OCR Text |
Show f (rOOKING I K:.lf' GEORGE S. BENSOH I :$S S PfttidmlJltrdiiii Ctlltft. S-:- I Setttf.W" i. ..'.j, -J ..1 THE WONDERFUL ELIXIR To the Oklahoma community where I lived as a boy there came one Saturday afternoon a fraveling medicine show. It was a wondrous thing. Roustabouts Rousta-bouts spread sawdust on a vacant va-cant lot fronting on the town square and erected a bpuncy platform-stage with canvas top and red fringe all around. Then they got out and scattered handbills hand-bills through the streets and among the wagons and buggies and model Ts that had brought farm families on their weekly trip to town. At nightfall the show went on. The crowd out front, standing on the sawdust, was enormous. There were six vaudeville acts staged by a company of three people, including a tableau tab-leau from the life of Sitting Bull, juggling, and trio singing. Then came the pitchman, or spieler. He had a tall brown bottle in his hand, a fine voice and a sparkle of friendliness in his eye. He wore a frock coat. At the left of the stage were stacked at least 200 packages of the "Wonderful Elixir." The spieler made his pitch: Here, he said, was the great panacea, an old Indian herb prescription handed down through generations. genera-tions. And it would positively cure anything, eliminate all pain! He related a half dozen case histories of the astonishing work of the "Elixir." They sounded amazing but somehow some-how believable. The "Let-Downs" Most of the packaged "Elixir" "Elix-ir" on the stage was sold at the stiff price of 90c a bottle before the crowd dwindled out. During the following week everybody ev-erybody in town with real or fancied ills gulped down potions po-tions from tjjeir tall brown bottles bot-tles and seemed to feel much better almost immediately. But before the week ended there began to be talk of "let-downs." (The word "hang-over" wasn't in use.) It then became known that the "Elixir" contained 85 per cent alcohol, a dash of water, and some powdered green herb bitters to give it the medicinal flavor. It didn't cure anything. It merely intoxicated worked as a narcotic to deaden the sensory nerves and cut off momentarily mo-mentarily any existing pain or discomfort. The after - effect was, to say the least, unpleasant. unpleas-ant. Our town recovered from the medicine show's visit, by awakening to the true nature of the spieler's magic "Elixir." As ' a cure-all, it wouldn't work; as ' a pain killer, it merely postponed post-poned the suffering. A Moral ! The medicine show story has I a moral: There isn't a quick ' magical panacea for the ills and pains of the world or for the troubles and problems of a people. Pain must be traced to its source and adjustment or correction made. Treating pain to kill it, without getting at the cause, only prolongs the ailment. And trying to solve the problems of nations and peoples peo-ples with magical schemes and panaceas only intensifies the fundamental problem. Since the beginning of history his-tory a primary human problem has been the quest for economic security, a sufficiency of the material necessities of life. Though the world has seen 19 civilizations come and go, no one has evolved a plan that will give everybody all their economic eco-nomic wants. The American economic system appears to be unquestionably the best pattern. pat-tern. Because of the freedom it gives, and the unparalleled production it stimulates, our poorest citizens have provided themselves with a living standard stand-ard better than the average anywhere else in the world, j Something for Nothing? The American system offers all citizens the wide-open opportunity oppor-tunity for a large measure of economic security. But its promise is based on the principle prin-ciple of self-reliance and the natural law of recompense. Both the principle and the law are denied in' some provisions of the Federal "Social Security" program. The Foundation for Social Research reports, for instance, in-stance, that under certain age and employment circumstances people are being offered pensions pen-sions worth $16,000 by paying only $121.50 into the Federal treasury. Millions are eligible. Other millions, the Foundation reports, may make themselves eligible to receive a $50 a month pension for life, beginning begin-ning July 1, 1952, at a total cost to the pensioner of only $40.50. Fourteen months ago I appeared ap-peared before the Senate Finance Fi-nance Committee in opposition to further expansion of such out-of-balance provisions. I did not oppose real social security, but I did oppose a something- j for-nothing scheme which in the years ahead can crush the hopes of millions of oldsters and break hearts by bankrupting the nation. I urged that Congress Con-gress make a thorough study of the whole pension problem, then give the people the unvarnished unvar-nished facts instead of more "Wonderful Elixir." |