Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-04-21
HOW DOES 1T :.
STRIKE YOU?

uERE'S a cheerful item: .
IL The world did not produce enough
gold last year to supply industry and
the arts.
1t will probably produce less this
year.
Why is this good news?
II is good news If economists are
right. for they say that it is the cXres-
sve production of gold which started
prices up, long before the war began.
and that n reduction in the gold supply
will gradually bring prices down.
They point to periods in the past. OF
rising prices when much gold was be-
ing taken out Of the earth and OF fall
ing prices when there was slow up lr
gold production.
Let us hope.
q q q
TIME II. G. l.. has hit the gold pro-
i duccr hard.
He can only exchange his product for
other products. and when wheat. pota e
toes. meat and wool arc high he can not
get much for his gold.
They are now more than twice as
high as they were before the war began
Therefore, gold is worth less than
half what it was few years ago.
Therefore it does not now pay TO take
out the most precious metal there j.
| in the earth.
That is one Of the odd results of the
economic upset that has taken place.
| It no longer pays to dig gold
Good thing it does not, too, IT the
economists are right.
The gold that is produced now Is
mostly produced as by-product in the
smelling Of other minerals.
q q q
WILL stopping gold mining puI
w down prices?
That is yet to be seen.
There is n more fundamental cause
Of high prices. than an excess OF
money or excess Of credit or the waste
of war.
And that is the failure of society t.
| improvc its means Of production as tas'
as il has raised its standard of living,
q q q
A NEW YORK paper points cheer
! n fully to the ovcralls movement a
a sign that We are going TO lower oul
standard Of living.
II breaches n homiIy on the old tcXt
'Man wants but little here below.
A pair Of oycralls and happiness.
Do without and do it yourself. say
the writer. who does not intend to d'
without or do it himself.
Theoretically. he is persuaded OF tn
lows Of the simple life.
ButNthe ovcralls movement does no
mean return to the simple life.
Nobody expects TO remain p"rma
ncntly in Ovcralls.
The overaIls movement is half jos
and half advertising.
People still don't half believe in tn
High Cost Of Living.
Tomorrow they say it will be thin
, Of the past
They haven't changed their idnaI
merely because prices are high.
We have been srhoolrd too long i
the belief that among the best thing
civilization has brought are increase
physical comforts. good clothes. war;
houses, automobiles, food brought frol
, the ends of the earth.
Simplirity-doing without and doin
it oursclvcs--is the thing we have bee
steadily putting behind us. as a part {
the not very desirable past.
We cannot change our ideals all q
once and believe that happiness is over
alls. We may persuade ourselves tina
putting on ovprals Is a good joke o
old II. G. l..
! But down in our hearts we beliey
that we will conquer old ii. G. l..
1t is part Of our optimistic faith.
And probably we shall, unless iii
plays us trick this time. in which cas-
! we are at the end of civilization base
I, upon mans steadily increasing domin
/, ion over the forces of nature.
g q y q
= DITr tbero are a lnt or forces
ID nature still unconquered.
And a lot of forces Of nature very i'm
Z perfectly conquered.
, There is the power that is in Il
= stars rays, the power in the waves
the sea. the power that is In the wind
We have learned to explode out
coal the power that is in it, but thel
is vastly great power IN all other form
Of matter, like the power which OK
plodes of itself out Of radium. v
haven't learned to get at that. WI
not wear overalls and laugh.
t q q q
, TAKE coal.
l. We get in electricity only one tent
the power Of coal.
. A large margin of failure.
v A scientist at recent meeting ar
nounced that he had way OF gettir
more heat and thus more power out
fuel. .r. ,. ..~
? Pulvrrizing coal or converting il
i oil, perhaps.
A dozen men are working in that d
Il IA