Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-06-26
Demand and Supply.

IN the almost constant operation Of
natural forces
We refer, briefly, to the law OF
demand and supply in its broadest
sense, as aprcrtalning not only to the
economy OF inanimate nature but
quite as signally to those animated
and sentitnt forms OF lie, mankind
and the lower animals. Many hap
penings thought to be due to human
Intervention or overt political in
tluences, will be found, upon careful
analysis, to have been utterly outside
OF human jurisdiction or control
Historical facts are the best illus
traitors Of The point we would urge and
We will cite several instances. When
the old world began to count its pop
ulation by hundreds OF millions; when
dearth and famine in a few more
generations would have become i'm
minent solely because Europe and
Asia had become Overstocked with the
human race, then did God raise up
his servant Columbus, and having
p;loted him across the unknown
Atlantic, opened the gates OF our
eastern seaboard and said to him,
" Here, turn in hither" And so the
compromising stream OF immigra-
ton has been going on for more than
four hundred years while the empty
places in the new territory have not
yet been filled.
Again, when but few decades ago
it was found that the great sperm
whale was fast becoming extinct on
account of its wholesale slaughter in
the northern seas; when it was a
common thing for whaling ships to
seek the home port in ballast after
fruitless three years cruise, and the
price of the best oil went up to five
dollars a gallon, while for the pur-
poses of public illumination tallow
candles were a mockery, and gas was
beyond the reach of the millions.
then the voice OF Providence was
heard again, by the people of West
ern Pennsylvania, Up; hestir your
selves, pierce the solid ground with
your drills and pump up the oil 1
have stored in the great tanks that
honeycomb the bowels of the earth"
And now, as if all this were not
enough, electricity comes flashing
and scattering into outer darkness all
its predecessors.
When, about the beginning of the
eighteenth century, commerce began
to spring up between Europe and the
East Indies, a voyage by the way OF
the Cape OF Good Hope was considered
a desperate undertaking and the in
surance on a cargo of silk, tea or
sugar was so high as to be the next
thing to prohibition. Ship masters
were clamoring for the means OF more
closely finding their longitude and
thus lessen the risk of disaster and
cost of insurance. The commercial
world saw there was demand and
appealed to nautical astronomy for
aid, and the supply came. Thus. in
1714 Parliament offered a reward Of
5000 to any man who should devise
a method for determining the longi-
tude of ship to within one degree,
or its equivalent, sixty geographical
miles; 4l5OOO to the man who should
find it within forty miles and f2O.-
600 to him who found it within thirty
miles. These efforts set astronomers
and thermometer makers to work
with renewed industry and all the
prizes were subsequently distributed
according to the merit of the re-
cipients. But how is it to-day? The
skillful captain of ship can touch
his chart or globe with the point OF
his pencil and say within one mile of
absolute certainty, "There is my
ship"
1t was gravely remarked by an
English nobleman, during the reign
of George III, that stage-coach travel
ing averaging six miles an hour could
never be exceeded. In those days, q
journey from London to Liverpool
consumed full week. Improve
ments in the manufacture of stage
coaches increased their speed to eight
miles an hour; and with relays OF
horses, ten miles an hour could he
made.
But the world kept on moving and
business demanded o more rapid
transit. The supply came by the
invention of steamboats, moving
against wind and tide at the rate OF
fifteen, twenty, twenty-five and, lastly,
thirty miles per hour. Immediately
on the heels of steam navigation came
rushing and laundering the railroad
locomotive. dragging after it train OF
cars carrying a thousand passengers
and their baggage, at the rate of fifty,
sixty and hundred miles an hour.
Flying will be the next step. But
enough has been said to exemplify the
question under discussion. Demand
and supply are inseparable, and thus
will they continue to the end of time.
THE MCKINLEY Boom ENCOUNTERS
A FRosT.-The S. F. Examiner de-
clares that the California Republicans
struggled manfully to appear pleased
with the work at st. Louis, but it was