Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-05-03
THAT ovERPRoDUcTIoN STUFF.

nothing whatever of good in it. but on the
other side, much of bad, as it has ten
dency to discouragement. There can
really be no such thing as overproduction-
the world stands III need of everything the
asriculturist can produce, and is ready to
pay for It; indeed the world cannot help
paying for it owing to the fact that it is an
indispensable. True the prices paid may at
times appear unprofitably low, but this
condition Of affairs is never due to over
production but rather to competition. A
high price paid for our products is born Of
deficiency and nothing else; q low price
may be accepted as representing the
regular misunderstanding more nor less.
Even at the lowest price paid some pro-
ducers OF the articles on the market are
making money. 1t would not be possible
for prices to run so low as not to admit of
this. IN other words, somebody is raising
what the world wants cheaper than the
same articles are being raised by somebody
else, and when the supply is well up to the
demand those cheaper producers set the
selling figures, but they invariably do it
with an eye single to fair profits for them
selves. So long IS their supply holds out
their selling figures must rule, of course,
and It IS not to be wondered at that they
should rule 70 the ruin Of the parties who
cannot produce so cheaply as they do.
This is merely working out in accord
ance 10 business principles. You find the
same kind Of thing prevailing in the com
/
world. There are hosts of merchants in
every city who cannot make money selling
goods so they say the mercantile business
IS overdone. The supply of goods in the
place IS far above the demand, they con-
tend, and yet there are other merchants in
HAT same place who are actually getting
rich on their business. They may not APP
pear to have more patrons than the falling
merchants have. The character and prices
If the goods exposed to sale may be pre-
risely the same in both cases. At frs
Thought how these different results should
occur would seem little mysterious. OF
course YOU viii know that one man is sell
Ing his goods at fair profit, while the
other, who must sell at the prices set by
his neighbor, is selling at no profit at all,
everything considered, and often at 4 di-
rect loss. You cannot attribute it TO an
over supply of goods on the market. for
was this the case the gaining merchant
would be in the same boat with the loser.
80, it is not over supply, and yet
It is something. If You could get at the
bottom of everything figuring in the prem
iSes you'd soon find out what it is. That
gaining merchant has Il knack of buying
his goods cheaper than has the loser in
the same business, and upon this he sets
his selling figures nj tair rate of profit
over MS purchase figures, thus shaping the
market to his own reasonable gain and to
The loss of the man who pays higher for his
goods
Precisely the same rule holds good with
reference to farming. Prices of farm pro-
ducts never seem so low as to leave every
farmer selling without reasonable profits,
while at the same time, there is 4 very
large representation of farmers who never
make money or their products save in case
Of 4 supply so short rs 10 force the con-
sumer into paying what might with no
great degree Of improperly be termed
starvation figures for what he buys.
Under these circumstances it ought to be
plain to every thinking mind that the thing
for u 10 study is not how we shall regulate |
tie supply TO starvation figures for the |
consumer. but rather how to raise more |
than we are now raising, and do it at less
cost to ourselves. Overproduction cuts no
kind OF figure in the case-with expensive |
production lies all the trouble.
Let US take the article of cotton, for in |
stance. Il IS quite generally understood |
that the cost Of producing pound of cotton
Is about eight and half cents. Doubtless |
the production costs 4 large per cent of our
planters fully that much. If the selling |
price happens 10 rule at ten cents a pound
those producers get along rather well, !
,hough even at this price they have nothing |
IN particular 10 bra2 of; but if it happens TO
get down to nine cents they are merely |
making ends meet If it goes below nine
cents they are on losing grounds decidedly. |
Now, if no one could produce cotton at less
than eight and q half cents pound, the
selling price of the staple would never fall
below ten cents. but here comes in the rub.
There are plenty Of planters who can pro-
duce cotton at six cents pound, as avail
able statistics abundant,y show. In light
crop year these planters have 4 regular DO
nanza. and they get along well enough in
season Of heavy crops, for three or even
wo AMI I half cents clear profit on every
pound Of their product is regarded as not
at all bad thing, even for farming. They
viii set the selling price and run of all
their product at what 4 merchant would
consider a decidedly good per cent, while
the other fellow who Is out eight and half
rents on each pound must come TO that
selling price and let his product go
At loss, or at least without
profits. Yet there has been no
Jyerproduction, as must beevinced in the
fact that all the cotton raised vii! find ready
sale At the prevailing figures. There has
never YET been such a glut in the market as
eft cotton wholly out of demand-there
never viii be; nor has the market ever
ruled so low that the man producing his
staple At six cents pound did not make
good business profit on its sale.
Then away with all this twaddle about