Yerington times. [volume] (Yerington, Nev.) 1907-1932, 1914-07-04
TROUBLED WITH
"OVERPRODUCTION."

ne great exporters OF the natlon
plus some of the officials of the pres
ent Administration have been hold
ing national convention in Washing
ton for the purpose of devising ways
and means for increasing our markets
in foreign countries The meeting
was called the National Foreign Trade
Convention.
This is very natural move to make,
after we have divided our home mark
cts with free foreign competition
against our home producers. There
must be found some outlet for what
we produce, or production re-
suits, and if we must be content with
only part of the home demand, why,
of course, our next hope is the for
eign demand, even though the hope be
futile.
One of the speakers, Mr. H. L. Her
ger, President of the Illinois Manu-
facturers Association, of Chicago, de
scribing the business conditions in the
United States very clearly, saying:
d
preston in the United States. Our factories
are running at reduced capacities: and prices
Wbs at bss of th
cession in business? Possibly overproduction,
but feel quite certain that well-meaning
but too much legislation. is one OF the con-
In the year 1918, the people of the United
States entered upon radical change on the
national attitude toward domestic and foreign
commerce. With the passage of the new tariff
bill, the American manufacturers Will be lett
9 Their 9wn n an9 cnmSeten
manent and resident commercial diplomats or
attaches to all important American missions,
threatened disadvantage NAV be be turned into
victory. The advance of American foreign
commerce may be lkened to more or less
free conflict with an allied army OF foreign
competitors.
Yes, and the dog may drop the real
meat-the prosperous home market, to
dive for the reflection in the deep wa
tiers of foreign markets. We quote
Mr.. Herger's statement, in order that
our readers may comprehend the sit
uation which has come upon us since
the free trade law was passed, namely;
CD The spirit of unrest and depres-
sion" in the United States.
(2) The inability to sell at home
all we produce because foreigners
are getting part of our home market
now, in spite of the lessening OF our
production, leaving an "overproduc-
ton" due to an under demand.
CD The Elusive hope that in some
mysterious diplomacy we can persuade
foreign markets to buy American
goods, made under American stand
ards of good wages to the working
men, in competition with the foreign
products, made at wages of only
third or a quarter as much as Ameri-
can wages.
This same speaker referred to the
hope that we could self our raw ma
terial" abroad, and added that the
value even of the raw material" CON
sisted, from 80 to 90 per cent, in its
labor cost.
1t is a new kind of raw material
which has 80 to 90 per cent of labor
in it. AS a matter of fact, raw ma
terial" means material which has not
been worked upon-which has no la
Dor cost in it, The ore in the ground is
raw material but the ore that has been
dug and smelted into pig iron is the
finished product of the smelter. Yet
the pig iron is raw material to the
steel mill, but the watch spring is its
finished product The watch spring is
the raw material to the watch manu-
facturer but the jeweled and delicately
adjusted watch is his finished product,
What is raw material?
Is it the rain and sunshine that
make the farmers clover, that feeds
his sheep, or is it the farmers wool, or
the manufacturers cloth or the tailor 5
suit of clothes?
Whose raw material is not the fin
ished product of the producer lower
down on the list3
And which class of producers, there
fore, are to be sacrificed at home in
order to enable our free traders to
overcome in cheapness the foreign
producers?
We pay our working people two to
five times as much as does any Euro
pean or Oriental nation. All of this
Americanization of the world has
been accomplished under policy Of
a protective tarff-every bit of it-a
tariff which first insured our home
market exclusively to our home pro
ducers even with Americas high
wages and continued employment.
Oh, Mystery! Prosperity was
passed around" until it filled every
workingman's dinner pail and clothed
and housed every laborer's family and
sent his children to school
Before Protection to American labor
ceased mills were unable to supply