64  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UNEMPLOYED

affirmed  by  an  experienced  business  man,  “So  rapid  has
been  the  advance  in  production,  whether  agricultural  or
mechanical,  so  greatly  have  the  means  of  transportation
and  communication  improved  and  cheapened  that  supply
ahvays  nozo  outruns  demand.”*  Indirect  testimony  of  the
most  valuable  kind  is  afforded  by  Von  Halle  in  his
treatment  of  the  American  Trust.  “  Before  the  establishment ­
  of  the  combinations,  hardly  any  industry  had  been
able  to  utilise  its  full  capacity.  For  instance,  even  before
the  days  of  the  Cotton  Oil  Trust,  numerous  presses  and
refineries  had  for  a  long  time  been  inactive.  The  Trust
closed  at  once  more  .than  a  dozen  of  the  small  oldfashioned
  mills.  The  same  thing  happened  with  the
Sugar  Trust,  which  can  supply  the  whole  market  with  the
product  of  one  fourth  of  the  plant  it  owns.  The  Whiskey
Trust  immediately  closed  68  of  its  80  distilleries,  and
with  the  remaining  12  was  enabled  to  furnish  the  same
output  as  before  and  soon  to  largely  increase  it.”  f
In  other  words,  with  the  means  of  production  which
now  exist  a  far  larger  quantity  of  commodities  could  be
produced  than  are  actually  produced.  It  is  probable  that
the  percentage  of  unemployed  or  under-employed  capital
in  the  shape  of  mills,  ironworks,  dockyards,  mines,  and
plant  and  machinery  of  various  kinds  is  far  larger  than
the  8  or  10  per  cent,  which  may  represent  the  waste  ol
labour-power.  From  the  financial  point  of  view  the
excess  is  attested  by  the  universal  glut  of  loanable  capital
to  which  Mr.  A.  J.  Wilson  has  recently  directed  public
attention.  §  Another  financial  authority,  Mr.  Van  Oss,
*  J.  H.  Trotson,  “The  Assault  on  the  Standard.”
f  Von  Halle,  “  Trusts.”  p.  66.
§  “Investor’s  Review,”  January  1895.