Daily Kennebec journal., 1914-02-16
Currency Law and Human Leaninss.

CURRENCY Law and Human Leanings.
An enthusiastic Democrat who has
| been cramming his noddle with too
much of the fallacy put out for politi-
cal effect in bolstering the administra-
ton, assails ye editor with blast of
| unwisdom that would choke a Hoosier
stump paralyzer. He sees in the new
currency law a panacea for all ills, a.
law that will bridge all financial and
| industrial chasms automatically. But
| he has been reading only one side of
the question and from writer's who
eleverly gloss the weak places without
putting up thin ice" signs. He has
thus missed important suggestions
| that may give food for serious
Thought. 1t seems rather cruel after
all to jar happy mans confidence
| in his own religion but, resigned to our
duty and assuring our misled friend
that it hurts us more than it does
him, we would say:
| Initiation sprees have always proved
disastrous. Too much satisfaction in
automatic law and over confidence in
reckless promises have always result
ed in economic tragedy. "A fool and
his money are soon parted and it is
human tendency to hunt opportun-
ity to make fool blunders. Financial
panics are always the outcome of un-
kept promises. Usually reckless
money promises are based on reckless
confidence in wildcat political prom
ises No flexible" currency system
could fend off the abnormal extrav
agance of a populace suffering from
over confidence. If the reckless
promises of the American people to
date should be repudiated. panic"
would follow today as it always has
done.
We have hope that the new law will
prove beneficial. We cannot endorse
it as perfect, but we hope it is an i'm
provement 1t has been heralded by
its friends as a marvel for two rea-
sons-that it will be easier for every
man to get money and that it will
prevent panics. Like the medicine for
| lowering the temperature of high liv
ing, we fear the patient will be a long
time in feeIiufr tho ipoproyerepf Pyt
we would not, in this case, consider
sudden flood of easy money as an
unmixed blessing. Easy come; easy
go''; the dumping of real property for
a medium of exchange means that the
trick almost invariably turns against
the chap with pocket full of prom
| ises. Currency is easily spent or
badly invested. Many would be Nor
gans cost themselves the earnings of
half lifetime to find out that they are
only plow-joggers after all.
Under easy money thousands are
led into reckless exchanges, and thou
sands realize on their long nourished
self-pity and discontent-and end their
days in want. Providence has looked
after the earthly comfort of millions
by making 1t hard for them to carry
out their inclinations. Some folks are
good for lack of opportunity to be bad,
| and some people pass their declining
years in comfort because they had
found no easy ready-made plan for
fooIing away their accumulations. The
easy plan for turning property into
currency always has been, and always
will be, bad one for the common peo-
pie.
We believe in a bank and loan ar
rangement that will furnish money for
the farmer to improve his acres at as
low rate as the city business man
realizes in carrying on his business,
but we are not "all carried away" with
the product of the last extraordinary
session of Congress.
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