282 GENERAL SCIENCE 



consumers in any community and of those who as producers 

 must send their products long distances to market. 



People are often classified as either producers or con- 

 sumers. The agriculturist by expenditure of time, labor, 

 and skill may appropriate to his gain the raw materials from 

 earth, air, water, and sunshine for his crops of wheat, corn, 

 and fruit. He may transform these in turn into meat and 

 dairy products. In a very true sense he is to this extent a 

 producer. The men who dig coal and iron ores, and the iron 

 manufacturer who turns these raw materials into forms in- 

 dispensable in modern life, are also producers of natural 

 wealth. But at the same time the miners, furnace men, 

 and the iron manufacturer himself as consumers are depend- 

 ent upon the agriculturist for their daily food. 



Those who are engaged in trade and transportation, and 

 those to whom merchandise is finally sold for use, may be 

 classified as consumers. They may in some cases be the 

 very same people who produced the raw material itself on 

 the farm and in the mines. The shoe manufacturer may be 

 considered as a producer of wealth, but he and his workmen 

 are classed among the consumers with reference to food 

 supplies. No studies of the production, transportation, 

 and consumption of raw material and of manufactured 

 products, in connection with the industries and occupations 

 of the people of any community or nation, can be carried 

 far without a discussion of economic problems involving the 

 principles of Political Economy. 



A city or nation occasionally faces a condition such as that 

 involved in the " strike" of a large body of those engaged in 

 its transportation service. The railway systems of the 

 country may be paralyzed for lack of men to operate them. 

 At these times not only may the lives of citizens be jeopard- 

 ized, their comfort and welfare disregarded, but the stability 

 of government and the enforcement of its laws may be im- 



