Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1910-09-14
LIVING ON CAPITAL.
Some Practical Advice to the Young
Man Who Has Legacy Left
Him,

Wallace Farmer: When a young
man who has received a legacy lives
on it without turning it to some
proper use by which it will repro
duce ITSELF he will sooner or later
come to the end of his tether. That
money must make money, or else
if he has to live off of it, he will
become a poor man. Nobody who
ever expects to get on in the world,
or to be any good to himself or to
anybody else, expects to live on his
capital. He aims to live on his in
come or part of it and add the rest
to his capital. This statement is SO
simple and obvious, so self-evident,
that there is no need for argument.
The main capital of the farmer
is the fertility of the soil. 1t is not
SO easy to state all the elements
that enter into this fertility. We
usually talk of three essential ele-
ments: the potash, the phosphorus
and the nitrogen, none of which are
to be found in the soil uncombined
with. other elements of which the
soil consists. Then again, the phys
zeal conditions of the SOIL; the size
OF the soil grains, the amount of
vegetable matter it contains. the
subsoil, the climatic temperature
and rainfall; all these enter largely
into what we term the fertility of
the soil.
The point we make is that when
ever man allows the fertility of
his soil, no matter in what it may
consist, to decline, he is not living
on his income, but using up his
capital; and If he continues to do
so, he must in time become a poor
man. A limited use of this capital
for temporary support, or for in
vestments that VIII ultimately in
crease it, is permissible, for pre-
cisely the same reason that the
young man aforesaid could well af-
ford to invest part of his capital in
a practical education either as a
farmer or business man. This in
vestment, however, must be made
with the ultimate view of increas-
ing the capital, if possible, beyond
the requirements of the individual
for subsistence.
For example, the farmer who
bought and paid for quarter sec
ton of virgin prairie land can well
afford to utilize the virgin fertility
of the soil for the purpose of putting
up improvements which would in
the end enable him to make the
farm more productive home,
stables, fences, live stock--but this
being done, no further use of this
capital is permissible.
The majority of farmers have not
followed this wise course and have
been living off their capital. The
advance in the price of land, due
10 conditions entirely outside of
themselves, has blinded many men
TO the fact that they have been liv-
ing off their capital instead of their
income. Land that once produced
twenty-five bushels of spring wheat
now produces fifteen. This is the
measure of the proportion in which
their capital has been exhausted.
The fact that by reason of the in
crease of population in the United
States, and perhaps the deprecia-
lion of the dollar and numerous
other things, they are able to sell
their partially WORKOUT land for
more dollars by far than it was
worth even in it's virgin state, blinds
them to the fact that they are
really living on their capital instead
of their income.
No matter what the price of the
and Isay be, whether high or low,
he man whose lands are losing fer
tility is not really a farmer but
miner. He is living off the income.
II he sells, he pockets the unearn-
ed increment, with the making Of
which he had nothing to do. He is
simply miner, waster of the
most valuable asset that belongs to