The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-10-11
What's the Matter With Us,
Anyway?
BY LenueI 6oIIes.

L
This fact is outstanding: The reac-
ton from the booming days of the war
found America as hopelessly unpre-
pared for peace as it had been for war
/ AS surely as fatigue follows exertion
this slump was bound to come.
The leaders of our nation should
have known it; If indeed the possibility
ever occurred to them. they have
[ blithely disregarded it while conditions
/ have gone from bad to worse in the
last year.
The nation has been laundering
about in economic distress, hoping bet
ter times were just around the corner,
but without an evident effort of anyone
to provide relief should the worst
come.
If Congress ever thought it possible
that a period of extreme business de-
preston, with its subsequent black
DAYS of widespread unemployment,
would follow the Furnishing days OF
war, it's thoughts, endeavors, and at
tainments during the last two sessions
do not record it.
Unwilling to Quiet Down.
Congress alone is not to blame, how
ever. All of us, with the firing of the
last shot three years ago, feverish with
the wars excitement and swelled with
orr ACCOMPLISHMENTS, found ourselves
all too unwilling then to- resume the
quiet ways of peace.
our minds, too long occupied with
aevising ways and means of destruc-
zion did not Immediately swing back
- vnafl,ofs Of construction. Our young
men. uprooted from farm and town,
Qn I4Qd hpam tossed
unfortunately into a cauldron OF
turmoil; they emerged In blaze OF
glory and found the farm and the town,
the office and the factory stronge ana
tame and back to work irksome.
We didn't settle down because II
wasn't human that we should settle
down after = period OF SUCH lntense
action.
Ada to this war hysteria and rest
lessness a world burdened with debt
and torn with war until its buying
power almost was negiigAoles nlgh
prices of wood and steel and an build
ing material; high prices OF 1000 ana
commodities and necessities; high sal
aries and wages and the prohteer ana
those who did not profit
Capital contends that with immense
taxes money has not been earning
fair rate of interest, with money there
fore tied up instead Of keeping fac
tories in operation and ships on the
seas. Labor contends that it must re-
tains its high wage to offset the
shrinkage in buying power OF that
wage. The employer contends that
high wages are holding back business
and making extension impossible
until the reason totters WITH |
no one to lead the way to a solution. |
There Is Hope.
Relief measures must be immediate
ana effective. There is hope for an |
ultimate working out of the general /
problem. The coming conference OF I
Hoover's committee on un-
employment, as much as its necessity I
and probable usefulness may be doubt /
ed at this late stage OF the game when |
one considers the wide powers Of ths /
chief executive alone. at least shows q /
disposition to recognize the gravity Of /
The situation.
If around the secretary's table CAPT
tai and labor viii join to subordinate
their individual clanms. display a pcr-
feet willingness TO make aslst sacri-
fices for the good OF all America.
victory comparable TO that Of 1913 viii
have been won and a danger as serious
IS that which Threatened our country |
IN 1917 viii have been offset