The National tribune., 1910-07-14
WIDESPREAD BENEFIT OF PEN
sion MONEY.

SION MONfSIs
The New York financial papers have
had very interesting STORY Of the va
hiied journeyings and the amount Of
n work done by one small check for
H Sa6.29 given by lumber company in
Y nsrthern New York. When it was
\ tfsally presented for payment it was
feand by some Is Endorsements upon i
nssat it had travelled from the country
Sank to New York, Brooklyn, Boston
asad other cities, some of them more
than once, and had paid in the course
! Of its travels several hundred dollars
amount of Indebtedness. What was
true of this small check is true in a
much greater degree of the money paid
out by the pension agents. No 9TH
sr payments by the Government ap-
pr6ach these in the amount of good
done in every part Of the country.
| They become the very life blood Of the
business system. They equalize the
amount of ready money in every COM
mupity; they prevent stagnation and
| they help everyone, whether he is do
ing business or not. whether he has the
.sIishtest connection with any veteran
Let us illustrate: Comrade Wilson,
i let us say, lives in some remote town
In Kansas, Nebraska or the Dakotas.
II is small place, depending mainly
on agriculture, and the money that
comes in is generally in rather large
amounts twice a year when the crops
are moved. When this money comes
In. # is generally absorbed at once by
tho stores and banks. which have ac-
counts due from the farmers, and pos
sibiy very little of it is seen by the peo-
pie In general. There is dearth of
ready money in the hands of the peo-
pie during the greater part of the year.
Comrade Brown, who is past the earn
ing period of life, has to depend upon
his S12 a month to meet the various
little bills which he incurs for the
check for $50. This money is not hoard
ed up; it is not stagnated. Comrade
Brown puts every cent of it in circula-
ton at once. He pays this man So for
chickens or meat which he has bought
from him, and the receiver at once
turns around and pays a little debt
that he owed another man, who repeats
The operation indefinitely. Brown gives
the grocery keeper $40 to meet the bill
which he has run up, and the grocery
keeper distributes the money to the
farmers and their wives who come in
with produce They Immediately use
the money to. pay off their little debts.
Comrade Brown pays his doctor $40 for
services, and the doctor proceeds to
IL goes on with every dollar of the Sc
until it has been distributed among the
people of the community and is being
used by them to pay off other debts.
Within few weeks that S36 has pos
sibly paid off 81, 900 or more of indebt-
edness; it has gone from hand to hand,
giving everybody a sight of real money,
and it has apparently increased the ac-
feasibility of money to the people 20
times times its actual face value.
If we multiply Comrade Brown by
more than 100000 pensioners on the
roll who are scattered in all the viii
lagos, hamlets and crossroads of the
country, we shall see at once the Won
derfully beneficent effect of this period
ical distribution to the entire people.
1t does not come like the rush of a
torrent OF which few people can take
advantage, but it spreads all over the
land like the life-giving rain. Every
body is benefited. The man who has
little love, for the veterans, who hates |
the memories of the war, who
thinks that pensions are a burden on
the country, gets himself just as much |
benefit out of it as the most ardent
patriot. The veteran himself gets far
less good out of his little stipend than
his neighbors, among whom it is dis
tributed and to whom it comes as q
fuickening impulse to business, a relax
alton of a stringency of money and a |
quickening of the life blood of all trade
transactions. Nothing has been so
powerful in mitigating and preventing
hard times as this quarterly distribu-
ton of great sums of money to every
part of the country. 1t has certainly
ayerted several crises; it has constantly
equalized the money movement; it has
prevented spectators from hardening
the money market to their own profit,
and it has constantly been the most
effective regulator of the financial sys-
tenn.