Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-08-04
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL y. COLLINS

The Austrian labOPer has found the
true unit Of value in measuring com
modities. Instead of counting in
terms of money, or even in terms of
trading values between commodities.
he takes ordinary daily labor as the
unit He finds that bread cost before
the war 1874 minutes per loaf and
now the same unit of bread costs 40
minutes. A unit of sugar which cost
before the war IS minutes of his
labor now amounts to 102 minutes.
A pair of shoes costing hours and
IS minutes now amounts to 10 hours
and 20 minutes.
Assuming that it is the same labor,
that Is the only true basis of COM
parison, it is. in fact. the ultimate.
although not always the visible basis.
at all times A particular com
modify may become more plentiful
than formerly, meaning that with less
effort it is being produced. The
effort, or labor, required would be-
come at once the measure OF how
that commodity stood in relation to
the values of other commodities.
Labor itself. is measured by the same
unit. for if by means of labor-saving
methods the same human effort pro-
duces more than formerly that effort,
measured by what IL produces, be-
comes of less value per minute.
X
There is much generalizing among
statesmen whenever the finances of
farmers are under discussion. The
vastness of the country is overlooked
and the differences of conditions of
agriculture in regions separated by
thousands of miles are smoothed out
in one great simplifcation.
The farmers are bankrupt" The
farmers are more prosperous than
they were before the war" Both
statesments may be true, if each be
confined to particular regions.
Neither statement gives correct
general picture of agriculture nation
wide.
The radical seizes upon the state
ment which gives him the darkest
background against which to contrast
his own valiant services in leading
his constituents out of the wilder
ness. So he is prone to look at the
wheat of Minnesota and the Dakotas-
The conservative, in order to fortify
his own optimism, denies that agrI-
culture is in any distress, and grows
indignant at the leadership of the
radicals who want to tax city inter-
ests for the relief of the farmer.
Finding in corn regions good bank
accounts of farmers, he repels with
fury the proposal to help the farmer
at the expense of the lawyer, the
laborer and the mechanic.
The condition of the onemule
farmer of one region has nothing in
common with the state Of the thou
sand-acre wheat raiser in North
Dakota. The prosperity of the corn
grower in Iowa or Nebraska cannot be
tied up with the prosperity of the fruit
raiser Of Oregon or the gardener of
Florida.
x +
The chief trouble lies in misfit
horizons. If the radical politician
could broaden his fealty, and instead
of being a champion of a third of the
population. OF which more than half
may not need his aid. he could be-
come 100 per cent American for all
America and he would be even more
valuable TO his own narrow class in
terests.
If writer's who persist in generaliz-
ing from too few particulars were
to travel and view the vast diversity
of this great eXpanse called the
United States of America, they would
realize the futility of any generaliZa-
tion of American agriculture" The
superfiCiality of any writer is ap-
parent as soon as he begins to com
tradiCt the statements based on a
particular branch of agriculture by
gencralizing the whole country.
The farmer himself would profit by
a wider range of horizon. which would
enable him to view the conditions
outside of his own fields. outside OF
his own environment and outside of
his own continent. for il is those out :
side conditions. and not the acts of
government which affect the world 3
demands for his products. And the
price he receives depends on the world
demand for his staple crops. This
phase is seldom referred to by his
champions.
4 e
Investigation of some of the tuber-
culosis hospitals of the Veterans
Bureau disclosed that so far as that
investigation has gone nearly 25 per
cent of the alleged tubercular pa
tients have been incorrectly dag
nosed and have no signs of the dis
ease. That state of things shocks
the outsider. and especially the rela-
tives of the patients. since it is
"a health and their