Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-09-28
THE AMERICAN DOLLAR
II is Capable Of Doing Great Good or
Proper Opportunity. =

II you have 1t, respect It; II you
haven't, reverence it. Libeled and
maligned, insulted and accused, hated
and dreaded, defed, scorned, and
stamped with the opprobrium Of the
world, it remains still the easur of
the man, still weights the scales that
appraise humanity's worth.
The dollar Is a dollar last Of all;
and first Of all it is that man, or that
number of men, or that fraction Of
a man, whom its dollars worth can
purchase. And not for this day only.
Within stray dollars, coined more than
a hundred years ago, held yet eve ac-
tive like the giant powers within a
grain Of radium, glows the daring Of
some sailor of Paul Jones Bon Homme
Richard, the craft Of some trapper in
the wilds beyond Fort Pitt, the enter
prise Of some cotton spinner Of New
England, the blood money Of a slave
in Mississippi, the pay Of a soldier in
the Civil war, the pension Of the widow
his death left helpless, the powder
that sank Cervera's squadron, the cor
sage which fashion places next to the
heart of the woman we adore. And 1t
can go on and On, rel creating anew
the strength that o mountains,
giving life to a people yet unborn.
A mar must die and rot. But the
dollar he leaves behind him Is not lost
to him. Fools may say in their hearts:
I'VE perish, and our riches with u.s."
But no false word has been spoken
which Is so false as that. In the hertz
age a man leaves behind him Is en-
bodied the sum and substance Of his
usefulness to his world-the safeguard
Of his wife, the stepping stones for his
children, the m concrete, permanent
asset he contributes to his species,
garnered and kept as his account in
the saving fund Of his energies. AS
he lives in his children, 80 he lives in
his hoard, for 1t Is that most useful
part Of him which survives, able to
play his role as a creator by virtue Of
the strength II contains.
The dollar, for all the shame 1t
bears, and for all the crimes imputed
to it, is so guiltless that it needs no
conformation. In itself, as the embodi-
ment of humanity's constructive forces
it Is sheer good. Man may curse 1t
in his uses; blood guilt stain it with
,i~e Pro~o aooo ocinoffnn 70 uyor Vet
the dollar Is never anything but the
mobile concentration Of humanity's
dynamite force; and it can be Of value
only while it is hurting its emanations,
radium-like, upon the one substance In
the universe that is amenable to Its
effects-humanity. Except for a baby,
a dollar is the most intimately human
thing man has produced since Adam
If we would behold this mighty dol
lar playing a Homers part in the Iliad
Of our times, we need only glance at
the German Hector in his chariot Of
war against the shrewd Ulysses from
beyond the sea, and recall the candid
boast Of Britain's treasurer: English
gold has decided other wars; and
English gold will decide this one"
For it Is English gold that drives the
ships and the guns which hold the
modern Troy besieged; English gold,
which, with outstretched arms reaches
into the four quarters Of the globe and
draws to England's stores the fruits
Of the toll of nations; English gold
the concentrated essence Of conquest,
military and mercantile, from the year
of the sinking Of the Armada-which
backs the living soldiers in the field
with the accumulated forces Of her
buried generations, who went before.
Or one may observe Belgium, ruin
ed and waste, saved from utter IN
Inhalation Of its people by that once
despised American dollar, given eager
ly in shiploads Of aid by the nation
that has almost been rebuked into be-
ing ashamed Of it.
What malign destiny Is 1t that
stands today between the American