The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1896-05-06
Highest Of all in Leavening Power
Highest of all in Leavenng Power.-Lae US Govt Report
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ABSOLUTELY PUEsE
The Economist.


The English language would become
an emaciated servant were all the words
stricken from it which define thoughts
that do not harmonize with the findings
OF ultra-theorists. To reason backward
analylitically from result to an initial
fact and arrive at an unbiased conclu-
sion is rare feat. Too many sophists
will 70 around certain links in chain,
or break them and substitute others of
their own forging, rather than to be con-
WINGED against their precOnceived Opin-
ions.
A certain economist, mindful of the
widespread want existing in the world,
asserted that there was no such thing as
0verprOduction; because il every man
enjoyed the liberties Of perfect political
adjustment he would be able to consume
all that was produced. But various ex-
tremitts have taken up the schOllium
and given its literal appreciation to the
matters and conditions of mankind.
They hold that undercOnsumption is
the fault and that no combination of
capital and brains is capable of creating
enough of any article to more than furn-
ish every individual who needs that arti-
Gle and would buy it had he the price to
spare.
How extravagant this statement! There
are few mills in the United States alone
which, were they to run at their fullest
capacity and employ all of the idle men
of the nation, would not produce for
every man, woman and child of the cOun-
try, OF least three cook stoves, four bicy-
cles, ten pairs of shoes, eight suits Of
clothes, two sewing machines, two har-
vesters and Of every other commodity
used by man, about four, times, or Of that
ratio, as many as he would need. 1t per-
haps never occurred to these philosophers
that men on the whole find less trouble
in supplying their wants than they do in
exchanging their capabilities for enough
to insure and protect the developments
Of the true merits Of their children.
We are in the middle of line Of evo-
luton. Man is fertile creator, but has
not yet solved the problem of cheap liv-
ing. When food, shelter, heating, light
ing and power have been so produced
that their cost is but a mere effort of la
Dor, man may hope for the privilege of
dispOsing Of all he may produce and not
till then.
Along this track another political vivi-
sectiOnist declares that there is no such
thing as intrinsic; that the only value
a thing has is its utility multiplied by
, the demand for its service. This is a
revelation whether it be true or fallacious.
Every reasOner of the age has taught that
the intrinsic worth of all material are
, latent qualities which it possesses,
whether known or not, which make it
useful to man or give it prominence in
its relations to the other things of the
universe.
A peck of potatoes will go just as far
and have just as much true meat about
them, whether they cost SOC or 81. De-
mand cannot alter the transparency of
glass, or the hesubstitutiOn of coal render val
ue less the intrincisity of wood as fuel.
Because one thing is discovered to be
more useful than another does not alter
the unit of the inferior; it simply estab-
fishes comparative [intrinsicall ratio.
II iron was worth 2 before steel was
made, it is worth 2 yet, though steel may
be rated at 10.
The use of the word intrinsic is absO-
lutely concrete, though its application
may be relatively abstract.
Let reason be fair for it is one Of those
exact materials in which the smallest
flaw will reduce its intrinsic adaptabili-
ty. W.