The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1879-04-03
Can We Over.Produce.

The doctors of political economy are
just now very busy explaining the cause
Of the continued existence of what is
called ''hard times" One AYERS that
''over-production" is the chief cause;
another blames 'under-consumption."
There may be nice distinction between
the meanings of these terms, but to our
mind the difference between them is
hardly apparent. 1t is a question if we
can possibly produce such surplus of
products as will check an the avenues Of
trade, reduce prices to a point below a
living profit, and cause 'hard times
through an excess of what is usually the
most substantial wealth we can possess
1t seems clear that to do so is simply inn
possible. Let us suppose case: Four
men, who may represent four hundreds,
or thousands, or millions, or four ma
tions, if we wish, exist upon an island
in the ocean. One of these men culti-
Yates the soil and produces more than
he can consume or even gather and care
for. The others are laborers or me-
chanics, and finding no employment Or
demand for their labor, they are
idle. Now, the first man needs
help to handle what he fears is his over
product. What will he do with it !!
This troubles him. He calls one man to
help him gather it; another to carry it
to a safe place; and another to make a
store for it. He pays them with part
of the product and they are Immediately
supplied with what they have lacked:
The farmer then wants Il score of things
which he never knew of before, and he
finds one or the ether of these men are
able to supply him with what he needs
SO, by-and-by the whole four are busy
and soon they are i'll comfortable posi-
ton of dependence upon each other, and
the next year the farmer does not fear
to plant more than ever, because he sees
a way to dispose of his products. By
and-bye the people of an adjacent island
learn the fact that there are many things
in abundance across the water, and they
come over and exchange products, per-
haps gold or something else they may
have produced by their labor, for the
farmers superabundance.
Now, it is evident that so long as these
men do net, each and all, produce so
much of every product of their labor,
that it cannot all be used, there cannot
be over-production, or too much of any
one thing; but especially there cannot
be too much of the farmers products,
because everybody wants some of them,
and they require so much labor to take
care of them. 1t is precisely so in actual
fact Think for moment of what is
involved in the fact of 400, 900, 900 bush
els of wheat, for instance. What host
of laborers of all kinds will this vast
amount Of grain call to work Here
are, for one thing, about twelve million
tons to be freighted, stored, sold, trans
ferred, receipted for, milled, bagged, bar
relied, shipped abroad, or used at home;
and every one of the great army of men
engaged in handling it, will use a por-
ton of it for food, and wear out shoes,
clothes, machinery and thousand other
things in the doing of it, to replace
which will use up more of it. If the
surplus Of our crops were an idle, useless
thing, it would be different; but it is the
bread of life to the whole world, and
there is scarcely All individual in any
civilized country, where bread is eaten,
whose labor is not stimulated and in
creased by an abundance of it. The po-
litical economist should look elsewhere
for the cause of hard times, than to an
over production Of what is necessary to
our life or comfort Rural New Yorker.
Fashion Notes.