THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



June 



produces an article, like honey, he does 

 so because he wishes to consume that 

 article, or trade it for something to 

 consume. The toiler with whom he 

 trades, if he trade directly, produces 

 what he does with the express purpose 

 of supplying the demand for what the 

 other produces — honey. By the act of 

 producing, each creates a demand for 

 what the other produces. The demand 

 is, in each case, just equal to the 

 amount produced. But this normal con- 

 dition is all upset by the non-producers 

 — monopolists, speculators, trusts, etc. 

 — coming in and taking a share of the 

 production for which they render no 

 equivalent, in productive toil. They 

 deprive the producer to that extent of 

 effective demand, and make the goods 

 (honey) which his fellow producer cre- 

 ates for him a drug on the market. To 

 illustrate: If Jolley raises honey which 

 he wishes to trade for Smith's wheat 

 and Jones' pork, and Barber's shoes, 

 and Scott's clothes, it is to the interest 

 of Smith, Jones, Barber and Scott, as 

 well as Jolley, that he retain all of the 

 honey which he raises to trade for 

 their wheat, pork, shoes and clothes. 

 For if a portion of the honey taken 

 from Jolley is unearned charges, that 

 leaves him able to buy just that much 

 less of wheat, pork, shoes and clothes. 

 Then when we consider that a like 

 amount is taken from Smith, Jones, 

 Barber and Scott, we see that the pro- 

 duction of each gives him effective de- 

 mand, diminished by just the amount 

 taken from him in unearned incomes, 

 and the toilers, as a body, are worse off 

 by just the aggregate amount taken 

 from them in unearned incomes. Those 

 understanding these things the best 

 concede that the amount thus taken at 

 the present time is 52 cents out of 

 every dollar's worth produced. Evi- 

 dently, the persons who pay the bill- 

 ions collected annually by the non-pro- 

 ducers, deprive themselves by just that 

 amount of the ability to purchase 

 (honey) and there is just that much 

 less effective demand for articles 



(honey, etc.,) used by the productive 

 toilers. Then the amount which these 

 non-producers decide to hoard is rep- 

 resented by goods on the market for 

 which there is no demand. These non- 

 producers have the ability to purchase, 

 but not the desire, and the masses who 

 have the desire to demand the goods 

 on the market have not the ability to 

 purchase, hence must look upon glutted 

 markets, languishing trade, suspended 

 industries, idle laborors and starving 

 multitudes. Mr. Jolley admits this 

 when he says "there never was an over 

 production of honey" and "the price of 

 honey goes but little or no higher in 

 times of derth than in seasons of uni- 

 versal plenty." If these unearned in- 

 comes were not collected by private 

 parties, the immense fund which they 

 represent would be in the hands of the 

 active toilers who produced it, supply 

 and demand would always remain 

 equal; there would be no cry go up 

 from bee-keepers about "over-loaded 

 and glutted" markets with honey, and 

 all laborers would be steadily em- 

 ployed. The law of supply and demand 

 will work only where one retains his 

 own. In an economic organization or 

 system where a few are allowed to take 

 a portion of the substance of the many, 

 without giving value received, the law 

 is modified and its effect appears dis- 

 torted. And under such conditions, 

 supply and demand are so poorly bal- 

 anced that we have storehouses filled 

 with honey, elevators bursting with 

 grain, and glutted markets in the midst 

 of want and starvation, and idleness on 

 the threshold of poverty. It is the law 

 of all systems to develop to maturity, 

 and the effect will be that prices for 

 honey will go lower and lower, as the 

 system is continued, notwithstanding 

 Bro. .Jolley's plan of "unity among the 

 producers of honey." The business of 

 every bee-keeper should be to remove 

 the artificial modifications of natural 

 law, and allow our suffering industry, 

 together with others, to reassume their 

 natural equilibrium. This can be the 



