Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-06-21
Mr.. Cory WriteS-
AS a NOn-PrOduCer.

Everybody, as I see 1t, is consumer.
Why can't we simplify it into producers
and non-producers? That is where the
real conflict of interest comes in.
Take two farmers, neighbors, one of
whom raises corn and the other cotton.
They have to exchange, and each is inter
ested in getting as much of the others
product for as little of his own as posi-
BILE. The conflict is very simple and ad-
justs itself, being on a single point Each
wants to buy as cheaply as possible and
sell as dearly as possible.
But let either take his product to the
market town, and he will find a commu-
nifty of non-producers not only in conflict
with him in wanting his corn or cotton as
cheaply as possible for their own CON-
sumption. but-and this Is the point
engaged in levying all the toll possible as
1t passes through on its way to other con-
sumers.
So far as the transaction between the
two producers, the farmers, is concern
ed, 1t does not matter what the price of
cotton and corn may be. They measure
it in bushels and weigh 1t in pounds, and
the number of pounds in exchange for a
bushel will vary little up and down
with the seasons, according as one crop
or the other is more abundant-some-
times to the advantage of one, sometimes
to the advantage of the other. If they
have shoemaker in the neighborhood,
for whose shoes they exchange their corn
and cotton, the transaction Is the same
And so 1t is just the same If they first
measure their products into money and
then measure the money back again into
the products of their neighbors. To
broaden 1t, If a farmer wants a pair Of
shoes from France it is all the same to
him whether he swaps twenty pounds Of
cotton for the shoes or turns 1t into
money and buys the shoes.
But 1t is a very important matter to
h i'm hnx f011 fnr L. .
change the non-producers between the
shoemaker In Paris and the farmer in
Alabama shall take out. And If the toll
were taken out in kind, so many pounds
of cotton out of bale or so many shoes
out of case, 1t would not make any diff
ference to either farmer or shoemaker
what the price in money might be. The
sole and only question would be whether
the toll was just proportion for the
service rendered.
But the toll Is not taken out in kind,
but in value as measured by money. The
toll in money is the same, or practically
SO, regardless of the price. And thus the
price becomes of supreme Importance.
You and l have often, all our lives,
heard converse tions like this, for in
stance, between a newspaper reporter
and "a financial pillar:
Reporter-How much are our cotton re-
ceipts this year?
Financial pillar-One hundred thousand
bales.
Reporter-And how much was that
worth to our town?
Financial pillar-Oh, about $3.50 a bale.
But that's because cotton is so cheap,
only cents. When 1t was worth 10 cents
we used to get 81 a bale.
And the next day the paper told how
valuable the cotton trade of the town was
and how prosperous it made everything.
1t didn't occur to me and you in those
days-I mean to the reporter-that per-
feet fairness to the farmer required a
toll of only 81 a bale. And the same with
every other producer under the sun
ironmaker, miner, weaver, fisherman.
Every charge on every article from the
hand of the individual producer to the
back or the belly of the individual con-
sumner is so much toll taken out by the
non-producer.
Who are the non-producers? All pub
lie officials, bankers, merchants, doctors,
lawyers, school teachers, preachers, rail-
readers, insurance men, money lenders,
those who live on Investments land own,