Primitive man had a very scanty stock of goods, the uses of which were direct--food, ornaments, clothing, a hut, etc.— and he had another scanty stock of goods with uses less direct —indirect or instrumental goods, such as his weapons, tools, dogs and horses to be used in the chase, etc. From very early times men have been discovering more indirect yet more effec tive ways of doing things so that they could get more direct goods, or better goods, or could get them with less labor, or in more agreeable ways. A poor man to-day may enjoy the use of a large variety of goods (some being his own and a much greater mass belonging to others), while the modern man of "means" brings about the gratification of his desires by the agency both of a great amount of goods with direct uses and of a great number of goods with indirect uses. Society as a whole may be thought of to-day as in the situation of a man of means.
Man alone regularly makes use of external objects as in direct agents to get what he wishes—not using merely his own bodily members. Primitive man saw the cocoanut hanging above his head out of reach. When he picked up a stick to throw at the branch, the nut was removed one step from at tainment, the stick was an economic good with an indirect use. Slowly through thousands of years the processes of industry have come to involve more and more steps or links. The Indian with a crude knife fashioned his bow and arrow, fastened the flint and cord which were the outcome of still other processes of industry, and shot the bird which satisfied his hunger. To-day in many cases it is only at the end of a long succession of technical steps that men attain the objects which directly yield the uses they desire. They take the indirect way of doing things not because they prefer indirect ness for itself, but merely because ex perience has taught them that it is the easiest and the most effective way of getting what they desire.
§ 4. Goods with indirect uses. Some of these goods with indirect uses are so near to having direct uses that we hardly recognize that they do not have. It is the draft of air rather than the fan, which is the direct cause of the pleasant cool ness; the fan is a necessary indirect agent. It is the air-waves striking on the ear which cause the agreeable sound, while the violin, the bow, the skilful hand, are agents one step re moved mechanically.
In a multitude of cases the concrete, direct good and the thing valued simply as an agent to get it, are only a single step removed from each other. The land and the trees in the
orchard are agents to get the fruit of the harvest; the spin ning machine and the loom are agents to make cloth. Again, the good may be removed by many steps or processes from psychic income, much as in the story of the house that Jack built: the charcoal heats the fire, the fire melts the iron, the iron forms the hatchet, the hatchet cuts the tree, the tree forms the boat, the boat is used for catching fish, the fish is used for food, and that is the cause of man's desire for everything that * Psychic income may be represented as a narrow band at the base. Some direct uses are constantly being transmuted into psychic in come. In turn many of these direct uses result from somewhat indirect uses, these in turn from more indirect uses, and the value of each and all of the whole series of uses rests ultimately on this basis of psychic income.
went before—charcoal, fire, iron, hatchet, tree, and boat. Again, several objects may be complementary agents, that is, may be needed together to obtain one direct use, as the char coal and iron and some other tools must be brought together to make the hatchet; the boat, a pole, a hook, and bait must all be used together to catch the fish.
§ 5. Direct and indirect uses of the same good. Many goods yield at the same time direct and indirect uses for the same or for different persons. The pitcher on the table as an ornament pleasing to the eye is of direct use, while in hold ing the water to quench our thirst it is of indirect use. In many other cases the one thing has two or more kinds of uses at once, and the proper distinction is that between direct and indirect uses of a good, rather than between direct and in direct goods. The wagon carries a load of produce to market and a happy family to the circus at the same time; a train may carry both passengers and freight; a stove may warm the room and at the same time cook the dinner, etc. Again, the good may be used indirectly at one time and indirectly at another ; the horse which plows the field to-day may to-morrow draw the owner's carriage. In still other cases two or more uses, either direct or indirect, are possible, but are mutually exclusive : the tree may be kept to bear fruit, may be burned as fuel, turned into lumber for furniture, or used to make a workbench to be used to make still other goods.