The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-10-04
What's the Matter With Us,
Anyway?
By VIM. c. REDFIELD
Former Secretary Of commerc

all object courteously to the form of
the question itself. It is not ''us''-
It Is everybody all over the world.
One OF the first things to do il we
are to think clearly is to get the
usness'' out Of the question.
Changed into the form-What is the
matter with the world? it becomes
simpler, for almost everybody knows
what is the matter with the world.
Not so very long ago the world
took something like forty million men
In the prime of life away from pro-
ductive labor and set them at the hor-
rible job of destruction and of con-
sumption. Incidentally it killed about
ten million Of them and manned as
many more.
So we, that is, the world, lost the
proceeds Of the labor of forty million
active young men for four years, and
had our property. that is, the worlds
property, diminish during that time
by what these forty million destroyed
and by the further amount which they
& consumed over and above what they
would have consumed in peace.
/ Thus stated, any one can see there
must be a reaction. This is it. We
are now in the cold gray dawn of
the morning after and there is
nothing altogether strange in the fact
that the dawn is both cold and gray.
The Headache"
Stated differently, the matter with
the world, that is, with US as part
/ of the world. is that we went on d
military debauch and this IS the head
ache of the next day.
Pretty much all of us are in debt
to pretty much everybody else Only
few Of US have realized the fact
that the one way out Is a very old
fashioned route, a somewhat thorny
path. 1t Is the path called work
and Save" Produce as much as pos
sible; spend as little as possible.
That's the remedy, and whatever else
may be done by Congress or by kings.
this working and saving, this produc-
ing and absence of spending, is the
one thing that will restore the bal
ance.
In some respects the balance is fair
| ~ well restored, but every retailer
who insists upon a fancy price be-
cause he thinks he can get 1t, is hold
ing back the day of restored balance,
and every workingman who thinks he
can earn a war wage in peace times
is also doing his part to hold back
the time when the balance is re-
stored. Until that time comes there
can be no large prosperity.
Meanwhile it is just as well not to
be scaled by figures. 1t sounds both
sad and serious to say that six million
men, whereabouts are unemployed, but
this statement is subject to serious
deductions. IN the first place, in a
country as large as this, authorities
say there are always million un-|
employed. These are the floaters and
those who, for many reasons, some
good and some not so good, are tenn
porarily out of work
Unfair Comparison.
In the next place the comparison
is with time of flush, even excess
sive employment, instead of with q
normal prosperous time, and a good
many of those who were at this flush
period employed have gone back to
the other duties. they followed before.
In the third place. the figures of IN
employment mean that the persons
Included in those figures are not en-
ployed at their usual tasks, but 1t is
false assumption to assume that
they are I'll idle No one knows what
they are doing. but it Is certain that
some are working at tasks outside of
their usual vocations.
One such cultivates a vacant lot to
support his family by selling vege-
tables; another works on a highway:
others follow any task that turns up |
because they are ready to turn their
hand to any honest effort rather than
be idle.
There is, therefore. a large deduc-
ton to be made when we talk about
the unemployment figures. Neverthe- |
less. it is visibly true THAI an unusual
number are out Of work and win be
50 until the various factors in the il
community which are out of balance |
with one another are restored to a.
due measure of balance.
This restoration of balance is q slow
process, but it appears in items printed /
every day. Here a reduction of price:
there an acceptance of a reduced /
wage; here a price which, having
reached the bottom, is steady or be-
gins slightly to rise: there are rail-
ways operating at a diminished main
tenance cost. These and thousands
of other items like them are the signs
by which one can read that the process
of balancing is going on. When it is
complete we shall take long breath
and start in on what promises to be
an unusual period of prosperity.