Show I 1 I 1 ARE WE DOLLAR CHASERS for the reaper by frank PL P litschert itschert over in europe during the past few years it has become the popular pastime to call americans dollar chasers and to characterize uncle sam as the worlds great modern modem shylock doubtless sonic some of the ill feeling which has engendered thus is due to the misunderstanding and envy of our prosperity and progress during the years following the war ali and there have lave been men and women in america of the class which likes the ape all thing european who have followed this lead from across the seas and ll 11 have ve been disposed to criticize things which originate in america i er ica it might be in well ell to pause for a ament and reflect on just what sort of dollar chasers we are it is tru true that in america we have at plesent a prosperity which surpasses anything in the history of the world I 1 never beffie has the standard of living been so high anywhere as it is today in the united states but these conditions are not due to any grasping spirit but to the fact that we vc have evolved a new economic structure one based on the theory that a countey counti y is well off not when it can produce cheaply at the expense of its workers but when it can call produce cheaply by ci eating cheating and maintaining a great home market which is built up lip on the prosperity pio and buying power of its cwi own people thele is nothing of shylocks Shy locks nature in in this policy to go a little further according to the john price jones corporation of new york fund raising consultants the charitable gifts in the united states during the year 1928 amounted to this surpasses the gifts of the year previous which amounted to here are some figures worth meditating over for a moment more than two and a quarter billions in in a year for charitable purposes this doing pretty well for a nation of dollar chasers for a nation which our european brethren like to caricature as shylock the greatest amount of the contributions we are told went to religious denominations as in the past but large gifts were made to organized charity relief for educational purposes and for the advancement of health certainly even the most critical man will have little fault to find with this method of spending money certainly no other nation has ever equalled equal led this record in charitable giving and be it remembered that in the past when the occasion warranted the american people have not hesitate to open their purse strings and give to allievi ate the sufferings of unfortunate people in other lands as well as in america the socialist of course will decry this lavish giving away of funds and will declare that it should have been all divided up in the first place but the american deop people le will never agree with this theory they prefer to act on the established principal that the best sort of prosperity is built upon individual effort upon giving to each man the reward of his labor in in accordance cor dance with his own ability the effort he puts and the value of his service to liu humanity manity no ito theory which has as its cornerstone the giving to all alike regardless of their service to the community will exer eer do anything but sink all to the level of the lowest stratum of society we have lave a good example of this in communist russia today russia is only able to exist at all as an organized state through the fact that it is governed go veined by a band of autocrats who have compromised with their theories and adopted just enouf enough h of the working principles of their capitalist enemies to keep their heads above water after all it must be fairly said that the american people are a generous people this is not said in a boasting way but somebody ought to say it in contradiction of the anti american propaganda which is to be heard on every ever hand coming from the internationalists and pro euro in our own country that they are a generous people is prove proved d not only by the evidences we see on every hand of fine libraries magnificent I hospitals majestic parks and childrens playgrounds and of modem school houses and comfortable churches not only in the cities but in every cross roads hamlet in america these things did not just happen they grew through the generosity and open mindedness of the american people who are used to gi giving until it hurts burts and they were made possible because of the american system of government which has given a prosperity which seems to make all material things possible to us as a nation |