The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1922-08-09
STERILIZATION
OF PRICES

Agreement For Government
Action tc Regulate Market
Prices
To the Editor of the Daily Item:
Permit an argument for gvern-
ment stabilization of pricse of sta
pie products, in lieu of the present
'.laissez- faire" practice of leaving
the supply of the world to the un-
organized activities of uniformed
individuals, driven by suffering
from fuctuating prices due to dis
regarded and therefore violated
laws~of nature. My point is that
we should use enough science in
our government to promote the
general welfare by guiding pro-
duction and marketing SO as to
assure the supply of what the
world needs and to insure a profit
to the producer instead of leaving
the mass Of the people to suffer
constantly from the inexorable pen
alties of supply not proportional
to demand and not financed and
marketed to meet the demand as
it develops. In short, it should
not be necessary to wait for de-
pressed prices to force men and
money from improbable into re-
munerative lines Of business activ-
itN but by proper provision of
government all business activity
should at all times be remHnera-
tive.
The propaganda of agricultural
papers and Of politicians that the
farmers should be kept on the
farm has long panied me as a
tragedy of impotency of leader
ship.
They will stay on the farm if they
can make a living on the farm.
Living conditions cannot be elevat-
ed as long as industry and econ
ony go unrewarded. 'The laborer
( is. worthy of his hire but the farm
laborer, if not a wages hand. has
no pay-master; nor is he in the for
tunate condition of the railroads
with the government guaranteeing
to him reasonable interest on
his investment and wages for his
labor.
It is principle of political econ
emy that prices and profits in diff
ferent occupations are readjusted
by the natural movement of men
and money from depressed in
dustry to prospecting industry.
When the inflow of workers and
of capital into prospering indus
try surpasses the reasonable de-
mahd and brings depression there,
then a new. exodus must take place
to escape suffering and even star
fation. ~
The impoverished workman or
Improbable capital must seek an
industry wherein the prices are
remunerative, and can never know
how long they will remain SO.
It always seemed to me that this
ceaseless blind pursuit Of work
that: will afford a decent living
ought, in this period OF so-calied
science and enlightenment, to be
no longer tolerated by organized
society. It is a relic Of an older
period before the birth of science
and before the widening of the
scope of government to care for
men in a humanitarian way and
not merely to hold over them po-
lieeman's stick.
There is a school of economics
and of government taught by some
intellectuals and extreme individ-
ualjsts that it is a perversion of
the functions of government to- in
terfere to help men to escape the
penalty of these natural laws. Un-
Willingly these doctrinaries play
into the hands of the money power
and would deny to the masses Of
the people the chief service of en-
frightened democracy. Mere polit-
iical freedom is not the end-all and
the be-all of democracy. There is
no adequate option III the freedom
to take your choice between being
idle or being industrious and poor.
Political freedom should be exert
/ ed to bring economic freedom.
John J. McMahan.