Out of the annual product the amount necessary for the support of the people is taken, and the requisite labor to produce the next year's consumption provided for.

The residue of the material and labor represents what can be safely expended in improvements.

If the crops are bad, the surplus for that year is less than usual, that is all.

Except for slight occasional effects of such natural causes, there are no fluctuations of business; the material prosperity of the nation flows on uninterruptedly from generation to generation, like an ever broadening and deepening river.
"Your business crises, Mr.West," continued the doctor, "like either of the great wastes I mentioned before, were enough, alone, to have kept your noses to the grindstone forever; but I have still to speak of one other great cause of your poverty, and that was the idleness of a great part of your capital and labor.

With us it is the business of the administration to keep in constant employment every ounce of available capital and labor in the country.