Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-11-02
SURPLUS is BLAMED
FOR ECONOMIC STRESS
Better Appetites, Step Upward in Scale
of Living and Diversified Produc-
ton Held Panacea.
Continued From First Pagel

L
| FLIP to the world appetite period of n
weather unfavorable to crops, the dis v
| covery of q process which calls for f
more raw materials and 1t vanishes II
entirely. Il
However large II might bulk on the c
| economic, horizon, there is no standard n
| by which surplus can be identified and t
| measured. Experience provides no ar p
| bitrary rule by which we can deter p
mine whether the production OF COM s
modify Is too great or too small. There r
Is now apparently, much more sugar
| in sight than the world needs The Il
| cane growing sections have been ex- 4
banding and the beet fields of Europe a
| have been restored to their pre-war I
| fertility. Raw sugar is selling in Am !
| erican markets for little less than .
| wheat The surplus, like the Old Man 7
Of the Sea. felentlessly rides the stoop- :
ing shoTSSeers OF the industry. I
Another Side to Picture. 6
But there Is another side to this dis
NAL picture. According to statistics
prepared for the Economic Committee @
Of the League Of Nations, which has s
approached sugar as world problem r
the per capita consumption in Ger '
| many Is So pounds year. In Italy 1t
| Is only 20 pounds. 1t would be hazard t
Gus to assume that these figures repre- /
sent the limits Of sugar consumption in '
| CnoSe Two countries. Consumption IN
the United States reaches 100 pounds 8
and In Denmark 1l3. If Italy and {
many other countries were to increase c
their per capita consumption to half
the amount consumed in the United
States and Denmark, the surplus would
disappear over night. |
That possible future awaits all sur
pluses. A step upward In the scale Of !
living Of q section Of the worlds popu- =
lation would test the productive ca: /
pacity Of the industrial machine which :
many seem TO regard as q monstrous r
thing that has created the profusion /
now standing in the way of economic s
progress. Much has been accomplished r
in the way Of production but 1t is little :
in the perspective of real world needs r
A too literal acceptance of the sur :
plus as evidence that production has at z
last outrun consumption and that the
point Of safety has been reached has I
probably given rise to the suggestion q
that more time should be given to !
leisure and less to the making of goods :
The fact seems to be overlooked that !
this change has been going on contin- I
uously for many decades. In the United =
States especially 1t is not necessary to :
go very far back TO find the farmer and
craftsmen working from dawn to dark ;
to find children under IL doing the
routine tasks Of industry, to find the /
housewife toiling almost without pause, :
More Enjoying Luxuries. 7
There are more people at school, more :
engaged in the liberal arts, @Dce mo- I
toring on the highways or engroSsed in I
sports or other diversions than ever be-
fore. While some are asserting that
mass production and the machine are
enslaving labor and engulfng the :
world with things 1t does not want, 9TH !
ers are asserting that one of the grave !
social problems confronting the Nation !
Is how TO make the most of the in
creasing leisure the people now enjoy.
| One need not go beyond the standard
already set in the United States to =
reach the conclusion that industry has
far to go in making available to count :
less people not only the necessaries, but .
! the comforts and conveniences of ex- !
j istence. In this country productive
1 ness has reached such a point that q t,
i quarter Of the population can 60 to
school, devoting to study considerable
part Of the time formerly needed in
wrestling a none too bountiful living
from the soil {
i In Argentina the relation of the I
school population to the whole is IL
| per cent in Mexico 8 and in Brazil 4. {
In Brazil, country profusely endowed l
I with natural resources, 80 per cent of !
the population are living on only basic I
neceSsaries. In Colombia and Vene- c
1uSlap DOtlI Va AASNC ldAkC hSSCtS ~,
in oil, half the population cannot buy !
The approach to European standards {
by these peoples would tax heavily the !
worlds industrial resources. And Eu- I
rope still has far to go to reach the I
level Of America. !
Avoidance Rest Remedy. r
1t is, rather, evidence of the malad- +
| juStment of economic currents, result {
ing in a temporary backwash And the I
remedy is not quantitative-that is, arbi- t
|, trarily reducing the amount-but quail Q
| tative-avoiding the obstacles which 8
| led to the accumulation and restoring '
the balanced flow Of goods in the chan Q
| nels Of trade. Production cannot for T
chilly be divorced from consumption n
without doing violence to the economic a
household OF almost any commodity 4
Of which 1t may be said that too much n
| Is being produced 1t may be said with s
equal force that too little is being con-
| sumed. t
There are. obviously, limits to the a
| amounts Of particular commodities the p
world can use within given time, but n
| these limits are constantly being en- b
| croached upon and constantly pushed v
back. In the early years of the amaz- t
| ing development Of the automobile II
| there was talk OF a Saturation point, &
which probably would have been a
reached had there not been changes in
the conditions which determined where
1t was to be fixed. In the wake Of the
automobile an era of unprecedented O
bodybuilding set in. s
| There are 100000 miles Of hard-sur- q
faced highways in the United States c.
and as many more miles of partially "
improved highways, and the automo- a
bile Saturation point, an elusive thing v
at best, has measurably receded. A
| Widened Use Of Autos.
American automobile manufacturers t,
| did not stop short with making auto Il
| mobiles. Nor did they regard the prob r.
| lens of their industry solely in terms 1,
| of automobiles. They interested them n
selves In the expanding use of automo- n
| biles, in bodybuilding and traffic reg T
ulation. AT the present rate of produc- 4
| ton there would have been an impos- n
supplies had the smaller towns con- Ii
| tinued to rely upon the pumps as a v
| source OF water supply. 8,
| Long before business management h
had coupled power and the machine n
in the doing Of huge industrial tasks,
the surplus appeared internationally on r
| the economic horizon. When inven- o.
| ton devised 8 way of using water X
| power to full hats some 500 years ago r,
| it cast disturbing shadow over an in 9,
duStry still in its swaddling clothes I,
There were too many fullers and there Il
must have been an abundance of hats, N
| for two centuries later the hatmakers Il
| of England asked the lords of trade W
! to compel the American colonists to @,