OCR Text |
Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. WHAT 'ECONOMIC CIRCLE' MEANS TO AMERICA THE FARMER wants and Insists upon more for his crops. He wants higher prices for his wheat, corn, cotton, fruits, hogs, cattle and everything ev-erything he produces. When he gets the more he asks for, who pays? The consumer. The worker demands higher wages and less hours of work. When his demands are met and his wages increased, in-creased, who pays? The consumer. Because of higher material costs and higher wages the processor ol farm products increases his price for flour, bread, beefsteaks, bacon and other things. Who pays the increased in-creased prices? The consumer. Because of higher wages In his own plant and a higher cost of steel, wood, cotton, wool and other materials materi-als he must have caused by higher wages in the production of these materials, the manufacturer marks up the price of his product. Who pays for that increase? The consumer. con-sumer. The merchant pays more for the commodities he sells. He pays more rent, more wages to his clerks, renders more service at the demands de-mands of his customers. Like the farmer, the worker, the processor, the manufacturer, his taxes are higher. Who pays for the higher mark ups on his merchandise? The consumer. Yes, the consumer pays all the bill, all along the line, but who is the consumer? He is the farmer, the worker, the processor, manufacturer manufac-turer and merchant. He is each and everyone of us. We are paying for what we get. It is but a circle, though not a vicious circle, as some would have us believe. There are some attempt- ed abuses, some attempts to get some advantage without paying. They seldom, if ever, work, or at least not for long. It is all but a part of what we term the American way of life. Through its operations America has attained the highest living standards ever known in the history of the world. It has meant better homes, automobiles, radios, electric utensils, telephones and other oth-er things hardly known by the common com-mon people of other lands. It means opportunity for those with ability, energy, ambition. It is the privilege of a free people to advance, a privilege privi-lege they could not enjoy under any system of state socialism. , GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES l AND POLITICS THROUGHOUT OUR HISTORY as a nation we have had emergencies that have called for national action. In the past such needed action has , been initiated at Washington and passed on to the states to be handled han-dled by the state and local governments. govern-ments. In the majority of cases that system sys-tem has been followed in the present pres-ent war emergency when it meant unpaid jobs. Civilian defense is one of the examples. Civilian defense officials were unpaid and were named by authority of the governor of a state or through him by the mayor of a town or city. In bureaus calling for paid employees em-ployees they have been named and paid from Washington. They have no allegiance or responsibility to the states. It is such jobs that constitute consti-tute the larger portions of the hundreds hun-dreds of thousands of federal civilian civil-ian employees now distributed throughout all states. As a sample, 288,000 such employees are in New York state, 235,000 in California, and every state has a proportionate number. num-ber. What may be the political significance, sig-nificance, if any, in this change in methods? JOB HOLDERS IN A DEMOCRACY THE GOVERNMENT of the Republic Re-public is builded upon a free election elec-tion system, the right of each qualified quali-fied voter to vote for the men and measures he believes best for the nation. Neither the Democratic nor Republican party, as such, would approve or countenance anything that could be considered a menace to our free, election system. What can three mill-'n federal civilian employees, em-ployees, scattered throughout the states, do to that free election system? sys-tem? Quite naturally they, theii relatives and friends, could be expected ex-pected to vote for those who provided pro-vided the jobs. That is a partisan advantage of patronage. The three million job holders can be expected i to produce 12 million or more votes for the job providers. Twelve mil- lion votes is approximately one-third of the total that will be cast in 3 : national election. ... "You must," said a voice over the radio; "you must," the voice repeated; re-peated; "you must," the voice de. manded. Three "musts" in one brief half minute statement made by a Washington bureaucrat to free-born free-born Americans. He was not telling us to obey a law but to heed a bureaucratic edict. Three "wll, you's" would have been more appreciated appre-ciated and more effective. The free American does not like "must." ... WHAT YOU DO TODAY you will not have to do tomorrow. |