Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-07-21
THE WAR-DEvASTATED NICKEL
is RECoNSTRUCTlNG ITSELF
Trend Toward Normaiity Is Restoring
II From the Outer Darkness to Its
Old Place in Good Society


CW1FTLY, Systematically, the work Of
~ reconstruction goes forward in France.
In Belgium almost all the visible scars Of
the war have disappeared. The Germans
have found that groans will not build the
commercial empires and principalities Of
their continuing dreams. So they have gone
to work. Everybody on the other side Is
feeling better.
Here we proceed more slowly. But ono
bright symptom is visible in the confusion
of American affairs. The war blasted nickel
Is becoming more like its old self. 1t Is
recovering something of the energy and mag
netism that once made 1t the favorite coin
of this land.
No one talks OF reconstruction In the
United States. No one set out to recon-
struct the nickel. The nickel is reconstruct
ing itself. 1t is coming back unaided from
under the ruin Of the last five years, limping
little. but obviously convalescent after the
wounds of war.
prodigal country cast il out threw II
to the dogs disowned it. subjected 1t to de-
rision! Now the same country after the
enlightenment that comes to all prodigals,
is warmly and somewhat remorsefully well
coming the nickel back to its old place in
the scheme Of things as any other battered
casual might be welcomed from the land Of
the lost.
Old time, never can be made new again.
II is doubtful whether a FIVE cent piece will
soon be the power that It was in the days
when II bought an endurable cigar, a fair
sort Of sandwich, a long trolley ride in the
cool Of the evening, a glass of lemonade, II
seat in a movie or any one Of hundred
other useful or pleasant things. But It is
having what the doctors call a quick re-
covery.
In New York. after storms Of talk and
propaganda for eight or ten cent carfares,
the nickel seems to be permanently estab-
lished as the standard fare. In Boston you
can now get a ive-cent shine. The price
fell yesterday. Two nIckels expended in
upper New York will now buy a glass Of
the ice cream soda for which many fearless
druggists still demand four or FIVE. The
slump may involve all Of Harlem. Brush
boys in barber shops reveal a willingness tt
again extend recognition to the nickel after
a long period Of severed diplomatic rela
tions. They will accept it now as tip.
The fve-cent slab of pie is said to be n
possibility Of the near future.
There are many Eminent Persons who
still hope TO sec the nickel and al that it
stands for permanently banshed-conl gen.
temen and trolley magnates and some res
taurant keepers and such like folk who do
not yet appear to know that the war is over.
OF course, they will not prevail.
The returning nickel is symbol of an
Irresistible Force. 1t spells evolution.
In the restaurants where the two nickel
sandwich of other days Is still on sale at
fifty cents the boss will tell you that bust
ness is bad. Business will continue to be
bad for every one who doesn't realize that
the dollar sandwich and the forty cent
lemonade were phenomena of war, like
hymns of hate and the twenty dollar silk
shirt of the proletarinn. and that they cam
not survive in the atmosphere OF peace and
normality.
The renaissance OF the nickel. oddly
enough, appears TO be due very largely to
the faith and the instructive sanity of the
country's children. In the mind Of every
small boy and small girl the nickel remains
a fixed familiar and trusted quantity. n
thing cherished and believed in like the
family dog or the family cat.
Children are the only ones who made any
perceptible effort to restore the integrity of
the small coins. They paraded in New
York. They paraded in Boston. And they
brought back the tive-c icecr cone
and the two jitney soda water. Small
boys who know normalcy when they see it
invaded downtown Boston In war on tn.
bootblack syndicates, and To- the fve- cent
shine returned to the world.
These are good omens of broad meaning
With a reconstructed nickel there will be-
of course, reconstructed dollar. Who
knows that men. if they pnrnded and demon
strated might not get the good five cent
cigar which Vice President Marshall used
to call the great need of the country A
great need of the country Is the nickel troll
ley ride. That. too. may come.
The people who believe that they can
continue to snub the nickel into oblivion
arc to a very large extent responsible for
what is called depression in business 1t
isn't possible to prohteer successfully now
The country cannot stand 1t. The easy
money IS not available.
The reviving nickel and all the changes
that it implies will have to be accepted by
every one. When the coal bnrons and the
trolley magnntes and the railroad companies
and the labor leaders are ready to admit
this. business will revive quickly enough
and everybody will be happier--and safer.