The dispatch-news. [volume] (Lexington, S.C.) 1919-2001, 1921-08-03
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1921.
LOOKING FOR A GOAT"

less the American people will take
the lead One of our favorite pas
times is hunting up a goat--more
particularly a government goat-on
which to blame our troubles We
are entirely too prone to look to gov
to take upon it's broad back our in
dividual burdens, to expect govern
mental agencies to make our road
smooth, instead Of using our own
brains and making our own fortune
by thrift and sense. Perhaps this
disposition has had something to do
with the storm of criticism which
has been heaped on the federal re-
serve board on account of the pres
ent depressed condition. Most Of us
in middle life remember saying
current some 35 or more years ago
somewhat in this wise, Beef in the
market ten cents a pound whatever
goes up must come down." After ac-
ton there comes reaction. We don't
have to go back so far to remember
the consumers strike, taking the
form of the overall movement which
struck this country at the flood tide
Of prosperity, which was nothing
more nor less than protest of the
wage earners in towns, and cities
against what they believed to be ex-
brilliantly high prices. Demand
which "a
gan to slacken until the inevitabl
panic resulted.
All of which leads us to the con-
clusion that some kind of a depres-
sion would have resulted regardless
OF any action of the federal reserve
board. 1t has always seemed to US,
however that the policy of the board
hastened the def1ation process, and
this was the first and so far as we
know the only South Carolina news
paper that sounded a warning along
this line in the early stages of the
boards efforts to restrict credits and
thereby wiring the water from our
business system. Without being any
too familiar with the law which de-
fines the scope of the powers Of the
board and laying no claim to more
than average knowledge OF econom-
les, we had haZy idea that the fed
eral reserve bank was created for
the specific purpose of tiding us over
crises like the one through the coun-
try has been passing for the past
twelve months. Certainly in the early
stages Of deflation considerable prop
aganda was issued by the federal re-
serve board, which of itself was CAL
culated to help u.s. along down the
soapy shoot. To be sure the respon-
sible heads now claim that these
were only warnings which the board
felt constrained to utter in the light
OF then current events which showed
that we were riding for a fall. \
However true the defense of the
board may be. one cannot tightly
pass over such charges against the
board as have been made by so re-
sponsible man as John Shelton Will
liams, former controller of the cur
rency and himself a member of the
board. though the only good to be
gained from an investigation now is
to safeguard the future. The coun-
try has been pretty thoroughly "de-
aated," and thousands Of men of good
business judgment have been practi-
eally ruined through no fault of their
ewn. So far as the present situation
is concerned nothing but hard work,
frugality and clear thinking can help
most Of us now to get back on our
feet So far as Lexington county ia
concerned we were never in SO bad a
fix as some Of our richer neighbors
and we are fast coming back to nor
NAL. 1t won't be long before we will
look back on the worries of 1921 with
smile. 81 =
In Newberry recently a man is said
n LII Ia1