OCR Text |
Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. FINANCIAL SPREE AND A 'HANGOVER' PAUL T. BABSON. THE INTERPRETER INTER-PRETER and prophet of business and governmental trends, tells us: "We will have a system of socialized social-ized capitalism, in which business, labor and government will participate partici-pate . . . The government is in business today . . . An economic revolution is going on within our own borders, and it is a real revolution, revolu-tion, even though a bloodless one." If Babson is right and he probably prob-ably is it means we are seeing the end of the American system of free competition and are entering upon an era of state capitalism. The change comes, if it does, largely as a result of our speculative specu-lative spree of the late twenties, when most of us expected to get rich over night because of our marginal mar-ginal speculative stocks and the opportunity op-portunity offered either unwise or unscrupulous stock manipulators to pyramid financial structures with nothing but a public's gambling craze to support them. Rather simple legislation might have prevented it, or at least stopped it before it reached an alarming stage. For one thing, a raise in federal reserve rediscount rates to a point where the public could not borrow money with which to gamble would have stopped a large part of it all; or legislation such as our present security law would have prevented the foisting of worthless stocks on the public. But until we had burned our fingers, fin-gers, until our visions of wealth were dissipated, any such legislation would have been decidedly unpopular. unpopu-lar. We paid for that financial spree of the twenties with a long and severe se-vere depression. Now, according to Babson, we are again to pay for it with a loss of the system which has made us great and prosperous. We are to exchange it for a system which has wrecked European nations. na-tions. It is a heavy price to pay. CANNED BAKED BEANS , THEY TELL ME at the'grocery that there will be no more canned baked beans for the duration because be-cause of a shortage of tin for cans. In the happy vacation days following fol-lowing the trails of the Canadian northland, we had baked beans, but they did not come in a can. The baking was done by Joe Friday, a competent Ojibwa Indian. Joe was a master at baking beans. With a gallon bucket, on which was a tight-fitting lid, he would put in an inch of boiled beans, cover them with a layer of salt pork, then more beans and more pork, until the bucket was filled. A hole in the ground was his oven. He lined it with rocks and then filled it with pine needles for a roaring fire, until the rock and earth were well heated. When the fire had burned down to but a bed of coals, Joe would put lhat gallon of pork and beans into the hole, shovel over it the hot sand from the side of the fire, and the next morning we had pork and beans that were superior to any canned variety. The war may stop the canning of beans, but it will not stop the operation opera-tion of Joe Friday's method, and I am glad I remember how it was done. GOVERNMENT COST IN WAR EFFORT IF YOU HAVE a bank account or carry an insurance policy, you are helping indirectly to finance the war. Federal Reserve member banks purchased a total of $18,400,-000,000 $18,400,-000,000 of government paper within the past year, and now are carrying a total of $36,500,000,000 in loans to the government. That, of course, is done with the money of the banks' depositors and is the safest investment invest-ment the banks can make. It would better serve national stability if the bonds were purchased pur-chased by individuals, and for the individual, as for the banks, government govern-ment bonds are the safest investment invest-ment that can be made. Here are a few astronomical figures fig-ures on the financing of the government govern-ment and the war for the fiscal year of 1943. It is expected that government govern-ment expenditures will be something some-thing over 70 billion dollars. Of that amount, it is believed the public will buy bonds to the extent of from 12 to 15 billions: insurance companies will absorb about two billions; other institutions some three billions. The remainder must be met out of taxes or provided by the banks as additional loans to the government or saved by congress in cuts for non-war expenditures. Every dollar saved would help the American people peo-ple to carry the war load. IF CONGRESS would take a few days off and permit the members of the house and senate to go home and consult their constituents, it might find there are more votes to be made by economy measures than by heeding the urgings of the minority groups' lobbyists. IN 1903, automobile tires cost $17.50 for each 1,000 miles of driving. driv-ing. Thirty years later, in 1938. the cost of tires for each 1,000 miles of driving had been reduced to 64 cents. |