e,
exaggerates the irregularity imposed by nature upon its productivity,
by making it subservient to the fluctuating demands of distant and
wholly incalculable markets. The fluctuations brought about by
irregular consumption and uncontrolled production in highly-evolved
industrial countries are thus reflected with terrible force upon the
more primitively-ordered parts of the industrial world. Thus does the
character of modern machine-industry impress itself on the countries
which feed it with raw materials.

If we turn to investigate the several departments of industry in the
more highly-evolved communities, where statistics yield more accurate
information, we have most distinct evidence that so far as the
world-market is concerned, the fluctuations are far more extreme in
the industries to which machine-production and high organisation have
been applied. An investigation of changes of wholesale prices
indicates that the most rapid and extreme fluctuations are found in
the prices of textile and mineral materials which form the foundation
of our leading manufactures. A comparison of the price changes of food
as a whole, and of corn prices with textiles and minerals, shows that
especially during the last thirty years the fluctuations of the latter
have been much more rapid and pronounced. (See following diagrams.)

[Illustration: COURSE OF AVERAGE PRICES OF GENERAL
COMMODITIES.]

[Illustration: CORN PRICES.]

Sec. 5. It ought to be clearly understood that the real congestion with
which we are concerned, the over-supply, does not chiefly consist of
goods in their raw or finished state passing through the machine on
their way to the consumer. The economic diagnosis is sometimes
confused upon this point, speaking of the increased productive power
of machinery as if it continued to pour forth an unchecked flood of
goods in excess of possible consumption. This shows a deep
misunderstanding of the malady. Only in its early stages does it take
this form. When in any trade the producing power of machinery is in
excess of the demand at a remunerative price, the series of processes
through which the raw material passes on its way to the consumer
soon become congested with an over-supply. This, however, need not be
very large, nor does it long continue to grow. So long as the
production of these excessive wares continues, though we have a
growing glut of them, the worst features of industrial disease do not
appear;