Little Falls weekly transcript., 1894-10-05

SION 70 what conceive to be the most mn
portant truth in finance.
" hen was boy I saw at circus the
following incident: About 90 Of the en-
ployes OF the circus ranged themselves in
circle facing inward Each one in sue
cession, beginning with one whom we
shall call "A, - said to the man at his left,
I owe you 81, which I shall pay just as
soon as am able to-" Then A, reaching
his hand into his pocket, drew forth a
silver dollar. Turning to the man at
his left he said, Il owe you 50;
have only one today, but shall pay you
that on account" And thus each man
passed on the dollar to the man at his left
In q few minutes the dollar got back into
the hands of "a" Turning to the man at
his left he said, II did not expect to be
able to pay you that other dollar so soon,
but here it is" And with language some
what similar each man passed the dollar
on to the one at his left until in few min
utes it returned to "a" With an express
sion of pleased surprise he put it into his
pocket.
To the little boy who looked as did
then that incident, though striking and
not to be forgotten, was simply the funny
work" of circus clowns. To the man older
grown it is an illustration of one of the
profoundest truths of finance, namely.
that under proper conditions each dollar
that we may have can do every day the
work of untold number of dollars. In the
incident related, the dollar passed twice
around the circle thus performing the
work of $40, and returned to it's original
owner with the full power to do the work
over again any number of times. This
same incident had taken place on preced-
ing days in other towns, and was repeated
every day for months, and could be for
years. What is the lesson to be learned
from that simple incident? It is this:
Under right conditions the working power
OF dollar is beyond computation
Now what were the conditions? Why
did each man so promptly pass the dollar
on to his neighbor? The answer is. because
each man felt good. What does that
mean? 1t means, in the first place, that
each man felt honest. Each man realized
that the only proper thing for him to do
when he had dollar in his pocket that
belonged to his neighbor, was to pass it on
to that nelghbOr. 1t means, in the second
place, that each man felt confidence in his
fellow man. Each felt sure that his neigh
Dor was going to deal squarely by him.
And now, what is the lesson for us to-
day? 1t is this, the quality of our dollars
is immensely more important than the
quantity of our dollars We should deter
mine to have dollars so good that man
may take them without hesitation. know
ing that whether he keeps them an hour
month. year, or any number of years
they will readily pass current whenever he
desires to use them. In the second place.
the incident shows the Importance of pre-
serving to each man, faith in his fellow
man, faith we'll founded in business
honor.
We all desire to have the largest volume
of circulation that is consistent with abso-
lutte safety; but we are unwilling to take
the risk of adding to the volume any num-
Der OF dollars which would destroy the
great working power of the dollars which
we possess.
And now to make the application. Is it
not perfectly clear the man or the Darty
that propose to debase our currency, from
whose lips come continually ur kind
words about men living or dead, high or
low, words which undermine our conf
dence in our fellow man, is it not per-
fectly plain that such men or such a.
party, If lntrusted with power would not
only contract the volume of currency that
we have, but would paralyze the working
power OF each dollar that remained? Is it
not true that such men and such party
are not only morally wrong but also finan-
cially unwise? Would it not be acalamitv
Tor such party to have even prospect of
controlling our national affairs?