THE PRESENT COMMERCIAL CRISIS. 503 



diminution of their profits, so workmen, the unfaithful ones at least, 

 among Western peoples, will have to recover the habits of regular 

 and conscientious work, which were formerly in honor, but upon which 

 they are now trying to cast discredit. Possibly, most of the additions 

 to wages that have been made in later years will have to be reduced ; 

 but this will be compensated for by the greater regularity of work 

 and the general cheapening of the necessaries of life. 



In addition to the factors we have described, a new arrangement 

 of commercial agencies is needed to the full bringing about of the 

 equalization of consumption with production. In most countries the 

 economical organism is complicated with superfluous wheels. The 

 curiously abnormal situation is presented that, while the producer gets 

 lower prices, the consumer pays no less. The number of middle-men 

 also grows quite as fast as the difference between wholesale and retail 

 prices, so that they too make no great profits. Two evils results from 

 these conditions : many persons are lost from work on the farm or in 

 the shop ; and the consumer, not profiting or profiting but little by the 

 cheapening of prices, does not extend his consumption. No equilib- 

 rium can be established between a production that is increasing and a 

 consumption that remains nearly stationary. The state has no part in 

 this situation ; but producers and consumers sin by indifference to one 

 another ; and the remedy for the result should be brought about by 

 their joint action in creating market depots at which they can be 

 brought into more direct relations. The state may best facilitate 

 such arrangements by leaving the parties at perfect liberty. Its inter- 

 ference in any way would be a blunder, and only a hindrance to the 

 accomplishment of the desired end. 



The present crisis has a much more general character than any of 

 the crises that have preceded it, because it is a part of an abrupt trans- 

 formation in the production and circulation of the whole world. For 

 the same reason it is destined to last longer. Nevertheless, if govern- 

 ments have wisdom and foresight enough not to interfere with the course 

 of events, an era of improvement may shortly begin. Those persons 

 who occupy their minds with plans to induce interference by the state 

 in the interest of labor and enterprise, whether by the purchase or es- 

 tablishment of works, stimulation by bounties, discriminating taxes, 

 or by rules for the regulation of the relations between workmen and 

 their employers, show more zeal than wisdom, and are asking what 

 will only aggravate the evil. The action of the state in such matters 

 is essentially disturbing, and can never be regulative. All that we 

 should ask of it is not to interfere, but to retrench its own expenses, 

 to contribute by economical administration to the reduction of costs 

 of production, and by a calm and wise attitude to the revival of con- 

 fidence. Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from the Revue 

 des Deux Mondes. 



