The Monroe journal., 1922-02-17
WHY OUR MARKETS
ARE NOT AT Home
IL Is Because the Producers Lose
Their Buying Power at
the Toll Gate
POWER OF EVEN EXCHANGE
This Beng Lacking at Home Foreign
Markets Arc Sought to Absorb
a Fictitious Surplus
By Novus Homo

Your editorial on unearned incremen
in a recent issue of The Journal, ais,
. your copied article from a notes
newspaper correspondent, ought Il
! throw some light on the existing con
. ditions, and help us to see that th,
troubles we are afflicted with right
now are not questions Of production
but questions of distribution. VI,
; have, like Alexander the Great, con
quered all the worlds-markets-wt
know of, and are now weeping be.
cause there are no more worlds
markets-to conquer.
This condit on should easily show
ss that the ability 70 consume has
fallen out of proportion to the ability
to produce. What we must do next,
therefore, since there are no more
markets to be exploited, is right about
face, and take correct inventory of
the situation and attend strictly to
the matter of distribution of the
things we already have power to pro-
duce. The old doctrine of overpro-
duction has been exploded. II won't
work worth a cent, when millions of
the worlds inhabitants are starving
for food and freezing for lack Of
clothes.
The masses of human beings are
desirous to have things; they are
striving to obtain the things they
stand so much in need OF. The things
are here and are going to waste for
want of some one to use them. The
people have produced them, even a
comparative small per cent Of the
people in whose countries they are,
have produced them. Why then can
not the people consume what they
have produced?
This is perplexing question.
II is question requiring deep
thought, or giant mind to answer.
II is. however, a question that the
benefciaries of privilege do not want
to answer, and do not want anyone
else to answer They, therefore, dub
the man who offers the answer, a
bolshevik, an anarchist, or socialist,
and decide that no one will thereafter
pay him any attention. This is why
things have reached the deplorable
stage they now occupy and is why
VIZ are threatened with reign of an
archy because the worlds markets
are robbed of the power to function,
and the masses of the people see
nothing but dire calamity confront
ing them.
A number of men on an island en-
gagged in the simple means of produc-
tion to satisfy their primary wants
would never be bothered with a con-
dition like this. They would have a
mutual EXCHANGE, and since each rem
dered the required service in the field |
of production to satisfy his own de-
sires they would not be bothered with |
a surplus. Each of them would have
buying power equal to his producing
power, and each would therefore
the equal of his product, and
there would be no outside market
needed except possibly to effect an
exchange for the things desired which
could not be produced in that special
climate. In this case. however, there
would still be no difficulty. since if
the same condition prevailed with the
others as with those we have men,
toned, in regard to buying power,
there would be sufficient in either
or on either island.
The trouble, however, would begin
Il there should appear among them
a man claiming title to the land and
should charge each of the islanders a
part of their produce for the privilege
If using the land.
The producers, who were forced to
one-fourth, or one-fifth of
heir produce to the owner Of the
and who had himself produced moth
ng, would have their purchasing pow
n cut down to the extent of the sur
'endered part and would therefore be
Unable to consume that part going to
he owner and he would be forced to
eek another market for the whole of
lis part, except the small amount he
would himself consume.
This is exactly the trouble Euro
'ean countries right now, and it is
apidly becoming the condition in the
United States. A large per cent Of
abor's products is going to the own
rs of natural resources-land, wa
er, air and sunshine. These owners
re collecting this stipend solely as
wners. A vast number of them even {
g not live in this country, and none
( them render any service in the la
ors Of production. The power Of the
roducer to consume the products of
is labor is therefore curtailed to |
uch extent that we have to get up
'ar once in every few years, open up a
oors of other countries to buy our Q
urplus products, and we have about $
pened them all now and also exhaust
q the buying power Of them and the g
reat question now is. where are we l
ding to unload hereafter?
There is only one solution of the k
roblem, and it's as Simple as fall Q
lg off log" 1t is this. shut off the \
,ll that privilege takes and labor will B
egain its full purchasing power. r
'ith this purchasing power restoredl o
, the people the strife for foreign c
Iarkets will cease. When trade at A
ONE and abroad gives as much as IL n
sceives traders will be friends and \
ars will cease. Some one may say, 2
How come you to know this while G.
reat minds are struggling over it," G.
" answer is this. these great minds a
e not struggling so much to find n
'lution as they are to hide the So "
tim in n rnultituda ~ hsohee,.x.. .l;,..x m