The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-08-01
CONTROLLING IRON.

CONTROLLING IRON.
Control the controlling. urges Mr..
George H. Hull, who writes at length and
with some elaborate tables in the En-
cheering Magazine for August. upon en-
dustriaf Depressions and the Pig Iron
Reserve" The tables are all Of value.
even to the statistician. the most interest
ing one to the common newspaper reader
being that which divides the wage earners,
the occupationists, of the United States
into three classes, as CLEANED from the
national census of 1890. each group of
which received. as its share or percent
age of the total national personal earn
lngs incomes. as follows:
Per Cent
Group A-Bankers, brokers. manu-
facturers, merchants, proprietaries.
farmers, professional pursuits,
agents, commercial travellers, book
keepers, clerks, statesmen. ETC.. 80 81
Group B-Mechanicaf trades. cloth
Ing makers, metal, wood, leather
and textile workers, steam railroad
employees, food preparers, etc.. "a 10
Group C-Agrieultural laborers. ser
wants, general laborers. miners,
quarrymen, draymen, hostlers'o =,
|
The total number employed in these
''gainfuI' occupations in that year was
%, 7S5,661 persons. or a trif1e over one
| third of the population of the country.
per annum "a high estimate), the total
earnings of these three groups were $13,-
GAL 1886 600, while the total estimated value
of the products of their labor was set
down by the census bureau at Sells $780,
626-and that in a year when prices were
mounting upwards.
This was tantamount to a deficiency
judgment against ourselves in favor of
the three groups. in one year, of $1.5O3.-
obs, $780,
If Mr.. Hull, or the census bureau,
had deducted $1OO from the aver
age income. 1t would have been
nearer the actual facts. and have
brought the gross value of production up
to the level of the gross earnings. But
that is perhaps immaterial. for the pro-
ductive industries must support the non
productives Cike raiIroading. office help,
building trades). no matter what thci1
rate of living may be or how great the
deficiency between values of labor and of
production.
Transportation is a pafpable incum-
brance on productive values. yet as pat
ent a necessity.
The above classification, however, is a
surprise to newspaper hack, as showing
that of the total incomes earned in 1890,
1887 per cent was drawn by ''off1ce" peo-
PIE, only "a per cent by the mechanics,
and 1913 per cent by the common people,
the laboring men, so-caIled, and the agrt-
culturalists. 1t will be a matter of Gu
riosity to discover, by the census Of 1900
what proportion of this office income will
have been Topped off in ten years by the
telephone and typewriter, If it has not
been augmented by the increased capaci-
ties of machinery in general
But, to the main proposition of Mr. Hull
that there is properly no such thing as
over-production, and that conservation,
or storage. is the controlling or paramount
element, the lack of which causes indus
trial depressions; and that control of
the iron output would go long way to-
wards relief even from panics-ret US adj
dress ourselves.
AS an appeal to the iron and steel max
ers, Mr.. Hull's analysis should be of
value. calling attention as it does to the
needfulness Of uniformity Of produc-
| ton, so that in times of extraordinary
prosperity the temptation to advance
| prices abnormally may not be yielded to.
! Such temptation is much like that which
comes to the impressionable young lady
when a handsome, agreeable and wealthy
gentleman proposes marriage; and is well
nigh irresistible.
What could restrain the advance In cop
per when electricity got into lighting and
street railways? What could restrain
iron and steel when twenty-story build
ings became fashionable, and Asia and
Africa appeared on the market horizon
| for railroad iron and all kinds of machIn-