ing his farm. When a
state like Kansas raises from six to ten times as much wheat as its people
can use, exchange is evidently an essential factor in every farmer's
welfare.

The multitude of everyday wants in most households supplied only through
commerce shows the extent and importance of this exchange of labor
throughout the world. The great advantages, however; may be seen by a
little more careful analysis of the growth of individual powers under a
ready system of exchange. Every laborer becomes effective by experience in
some particular industry. A thousand years will not perfect a single
worker in any of the thousands of employments needed to supply his wants.
Every farmer knows the weakness of a beginner in farming, coming from any
other business; and without exchange, every workman must always be a
beginner in everything. Exchange is one of the chief motives to
accumulation, since others' wants as well as our own are kept in view. The
"hand to mouth" liver is almost always a man of all work, thinking little
of exchange. It is especially a stimulant to saving, since it makes
capital itself more useful and brings it directly into competition with
all other forces. Products stored in the granary have their significance
because of exchange.

Still more important is the cultivation of special abilities, impossible
without exchange. The indefinitely varied powers of human nature are made
most useful where each can devote his talent to a definite business; and
usually the talent best fitted to a business is attracted toward it.
Habits, too, which are the chief labor-saving characteristics in human
nature; become all-important, and enable an individual to do a large part
of his work with the least possible care. The routine of everyday life is
followed with little effort or pain. The more regular the routine the
easier it is to follow.

A still greater advantage to communities is found in the enlargement of
the range of wants in all individuals. The superiority of enlightened men
over savages is largely due to their greatly increased needs, since
necessity, the mother of invention, compels exertion and finds the way to
satisfaction. It seems, however, that exchange contributes most
extensively to welfare by combining individuals into a community, and
smaller communities into a larger, until the whole world is brought into
sympathy. Thus every human being gains the advantage of growth in mind and
character through som