Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-03-22
THE REFEREE
lBy Albert Applel

Crime
Crimes involving money are de-
creasing, says F. w. Lafrentz. He's
president of American Surety Co.,
which bonds cashiers and others en-
trusted with funds.
Lafrentz, reporting that less
money is being stolen, conveys the
popular idea that there was a great
epidemic OF dishonesty during the
war boom. To some extent, yes. But
the thieves were stealing 50-cent dol
lars. Thefts increased because there
vas more money to be stolen. The
ratio of theft to stealable dollars
probably never showed any material
increase. In buying power, GRIMM
ais plumber does not vary materially
from year to year. A crook stealing
a dollar now is getting only half as
much as before the war.
Theft
The big stealing during the war
boom was not done by bonded en-
ployes, many of them underpaid, en-
trusted with other peoples money.
Pro1teers, technically but not
morally within the law, got the
lions share of plumber. A profiteer
is any one who does not give full
value for what he receives. In this
sense we were a nation of profiteers,
before hard times were sent to re-
store us to common honesty. Crook
edness increases with prosperity.
You'd think it'd be the other way
around,
Shame
Uncle Sam reports that over a mil
lion children, 10 to Is years old were
"gainfully employed" in 1919. If we
had that situation in a year of rec
ord prosperity, think what condi-
tions must be when the pinch of
hard times or even normal business
drives the young into the ranks of
child labor.
A nations degree of civilization is
measured by its child labor situation
and by its treatment of women.
Progress of inventions is surface
stuff, not basic, except as 1t helps
eliminate human slavery.
Dinosaur
The skull of a dinosaur, giant beast
said to have lived five million years
ago, is dug up by scientists of
American Museum of Natural His
tory.
Some of these prehistoric mon
sters were as large as a small bun5a-
low. They became extinct by wan
dering into sWamps from which they
could not extricate themselves.
Aesop could have written a good ia
BILE about this, applying it to human
careers. The moral would be;
Watch your step, every minute.
EFiggers'
America imported 4S,646,94S tons
of goods from other countries, in
the fiscal year ended last June 80.
In the same time, shipped abroad
only S~6,585,004 tons of exports. We
ferret this out of a long and COM
plicated government report.
On the surface, it looks as if we
are losing out in foreign trade. But
tons do not tell the full story, any
more than money value. For in
stance, we'd have to import many
tons of lumber to equal n ton OF
costly chemicals exported. Statistics
tell more truth than any other form
of knoWledge-also, more lies.
Wealth
Louisiana finds that it's wealth in
oyster reefs and shell mounds is
great enough to wipe out the state
debt. The shells are used to hard
surface roads.
In South Africa a company begins
making a gasoline substitute for au-
tos, out of prickly pears which grow
wild and long were considered a
waste product.
This old earth is crammed full OF
w~ealth-for the person with imagin-
alton and watchful eyes. Opportuni-
ties exist on every hand, but most
of US are blind.