1893 - State Library Information Center

66 STATISTICS OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIES.for social and industrial delects, with about equal propriety, BOfar as any scientific explanation of them is concerned. And theassertion is not infrequent, that production, consumption andexchange are mere matters of lottery.When we consider that the organization of industry is substantiallythe a&me in all of the leading commercial countries iuthe world, there ought not to be any great difficulty in determiningthe relative cost of production in units, if undertaken bygovernment authority under the supervision of competent men.The United States government, by a census every ten years, approximatelyshows the aggregate yearly increase of wealth inthe country. The necessity of knowing how it is distributed isquite as important. Without this no just estimate can bo madeof the practical working of our societary organization. It hmbeen computed that 31,000 individuals possess f 86,000,000,000of the total $62,000,000,000 of the aggregate wealth, as shown bythe last census report. Whether this is true or false, there are atpresent no means of determining, but the fact, that such a statementcan go uneontradieted, is a just cause of alarm to all whodesire to see government by the people perpetuated.To the thoughtful mind the acknowledgment of an overproductionis susceptible of but one explanation, which is, that it isan evidence of mental stupidity on the phrt of those who are responsiblefor it, as well as an economic waste to society thatpermits it.Within the past year we have experienced another greatfinancial crisis, extending through all the great commercial countriesof the world, in defiance of all the theories upon which ourcommercial activities are based. The effect of this has been toprostrate industry, bring distress to millions of people who havebeen thrown out of employment, and bankruptcy to thousands whohave spent a lifetime in pursuits that are everywhere recognizedas legitimate and beneficial to society at large. Had an epidemicof cholera visited the country the public would have immediatelydemanded the enforcement of sanitary regulations to stampit out, nor would there have been any differences of opinionamong our learned sanitarians as to what should bo done. Yetin remedies for relief from the distress caused by the panic, ourstatesmen appear as impotent as though there were no such thing