Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-06-19
JUST MAKING TROUBLE.

JUST MAKING TROUBLE.
Bill Smith, who has nothing, meet
ing J. Steerus Bunks, who has less,
and whose scheme is ineffective, says:
Things look kinder punk" '"The do
says Steerus, them railroad guys Is
crimping the country because they
amt got everything their way They
two discuss the situation according
to their lights, and j. Steerus pres
emily goes forth and meets an &C.
quaintance, who has something, and
remarks that money is getting tight.
The fellow who really has something
intimates to a friend of his that the
railroads and the people who control
the money are commencing to pull
in their horns, and, by jinks, its time
for a fellow who has to look out for
himself to see that his plant is un-
disturbed Whereupon the last fellow
is disturbed and takes what money
he can get out of the bank and puts
it where it can do him no good. Then
trouble really starts, caused by the
last man in the chain. In the mean
time Bill Smith, who still has moth
ing and no prospect of getting any
thing, goes around meeting other
persons, who may have had hopes to
start, and poisoning them
Bill Smith is particularly active IN
these days. His pessimism is consti-
tutional and should be innocuous. He
probably thinks it is-and it is, so far
as he is concerned, he having nothing
to lose. 1t is up to the good sense
and the manhood of the country to
suppress Bill Smith.
These United States are enjoying a
condition of prosperity which the
world and the ages might be chanl.
lenged to parallel Everything mark
etable, from labor to bonds, COM
mands unheard of prices and there
are basic conditions which justify the
prices. The produced wealth of the
country from year to year is almost
incalculable and the country is pros
porous because of this enormous ad-
dition to the produced wealth and for
no other reason in economy or phil
osophy. When the economist is con-
fronted by conditions entirely new,
his sophisms fall by the wayside be-
cause his predicate is necessarily
wrong. The present unexampled pros
perity of the United States is not
due to the working out of any govern
mental or economic problem, but to
the fact that human energy is being
applied to the development of the
natural resources under conditions
that have never before obtained in
the wooing of nature. There has
been some slight disturbance of arti-
fetal economic conditions by reason
of the operations of governmental
regulations hitherto untried. 1t is now
being demonstrated that in the opera
ton of these regulations the coun-
try is getting rid of it's superfluous
gOld-which is a menace when not
actively employed These govern
mental regulations will necessarily ad.
just themselves, the earth will con-
tinue to yield its riches of grain and
minerals. There is a constantly in
creasing surplus population to con-
sumo the surplus products of the soil.
The continuance of substantial pros
perity is not a thing to be argued by
the economist-it is demonstrable
fact.
Nature is not going to reverse her.
self in this country. The earth will
continue to produce. We may go in
sane in the matter of automobiles
and disturb the cash balances in some
centers, and we may do some other
foolish things. But the processes of
are going on all the time.
The railroads may. and probably will,
crouch, but no railroad ever yet bit
Oh it's dividends to spite the face of
the law if 1t doesn't like it. They'll
come to.
In the meantime the country is all
right. Gods in his heaven: alrs
right with the world" The cheerful
optimism of that phrase is of direct
in these days. Just put
an air-extinguisher on Bill Smith,
trouble maker, and forget him.