Show FHE MARK DO N OF by merle thorpe nation nations s business april issue reprinted by special permission ion of all our grave issues one which is fundamental has been obscured even though it cuts squarely across every other and must be settled first it Is less a matter of economics and politics than of plain old fashio fashioner fash lone nei 1 morality it is this are we to con idone and officially encourage tho the breaking bie aking of prom sies that issue is involved in such practices and pro as federal sanction of default on municipal bonds farm e and even the government s o own oan an seed eseed crop and reclamation loans the essence of each of these is a broken promise the essence of bus iness and political and professional morality is the kept word you can count on what he says he is dependable have been tests ot character since the beginning the young of every generation have been coun belled admonished exhorted by bv copy book parent teacher to this faith the elder morgan when ask ed by a senate committee upon achaj ha security he loaned money re plied character not a reader of this page but who can point to instances of men and women who sacrificed greatly through the years of 1907 and 1893 rather than break their word ward when a nation blandly declines to pay its obligations to another afna na t ion when a government suggests to the citizen that he can repudiate without losing his good name at that moment moral fibers become flabby guide posts vanish and na lional disintegration sets in the time has come for men and institutions to stand up and be counted Is it to be the easy way then make the long slide easier ba b removing constitutional obstacles to the impairment of private contracts and by changing our time honored copy book maxims pull all the stops discourage thrift by penal izing ling it encourage folly by reward ing it carry on to the bitter end the delusion of a bottomless public treasury this would give us the fronted d cake today but would leave no bread for tomorrow or Is to be the hard way call a halt on the devising of fresh palliatives and contract rath r than expand the scope of thosa thos upon which we now lean they only delay the inevitable accounting their promise brings tear fear to some false hope to others hesitation to all the battle must be fought some where some time it might as well be here now let the defaulter I 1 nation or institution default and wear the libel let lot the individual with obligators who is willing now and eager to hide behind new and strange defenses stand up to opinion and let us see to it that the individual who regards bis his ob ligat libations ions as a sacred duty and tights fights to perform them receives proper credit and acclaim lest he be the real forgotten man such a course means stern read just ments distressing distress ng enough but not so painful in the give and take of the market place as amid the in equalities and injustices worked b arbitrary fiat such a course for one thing would return an enduring compensation of self respect rhe pure gold would be found in the crucible after the hot fire has cool ed no course could be too drastic which would preserve for this nation its time honored conception of rell reli ability and dependability of the sa cr edness of the promised word |