Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-05-04
THE CAPERING MARK
By DR.. Frank Crane

! The mark is the German unit of cur
rency as the dollar is ours.
Owing to variety Of causes concerning
which no two European statesmen agree
| and over which they are all shaking their
| fists and cursing each other, the mark has
| been capering up and down ever since the
| close of the war
That is, one week a loaf of bread might
| be worth a fraction of mark and the
next week it might be worth several
marks one summer your income might
| enable you to live in ease and the next
summer it might send you to the breadline
| The result Of this is that the vast ma
| jority of the German people is being
| plunged deeper into misery, as the value OF
! the mark in purchasing power becomes
| less and less.
The shopkeeper is in despair for in spite
of his yearly profits he may find that he
| has almost lost his capital. The man who
has saved up money against rainy day
| finds that funds have melted and it is rain
| ing hard.
There is no incentive for any one to
save money when he has no idea what his
money will be worth after it is saved. The
consequence is that profligacy is increasing.
The jazz horns blow, the dance grows furi-
Gus and the pillars Of society are shaking.
| The only people who are making money
| are spectators.
People whose incomes come from for-
| eign countries in the shape Of dollars,
| pounds and francs find themselves becom-
| ing rapidly rich. That is to say, those who
| make their money in dollars and spend it
! in marks are living in plenty, while those
who must make their money in marks are
| threatened with poverty.
! The cost of living mounts rapidly.
In the last year, although Germany is
the greatest potato growing country in the
world, the price of potatoes increased
i sevenfold.
The price of other commodities has gone
up much faster. Statistics show that wages
have advanced from sixteen to thirty times
! the pre-war level, but the cost of living
| has advanced 100 per cent or more.
| An ordinary suit of clothes which in 1913
cost from 40 to 60 marks now sells for
| around 1900 marks and the price is still
| going up.
| Shoes which before the war brought IL
marks are now valued at 400 marks.
| Thus foodstuffs that have to be i'm
! ported from abroad naturally cost more be-
cause they have to be bought with more
| valuable currency, but the foodstuffs pro-
duced in Germany sympathetically rise also
| to higher price levels.
| The great mass of the German people
are today more interested in the, rise and
| fall of the mark than they were interested
| in the varying fortunes Of the German
| armies during the war.
The only class that is encouraged by this
| state of things consists Of loafers, agitators,
and Bolsheviks.
! Unless something is done to stabilize the
| mark in Germany, western civilization
! is going to add considerably to its area OF
| desperate Bolshevism which, at bottom, is
really the propaganda of envy, insanity,
| and despair.
| Copyright, 1922, by Frank Crane)
| Thought is powerful because it is mans
| great creative force.
| ~ of mans creations exist in thought
| form before they .-e translated into material
| Buildings exist in the brains of architects
and contractors before they become physical
accomplishments.
| The same principle is true of all human
| activity The city mans backyard garden
! and the farmers crops are matured and har-
vested in thought form before the real seeds
| are even planted the soil prepared
| TT careers of successful men, as they near
the crucial point, are created in thought
| form-planLed out 20 the last minute detail
before they can begin materializing.
| In your brain are many secret thoughts
| inner desires. These are creations, forms Of
success, struggling to be born in clear-cut
! thought form, in anticipation of actual &C
| com21iShment.