OVER-PRODUCTION. 517 



to call yourself France. Such was what socialism, above 

 and beyond a few mistaken sects, said; this is what it sought 

 in facts and stirred up in minds; they were admirable efforts 

 and sacred attempts." Victor Hugo in Les Miser ables^ 



PP- 547, 548. 



In treating of the cause of the "present universal 

 derangement of commerce and industry," the Silver Com- 

 mission says: 



"The real cause of the present universal derangement 

 of commerce and industry must be ascertained before the 

 proper remedy can be devised. The causes assigned are 

 various and contradictory. Many of them never had any 

 existence in fact. Others are inadequate or absurd in 

 themselves, or by reason of being confined to narrow local- 

 ities or special interests, cannot have proved a mischief 

 which reaches all places and all productive interests. 



"Over-production is one of these alleged causes, 

 although food, clothing, houses, and everything useful to 

 mankind are, and probably always will be, in deficiency, 

 as compared with the needs of them. The constant effort 

 of the human race is, and ought to be, to multiply pro- 

 duction. 



"The aggregate effective demand for products, that 

 is to say, the aggregate demand accompanied with the 

 ability to purchase, always increases with production. 

 Supply and demand mean substantially the same thing, 

 and are nothing but two faces of the same fact. Every 

 new supply of any product is the effective basis of a new 

 demand for some other product. The" capacity to buy is 

 measured exactly by the extent of production, and there is 

 practically no other limit to consumption than the limit of 

 the means of payment. Over-production of particular 

 things may occur, but that is soon corrected by the loss of 

 profits in producing them. Over-production in the genera] 



