The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1923-01-26
SUBSCRIPTION RATES.
FRIDAY, JANUARY &c, 1923.

1t Is such common clatter to hear
people talking about hard times and
the scarcity Of money that if person
did not stop to take his bearings, If
not so dazed with the oral picture of
existing poverty as to be unable to
weigh few facts bearing upon the
subject. such as the growing inclina-
ton Of people to invest in luxuries,
in nonessentials, to tread the jazzy
walks OF life, corroborated by study
of the occasional bank statement pub
lished, he would come to tae conclu-
sion that large percent of the peO
pie were starving, that want was
pushing everybody over the brink of
ruin, that money was merely word
spelled with five letters and its tan
gibility matter OF doubt in the
minds of the general public. 1t may
be true that most people may not be
treading the primrose path of pros
perity, that cash is not SO plentiful
that one may go out and pick it up
in the streets, that business men are
not run ragged filling orders, that
everybody has all they want and a
trifle more, yet at the same time there
is lots of money in everyday circula-
ton and coolies of it stored away in
bank vaults. One. knows it is circula-
ting by the way people invest in the
daily essentials of life, and how they
spend just about as much for things
that they could just as well do with
out and not suffer any inconvenience.
Further, one knows that it exists con-
cretely by the reports of tae financial
standing of banks wherein demand
and time deposits of the individual
citizens total up to big figures Take
for instance Okanogan county. 1t is
rather sparsely settled compared to
its size in square miles. The bulk of
the population is dependent for liv-
ing upon the products of the soil
There are no large mining enterprises,
no big industries making large month
ly distribution through pay rolls and
naturally carrying large bank &C
counts. There are some fifteen banks
in the county and their deposits are
made up of hundreds Of small deposit
ors According to the last published
statements of these monetary institu-
lions showing their condition at the
close of the old year. they carried de-
posits to the amount of two million
or more. In these days when a billion
dollars is not an uncommon sum to
see mentioned in print although diff
cult of conception by the man who
looks upon tenner as wealth, a
couple of million may be mere bag
atelle. and yet that represents quite a
pretty sum of money. II you don't
think so sit down and try to count
million. Looking over those bank re-
ports it strikes us That the people |
of Okanogan county are hardly ready |
to take places in the bread line, and
that this continual roar of hard times
crowds pretty close to bunk. For a
county like Okanogan. which is
sparsely settled, where incomes are
derived largely from the products of
the soil, where only a small part OF |
that land has yet reached the stage of |,
full productivity, where orchards and |
homes are largely in the first stages |
Of the making. where long neglected |
opportunity is just being seized and |
utilized 1t strikes us that the banks |
show the people to be in quite a |
healthy financial condition, and If !
here were fewer pessimists, or if the |
sxistant pessimist would suddenly |
ind that silence is golden, the people |
is whole would be more contented |
and jolly themselves into thinking |
hat life is not such an awful rocky |
'oad to travel after all.