Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-16
ALLEGED OvERPRODUCTIoN.

The question of the prosperity or de
preston of the agricultural industry pro
duced very Lively discussion at the Stat,
Board of Agriculture, in which diversit,
of views was elected, with general ten
dency toward the natural conclusion thai
the farmers can make living by working
very hard for it. The State Bureau of Stats.
tics, in report on the same subject, takes 9
more decided stand on the point of agricult.
ural depression; but makes some deductions
so remarkable as to form the chief feature oi
the report. This is especially the case in
the remarks upon overproduction. The
bureau makes the definite statement that
or food staples, and at the same time recog-
nizes that there are large numbers of me-
chanics and Horkingmen in mills and mines
who would consume more food than they get
if they could afford it. Yet in the pres
ence of this abnormal condition Of disastrous
abundance, the best recommendation that
the bureau can make to improve matters is
that the farmers must produce less!
Such lame and impotent conclusion is
equally remarkable for its halting logic
and its disregard of the principles of hu-
manity. 1t begins with the postulate that
because, on one side, too much grain,
-four, meat, milk and vegetables are pro-
duced, and on the other too many laborers
are ready to manufacture iron, tools, clothing
and machinery, therefore the farmers
must 60 without machinery, tools and cloth
ing and the laborers must put up with less
bread and meat. In view Of this unnatural
inability of the producers to exchange and
enjoy their respective abundance, the re-
markable conclusion is arrived at that be-
cause the farmers are funable to exchange
their products advantageously they must
benefit themselves by raising less to ex-
change; while the mechanics and miners,
who are now unable to pay for abundant
food, are to experience the unique ben
eft of having food made still scarcer and
dearer, so that their wages will purchase
just so much less than they can now geti
The person who with the condition stated
of surplus on both sides which the work
cannot see that the paradox of universal
want in the midst of universal abundance
must be caused by devices to hamper the
exchange, for the profit of interests that
stand between the producers, is unable to
carry on the processes of inductive reason
ing. 1t is no less remarkable that any one
should fail to see that the obvious remedy
is to seek the means of making the ex-
changes of products more economical and
removing the barriers built up by combina-
tions and monopolies. The report makes
some cropping efforts in that direction; but
the failure to arrive at clear statement of
the remedy in any case, is illustrated by the
assertion that the claim is made on behalf
of the Eastern farmers that the railroads
ought to carry the products OF the Western
farms at the same rate per mile as the
products of the Eastern or Middle States.
1t is hard to believe that after ten years of
discussion of the railway issue, any pub
icist who assumes to write on the subject
IAN have so superficial knowledge of the
question as to make that statement in good
iaith. The complaint against the railroads
IS, not that they do not carry freights at the
'ame rate per mile, but that they make rates
for the longer haul wholly out of proportion
% the cost of service, carrying that dispro-
portion in some cases to the extent of an actu-
ally less charge for the longer distance than
for the shorter. That this policy results in
boating the production ofstaples at a greater
distance from each other than would be the
,ase if each locality were given its legiti-
nate advantage in the point of distance, is
obvious; and the inevitable result of wasted
abor in transporting products one thousand
miles that might be produced only five hun
lred miles distant from each other, places a
burden upon industry that may 60 far toward
the paradox of industries that
produce so much as to keep the producers in
want Add to that the success of pools and |
rusts in levying vast profits on the opera
ions of exchange, and the mockerY of pro- !
,osing to remedy universal want by artif-
ial scarcity ought to be apparent.
1t is a very useful work to collate facts |
With regard to economic conditions. But if |
he agencies for the gathering of statistics
to draw conclusions, they should
understand how to draw those which obvi-
usly result from the facts established.