Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-10-04
Producers and Consumers.

"a Nov IL yvo,,la eoesa 10 rs mat the proper
way to increase the price Of any product is
to increase the number Of consumers, or les
sen production. Fifty merchants in the city,
each with dozen clerks will certainly de-
mand of the farmer more of his products,
than one with a hundred clerks and assist
ants, aud the same is true in every other
branch Of trade. Would it not be better
for the farmer, if he wishes to increase the
price of his products, to discourage Others
from entering the same field, than to en-
courage competition, but say to those in
other industries, stay where you are and not
come crowding in among us ? Making war
upon the residents of cities and villages,
either by word or deed, is an attack upon
the goose which consumes and pays for her
food with golden eggs or greenbacks."
This strikes us as being rather loose rca-
soning. The way of prosperity to a nation,
is not to reduce the number OF producers
and increase the number Of non.producing
consumers. The more producers the better
The more non-producing consumers-idlers
the worse. The community which has the
most productive workers, and the fewest
non-producing consumers, is accumulating
wealth the fastest If no artificial restraints
are placed upon labor, there will be no
difficulty in distributing it among the vari-
Gus useful Observation-Disclosures artistic,
commercial, agricultural and mechanical
tlat, Oh ha
In properly regulated community (and
this means a well educated and moral com
munity, least interfered with in its indus
tries by legislation), every sort Of useful
work will be followed with energy wealth
of every sort will accumulate and as this
wealth accumulates, every branch of labor
will share in its benefits, A nation so en-
gagged, tchere the products Of labor are justly
distributed, will become rich not only.as a
whole, but as individuals; and each work
man will find himself possessed of the abil-
ity and opportunity of supplying all his
reasonable wants without excessive labor.
But in a nation where, by cunning legisla-
tive devices, a large number contrive to live
in luxurious idleness, and another large mum
ber by the same means, can accumulate for.
tunes in short time, the remainder, no mat
ter how laborious, must eat the bread of
poverty all their days. In such nation the
manual laborer will find few openings to
better his condition, even in "good times :;
and in the "panics " and "crises that
must periodically recur in every community
where class legislation deranges the healthy
operation of natural laws, the poor man
however, industrious, must ever be the buf
fer " of fortune for his "betters that is
his law-making masters
Fifty merchants, each with his dozen
clerks, " if all employed to the best advantage
of the community in conducting its ex
changes, are profit to each and every one
Of that community The same is true OF
those engaged in transportation, and every
form Of middlemen's work. just so long
as they are truly needed, they are as truly
laboring for the common good, and as wei
entitled to share in the general prosperity al
those more directly engaged in productive
labor. The same is true Of the professional
classes and all engaged in intellectual labor
and also of those who control the monel
capital of the nation. In their places, ant
under fair and natural division of profits
every one is good and useful citizen.
But and if-but and if the commercial O.
the professional, or the capitalist class, or al
of them together, so control and manpulat,
the laws as TO secure larger part Of the an
nual profits of the national industry than il
justly due to them, what then ? Suppose
for instance, that the national wealth is &c
oumulating at an average annual rate o
four per cent, and the wealth of any single
class in that nation grows at the rate of ten
per cent, " does it not follow, as the nigh
the day." that some other class will get les
to the one class because its services ar
more useful than the average usefulness o
all, then it is right. But If it is brough
about by laws cunningly framed and de
signed to effect that end, what then
Suppose, again, that under such law
those fifty merchants so control exchange
as unnecessarily to take repeated tolls iron
the national grist, or greater tolls THAI
justice entities them to take, are they, so ia
as they do this, beneficial TO the country
Suppose that under equal laws twenty mel
chants could and would do the same work
and do it as well, ought the old laws to be re
tanned 4? And again, suppose that, in despai
of getting those old laws changed, or Will
they were at work to get them changed, tn
rest Of the community should try wha
seemed cheaper way of effecting these eS
changes. Would ii be wicked? And finally
suppose that the thirty merchants, witt
their clerks, that had been subsisting an,
growing rich upon those unjustly exacte
tolls, were forced, under better laws, OF b.
the new plan of making exchanges, to en-
bark their capital and their labor in som
branch of productive industry that offere
them profitable employment--let that b
agriculture or manufactures-ho would tn
community be hurt
The Rural NeV Yorker seems TO think
would be better to support those thirty mel
chants and their three hundred and sixt
clerks at the public cost Tor what is the sam
thing let them have the benefit of the III
Just legislation by which they will be emf
bled TO live out Of the common wealth will
out useful return), than to have them engag
in productive industry, especially il thi
industry should be turned to agricultur
Let us carry this sort Of reasoning lit
further. II il is going to hurt the farmin
interest to have more capital and more labC
embarked in tiff it be better to pay il
terest on that capital uselessly, aud suppol
those laborers out Of the common purse
why not pass laws to pension off one-half {
the men that are now engaged in agricu