The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-12-08
PANlcs AND CRISES.
Lecture Of Prof. Bonamy Price.

Lecture Of Prof. Bonamy Price.
How Nations Become Poor IMITATION
Destruction Of Capital--Abominao.e
Absurdities Of Popular Behsf-'1e:''
Of Capital--Protection IN AmeAe"
Equivalent to the Poor Law IN Eng
land
{Continued
THE VITAL POINT IN MEMS INDUSTRIAL
LIFE,
Let US see what it means. l trespassed
fearfully upon your patience last time.bu
it is really impossible in these questions
to give anything like satisfactory expla-
nation. have got to address you now on
the vital point of the industrial life OF man;
What are you doing all the day long /,
What are the American people doing all
day long? How is their industrial lite
passed There is the great secret Here
is the whole matter. Understand that
thoroughly and we shall have something
of very different kind from what people
learn in Wall-st The life of man is com
posed of two things-of making aud con-
suming, The consumption, it you keep
alive, does go on and must 60 on, and the
great question is. How about the making
All this large apparatus of great towns, its
carriages, and it's population, and its great
stores, conceal the great fact that your
life, your luxuries, your comforts. every
thing that you have, that your enjoyment
and possession as living men consists in,
that as fast as you Destroy things shall be
made. This is not paper work. A loaf OF
bread is not paper A horse is not paper.
Clothes to keep You warm are not paper.
Stern facts Stern realities! My whole
object tonight is to make you understand
this. The secret consists in the word cap
ital. 1t is hard word. wish one could
have found better, but in the real under
standing of that lies the secret we are in
search Of
What is capitall That q man makes.
had to be fed, had to be clothed, had to be
lodged, had to have raw materials, and had
to be supplied with tools. These are the
Eve things without which you would not
have the clothes which you are wearing
this evening. Now what is it that makes
nations rich and what makes nations poor?
1t all depends upon what happens to this
capital. a nation is stationary when 1t
makes as much as it destroys when the
clothes that are worn out are supplied by
another suit of clothes and when the food
that has sustained life is replaced by an-
other lot But what does that mean
That the things we want to cultivate wheat
with have been destroyed and are gone !;
but wisely the people who made them are
making another lot for next year. The
people who wore the clothes are making
q new lot of wheat, If another lot of
wheat is not made, there must be poverty,
and there may be starvation. Therefore
if nation makes as much as it destroys i,
is stationary
If. as most modern nations practice, you
make more than you destroy,it becomes an
extremely interesting question to ascertain
what you do with that surplus stock. You
turn it into savings. But what is the
meaning of the word saviugsp A mat
does not save by laying it up in gold, He
may starye upon it, be very cold upon it
have holes in his roof,and all the workmet
may 20 away because the man has turnet
all his money into gold Of all the useles
things in the world it is gold unless yo'
wear it or employ it. a nation grow
greater by saving, and the word saving
means to turn that extra stock into CAPT
IL. which means to turn it into the powe
of making a larger supply of the thing
next year. That is the way nations grov
rich, A nation like the American natiol
will grow rich. it, having made certain
quantity of things and the inhabitants US
them, they don't use them al
Don't put them into carpets an
such things That is not capital. Blu
if they need large number of new field
to grow more wheat; if they get mor
ships; if they make more roads wher,
fields were not cultivated because the cart
could not get at the fields; if they max.
docks so that more ships can get to them
there are the savings, and then all these
things so saved produce larger quantity
of things next year, and the nation has
grown richer, and if the population has
not kept corresponding pace, there is more
to divide. The people are richer Some
will have a larger stock and these will be
the wealthy men. Everytodyis better off,
because there are more things made.
HOW NATIONS BECOME POOR.
Now let us come to the other part How
do nations get poor? From just the coun,
ter proceedings -frum consuming, devour-
ing, eating up more than they make, and
then somebody must go to the bad Some
body must lose. | don't mean lose in coun
tiers, gold OF paper. Somebody must lose
in his table, in his wants; somebody per
haps must starve. That is the only ex.
planatiop of what we call "A manic. that
there has been by some process exception
al, undue fomenting; an unnatural, SO to
say, destruction Ut things beyond the things
that are made. Then what follows? Take
field. If it comes to this point, man
says: Il cant feed you, john this year
l have got to burn my corn upon the
farm. 1t won't sell because other people
have nothing to give me in the place Of it. y
In that way the FIELD goes out of cultiva-
ton, because the farmer can't afford t.
keep John But why? Because there i.
no demand for corn sufficiently great t.
enable him to sell it to English people or
other people, aud he has lost the capital
with which John is to be kept alive while
growing the corn. So it is in store, shpp.
factory, and mine There being a de-
fcicncy of other things made, the owner
Of all these things cannot conduct the max
ing of goods as heretofore. Don't forget
the vast diference--tor it is a very mis-
leading thing-that in these great times.
you are very few of you makers. You
are distributors. All you do Is to put the
capital III the proper places, where it wants
TO be used. \ great store does not uiake
the goods it sells.
The factories are not hero tbp folds ,ra