The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-04-20
Friday, April 20, 1894.
The Cause and Evil of Low Prices.


He was courageous, honest and possessed
more than an ordinary portion of COM
mon sense, natural capacity is the
modern term Soon after the close of the
rebellion he distributed large lots of fine
goods through the State among small
towns in farming districts When asked
if he expected to sell such goods i'll the
country his answer was : ''the women on
the farms of Michigan have discarded
homespun and calico for silk and merino,
and no farmers son now thinks of going
out to pillow unless dressed in doeskin
trousers and calfskin boots. Wheat is
$500 bushel."
This of course was not intended to be
taken literally but was forcible way of
presenting an economic fact. People who
take a mean and nliserly condition for
thrift and economy, call a decent regard
for comfort and respectable appearance,
wastefnl extravaganza, and extol misery
pinching economy. Where you find the
misery, pinching man, denying himself
and family everything which the society
they form part of, consider essential to
ordinary comfort, you find man of low,
rude habits and views of life, sordid soul
whose supreme idea of existence is to
gather dollars, simply to have and to
hold. The broad, liberal, common sense
of the community always revolts against,
and places such man on a plane very
much below what is accepted as the
proper level of society, he should form a
part of, while at the same time they con-
denim reckless extravaganza. Living
WITHIN your means" is always commended
and respected, and the phrase has become
! a proverb to express the approved
economic view of society regarding bust
ness relations. Any saving above that
measure which discards alike meanness
and reckless, debt making extravaganza,
is respected and acknowledged to be true
economy.
The principle in economics we propose
to advance is that higher prices mean
more equitable and better distribution of
the wealth labor produces. Higher prices
insure the consumption of the wealth
labor produces, and this is what should
take place and must prevail if society and
civilization are expected to advance to
higher plane. When the wealth producer
commands good remunerative price for
the products of his labor he invariably
employs more labor in producing more
wealth. The laborers thus employed
increase the consumption of those things,
the primary object of such production
being to increase the comfort of the peo-
pie by their use. This is the only defn-
able object of production. Use to the
full measure demanded by the necessity
for comfort in its largest degree, but
avoid waste, is the true and accepted
economic law of an advancing civiliza-
ton. All surplus when this demand has
been supplied is accumulated capital or
stored labor for future use in developing
new enterprises, opening up other chan
nels for the employment of labor to pro.
duce new things which an advancing
civilization makes a steady demand for.
This equilibrium and steady advance of
society can only be maintained by liberal
prices for the products of labor. Labor
should enjoy its full share of the wealth
it produces, and like proportion should
go to the distributors of labor's products.
There are but two distinct classes forming
that human conglomerate called society,
producing and distributing class, these
are separated into many subdivisions,
but these minor divisions legitimately are
of, and belong to, one or the other of
those classes, which should control and
enjoy all the wealth produced. The
donothings or drones of society attach
themselves TO each and live off of both.
There are numerous causes which develop
these non-producers who live at the
expense of society, which we need not
stop to enumerate.
We have now reached the vital point of
our inquiry. By what means known to
our economic system can the equilibrium
between the producers and distributors be
established and maintained? Both of
these classes are prorata consumers, or
should be, of the worlds wealth. There is
but one known and approved medium by
which this desideratum can be accom-.
plished, which is a sufficient supply of
money to pay a liberal price for the
things which labor produces and to re-
1nunerate the distributors of those
products amongst their consumers or
users. And that sufficient supply is the
amount required to pay cash for the
articles at the time of exchange, without
having to resort to borrowing and adding
to the cost, the corroding canker of inter
est or usury. Low prices are the mother
of interest, and it is the interest vampire
who favors low prices, or his victim who
has been misled and nisinformed by that
parasite of industry.
The circulation of money is one of the
essential branches of distribution, and
money not being an article of consump-
ton, fixed quantity, when that amount
has been ascertained, need only be i'll
creased by the demands of an increasing
population and business. For the want
of this sufficient supply of money bank
credit becomes necessity and is used i'll
place of money, and by this medium the