Weekly journal-miner., 1922-12-27
THE ODYSSEY OF A DOLLAR
 BILL

THE Houston Post has been conducting
 ] Spend It at Home" campaign which
 should be initiated in our national business poli-
 cies. Recently the editor of the Post, having re-
 ceived dollar bill as part of his weekly salary,
 attached piece of blank paper to the bill, wrote
 his name on the blank and then spent the dollar
 at a local department store for some handker- chiefs, He asked that the recipient of the bill write his name on the blank sheet of paper and spend the money in Houston so that it would be used to build up Houston trade, and also re- quested that each person who received the bill write his name on the sheet attached thereto. In two days that dollar bill had passed through the hands of 24 merchants in Houston.
 Nominally, the editor of the Post is democrat, but at heart he is 1nanifeStly good republican The democratic theory is to buy where you can buy the cheapest" The republican principle is to buy at home Abraham Lincoln illustrated the republican principle many years ago when, in dscussing the tariff question he said that if we buy some foreign goods, the foreigner has the money and we have the goods but if we buy goods made at home, we both have the goods and the money. The editor of the Houston Post has been giving his home people a practical demon stration of the workings of the republican prin- ciple. rs.
 Starting his story of the travels of the dollar bill the editor declares that If every dollar earn ed in Houston were spent in Houston this would be the most prosperous city in the country. Mon ey would be instantly available for every civic need and every just request would be immediately satisfied Of course the editor knows, everyone else does, that Houston does not 51r6dnce all ift raacorc cor ro+ do cO But, so far as practicable observance of the doc Urine laid down would produce the results he de scribes The same thing may be said of the na- tion If every dollar earned in America were spent in America, this would always continue to be, as it is today, the most prosperous country in the world.
 After the Houston dollar bill had passed through the hands of 24 people 1t returned to the editor, presumably in part payment of sub scription, and this is what the bill said to the editor: q hope that I won't fall into the hands of some disloyal citizen who will send me away from Houston for 1 like 1t here and l want many of my brothers to settle in Houston as quickly as they can. l was made to work and 1 want to work in Houston"
 Experience has demonstrated that there are a lot of diSoyal citizens in the United States who go abroad to do their buying, if given an oppor- tunity. The only practical method of discourag- ing that sort of trade is by imposing tax on buying abroad, and this is known as protective tariff. That protective tariff keeps the dollars working n America passing from hand to hand, paying for goods and for services, and adding to the prosperity of the nation.
 The whole United States should express its gratitude to the Houston Post for its impressive exhibition of the home-building effects of buying at home instead of pursuing the democratic poli- | cy of buying where you can buy the cheapest. We hope the Post will join in the effort to have the American dollar spent for ocean transporta- ton in American ships instead of for transporta- ton ill foreign ships, which carry the dollar abroad to build up the industries of other coun- tries.