Newspapers / The State’s Voice (Dunn, … / Feb. 1, 1935, edition 1 / Page 5
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BASING OLD-AGE PENSIONS ONfALSE- * ECONOMIC PRINCIPLE , >• People are as blind to what I con ceive to be tbe greatest of all false economic practices as they used to'. be to the fallacy of the possibility 0f a country’s maintaining a per petual favorable balance of trade against the world—that is; that a; country can continually sell more1 tb . other nations than ‘ it buys. The principle now referred to is that. discussed time and again by this writer—that a country or the world . cannot, or will not, lay up for the; remote future ,and that any appear ance of doing so is appearance only* The world lives from hand-to mouth, both by necessity and through choice. When this country had actually saved ten million bales of cotton and many millions of bushels of wheat and had a surplus of meat, it deliberately set about to decrease production, going 50 far in deed as to destroy crops almost ma ture and pigs and cattle. The whole AAA scheme emphasizes the fact that the country does not want a surplus of anything. Layj: o Up What "Aint/A Yet, clesp: f e this manifest fact, the urge is to lay. up for the future —to lay up money and credits. Bil lions of such “savings” now exist without any existing wealth to match them. I contend that such ‘•'saving” is utterly at variance with true economic practice. Such “sav ings” not only represent no saved wealth, but have had dist- 1 ef fect in lessening the sum -t of wealth produced and consumed.’ l or the gathering of those “savings" in money from those who should hove' received more in return for their expenditures of time, energy, or cash, has had the effect' of reducing" consumption.. VBut, since the world,; this country- in0.particular, .is dis-i tressed when a surplus occurs, and ' immediately sets about to reduce it,, it stands to reason that', “hieing consumption also reduces 'educ tion. In this country, every mo a' factory closes down for r 7 ”od because of a surplus stock, y see the same practice in play. !-h-e. shortening of work days r::J the excess of idle men and women is a result of the same practice. The principle of life-insurance, as I have pointed out, is a fallacious one—not for the individual while the practice is common but for the nation. The piling up of the great endowment funds is equally uneco nomic. How the False Practice Harms. Why? Simply because such funds are a draft upon the future wealth producing power and do not repre sent existing wealth—a wealth that might in great measure have existed if the funds had not been greedily accumulated by the founders Oi tne endowments. There is no better il lustration than that furnished by the Duke endowment. The vast tDuke fortune is based upon the profits of the tobacco business. There were three groups who were robbed of part of what belonged to them: the producers of the leaf, through the payment of prices below a living - standard; the factory employees, - through tbe payment of wages be low a decent living standard; and-: tlie consumers through the charging; of too high prices for the manufac- - tured product. Ninety-nine men put of a hun dred who were thus - deprived of a dollar (contrary to the assumed' principles of the “new deal’*) failed thereby to spend that dollar for the' product or the service of someone else. That is, consumption was les sened during the accumulation ofi the Duke fortune to an extent bal uncing the excess of the Duke ac- 1 cumulations' above a just sum* And production was cut off in an ap- ' proximate degree. The consequence, there is less wealth, 1^~ “security” in the country, to-day" fljhnthere would be if thet Duke; acciibhiflatfon had been kept withih just bounds. Yet but of that lessened total. of wealth that might have existed, the; endowment fund puts it within the power of its beneficiaries to demand ’ a portion of the lessened wealth supply, again to the hurt of those from whom, the dollars have been unjustly taken, since such a proce dure necessarily lessens the supply they may have, or raises the price of what they do get. The accumulation of great insur ance reserve funds have a similar effect, though only becoming really serious when the extent of insur ance becomes so great as to with draw billions from would-be spend ers to establish a fund that is no longer needed for borrowers, and through them for other spenders. This accumulation is particularly turtful during the period of greatly increasing policy-holders and com paratively few settlements. Now, President Roosevelt pro poses an old-age pension scheme which would intensify this with drawal of funds from the hands of potential spenders and thus again give a solar-plexus blow to con sumption and production. The Rule of the Manna. Production and consumption in this world applies the rule of the manna in the wilderness journey of the Hebrews. Those old-timers, however greedy or fearful, could not save manna from- one day to the next. * As a rule we cannot save wealth for a more extended period than that of reproduction' and a start in the distribution o£ the new product. What doesrft decay if kept ' becomes outmoded. But we have less sense than the Israelites had. When they haw they could not lay up - manna for the future, it is presum able that they quit trying. We yell “surplus”, “surplus” if ten million ■ bales of cotton accumulate, or close down the mills if cotton or steel goods are overstocked. Yet in the face of the very fact that confronted the would-be “saver” of manna, we think to beat nature and necessity by laying up currency and securi ties. And now President Roosevelt, to be followed doubtless by the Con gress, proposes to create pension funds to maintain men 20, 30, 40, or 50 years old after they become sixty-five by withdrawing from the consumption funds quotas of cur rency, without any backing in ac tual wealth, as “security” for old age. Let Each Production Period Bear the Burdens of the Next. The common-sense way is to mu each production period bear the burdens of the country during the next. It does it despite all non sensical practices and theories. You will eat none of this year’s wheat crop till it is produced. And what 6f the last crop is not eaten during the present production period and a' reasonable time for distribution of the next crop will be as useless as yesterday’s manna. Then, it stands to reason that there is nothing but folly in skimping on the present supply. If there is not enough to use liberally—to feed the old and decrepit, .the widows and children, the unfortunates of all kinds, there can easily be’produced enough. Sim ilarly with cotton, lumber, meats, etc. Haven’t we enough cotton or ■ cotton goods to supply all needs? Well; let the farmers produce two million bales more next year and let •the idle mill hands spin and weave t In 'brief, the drily sensible course ;o secure sripport for the aged, for TOO EARLY TO DECIOE UPON QUESiltW w.v ■. OF LIQUOR CONTROL: >: .. ^ ^ $he writer admits that the liquor • 8itu4t^qu,.iu North Carolina is bad. ^ut.;it is something better that we ■ want, not something' worse. Other States are trying out various schemes of regulation. Already a considerable mass of data for com parison of conditions in those States and in North Carolina could be amassed, and will be if real; effort is made to supplant the Turlington Act by the present General Assem? bly, which would furnish rather conclusive evidence that no State has yet minimized the liquor men ace by' its attempt to control a le galized distribution of the; deadly stuff. ^ ■ But two more years ■will serve to afford a more effective comparison of conditions in wet and dry States* If it d,eyelop$ within the next two years that some. State has really di-, minished the curse of drink by some regulatory system, then it will he time to give thought to changing the North Carolina law. , And happy would many of us old-time prohibitionists he to find such a remedy to a condition tnat nas so long distressed Jug. For the anti liquorites are noit wedded to any scheme for the sake of the scheme, but are honestly seeking to mini mize the deadly curse of alcoholic drink. Thus f ar,'itis evident that nothing better thanJ prohibition, even with‘its--present ineffective en forcement, has been discovered. North Carolina-has its blockaders and bootleggers, but so have the re peal States. Read here a few words from the Richmond News-Leader, a wet organ: “Throughout the State ‘ the disposition of *the courts has been to impose very light fines for liquor violations. All this means that the Bootlegger has Been -enjoying amnesty. Little effqst has been made to catch him ^ when apprehended his danger of going to jail has been negligible. If. the bootlegger can compete with ARC stores-he has lit tle else to fear. Virginia has an ex cellent liquor law but she cannot the unfortunate, for schools, hospi tals, road-building ,or anything else is to take it from1 the present sup ply of wealth. Whip- the devil around the stump as much as you please, still there' is' where it comes from. But tinder the present re gime and the proposed pension re gime, the supply each year will be less than it would if the fact were recognized and no around-the-elbow to-the-thumb practices intervened to make it appear that the burden has been thrown upon the future. The proposed national Scheme for securing a pension fund5 is, in my mind, absolutely uneconomic. The Bender bill introduced in the North Carolina legislature avoids an ex traction of consumption funds for the future—-it takes and uses the same year; But any scheme that is based upon the conception of sup port in terms-of money will be a burden -unnecessarily imposed.^ Restobe the Histokio Tithing ' System. If the old folk are to use more than ever before, it stands to reason there should be more made. Then let everybody produce more, haul more, sell more, or render more service in any essential way, and. the surplus instantly exists for the extra burden. But if surpluses of cash must be accumulated before the State can gather the surplus for distribution to the aged, the excess will largely vanish—the potatoes will rot, the beans will spoil, etc., etc. But if the excess should be gathered in kind and distributed through State depots, the burden - will'vanish *nd the supply will not evaporate. ' - • r . ; But the State does not want raw •' hope for it to be self-enforcing. .If . she puts liquor priees too high*-the" bootlegger can undersell the -Stato ~ stores;' if she reducCT^pficwT'-lbo’1 much, jshe stimulate eOnSUinptiiSl''"' by personswho cannot afford to buy legal' liquor an4 who-eannot mer ally or financially indulge freely/?; There: you, discover r from -what should be am authoritative '.source : that Virginia has all the bootlegge? menace North Carolina has/and the same problem’ of enforcement. In addition,, she has added respect*, ability to the business , by making the sale of liquor a State enterprise^ ‘ and has taken the responsibility of the drinkers’, ruin from their-own- . shoulders wof the soyereigu State*'.. Any man or woman who/goes tp jail* ,., or totlell because of drink in North Carolina^ goes there-despite the be* , hest of the State and hot with the aiding and abetting pf it, . • , Barbels, m.: Bottles, But one cries nut that the horde* , counties are flooded" with Virginia liquor. According to earlier claim ants, the whole State was and is ' flooded with bootleg liquor. Three truqk, loads of bottles are. reported as gathered by some one in Pur-., ham—Virginia liquor bottles. - Bui the report takes care not to state what size truck body it “was. But grant that there were a hundred bushels of bottles, that quantity for a city like Durham compares -rather favorably with the Hundred empty whiskey barrels I knew my father to buy at one time from one liquor dealer in Clinton, then , a town of seven hundred people, and in a pov erty-stricken county.' 'Not did ho get all the barrels from that one of eight or ten. The total of all boot- • leg and aeross-the-horder-sales- is al ways of rather insignificant size;r when compared with the sales of the old bar-room days,; There are tens of thousands of people-who do not drink now, menf though some folk have an idea that everybody drinks. ... ... .... (Continued On Page Seven) - cotton for the aged. Let the tithe (for that is the scheme being sug- , gested—one that stood the test for. ages—) be taken from1" the finished product and the grower’s share of the contribution be deducted by the. processor just as the processing tax is to-day—through a jnuce graduat ed under the circumstances. But it were better if Uncle Sam managed the whole scheme, for then he would have in his domains practically every'article needed'for. his" millions of wards. .The* State would find an t excess of*one product and a paucity or utter lack of another and would have to exchange excess1 cohimodi ties with other States to make ends come out even. But Uncle Sam could keep his supply depots pro vided with a full variety of the products of this great domain. "And nobody would be hurt, for nothing would have been consumed except that provided - for the extra con sumDtion and nobody would have been overworked, since the millions of idle who are now eating food and wearing clothes would bo put to work—at least some of them—may be all of them if the Townsend plan should be adopted. ' When all other, means had failed, the Confederate States government got food for its armies by tithing. The same system Would secure all the goods Uncle Sam heeds for all his Wards, also all the clothing, fuel, - etc., and surpluses need no longer curse a country that wants no'sur pluses. And nbbody would have the less, for a little bit more' work each day on the part of all dr the idle eaters put to work would create any supply needed in excess of eilsting , surpluses. ’ v . —- a.-. r? w ‘•. • * • * ■ I- i
The State’s Voice (Dunn, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 1, 1935, edition 1
5
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