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A PAPER FOR THINKING PEOPLE VOL. I. DUNN, N. C., FEBRUARY 1, 1933 NUMBER 2 THE world can neither get into debt nor lay up stores for the distant future In accord with my statement in the first issue of this paper. I shall discuss, as opportunity affords, what I conceive to be some of the fundamental principles of a eafe and sane system of economics. Here I begin with tvhat seem to be the very basic conceptions of such a system. Like the circulation of the blood, which now seems so obvious yet was. undiscovered till Harvey’s day, these principles .seem inesoapable. Yet, if generally recognized by economists, it seems evident that they have been almost utterly ignored in their discussions. The World Cannot Get Into Debt ' Here is the primal proposition: The world! cannot get into debt. Since the essential quality of debt com prises a draft upon the future, the corollary of the for mer proposition is: The world cannot make a dratt upon the future. In the light of present conditions, the statements seem paradoxical. Individuals and nations are wallowing in a slough of debt, and because of that fact consumption is minimized; while the apparent superabundance of goods has put the brakes upon productive" activities. It is my task to establish those principles, together with another: The world cannot lay up stores for the dis + futllVA Fundamental Statements Ail production of wealth* is due to the application of labor. to materials already existing. Accordingly, the 6nly essentials for a perpetual continuation of the pro duction of wealth are perpetual supplies of labor and materials. • / .A-. ‘ Machines, similarly prodpo^ njay multiply the^^pt* of labor, but that fact'does not affect the validity of the principle. Soils may be used again and agaain for the production of-wealth. In manufacturing, the ma terials are transformed, and cease, as a rule, to exist longer in a state to be used again in the production * f wealth. Labor constantly renews itself in the new generations and no labor expended can become a draft upon tho future. Then, the only possibility of a draft upon the future* by the production of wealth lies in the con sumption of an undue proportion of exhaustible or'un reproducible material. But nature has been so lavish in her provisions that few, if any, materials essential to tife^jiroduction of wealth do not exist in almost inex haustible^ quantities or are not readily reproduced, ss timber for instance, and those few, if now or in the past deemed absolutely essential to such production, will find tli'eir shortage counterbalanced by the discov ery of substitutes. ° ' Once it was deemed that the coal supply might some time be exhausted. But even if the supgjy had not been discovered to be extravagantly abundant, electrici .y from water. power has already curtailed the" need for that fuel, as it may readily do for oil, and ad it has al ready done in tjje case of lights. Too, sources of enersy now scarcely dreamed of may be counted upon to afford abundant substitutes for energy’ derived from coal, or oil. Only two weeks ago the renowned scientist Piccard predicted that the cosmic ray would furnish an inex haustible source of energy for the -future. And thus it is with any supposedly essential material for the pro duction of wealth or for its transportation and distri bution. ■ \ x--^ The Conclusion If labor and material are the essentials of the pro duction of wealth and if there is no danger that either will fail to exist in sufficient quantity so long as wealth shall be needed, it is evident that' the consumption of neither labor nor material can .create a draft upon the future, which is the essential, if not the only, quality of a debt. That is, no future labor nor any material «t a future date will h4ve to be expended or consumed in replacing the labor expended or the material consumed in the production of wealth at the present or in the Past. Therefore, the world cannot, in any way, get into debt, whether in the production of tangible or intan* gible wealth or benefits, the latter including any and every expenditure of p4fysical, mental or spiritual en frgy for the betterment of mankind’s existence, or even or destructive purposes. .. ~s) ' ~ ■ . Concrete Illustrations y North Carolina owes millions , for highway, construc tion. But irom the world standpoint, not a cent is owed, fhe material was long age prepared «nd every ounce >f labor expended. When the road is completed the two constituents of the construction, material and labor, including: supervision and every accoutable expediture of time by any person* can never become a ldraft upon the future. The food, the clothing, the tools, the education of the engineera*“-none, none of them is a charge upon the future, but represents only the Con sumption of formerly existing- materials and formerly expended laboy—neither ever- to be consumed or expended again , ' the Wort* War Paid For The world war, with all its destruction, did not, and cannot,- become a charge upon fire'future, only in so far as the efficiency of the wounded and the diseased was impaired and themselves became dependent upon the^strong for future support and care and so far as irreplaceable material was consumed or wealth which must be replaced destroyed. The guns, "the ammunition, - the ships, cantonments, or any exenditure of labor or material for things that were no longer needed, and therefore- needed not to be replaced, could make no draft upon the future. On the contrary, a needed -home or fac tory destroyed did make a draft upon the future for its replacement. But the expenditures for the things that should not be replaced evceeded the necessary^ replace ments by a hundred fold. France, it is understood, ha3 long ago made the necessary replacements on her soil. Even the coffins for the dead were creations of existing material and of past labor. The future is unhandicapped by the cost of the witr. Every hour of time and every bit of material were ^charges upon the time being: and were promptly settled. In short, it is folly to say the world owes, or ever owed, for the war. There was no appreciable’ debt—that Is, from the standpoint of wofli economy. ' . ( ~ ■^Ifeaview ta*ki ware ^M.,upo5 ;ajr qlEissfis .4^.*vei:y par ticipating nation, in that the labor necessary to carry on the usual program was augmented by that needed to maintain military operations. The wealth consumed already existed or was produced by that additional expenditure of labor. The lack of goods in several na tons had to be counterbalanced by deprivations. But those deprivations needed to extend no later than the period required to produce a store of food and raiment. Deprivations could not create a debt. The^r were a mat ter of the present, now the past. And when a world wide inventory was taken after the armistice, the world was found to have in it as a whole food and raiment, or material for the latter, sufficient for all, in the meas ure to which the varied populations had been accus tomed. Consequently, from the world standpoint, there was little,- or n6, lack of the. essentials of the usual de- ' gree of human welfare at the cldse of the war. And that fact stands, despite the other fact that millions and millions of rfen and women had had their time and labor diverted from the peace-time pursuits to war work. Verily, the people of the United. States dressed more extravagantly while several millions of her strongest men were employed in destructive operations than ever before or since. One never'before nor since saw so many silk shirts as were seen in 1918 and 1939. The foregoing observations prove not only that the ■vvar left no draft of any moment upon the future for material and labor, but really affords an illustration of the fact that a part of the population of the world can provide not only*the necessary wealth to support in vigor the population, but also may lend a hundred million men and women to destructive work, destroying much of the immediate products of this partial supply of labor. Incidentally, then, imagine the superabundance that might exist with all populations actively and effi ciently engaged ih peace-time pursuits. The world owes nothing. Its potentialities of produc tion of every conceivable item of wealth and of|condition3 enhancing human welfare are such that only direction is needed to produce an abundance" for every human creature on the face of the earth.,Direction with a na tion-broad purpose worked miracles during the war period. Lack of intelligent direction, from both the/na tional and world standpoint, since the war, has brought want and suffering in the past and present'and a pro mise of its dire continuance for a considerable period in the future. , The World Cannot Store Up Wealth For The : . Distant Future . The proposition that the world cannot store up wealth. for the distant future is also readily demonstrable'. The periods of .the. various reproductive and distributive, cycles are the) natural periods of storage. Those periods have been precautiously lengthened to assure 4 supply in case of shortage of the usual production through* disaster. ' X X 4- • •: A notable case of the latter was the storage ot grain by Joseph in view of the threatenedyseven years of want. Provision for a period longer, than the repro ductive'cycle and. in view of a possible shortage due^ to: short crops or disease of cattle or any disaster that might conceivably diminish the supply of either manu factured'goods or food, products, is both possible and wise. But a recent disturbing element has served to ex- • tend rather disastrously, the period of storage, for the normal, as indicated above, is the natural and the need ful. Thai element is cold storage and thorough protec tion against fire, weather; and' insedt depredations. De cay formerly removed any would-be. troublesome sjur plus. ' ^ Yet, withal, the^_ statement stands, that- the world , cannot stofe up wealth for the distant future. With all the storage advantages of the modern age, store houses1 are not sufficient nor could be readily provided to store; up a supply of goods for, say, a fifty-year period, 6** even a ten-year period. Accumulation of money is al together a different thing. Let the cycles of production cease and a cart load of money is worthless. * ■Wherein Provision May Be l^ade For The Future ,. • Apart from the cycle and . precautionary storage of * wealth, the only wise provision, for the future consists in increasing the potentialities of ihe Production" of goods and comforts, and of the general betterment of ’ life, The clearing of broader fields, if needed, the en richment of the soil, the fdunding of herds, the building of homes, factories, means of transportation, cultural in stitutions, hospitals, on any other thing that- looks to the\ betterment of copditions^and the. broadening and en$ichj^ t ing of-lifr in -tils, future -are future, and. the pnly possible ones. - Wherein A ppedrafteM Deceive < The disorganized State1 of \ society and- the clash' ot* seeming interests of individuals and states have servedH , to transform, apparently, an era of real and Substantial, investment for the future into an'apparent orgy of debt making Every highway, every school buildings every church building, for which the natidn, state or munici-. pality is burdensomely ^taxed now, was a real invest-: ment of the labor and material of the world. There ; should be nothing less in the world because of their’ building, and failure , to build_ would have meant the waste of potential labor and of otherwise useless ma-' terial. Verily, “things are not as they seem,” when & world investment, and the only practical if not possible one, is deemed a fearful Jiability^ and when this period, of economy is^ seeing the wa&e of the labor of 12,000, 000 of men and women, while the .struggle is being made, to pay for what has long .ago,, from the. broad economic viewpoint, been paid for. V. - * The Khenomenon txpiainea The phenomenon is explained by the disregard of the'' foregoing’ principles by individualsC^and Institutions.’ Every man is striving to nullify the natural law that, provision canncft be made for. the remote future, nor needs to be made. The misconception that laying up money is laying up wealth has continuously brought/ sorrow and want upon great groups of men. Debts are imposed upon individuals, communities, states, and na tions, for what is only a fallacious enrichment of other; idividuals or for'a deceptive- provision for the future. 1 Plenty for all is denied because of a feared lack of enough for the few. If there should be plenty for all, the provision is unnecessary- if not, and if actual fam ine should;occur, there is\no provision that safeguards, one’s wealth against a .hungry, multitude. The. f£w of France waxed fat df'; the expense of the want**of the multitude—the guillotine was the multitude’s response. The aristocracy. and favored few in Russia, like the rich’ man of the New* Testament, had laid up-riches, as they thought and had bidden their souls take their easfli hut, like the rich man’s, their lives were required ofr’ them in a night. ' And eveg at this stage of affairs,’ American investor*, see their sppposed investments entirely lost or shrunken like Governor Yance’s negro’s catfish when its head had, been cut off.' . . • ' The World Cannot Make Draft Upon The Future But not only are -individuals, trying jto nullify natural laws. but also great institutions^ Endowments and the heaping-up. of immense insurance funds are a^violation of the principle that we have been leading up to; name ly,, that <• the... yrorld ,which cannot owe, the past, capnot make.a draft upon the future. Yet, every dollar of . ... (Concluded on Eighth Page)
The State’s Voice (Dunn, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 1, 1933, edition 1
1
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