. On the basis of the facts learned try to find a remedy.

13. Re-read Chapter III and discuss the different work ideals mentioned there with the problems presented in this chapter.