The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-14
OYERPRODUCTION.

There is not a sillier discussion in
the whole round Of economics than that
which centers about the word cover
production" Our esteemed contempt
rary, the Minneapolis Tribune, in one
Of it's excursions into the byways of
economic science, has it out with Bas-
tiat, and admits that that great mans
views would have been about right
had he known as much about "oVer-
production" as we do. I'VE have come
upon an age" it says, lin which the
multiplication Of the productive power
Of the human race by steam and ma
chinery has increased it beyond the
capacity Of the community to absorb.
There is glut Of everything" Since
types were invented, they were never
used to put before the public eye
more amazing statement than this We
are reading daily Of the horrors of a
famine in India which has no peer in
history. All that public and private
munificence can do to allay suffering
and to save life is insuffic. ent, and thou
sands OF human beings are being swept
Off the face Of the earth like flies for
the mere want of sustenance
We do not have to go to the other side
Of the earth, however, for disproofs Of
this fantastic idea that there is "a glut
of everything" The Salvation Army is
now maturing a plan by which it hopes
to take some millions of submerged
humanity from the slurns of great cities
and place them in colonies as the till
ers of little farms somewhere in the
West or South. The reason for it's en-
gagement in this colossal work, SINH
Great Britain, is the existence of ex-
IRENE restitution in all the great cities
Of the United States Is not the
cry Of the unemployed in our
own ears? 1t is not mere lack
of employment that troubles these peo-
pie, because the average human being
is so constructed that he can manage
to exist for a while without working at
all II he has enough to eat and drink
and wear. The complaint of the un-
employed is that they have not food or
clothing sufficient, and cannot get work
or wages Wherewith to procure them.
Talk to them about ''overproduction"
and ask them if there is not "glut of
everything and you will hear some
very plain language.
what the man means who is too weak
mentally or not sufficiently honest with
himself when he talks about "oyerpro
duction" is the unequal and artificial
development Of industry in modern
times. The applications of steam and
electrical energy, and the various de-
vices Of recent invention, have
cheapened production immensely. it
is true, and increased it; but
they have not yet brought the sum
total of the worlds product up to an
equality with the sum total of the
worlds needs The difficulty is that
capital and labor have been showed
into one line Of employment after an
other, until they have forced the
product Of that particular commodity
beyond the local demand for it, with
resulting deficit and the shutting down
of works and the discharge of employees
This Is what our contemporary means
by overproduction. 1t is not "glut
Of everything" but simply the produc
ton for given market Of more of
certain articles than can be sold in that
market at cost.
That this has happened is entirely
the fault of the communities them
selves, and Is to be traced directly to
the interference Of the laws Of men
with the laws Of nature. Left to them
selves. industries are self-reeulatine
Capital does not go into an occupation
until 1t can count upon a reasonable
profit. AS soon as enough capitsl has
been so engaged as to supply the visi-
BILE demand, no more enters that field
until the circle Of demand Is widened
Thus the available capital and labor
of the community are both distributed
naturally, and so occupied as to do thu
most good. Human need Is the meas
ure and the director of human ectiv-
ity, and there is at no time a wide
discrepancy between demand and sup
ply. 1t Is with this natural and normal
development that industry finds steady