The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-09-28
PRACTICAL RECIPROCITY.

Apropos to the foreign reciprocity
doctrine Just now so prominently advo-
Gated as a pohtico-economic policy, it
seems to me pertinent to inquire whether
domestic reciprocity, if me may 50 term
reciprocity between individuals, is not a
sOrer need of the times than foreign re-
ciprocity. Foreign reciprocity as pro-
posed means, as l understand it, that we
as nation shall say to any other nation
whose products we have decided to take
without intolerance. IF we take your
products YOU must take ours This is
generally agreed to be a sagacious thing
for us to do, as it is clear
that unless the other nations of the
world take in the aggregate as
much of our products as we take of
theirs, we as nation are growing
poorer. The same laws applicable to ma
lions being under like circumstances APP
plicable to individuals, this necessity for
reciprocity it seems to me is memorable
between individuals as well as nations.
The individual consumer of the products
of others, no matter how cheap he may
buy them, must be reCiprOCated from
some source by a counter demand for an
equivalent of labor or commodities, else
he is growing poorer and unless he be
wealthy the amount of such products he
consumes will eventually be measured.
not by their cheapness nor by
his inclination, but by the aggregate
demand from all sources for his
own labor or products. And, contra. the
producer who supplies consumers with
products for cash without reciprocating
humanity somewhere, not by cheap
products but by a counter demand for
an equivalent of labor or its products, is
growing weather., not equitably, but
simply because of its failure to reCiprO-
cate the market which he supplies by an
equivalent counter demand somewhere
for labor or its products.
Production must create and wholly
sustain either directly or indirectly the
market for Its products by fully recip-
rocating consumption else, the tendency
to an unequal distribution of wealth and
the curtailment of commerce will follow,
the strength of the tendency being in
proportion to the lack of such recip-
rocitv.
Let us illustrate: Here are a hun
dren men making horseshoes by
hand in a shop or factory; it
is clear that for the use of themselves
and families and that of the teacher, the
merchant, the physician and other non
producing members of society for whom
they create necessity and whom they
support, they require the products of
other branches OF labor sufficient TO
nearly or quite pay directly or indirectly
for the results of their own labor They,
while supplying a demand foa the pro-
ducts in their line of labor. create and
sustain an equal and reciprocal demand
for the products of labor in other branch
es of industry. Money paid for their
product Will be returned directly TO the
channels of circulation.
Here we have a fragment of a recip-
rocating social system. a segment of an
supported: an arch which when
would clearly be symmetrical and
self-sustaining and under which. few. if
anv enforced idlers would ever be found:
of all wealth. would be evenly distribut-
ed, resulting in a more equal distribution
of wealth.
AptAA sui II a ActA lli HAUL t-Al.L1 LNHl1N
in any branch of industry. This type of
factory with its mutually has given
place 10 the non-reciprocatlng factory of
today. The proprietor has bought
machine OF the required capacity, dis
charged ninety-tive Of the men. laid in
can Of lUbricating oil and a supply
of coal screenings. or connected with
natural gas main, and Is turning off the
same product as before, but requIr-
ing scarcely any OF the products
Of any other branch Of industry or Of
any other machine. His IA tory no
longer furnishes a market for products
approximately equal 10 Its output. The
market has been robbed OF ninety-five
generous BUYERS and a Ike number OF
scant and precarioUS BUYERS substituted
in their place. The share Of production
belonging equitably 10 uinety-five men
has. by the machine. been concentrated
into the hands Of one man. He viii
soon become a millionaire. but his atti-
tude 10 the general prosperity Of the p--o-
pie : the same as that Of a nation that
insists upon furnishing u all the COM
mOdItIeS we can Use. cheap for cash, but
which refuses 10 take any Of our pro
ducts in return. We can manage 10
get along with one OF two
such nations 50 long as we can
find other nations 10 take enough Of our