The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-07-25
OVER-PR0DUoTIoN AND ITS EFFECTS

1t is one of the favorite ways of those wht
belong to and represent the non-producint
class to account for. hard times by imputinG
their existence to over-production. Thu
workingmen, they say. have produced tor
much grain. and that makes grain SO cheaE
that the farmer can not get living prices
The planter raises so much cotton that be
can not get for it its full value. The factory
men have made more cotton goods
than the markets of the world demand,
and for that reason they can not get remuner.
alive returns Miners and furnace men have
made more iron than there is any present use
for, there being now iron enough for several
Thousand miles of railroads which are not in
contemplation, and will not be built because
they will not pay. Coal has been over pro
| duced until the diggers can no longer sell it at
living rates. There is, in short, too much OF
everything everywhere and there is a univer-
sal excess of supply over demand. Every
body has got more than he wants, and cannot
sell his surplus.
We can understand how it could happen
that in manufacturing country like England
there should sometimes be on hand more
than might be wanted Of certain lines of
goods and wares. But the consequence would
be that they would not sell, and therefore,
the owner, holding his stock at cost would
wait until consumption had further pro-
crossed and the demand had again been re-
ua yha IN L.
overabundant supply must be working at
loss The longer he works the more he loses.
he jeopardizes the interests Of his creditors
and places it out of the power of his en-
ployes to better their condition. The owners
of mills and mines are not inclined to pursue
such losing course, and begin betimes to
lessen their productive operations.
While conceding that production in
any branch of industry must needs produce
disturbance in the regular working of supply
and demand, causing loss to vested capital
and loss to labor, loss to the carrier classes
and loss to buyers and sellers, we are still Of
the opinion that disturbance coming from this
cause is selfcurative, and therefore local and
transient Demand is the stimulus of pro-
duction, and when the waning or failing de-
mand is felt, its effect is Immediately shown
in lessened production. Let the demand for
American cotton so fall off that the crop of
1875 must be sold for thirty per cent less than !
the cost of production, and the immediate |
effects would be visible in the lessened crop
Of 1876. The reactionary effect of failing de-
mand upon production is so certain and 80 |
prompt that over-production cannot justly be
alleged as the cause of the hard times which
are felt through series of years.
Looking further for the cause of the strin-
gency and scarcity, the dullness and torpidty
now widely prevalent, we see that in the course
Of the past twelve years America anu Europe
have expended on wars and the preparation
for wars, an enormous annua! sum which has
practically been withdrawn from the wealth
Of both continents. This cost, on an aver
age. has been not less than eight thousand
millions of dollars per annum, and if all the
results of the wars already suffered within
hat period are taken into the account, the
,nknown total must be far greater sum of
lamage. All this waste comes out of the
wages Of thu producing classes in the end,
o that congresses, kings, ministers,
abbles and emperors are playing the bloody ,
anne at the expense of those who labor. 1t is |,
onsense to say that in Europe or this country ,
be producing classes have more clothing, \.
nore of the comforts of life, more Injuries,
aore provisions, more ornaments, more +,
means of acquiring knowledge, or more of ,
nything nationally desirable than they need.
Among them there is no surplus of those
hings which they must buy, and if there is +,
n unstable surplus Of what they or some .
them produce, it is only local, partial and
smporary.
Nations are mutually dependent, and this
affects all classes. A monetary
isturbance in Great Britain is felt in the
ank vaults and cash balances of America. A /,
mine on the shores of farthest India affects :,
Re grain markets of the Euxine, the Baltic,
le Mediterranean and the Atlantic. An in !;
rnal war in Europe is felt by every nation to =
hich European trade extends. A calamity =
any country, in whatever form it !
L
mes, is a calamity felt universally.
aarrel as they may, there is a family
terest and tie of mutually that SO unites /
| the manifold races of the earth into one Z
nsitive mass, that wound IN any part is :
1t at length in every other, We here on a
is remote continent are therefore feeling to- Y
y the consequences, not only of our own Q
ost disastrous, costly and destructive war,
1t also of those wars which have been more
Gently waged on the other Hemisphere ~
i'd even now that the potentates of Europe Il
9 busted in preparing for more war, with ia
awning millions of men from productive in T
lstry and loading taxpayers with new i'm fr
sts, we in America are feeling the depres- p
re consequences. There will be exceptional C
RODS Of prosperity in all countries, and .
en- while some are torn, and ravaged, and "
asted with the fiery devastation of war, -
hers NAV seem tn thrive: vet in time the