On the all other desires are subordinated to the domestic instinct. contrary, a country is judged to have higher standards of living when its people are prudent and restrain the inclination for family life until they may also gratify other reasonable wants. In the last analysis, then, a standard of living shows the diversified requirements with which the workers are satisfied, and as a large family tends to diminish the volume of personal and social satisfactions which the parents may enjoy, a high standard of living tends to react in a diminution in the number of children. Standards of living must be understood, however, as being, to a considerable extent, social rather than individual desired wants. A standard of living is a fashion rather than a craving of the person himself. THE INCENTIVE TO A LABORER OF A HIGHER STANDARD OF LIVING The attitude of a laborer towards his wage or the use to which he puts his wage, is a sure index of his standard of living, and he is encouraged to become more proficient and to increase his earning capacity if he feels that a better standard of living may be obtainable by him. If wages fall below a certain mark, then the workingman will forego family life and simply fend for himself. Again, if wages are low, the wage-earner's family must submit to the evils of overcrowded and unsanitary dwellings, which play an important part in the continued existence of a low standard of living and morals. If wages are so reduced that the family must accept alms, often insidiously offered by individuals or organized charity groups, the family is forced to enter the ranks of social paupers, and thus society is compelled to become a party in lowering the standard of living for all. As one's standard of living is lowered, the tendencies towards self-restraint, self-respect, and other inhibitory qualities are gradually weakened, and a clearly defined increase of birth-rate and correspondingly high death-rate throughout, is distinctly discernible. In countries where there are periodic floods and famines and climatic disturbances, Nature herself seems to be assisting in raising the standard of living in these densely populated regions. She seems to instill in humanity the craving to return to the scenes of its own destruction, as is evidenced in all quarters where occur floodings of rivers, eruptions of volcanoes and wind-swept wakes of tornadoes. As the earnings of the laborer are augmented, a perceptible growth of desires for education, comforts, and luxuries becomes apparent, and he unconsciously joins society in limiting the aimless increase of population. STANDARDS OF OLDER IMMIGRANTS Some economists consider that the restraining power of a high standard of living upon an increase of population is largely influenced by custom and tradition. The early immigrants to the United States brought with them the standards of the Old World and preferred to raise families instead of accumulating money. Their children, however, having lost all touch with standards of foreign countries, became convinced of the possibility of rising above the class into which they were born. Therefore, a decline in the birth-rate in this second generation was easily noticeable with the correspondingly large increase in the income of the family.' The eighteenth century has witnessed a similar decrease in the birth-rate in England, France and Germany, with a parallel advance of a higher standard of living. In Russia, Italy and other Southern European countries, however, there has occurred no diminution in the birth-rate and no apparent change in the standards of living. Relation of Standard of LIVING TO THE THREE FUNDAMENTALS, FOOD, SHELTER AND CLOTHING Social conditions are continuously fluctuating with the perpetual changes in human civilization. While a comparison of standards is difficult, owing to the physiography of the various regions, and differing values of money in different places and periods, there is a general similarity of wants and needs. The mode of living in any country depends primarily upon the fundamental factors of food, shelter and clothing, and an individual's power to acquire them. As the standard of living improves, the term "shelter " may be ♦ Ely, R. T., “ Outlines of Economics," 1916, p. 348. 4 held to include light, fuel, heat, and necessary household utensils and furniture. In the same manner, clothing may include not only the barest necessities of covering, but also the little personal adornments which are used for recreational occasions. The term "food," then, may consist of a variation of foodstuffs, and not merely of a monotonous diet of the bare requisites to hold body and soul together. Without a variety and wholesome change of nutrients, one soon finds that life becomes a barren drudgery. Every human being seems to have an individual personal standard of living, although he is largely influenced by the needs and wants of the special class in which he moves. As one person is merely a member of the larger group, it is essential to trace the influence of the unit in its larger sphere. POSITIVELY OR NEGATIVELY, NATIONAL LEGISLATION HAS INFLUENCED INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS The purpose of this study is to show that efforts in the United States to maintain and raise our standard of living have given rise to much state and national legislation, and that the resulting legislative acts have, in turn, affected our international relations by developing conditions in other countries which have necessitated much controversial diplomatic correspondence, with varied negotiation and altering of agreements and treaties. The maintenance of the American standard of living has, therefore, thwarted the effective development of international law with its mutual obligations, and has prevented international co-operation on important economic, political and social problems. It has involved the United States in great outlays of money in the administration of its tariff and immigration legislation, for with every law enacted which affects the allied forces of emigration and commerce, foreign governments immediately have reversed or altered their own international policies. THE PLAY FOR NATIONAL ADVANTAGES To a certain extent, the relation of cause and effect in this interplay for national advantages is reciprocal, for much of the aggressive conduct on the part of one nation has its origin in hostile legislation by the other. As an illustration one may cite an inci dent during the period of Bismarck's power in Germany. In order to develop its own agricultural interests, that country placed prohibitions upon the admission of American pork. It was claimed that American pork was not being properly inspected in the United States, and was therefore dangerous to the German consumer. The American Ambassador at Berlin argued emphatically to the contrary before the Chancellor, but received no satisfaction, and was frankly informed that anyway the United States possessed neither army nor navy. Rather shortly the American Ambassador meaningly questioned the Chancellor as to whether or not he wished us to procure one. Negotiations tending towards a remedial course of action were soon instituted between the two countries. So the economic struggle continues, and must persist, until these present highly organized nationalistic policies among nations are regulated with the common interests in view. LIMITATION OF THIS SURVEY WITHIN CERTAIN DEFINED AREA The survey confines itself almost entirely to the American standard of living in its influence on our international relations as shown primarily in the nature of laws enacted in the United States affecting immigration and the tariff. In a short, popular treatise it would be impossible to develop the standards of living in all countries with which we have economic, political, and social relations, and to demonstrate how they, in their turn, affect our international relations. Such a treatment would involve one in a veritable mesh of entanglements. Equally impossible, also, would it be to examine in any detail in a work of this scope all of the international relations which are affected by the maintenance and the raising of our American standard of living; such as economic competition, social welfare endeavors, and labor legislation, as, for example the La Follette Seaman's Act of 1915. This study, therefore, will be limited to the two fields in which the influence of efforts to maintain the American standard of living is principally manifested. It will concern itself solely with the questions of immigration and of trade and their importance in all labor legislation. INFLUENCE OF NATIONALISTIC IDEALS IN DEFENSE OF The argument of the necessity for the protection of the American standard of living has been widely employed by authors, publicists, legislators, labor men, and journalists, and has been one of the underlying motives in the passage of immigration and tariff laws in the United States. Nationalistic ideals may be the predominating influence in the defense of a standard of living, but, in the last analysis, all economic discussions of these two issues, immigration and the tariff, whether fair or prejudiced, rest indirectly on the standard of living argument. EARLY DESIRE FOR IMMIGRATION SOVEREIGNTY IMPLIED IN CAPITAL AND LABOR Immigration in the early days was encouraged because of the need for labor, and it was made popular by calling America the home for the oppressed. A strong drift of labor from over the seas followed, and, far from raising the standard of living, seemed to have had the opposite effect. The agricultural and manufacturing interests believed in an individual bargaining of labor, but during recent years the collective bargaining of labor, as opposed to this early policy, is being instituted, and great quantities of immigrants endanger this modern development. In these opposing cults, one recognizes that organized capital, on the one hand, and organized labor, on the other, are conflicting interests. The raising of the standard of living is the ultimate goal of modern trade unionism, and its spokesmen take the position that capital and labor are two sovereign powers with the treaty-making power inherent in both sovereignties to be exercised as occasions arise. An effective argument with which the proponents of a protective tariff gain many adherents is that it maintains the standard of living of the wage-earners, and laborers as a class are rather agreed upon this point. A condition arising in 1920 in the state of Washington among the lumber men is illustrative of this theory. "The Four L's," the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen, a combined union of capital and labor forces, were most rabidly in favor of a protective |