The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-12-04
DEMAND AND SUPPLY.
From The Washington, ID. CO. Silve,
,irt1t

From The Washington, ID. CO. Silver
Knight
We are pleased to see the New York
World undertake to discuss demand and
supply. Such an undertaking may lead to
an investigation by which even the editor
of the World may learn something on that
subject, but before any intelligent under
standing can be had on the subject the
World must take into consideration some
| thing besides commodities. The demand
for manufactured commodities depends
upon the capacity of the people to buy.
There is no doubt of their capacity to con-
sumo all they are able to buy. The quan-
tity they are able to buy will depend upon
the money they have, because in every
transaction where money is given for COM
modify money is one-half the consideration
and when the World supposes that the peo-
pie of the United States can buy all the
goods that the factories can manufacture
without money to do it, with the World is
very much mistaken. While oyerproduc-
ton is impossible if the people had the
means to supply their wants, because the
wants of man always have and always will
increase much faster than his capacity to
supply his wants. In this country the peo-
pie do not fail to buy new clothes because
they do not want to, but because they are
compelled to economize and mend and
wear their old clothes because they cannot
get the money to buy them new. While
we produce much less than the people need
We produce mere than they are able to buy
because of the scarcity Of money, which is
proved oy the fact that money will buy
about twice as much as 1t would twenty
years ago and consequently when compared
with property it is much dearer than it
formeraly was. The trouble is that money
has got so dear that people that have no
way to obtain money except by their labor
and the production of property are short of
money and unable to buy what they desire
and many of them are not able to find
money enough to keep clothes on their
backs and the 'wolf from the door," We
are surprised that the World quotes from
Edward Atkinson. It ougot to have been
known by everybody by this time that Ed
ward Atkinson in oil his discussions has
the habit Of leaving out Of consideration
the most important fact, which is standard
money. he thinks that money is exempt
from The law of supply and demand and
that il makes no difference what the guam
tity OF such money may be, the value will
remain the same. His philosophy is not
affected by the fact that prices 60 down in
this country with every shipment of gold to
Europe Ee thinks prices go down by
their own weight and not because the
foundation Of prices, which is standard
money, is taken out from under them.
The following shows how gGbly the World
talks about supply and demand without
taking into consideration the supply and
demand Of money as if the prices of every
thing bought and sold was not named IN
terms of money:
DEMAND AND Sc PPLY.
In addressing the meeting of the New
England cotton manufacturers their pres
ident, Mr. A. NJ. Goodalc, tells them that
the phenomenal increase in the number of
mills in the country does not threaten,
''over production" Southern mills which
in 1880 had only 542 ,0G0 spindles now have
2,379, 900, but as Mr. Edward Atkinson
pointed out at the same meeting, the prob
lem the manufacturers have to meet is to
supply l,4O00O000O people with the
amount of cotton cloth they ought to have.
Such addresses are highly significant.
They are full of hope in the future of our
industries. They indicate the abandon
mept of the theory that thu way to promote
the highest possible prosperity among
manufacturers is to close the largest poss-
ibie number of mills.
No theory could be more pernicious thaa
that which looks on restriction of tic output
as the life of trade. Gould it continue to
govern American manufacturers the growth
of our industries would be permanently
checked and our trade would become strict
ly provincial But the spirit of the Good
ale address means new life to American
production AS it becomes dominant it
will make it possible for our workers to
dominate the trade of the world.
TO do that we must have the largest out
put and the widest distribution. Moth
ing less than that ought to satisfy any
American.