Philip weekly review. [volume] (Philip, Stanley County, S.D.) 1907-1912, 1908-09-25
That Return Of Prosperity"


For months the newspapers have
been much taken up with certain dis
cussions whose object 1t was to prove
either that prosperity had or had not
come back to US, after the money
scare Of last fall. These discussions
serve very well o~fill space and they
make fare reading matter during a
political campaign, but they cannot
change facts. There Is just one way
to look at this prosperity matter, pro-
vided you have no partisan interest
in boosting either one side
or the other. Namely, prosperity
comes and goes In waves; this much
is certain, for it has been proved by
tho experience OF ages but how long
these waves are to be, not the wisest
economist in the world has ever been
able to determine. We know that
the pendulum swings first one way
and then another, but we do not
know the laws which govern It's
vibrations; or rather, 50 many human
idiosyncrasies effect these vibrations
that they cannot be reduced to a
certainty-at least not TIL socialism
or some other agency takes hold of
human nature and stereotypes 1t.
But we do know that, prosperity
cannot continue forever; the pendu-
lum cannot swing always In the
same direction. While it is moving
one way the immutable laws Of
economic gravitation are already
operating on 1t to bring II back, and
eventually 1t must come back. Pros
perity is expansion Of business
activity; 1t means that people are
buying more, consuming more than
in times Of depression. The increased
demand tends to raise all prices, In
cluding wages, and ''every thing is
lovely and the goose hangs high.
Everyone begins to buy what he
wants more literally, paying the
raising prices and thus himself help
ing to raise prices still more. One
man sees his neighbor spending his
money right and left, and he falls In
to the temptation to spend freely him
self. No one can resist the impetus
OF the boom and the tendency is con-
stantly to 60 in little too deep. One
man buys home, at q large price,
paying little down and promising
to pay the rest out of his future saw
ings. Another takes an automobile
on the installment plan. Another
perhaps spends his income on fine
clothes and riotous living, never lay.
Ing up cent for rainy day but
anticipating his income and borrow
ing all he can borrow, and never for
moment thinking that the prosper
ity will not last.
But at length comes the day OF
reckoning. Someone defaults on
certain payment, and he starts the
liquidation. The movement is COM
municated from one man to the next
until 1t covers the whole country.
just as row OF bricks will all 90
down When you tip the first one over.
Those who have been living extrava-
gantly will suffer the most, for they
are the ones who work their credit
to limit. Then the man who has
"bitten of more than he can chew"
has to sacrifice part or all of his
holdings, and all those who have been
spending more than they should, must
retrench. People who have been
buying porterhouse steak must come
down to round and so on all along the
line.
The result Of this is lessening of
demands for all products, the shut
ting down Of factories, reduction of
wages, etc. There is another way.
When once . community has exceeded
. certain limit In spending it has to
submit to general squaring OF .ac-
counts. Those that have bankrupted
themselves must 60 to the wall and
start over. There must be an entire
readjustment Of economic relations
among the people. The pendulum.
must swing back. II we could all be
trusted never to be extravagant,
then prosperity might continue for
ever. But we are human and, being
human, prosperity demoralizes us;
and 80 we have to pay the penalty
from time to time, like the boy who
INDUCES to freely In watermelons. -
Dat fhHudop