The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-01-03
THE WAY OUT OF TT.
pARTI.

hansas 6rK1ef
The great problem of life is to live.
"Neither original nor new" perhaps
the reader will say. True, but consid-
er what the proposition involvs. To
95 per cent. of the men and women
born into the world the struggle to
live is continuous from the cradle to
the grave. The first effort of the new
born babe Is for breath-to tive; its
first cry is for food-to iiUe, and after
that, on, on, on, as the minutes, the
hours, the days and weeks and months
and years come and go, the fight for
life continues. From the beginning to
the end it lie one ceaseless effort
toobtain what we have. not, one long
season of dread lest we perish from
want. Starving, starving, starving,
MI along the way; an endless, unsatis-
fed, huugering and thirsting for some
thing to feed upon, something to sus-
tain the body and the soul. The first
thing and the last thing to move US Is
to live. And this everywhere. Effort,
striving, labor, is the common lot OF
man and that continually. What at.
fects labor, therefore, concerns all
mankind.
Labor may be divided into two great
departments-onee employed in produc-
ing property, the other in handling it.
The former is represented by farmers ,
farm laborers, miners, mechanics, day
laborers, artisans, builders. ETC., the
latter by merchants and their assis-
tants, GRADERS generally, carriers, in
keepers, ferrymen, etc. Let this dis
tine ton be kept in mind, for much
depends upon it. The producers are
vitality interested in the market value
of the articles which they produce, be-
cause on that depends the rate of their
profit. Whatever affects values of
commodities affects them. The non.
producer, the mere handler of property,
is not much interested in its value, be-
cause his profit does not depend on
that. He is quite as busy. he works
quite as hard as his neighbor, the pro-
Queer, and he receives more pay, prob
ably, more regular pay, certainly, yet
he produces nothing, and therefore re-
ceives his profits, whatever they are,
on the work he performs in handling
things which other persons raised or
fashioned.
Producers may, in turn be divided
into two classes, as they have or have
not voice in the immediate disposi.
ton of their products. The farmer, for
example. raises corn and disposes of it
in his own way,while the machinist or
factory operative makes wheels OF
yarn, but has nothing to do with the
marketing of them. Both Of these
classes are interested in the market
value of the things which come from
their hands, though the greater ankle.
ty is on the farmer. because the fiuctu.
tation of prices of farm products is
greater and more frequent than
changes in wages of employees Both
classes, however, as things now are,
have SO little control over either prices
of commodities or profits on sales that
they are practically powerless to deter
mine the rate of their compensation or
its amount, and yet, of all men, they
are the only ones who are primarily
interested in values. 1t is for this
reason that business may be brisk and
the country appear prosperous when
the producers are not advancing. OF
the IL 1892 ,099 persons over ten years of
age in the working force of the country
i'm 1880, little more than two-thirds-
1907 COS were producers. Nearly one
third of the working people are engag-
ed wholly in handling what the other
two-thirds make. Besides This one
third of tho working force, there is a
large number af unclassified persons.
belonging to the producing side of
the line and not included among work
ers-persons of leisure, many women,
persons without visible employment,
paupers, prisoners. infirm persons, etc.
1t is fair to put the number of actual
producers at one-half the number per-
sons capable of labor, and this oDe-half
is particularly interested in the selling
price of property, because their profits,
especially those of farmers, depend up
on it. Non-producers may be doing
good business, while producers are LETT
without gains.
And what is the actual condition of
producers in this country to-day?
Quoting from the Rausas Farmer of
December 4, 1889.
We do not question appearances Bank
~c3earings. railroad receipts, loans Of money,
: &c, all show a large volume of business; but
cal farmers, mechanics and labOrers-the pro-
dncers, are they doing well? 1en-cent oats
and l3-cent corn are not encouraging entries on
account books. Our foreign commerce lie in
creasing regularly, and our inland trade is
greater than ever before, stu; we ask, what
of trade possible? From the time when men
first begin to trade in the products and necessi-
ties OF Their fellows, ,mIoney,ehsangefs, traders
ing and buying and selling. 1t matters moth
ing TO the trader what corn or sugar is worth
He buys and sells in the market and makes his
profit without regard to price. II he buys high
he sells high, and if he buys low he can afford
IT, sell lower. The middleman cares nothing
about the salue of property. He wants his
commission, and gets it, for be has lien on
the property he handles. The banker and
money-lender have no concern about the price:
Of which produce sells or at which labor can
be employed, except as il may affect the volume
OF their business. Money brings a certain rate
per cent interest. whether wheat is fifty cents
or dollar q bnshrl And so it 10 all through
the non-produciu, departments. They produce
nothing; they only trade in what other people