Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/304

 290 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Those of us who enjoy the privilege of voting may help, once or twice in a year, to decide how the tariff, or the currency, or the local tax rate shall be adjusted to our industries. But all of us, all the time, are deciding by our expenditures what indus- tries shall survive at all, and under what conditions. Broadly stated, it is the aim of the National Consumers' League to mor- alize this decision, to gather and make available information which may enable all to decide in the light of knowledge, and to appeal to the conscience, so that the decision when made shall be a righteous one.

The Consumers' League, then, acts upon the proposition that the consumer ultimately determines all production, since any given article must cease to be produced if all consumers ceased to purchase it, as in the case of the horsehair furniture of the early part of the century, which has now virtually ceased to be manufactured ; while, on the other hand, any article, however injurious to human life and health the conditions of its produc- tion may be, or with whatsoever risk they may be attended, con- tinues to be placed on the market so long as there is an effective demand for it ; e. g., nitro-glycerine, phosphorus, matches, and mine products of all kinds.

While, however, the whole body of consumers determine, in this large way and in the long run, what shall be produced, the individual consumer has, at the present time, for want of organi- zation and technical knowledge, no adequate means of making his wishes felt, of making his demand an effective demand. Illustrations of the truth of this proposition are plentiful in the experience of everyone.

A painful type of the ineffectual consumer may be found in the colony of Italian immigrants in any one of our great cities. These support at least one store for the sale of imported macca- roni, vermicelli, sausage (Bologna and other sorts), olive oil, Chianti wine, and Italian cheese and chestnuts. These articles are all excessively costly, by reason of transportation charges and the import duties involved ; but the immigrants are accus- tomed to using them, and they prefer a less quantity of these kinds of foods rather than a greater abundance of the cheaper