The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-10-09

ing prices are we'll illustrated in two
recent sharply contrasted periods:
from 1873 to 1895 and from 1896 to
the present.
During the tirst period the farmer
and active business man were COM
planning that they could make little
or no profits. but that the "bloated
bondholder" was coming to own the
earth, while the wage-earner was
waxing fat and comfortable.
Now lin the second period) moth
ing Is heard of "bloated bondhold-
ers." Instead we are complaining Of
the profit makers and, to indicate
the complaint, q new word has been
invented,-the 'profiteer".
A new labor problem has come
into being as the response Of the
wage-earner to the high cost Of
living. The war. so far, has greatly
intensified these evils and there is
every prospect that 1t will intensity
them very much more.
So far as we subscribe to our war
loans out of money borrowed at the
bank, that is out of an increase Of
deposit currency, and not out Of real
savings, We are. as has been said'
merely adding to imitation. raising
the cost Of living and making the
they be not nominally taxed. Paper
money has been we'll called forced
loan," and deposit imitation amou1ts
to the same thing.
We have all become. against our
will, SPECTATORS in golds and al
though in every gamble. some one
is bound to win, the net effect, as in
all gambling. is a distinct loss 20
the community. Price movements,
whether downward or upward, pro-
duce subtle but great and unjust
shift Of wealth from one class to
another.
Some Examples.
An example or two will help us
understand the injustice. Consider
a servant girl who put a hundred
dollars in the savings bank in 1896.
Today is she has allowed 1t to ac-
cumulate at 81 per cent interest
she has two hundred dollars. But
when she tries to spend her two
hundred dollars, she finds that
everything costs double what it did
in 1896. Thus, she gets for her en-
tire two hundred dollars today only
as much as she could have bought
for one hundred, dollars at the be-
ginning. Where is her interest? She
has been without the intention of
anybody cheated out of her inter-
est, through the depreciation of the
dollar in terms Of which her saw
ings bank account has been kept!
The bond holder reaches a similar
result If he has been living on his
interest the purchasing power Of his
principal has been decreasing so
that he has really been living on
capital. To keep his capital unim-
paired he would have had TO re-
invest all his INTEREST,"
1t is very cold comfort to the
bondholder, the savings bank de-
position, the salaried maan, the
wage Garner and the other losers to
assure them that the average man
has not lost: that some classes have
gained at the expense of his class
or that. once upon q time. namely
between 1873 and 1895 his father
and grandfather and others Of his
own class were the gamers.
IL will do. no good, Of course, to
rail at the lucky winners In the lot
terry. The fault Is not theirs. While
they have, Ia sense, picked their
neighbors' pockets neither they nor
their victims understand the fact.
Discomfort.
Nevertheless the, great ignorant
downtroddea mass OF people, not
being able 10 understand how any
impersonaI cause could be injuring
them and helping others, are grow
ing daily more suspicious and nurs-
ing a grudge against the world.
Hence we End secondary evils
sprinRing from this discomfort, --in-
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