A PAPER FOR THINKING PEOPLE VOL. I. DUNN, N. C., OCTOBER 1, 1933; ‘ r ^ ^NUMBER 18 ■& ■ ■- ' ' ■ ■ ■ /■ - * . . ,:■" . lisas: : *’ . - > - 5. ■ • ■ ■ i - '■ - ’ ,.f ' ' ' ' ' ’ . *1 ' ■ “ i £'■*< fm£ ' ■ •>, * . The people have really again become concerned / In the study of economic principles. More than four years ago, .when I wrote almost exactly what had been happening, what wag happening, and would necessarily happen, as the event has proved in prac tically every instance. I could not get a serious con sideration of the articles from even the stronger editors of the State. Every line of the articles was based upon. observation and logical inference. let the reception , of those articles may be illustrated by the remark of an editor when asked if re had read them. “I Wave glanced over them,” he replied, “but I think things will go on just as they* have been going.” He knows better now, as do tens -.of millions of others and as a result a new disposition toward the examination of the fundamentals of -eco nomics eScists. - ' v • - * Yet I am convinced that many of those who think that they are studying fundamentals, or basic prin ciples are, still digging in layers far above the mud sills or the pilings underlying the economic struc ture. : : ~ Hi “The Same Old Editorial” In one of the earlier .numbers of the State’s VoicS, I discussed ^pme of these basic principles. But rep etition is necessary. Joe Turner, .the. long-time) Ral eigh editor, had the right idea of the necessity of repetition. He had a principle which he wished to impress upon the state. One time after another'he ' repeated his arguments in .editorials under this 01 {hat title. Finally, when-no new title suggested.it--.. 'self, he repeated his.. arguments under the; head- - fng;, .“The Same. .Old Editorial.^ H^rpip^ iipon the * same string becomes tiresome,, but .that, is the S r? I \ Fallacious Safeguards For the-Future. ' v On the other hand, there is as great misapprehen sion of the effectiveness of certain supposed safer guards for the future as there' iq of the possibility of sharing the responsibilities of the..present with the future. When the future of, forty years hence becomes the present, neither gold nor silver,- bonds nor mortgages, laid up now as security for that dis? tanlt day will add one grain of com or,wheat, one pound of meat, one ell of cloth, one shingle, one drop of gasoline, one watt of power, or any item of any thing imaginable as helpful or . needful to the gen eration then surviving. And" such attempted pro vision for the fuutre serves only to disturb the equil ibrium of economic production and distribution and to harass a portion of the population to no purpose tinder the sun. And the foregoing is as applicable to eridowtdent funds and' insurance reserves, as to gold iiaggevtaf an individual. - . Viewed From the Viewpoint of the Whole ' •''r Social Body \ It would seem hardly necessary to suggest to one of mental calibre sufficient to comprehend the prin ciples involved in this article that the foregoing does not apply to the Individual’s welfare but to that of the whole social body. Yet to* prevent- any one's jumping a.t the conclusion that I am unmindful of the full implications of these suggestions, I here do incorporate the limitation. Yet if some one unborn discovers himself in possession of a gold nugget laid up for him forty years before, he may. he. assured that the foresight of his benefactor, is at the expense of the .'generation in which the gohUis'spent for consum able tyealth. Nothing has been created by the hoarding; only recognized tight to share in the wealtn of ms asyenaoies itne individual. to proiit from the foresight; of his benefactor;, of years gone by. ’ And that would be just aS true whether the nugget had been circulatinginthe channels of com merce with interest accruing to the remote legatee as if hoarded all those years. Indeed, the former would have resulted In l(a greater inroad upon the common store of goods, by the legatee, to the' severer loss of the whole social <> body. Nothing in either - case has been added ito the ■ present, of the actual spending .of the nugget. - Hence, it should be clear that society’s safeguards .aginst ;future poverty lies wholly in the spheres indicated above. ** ': . The .Present Distress Due to an Impossible Attempt j ■■ - to Transfer .Responsibilities in the Future „ '- Of course, every attempt ito. provide for the remote future comprehends an attempt to.make the,future share the -cost of present expense. Arid' so long as "society does -not TeCognizeifs right as superior/ to that of any or every individual and so tong, .as the individual pees his future unguarded by the delayed assumption of the social body of its right and ; its accompanying responsibility, the ihdiyidual. Is jus tided in seeking to safeguardthe future for himself and family, though-such an attempt Invariably men aces the whole?'well-being, of the future social; body and thereby, to some extent, threatens, the very re verse of what he has sought in his attempt at pro vision for the future. -At this very moment, for fllus- 5 tration, colleges and insurance-companies are find ing part-of their endowment or reserve funds be-' home a handicap rather than an asset, and only the revolution which is in progress, under the direction of President Roosevelt,; has prevented a much larger ■/4 V > proportion of those assvts thus detertpcating; „ For example, I. passed, with a friend, a vacant building in Louisburg. The friend remarked, that the build* ing belongs to Wake Forest College,-^.Jjt was not only vadant, but apparently would remain so, so far as a profitable tenant is concerned. It had been taken in an a foreclosure, and instead of affording income is demanding outgo for insurance, taxes, and upf; keep. , Yet, according to. the^peasoning above and to follow, the situation which, caused the. vacation of the. property is largely^-due to the very prevailing process of attempting to provide Incomes for thd fixture. -- '• | - As pointed out above,' every attempt to provide s v future income, except that of sheer hoarding, conn prehends. an attempt on the. part of the borrower ixj, foist upon the future his present’s burden, and go - long as individual initiative remains, such borrow ings fcr building honies and so -forth will he neces sary. But such are minor* and individual loads for i the future, and may be justified..on^the ground that the provision of a home is.,a. necessary task .for every family, and that the borrowing .and immediate building, of tft^ home is less a violation of the prin? eiple enunciated in this article than| wbuld be the gradual hoarding of funds for several years and ’ their then expenditure in the. goods and labor of tbfefc day, which method means that each of the former years has undergone a slight disturbance of its equil ibrium in consumption and "thus produced a degree of shortage or waste of production, . ^ * Government the,Great, Offender. * *’ Government, especially the supreme sovereign, is the great offender against thisgprinciple. Any^e^-.; ttndetfPkeui t»y dividual enterprise but a public , ope. It is, if a sound or sane expenditure, for the benefit of the ■ whole public. Not one item of material or labor can •r go into the enterprise except that, at the moment ac tually or potentially existing. .And every item of labor and material as used. must come from ap ex isting surplus, and, if 'wisely expended, from .a .sur plus that does hot necessitate.scrimping or suffer ing by any soul because of the withdrawal "of such labor or material from private or individual enter prise or procesg of consumption. - That! was true of the expenditures- of the worlj^ war as much so as. for the least public enterprise! -Not one item of material and labor expense of war eould possibly, be drawn from the future, , .laborers and the ..materials, from shoes to. ships,. ex isted at the moment when used, and it was labor and material that could be spared: from private enter prise. Instance as proof the great surpluses that were found to exist when-the war was over and. the extravagance- that prevailed - in America- while thji war was in progress—never -did the world See -^o many silk shirts!. .- 1 The world war wasought in it# present. ..Yet, human • short-sightedness conceive,d- that ■'< its » ooap could be, in a great measure, transferred to the .fu ture. • Hence. the burden, of seeming .debt, .which .in America, at least, is.nothing but a- crisscross^ of .debts between the members of the greatngtionaljfam ily.t Yet all the resources remain; ail the j>otentali ties of labor, an abounding supply, of materials, .anji .all that is needed - to - restore , normal .processes is the -cutting sof the artificial debt, cords, which let ter the members of the whole social body., . It is- just .as if the right-arm had the left,bound up so1 as to suffer -and beconte; incapable- of - exertiop .on..thg .ground that,-it is due the right for something, th^t the right- had'.in, excess when .the. loan,., was, made. .The whole body, is thus,bound, about,with,disturbing Mjords-because- ^his or- 'that member c^aims^tbe, whole -owes it, -or some member* .claim.that other members owe them.- The consequence, is the body and mem ■bers alike-have become, paralyzed and; all suffer tff rgether. - ^ The War Extrayaganres -Would Have Beat Negligible f The-", waste of material, and labor in the, war wa^r immense, but it was material and labor that could be spared,- and actually wa» spared, and if the U. S. •government had simply, realized that the. future could not conti-iubute a whit .to.the expenditure and Continued .Pn. Eage^.Fivei; k W...C' i . - * - -- - -