The Louisiana populist., 1894-11-23

ton of 35, ZOO, 900 pounds of bread
week, or no. 900, 900 pounds a
month. This would be just one
item in which the consumption of
wheat would be shortened; but
there are many other ways, one of
which is the use of starch, and an
other in the consumption of paste,
both of which would be materially
decreased in a bad time.
In the consumption of cotton the
effect of the hard times is as PLAIN
ly seen. If each one of the 7O,-
0OO, 900 people of the United States
should be forced to econOmize, on
account of the hard times, to the
extent of one cotton garment a
year, and each garment should re-
quire three yards of cotton goods,
there would be a decrease in cot
ton fabrics used to the extent of
21O, ,OOO,OOO yards. The enforced
economy has been much larger
than is assumed in the figures
presented, and it is plain that,
If times had been good in the
United States in the past two years,
the large crops of cotton and wheat
would not have kept down prices
as they did. They would have
been more nearly used up than
they were.
1T is evident from any careful
consideration of the facts that the
country has suffered vastly more
from the bursting of the enOr-
nous speculative bubbles of 1898
than it has from excessive crops of
wheat and cotton, or from any
other cause.
Had our esteemed contemporary
followed up his theory, he could
and wOnld have showed that the
manufacturer can not buy cotton
at a good price and manufacture it
into goods when he can not find a
market for his products, and that
the same manufacturer would buy
cotton at any price, it matters not
how high it is if he had brisk
sale for his products. He does not
care what he pays for cotton if he
can sell his products, as he is al
ways sure to make it back in their
price. What he wants is sale of
his products, for it makes business
for him and business makes him
money, therefore the business is
what he wants and there is no one
1--WE suppose) who is silly enough
to say that the manufacture of cot
ton goods can buy cotton at asy
price at all make it up into the
products of his mill and let them
lay on his shelves, that is not busi-
ness and therefore he can not do it
any more than the merchant can
buy the goods and let them remain
on his shelves. This is not bust
ness either and you can not find a
merchant that will be able to do so
very long, for it is only a question
of time when he must 60 to the
wall. Neither can the farmer make
cotton and house it up and let it
remain. He makes it to sell the
same as the manufacturer makes
his products for sale, and if either
of them fail to sell they have no
use for them. y
Now if the slight enforced econ
omy spoken of by the Picayue pro-
duces ouch starting@esplts, both in
wheat and in cotton, let us follow
the same course of reasoning but
in reverse order. Suppose there
was sufficient money in circulation
to do the business of the country,
we do not think it unreasonable to
say that each of the population of
the United States would consume
at least FIVE dollars worth of cot
ton goods, in fact could buy it now
and not be at all extravagant. OF
course this would include sheets,
towels and other cotton cloth us
ually consumed for the household
uses, therefore we do not think We
have over-estimated the amount,
but in many instances under-esti-
mated it. Now FIVE dollars per
capita would give the seventy mil
lion of people $3.50, 100000 and
nth orkko- o< S00 49,, LII. .o,.ll