Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1919-09-25
. We're All Guilty..

doggone one of us will take the
last red cent? Of profit the trade
| will stand for. If an article cost
% cents to produce and it can be
sold for a dollsr, there is not a
mothers son of us that would
not take the dollar. Suppose any
commodity now selling on the
market for 25 cents pound, or
by any given measure, should on
account of it's scarcity or on ac.
count of speculation or for any
other reason 60 to a dollar, how
many would refuse that dollar,
although at the price of % cents
there was 100 per cent profit?
Why you could count on one fin
ger every one who would refuse
to take the dollar and then have
one left over. Yes, we all want
all the profit we can get and then
some. The only reason we do
not get more for anything that
we have to sell is that the 9th
er fellow who has a like commod-
ity to offer will not let us. Mon
roe Enquirer.
While the foregoing is a trihe
extreme, possibly, we all know
that is substantially correct. The
most common failing in the world
probably the one failing that is
responsible for more evil results
than any other, is. selfshness-
greed. We can all talk glibly
about the other fellow; from our
viewpoint the fellow who exacts
a stiff profit from us is a great
scoundrel, and yetthe people who
are not guilty of some similar
wrong are few-not so few as
Bro. Ashcraft seems to think,
for there are more strictly hon
est and unselfish people than We
imagine. But the other crowd
is so much in the majority that
> it's conduct stands out and over
. shadows. The trouble is thai
seltishness is so inbred that We
can see clearly the mote in the
eye of the other, the beam in Oul
own obscuring our vision only
when it is turned on ourselves
1t is amusing and tragic as well
to hear folks talk by the hOu1
land we're all guilty here) abou
the failings of their neighbors
the shortcomings of society, etc.
when each and all of them ar,
- equally guilty in some respect
- But of this they seem blissfull,
!, unconscious.
But to get back to the first pre-
-. position: All this does not excus
- anybody exacting an unreasona
:, BILE profit, and especially in thi
-, time of stress. Exacting an ur
- reasonable profit now, .bccaus
:, conditions enable one to do tina
Is and get away with it, is a create
=, wrong, morally, than it would +
-, in normal times, for even a legi'
,o innate profits makes prices a bul
Il den. 1t is no use to say the pee
,s pie are willing to pay it. Robin
40 man when he is unconsti>l s s
|; greater wrong, morally, than
10 hold him up after the manner {
, the highwayman. The most con
49, mon excuse, as it is the mo!
q common for all evil practices,
h to say that Others do it and
,s might as we'll get my share
That is no excuse at ali, for th'
i, sort of logic would Justify t h
"a commission of any crime.
vo But one great wrongin come
=, ton with the talk of profiteerir
:. is to make reckless charges. z
N, cause high prices are charge
~, does not of itself mean protiitee
a ing, but the average man will .
it, ahead and glibly charge the de-
or, er with making enormous prof
10 when he has no definite or pre-
- tical knowledge of the cost to t
now dealer. Some figures appeared
The Landmark recently, leavi
no the impression that the en-,