The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1897-03-24
THE BASIS OF PROSPERITY.
What Increased Production and
Home Consumption show.

What Increased Production and
Home Consumption show.
There are democratic editors who.
after their several violent campaigns of
education for the instruction of the pub
lie, appear to be ripe for course in n
political kindergarten. One of the lead
ers Of this class, who has no idea of what
il is that constitutes the prosperity of
the people, expresses the fear that the
republican congress will find. in the
election returns of last November, war
rant for a revival of protective tariff
legislation which, he afiirms, "stimu-
lates production and deludes the peo-
pie with the idea that they are getting
rich by swapping jacklSnives with one
another" This means, it is explained,
that under a protective tariff the eX-
ports of manufactured products do not
increase in the same ratio as production.
1t is one of the persistent fallacies Of
the American free trader that when our
exports of manufactured articles are
not enormous, when we do not receive
vast sums from abroad for the products
of our workshops, we are not in the
way of becoming rich, but, as one ex-
pressed ii, we are in the condition of the
confectioner who eats his own wares
and fancies ne is getting on.
1t is absurd to make exports the en-
elusive test of prosperity. If there were
fixed standard of consumption which
all had reached and beyond which all
consumption is profigacy, then we
could measure our well-being by our
foreign sales. AS long, however, as the
American people have any want unsat-
isfied to which domestic enterprise can
minister, as long as increased consump-
ton promotes the material and moral
welfare and happiness of the people, just
so long consumption must be the true
test of prosperity. That condition is
prosperous under which the plane Of
living is raised. When people wear
more and better clothes, have more and
better food, more and better houses.
schools, home adornments, labor-saving
devices, books, pictures, musical in
Struments, newspapers, horses, gar
dens, vacations, excursions and what
ever it is that is the object of mems tire
less industry and thrift, they are in the
enjoyment of the right kind of pros
perity. This improvement in the con-
ditions of living is the first and highest
aim of organized society, the distinct
purpose of all government as well as Of
all personal effort. If this end can be
reached without the sale of our manu-
featured products abroad, then such a
sale is a matter of no Importance.
There is not an honest and well-in-
formed person of whatever party who
will not admit that under a protective
tariff production increased in a higher
ratio than population, and that wages.
capital invested, material used and value
Of product also increased, while prices
decreased. Since there is no excessive
accumulation Of manufactured products
on hand when business collapsed in
1895, it is obvious that consumption in
creased in about the same ratio as
production. AS the exports did not
show a corresponding increase, it is
clear that the increased consumption
was domestic, which means that the
plane of living Of the American people
was raised. The most common. un-
the skilled workman of 20 years ago.
Luxuries that were the exclusive en-
joyment Of the rich 20 years ago were
within the easy reach of the skilled
workman of 1890, and were even ranked
as necessaries. The miser is never a
rich man, no matter how many dollars
he may possess. He is just as poor as
any man who cannot afford TO live any
better than the miser voluntarily lives.
That man is prosperous who constantly
enlarges his wants as his means Of meet
ing them increase. When the Ameri-
can people increase their product and
consumption of things they are pros
porous, whether they sell dollars
worth or not TO foreign people.-St.
Louis Globe-Democrat.