The sun., 1918-12-17
What Arc We Going to DO with
Our Thirty Billion Dollar Pro-
duetiye CapaCity1

our Thirty Billion Dollar FRO
duetlye CapACitys
Senator SMooT is quoted as declar-
ing that he does not believe the coun-
try's maximum productivity has yet
reached SIG, 000, 100000" The Sena-
tor from Utah usually has so clear a
conception of the country's economic
elements and is 80 we'll informed as to
Its Industrial details that, IL the as
sertion Is correctly credited to him
and II he means our productive ca.
pacity, we are at a loss to compre-
bend how he reaches his astonishing
conclusion.
In this year Of 1918 the market
value OF the corn crop alone, with its
2,5S2,S14 200 bushels, was on Novem-
Der more than three and half
billions Of dollars Winter and spring
wheat together, with moro than Off,
100000 bushels. scored a market value
of $1,ST4, $4,000. More than 1000
100000 bushels Of oats added another
billion dollars Some'11, 1000 bales
Of cotton piled up as their share Of
produced wealth $1.61e,O0O,0O0 Hay
yielded in dollars more than S1.522.-
100000. Potatoes went close to half
billion dollars.
Corn. wheat, oats, barley, pota-
! toes. hay, tobacco. rye. buckwheat.
tiaxseed. rice and cotton all In a lump
returned to the producers of those
crops, not a distant market value,
but farm value of more than twelve
billions of dollars.
On top Of that agricultural yield
there must be added the tens Of mil
lions Of tons of iron and steel, with
value In the billions Of dollars long
before they reached their final stage
of the finished product in all its ap-
plications. There are the 100000
900 pounds of copper, this single
metal representing at the Govern
ment price value OF more than
half billion dollars. There are the
oceans Of oil. the tens Of thousands Of
trainloads and cargoes of coal. There
are the fabulous yields Of the forests
for building material. for the manu-
facture Of paper, for the thousand
and one different articles into which
wood. like steel. goes without end.
There are the cattle on the ranges,
the output If the dairy farms. the
poultr! farms. the vegetable gardens.
1t may not be generally known, but II
Is a cold industrial fact that one of
the largest yields in dollars OF all
the wealth that annually comes to
the hand Of mankind is from the
poultry farms. A huge factor Is also
the dairy.
And all those direct products are
aside and apart from the prodIgious
Industrial production which Is sec
ondary to and dependent upon the
primary production. This embraces
not merely the TOOLS the engines, the
very toys that are wrought out of
iron and steel; the hogs that are fat
tened with corn :the raiment that Is
made Of silk and wool and cotton
| the tens of thousands Of secondary
articles that supply the wants and add
to the comfort and enjoyment Of our
own people and of many others scat
tered all over the world. II the ma.
terial cannot be counted afresh over
and over again as It goes into one
product after another, nevertheless
each time 1t measures more producing
capacity and counts increased value.
There is no manner Of doubt that the
maximum productivity-the produc
tive capacity-of the United States IS
we'll past twice tho estimate of Sen.
ator SMooT. Imitation OF prices may
have driven 1t billions and billions be,
yond even twice Senator SMooT's fig
ures 1t is true that inflated prices
do not mean real value, as compared
with the thing or the service that has
remained normal. or nearly normal
1t Is true that before the world went
to war larger corn crop than this
years corn crop counted billion
dollars lower in the market than thi;
years counts. II is true that in 1911:
100,000,000 more bushels of wheat
than we have this year commanded
in the market in dollars and cents
only half what this years crop com
mands. 1t is true that, while we have
now 11,700,000 bales of cotton ex
pressed in money terms at more thar
81, 900, 900. 600, 100000 more bales in
1913, expressed in dollars and cents
we're worth only half as much.
But as man and the Government
have been supply ing their needs or
the inflated basis, so have men beer
exchanging among themselves anC
, with the Government on exactly thC
same basis. If the Government has
to clean up its war bills at the In
dated prices--and this is the burden
of Senator SMooT's Thought is TAX
| A.