The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1888-04-26
DOES CONTR ACTION OF THE CURREN.
CYLOWEe PRICES.
The President Of the National Farmers
Alliance OF America speaks Words of
Power on Mos. Important Question.
lFrom the Farm ,rs' Voice J


Power "a Most Important Question.
lFrom the Farmers Voice)
Low prices for farm products seem
to be universal The distress in free
trade England, i as great IS in pro-
tected Germany and United States; and
it seems necessary TO find some cause
which is of universal application.
The wiseacrcs say we are suffering
from oycrproduetion. AZ the univer-
sal distress seems to be on the increase,
they are reduced to the anomalous
proposition ..that the more wealth we
produce the poorer we become. We
reject this idea rs untenable.
We cannot convince the farmers of
Western Nebraska that thcre Is an
oycrproduction of coal. when tley are
compelled to stop trains aid take
for,ib'c possession Of it to prevent
their families from freezing; nor that
there is al ovcrproduction O. woolen
cloth while their children are compelled
to wear jeans. The cause Of low
prices must evidently be sought in
some economic law which appeals more
forcibly to our reason than this heresy
of avcr-production.
The political economists say that the
avs Of supply and demand make prices.
We may safely conccde this to be true,
with the reservation that there may be
some economic conditions which make
or affect the laws of supply and de-
mand.
Demand. to be effective. must COM
binc the need for food, clothing, etc.,
with the ability to purchase the same
that is with supply equal to demand.
Demand may be never 50 urgent. if
there is no corresponding supply, pow
er:y and distress must result. Now. it
is evident that whatever tends to di-
minish supply-whatever tends to inn
pair the ability of men to CRAFTY their
necds-must interfere with demand,
and therefore lessen consumption and
tend toward the accumulation of an
unused surplus. A hailstorm or tor
nado, which DESTROYS the farmers crop
before it is garnercd, is an incident of
this description.
"A. we will suppose, intended last
/ fall 70 build a barn, but storm or 4
drouth, or both occur, and he finds
himself with insufficient means, and
| the barn is not built. Trace the in
iluence Of this upon demand through
| the social fabric.
The lumber remains III the yard. the
/ hardware in the store-thc carpenter
| is idle. The lumber dealer does not
need to rcplenish his stock, it not being
depleted BY A. consequently the vessel
| bringing lumber from the mills lies
with furlea sails, and the saws at the
mills cease their whirr. The hardware
dealer, deprived of his expected profit,
denies his wife a new dress, diminish
ing the manufacturers per cent and
lesscning the weavcr's pay. The car
renter, idle, consumes his former
earnings. while his clothes grow thread
bare and the fallacy of over production
brings no roses to the cheek of his
wife.
Thus on and OH may this influence
be traced through increasingly radiating
circles, every interruption of demand
'rcacting disastrously upon supply.
| Any other cause that would produce
1.-THE same effect upon A would produce
the same reflex upon society.
Is there any other cause which is of
moro universal application than the
ono supposed Let us see.
1t is evidcn, that whatever would di-
minish the purchasing power of "A's''