The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1898-08-05
THE ovERPRODUcTIoN IDEA
There IL No Such Thing So Far ~ b
Needs OF the Lss"rinw Masses
Are Concerned.

Our friends in the gold camp nave
tuned their fiddles 10 play almost any
tune. They have played the tune OF
Nautilus till il is threadbare, all to
prove that the poverty Of the great
masses is due 10 the so-called Malthu-
sian law that the ratio of population
tends to outstrip the ratio of produc-
ton. They have done this 10 make the
voters believe that the conditions OF
which we complain do not come from
any defect in our financial and econo-
mic systems. Now they have come to
the point where it is necessary for
them to explain the stagnation OF
trade, and the tune is changed for the
moment. Here is what a writer in
Harper's Magazine says:
THE powers Of production OF the
| civilized world have outstripped its
powers of consumption, and conges-
| ton is only averted by the continuous
opening up of new markets and new
fields of enterprise in those portions Of
the earth where the resources of ma
ture and the energies of man still
lie dormant. Industry, in the widest
sense Oh lut ltl II, u . to-bdy $500
of the social organism throughout the
civilized world, and the cry for more
trade, more markets, is as imperative
as the cry of the human organism for
more air when threatened with suffo-
cation For a straight literary
bull" this is pretty good. According
to il the overproduction in one part
of the world Is to be cured by finding
sections Of the earth where the ener-
gies Of nature and the manufacturing
powers of man still lie dormant and
stimulating them. Verify, similia sim
ilibus %curantur. The absurdity of the
proposition is obvious. The idea OF
finding an outlet for our great manu-
features among the people that can
only afford to live on rice, and that too
without any kind of seasoning more
than salt, among a people that can al
ford only one piece of cloth a year for
a garment. and whose wages are so low
that the owners of the river steam
boats find 1t more profitable to employ
a drove Of laborers TO tread the wheels
than to use steam. The truth is that
these people will never add anything
TO the comfort of the world until they
have been liberated from their ard
conditions and raised to a point where
they can each consume 100 times more
per capita than at this time.
There is no overproduction, SO far as
needs are concerned. Trade condi-
tions have been created hat have
made 1t impossible for hundreds OF mil
lions of people to satisfy their wants,
and that is all there Is to the situation.
The average person could easily double
the amount Of production now con
sumed. This even in this country. In
some foreign lands each person could
easily consume 100 times as much as
at the present time and still not be
oversupplied- Trade and exchange
need to be made as free as possible and
our directions should all be in the way
of making exchanges easy. In this
way only can the people be made to in
crease their consumation. A doubling
of the amount Of all goods consumed
including Injuries, would give employ
ment at good wages TO every person or
; earth, and would insure against a glu'
/. in the markets Of the century to come
A financial system that Is forever con
tracing values will make IL impossi
BILE for trade to move freely.
II. L. THURSTON.