The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-12-31
Forbes Business and
Financial Analysis

Conversations overheard between
different citizens this week, mostly
on trains:
Hasn't Germany got gall? She
sold fraudulent currency to other peo-
pie all over the world and scooped in
two or three billion dollars Of good
money for her worthless stuff. Now
when she is being told that she can't
fool around much longer without pay
ing over some real money, she wants
the United States to supply it; The
rich Germans haven't had to cough
up a nickel. They've been getting
richer and richer. It's high time to
call their bluff and make them dig
down into their own pockets"
"a man came into my office and
told me he was down and out and
forced TO live on the charity of the
Y. NJ. c. A. He said he wanted a
Job. 1 told him he was the very
man I was looking for, and that I
would pay him S. a day to go out to
my place and cut wood. He looked
at me as if 1 were crazy and then
said, with sheer, I don't cut wood.
That's not my job. run an ele-
vator' This made me wonder wheth-
err there isn't too much coddling OF
loafers in New York and other large
cities. Its all right to be kind-heart-
ed. But it's going too far when you
encourage a fellow to loaf when he
is offered honest work.
1--WE shouldn't try to deflate things
any further in this country. The
lower We send prices and wages, the
more valuable the dollar would be-
come, and this would make 1t just so
much more difficult to get the differ
ent foreign exchanges back into some
sort of balance. High prices here
would make our dollar worth less and
would help foreign countries that eve
us money to sell their products here.
II we could get the foreign exchanges
back anywhere near parity, the whole
nterna tional dislOcation would be
much easier to remedy. OF course,
the time would come when the cost
level here would have TO be readjust-
ed downwards. But L b9iisve it
would do more good than harm to
keep things on about the present
basis here for quite some time to
come"
you fellows always talk about he
lng willing tc pay man high sal
airy if he e9Ins it, but this is all
bunk" said a man who apparently
was an employee TO a man in the en-
pioying class. You know-wen that
the rule IS to pay q man as little as
he'll take without kicking. It's hu-
man nature to want to get things as
efleapIy as you can. And don't tell
me that isn't the system you or any
body else doesn't go on when paying
wages. You try TO get as much
work as you can for as little money
as possible"
we are going ahead in this cour-
try as if there were no dangers ahead.
The business boom here has worked
up greater momentum than most
reople seem to realize. A lot of US
are making the mistake of looking
upon the war boom and the wartime
high records of production as normal.
And in lines where things are not as
active as they were at the hight of
the boom the feeling is that business
is not yet back to normal. a better
way to get a line on just how active
things are just now is to compare
them with pre-war years. II you do
that you will quickly realize that we
are having Doom IN lots OI ulJSC-
tions. We're having a boom in rail-
way traffic, in steel production, in
building, in automobile manutactur-
ing, in cotton prices, in the shoe in
dustry, in the silk trade, in holiday
retailing, in sugar activity, in lumber.
in cement, in bricks. in the electrical
industry, in furniture, in many lux
uTies, and SO forth.
But I very much doubt if we can
keep this pace up unless things turn
for better abroad and unless congress
behaves more nationally than the rad
ical leaders in it threaten to behave.
The first thing you know prices and
wages will go sky-high unless we
watch our step. It's easier to start
rise in prices and wages than it is
to stop them, after they get under
way. from going to disastrous heights.
Watch out for that"
These are just a few samples Of how
citizens in different walks Of life feel
about things.
Copyright. 1922, by B. C. Forbes.)