The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-08-07

prices approximately at the just
 amount, for if any goods rise so as to
 give greater profit than the average.
 the desire of profits will induce men to
 manufacture. or If the price falls below.
 to manufacture less. till the balance is
 restored; that fluctuations in prices or in prosperity are simply temporary and
 necessary adjustments of business to
 changing conditions. Now admit
 that this is to an extent true. The Creator has wisely ordained that sel-
 fishness should inevitably thwart itself.
 that in spite of themselves men serve one another and produce ceratin de-
 gree of harmony. As Dr. Josiah Strong says. Existing society is organ
 ized on selfish basis; strenuous com petition Is Its law. and every man for himself is its motto. Order is pre- served by skillful balance of con- fiicting interests, the nice adjustments of checks and counter-checks. which is
 the only harmony practicable to sell fishness."
 But is this the best, the most eco nomical way of attaining harmony? If should push on one side of door to shut 1t. and another man on the other to open 1t, If our strength was equal. our efforts would balance and the door would not move. But all the force that both of were exerting would be wasted. producing no effect whatever. Europe to-day is at peace simply because the strength of the great powers is so even- ly balanced that none dares to begin hut hnxu hatta- h<, If laying aside the foolish and wicked desire to conquer one another. they would enter on a genuine peace! Sim ilarly calculate the expense of mental and physical labor wasted in the com petition of business. the vast sums spent in advertising, which only at- tract purchasers from some other deal CT, and so are dead loss to society. Even If competition did produce harmo- ny and stability, 1t would be terribly costly method! For in so far as 1t pro- duces stability, 1t must be because op- posing forces are balanced and their useful effects neutralized and simply wasted. The competitive system is therefore doomed to disappar. Why do we see small manufacturers absorbed in trusts. small railways into great sys- tens? Because competition has been found to be so ruinous that mutual agreement with smaller chances and risks Is taking its place as more profit able. The competitive system Is de- stroying itself and one who has eyes open to see what is going on around him will soon be convinced that 1t will inauit a hlu Hyiold fn rot ffnvoI
 But this costly system does not pro- duce true harmony and stability. On the contrary Amos is right; 1t is the cause of all those disastrous reversals of prosperity which we call hard times. For in so far as powers are unequal in any form of competition, the weaker will be pushed to the wall. Suppose we had great stick of timber upright on this platform and twelve men should gather around it, each pushing with all his might to make 1t fall away from him upon the man opposite. Do you think that that timber would stand firm as if fixed in the floor? Theoreti- cally 1t would if all had equal strength at every moment. But were there eyer twelve men of exactly equal stragth? Was there ever a man who could exert the same force steadily without fuctua- tion? The top of that post would waver like the mast of ship tossed on the stormy ocean, as the struggling men pushed and lost or regained their breath or their footing t would very soon tot ter so far over toward one that he, now having to resist not only the pushing of fho ofhorc h,1t tho uuoiuhf If the hoo would fall and be crushed under 1t. This is perfect picture of the condition of the business world to-day under the competitive system. Poverty and mis- cry are inevitable so long as it. lasts. Go into the slums of our large cities and ask. with Tennyson: Tt is well that while we range with
 science glorying the time,
 City children soak and blacken soul
 and sense in city slime;
 There among the gloeming alleys pro-
 gress bolts on palsied feet, Crime and hunger cast our maidens by
 the thousand on the street;
 There the master scrimps his haggard
 seamstress of her daily bread,
 There single sordid attic holds the
 living and the dead.
 There the smoldering fire of fever creeps across the ,roofed floor,
 And the crowded couch of incest in the
 averens of the poor" ..
 Something must be wrong In a civili- zation in which such terrible contrasts exist, even as Amos describes its re- suits in ancient Israel; few rich lying on beds of ivory, singing idle songs to the sound of the viol, drinking wine in bowls, eating the choicest of the flock but not "grieved for the affliction of Jacob" for the sufferings of the poor, which as necessarily attends such sell fish luxury as mans shadow follows him! | s'-t
 A system which works such misery to the weak inevitably injures all society as well, and works national or husi- ness disaster. When its nobles become enervated by luxury and its hordy peasantry embruted by poverty, Israel had lost all that gave it national strength, and in a few years collapsed l before it's enemies. It was-not idolatry l but covetousness that caused the fall of Israel. JstE
 Nor is it difficult to trace modern panics to the same cause. The origin of 1 panies is thus described by political l After 8 period of general when successful ventures nave called out abundant capital from eager investors, the rate of profits falls; md the impatience for larger returns makes capitalists willing to invest in more risky undertakings; the general spirit of confidence gives large exten-