, 1923-02-04
lQER--IHE STORY O OkLAHOMAS FIRST EXECUTIVE

that the government has wealth of
its own to supply all the expenses in.
cident thereto.
Wealth Comes from Public Endeavor,
Let us take the proper view of the
situation. The government has no
wealth of its own, and no means of
creating wealth. 1t is merely an nd
ministrator of public affairs and must
directly or indirectly obtain from the
homes of its country every dollar of
money that is expended. In short,
the home must produce the wealth.
the wealth that provides for the main.
tenance of the home. as we'll as the
wealth hat provides for the mainte
nance of your government, from the
municipality n state up to the fed.
eral government itself. Then the
home people should take q serious
view of life and its requirements. II
at the end of the year the people OF
the home can calculate the years pro
Guction and value, n after abstract.
Ing therefrom the expenditures for
liz SNSA a. 10 " bdlAAlANt VI
profit you have healthy prosperity
which provides a surplus for the fu.
ture. If, on the contrary, your ex,
penses. subtracted from your produc.
ION. leaves a deficiency, then you
ARE breeding a mortgage upon your
future. which, from year to year. so
succeeding becomes a burden that ul.
timately you cannot bear. If this
is true of the home, It is equally true
of the aggregation Of homes that form
our great and broad government. The
wealth of the government is but the
aggregate wealth of its people. The
annual earnings throughout our en-.
tire country are but the aggregate eff.
fort of the people of al homes com.
bined. Let us then take stock of the
conditions of our country as n whole,
Just as you might of the results of
any one of you homes. for the cur.
rent year, and from such calculations
determine whether your hope for pros,
perity has a chance to m~aterialize
whether that hope IS built upon a
firm foundation, or upon the shift.
ing sand.
Suggestion for Serious Thought.
In this connection how many of us
have stopped TO compute the aggre-
gate production of the United States.
as compared with the aggregate ex.
p~enditures? Have you stopped to
Healize that the four great crops OF
our country-Corn, Wheat, Tobacco
and Cotton, in the grand total. at the
prevailing market prices would not
equal the sum of money to be appro-
priated for the maintenance of our
federal government for the current
year? Indeed, whether upon the farm,
in the workshop, or in any of the
activities of life, these many years
We have been led to proclaim Corn
as king in this broad land of ours
But today that king must bow in hui
initiation when he realizes that his
gross value for the year 1921 would
not pay ore-quarter of the expendi-
lures for the maintenance of our fed
eral government. But let us go into
IL lllOIe uCllIlllt IdiCuiuNAOhB "a We nv
to build a foundation for prosper.
ity it can only be built upon such
economies of both government in the
nation, states and municipalities as
to leave in the homes of those who
earn this wealth sufficient to provide
even though small, that we may close
the year in better condition than we
began it.
Do you comprehend. in speaking OF
tho principal crops of u country,
that you corn crop is estimated to be
worth 1,40O. o 10000 your tobacco
crop is estimated to be worth $780,,
900 900; your wheat and your cotton
crop may be worth 5000 900 900, or 4
total If $4,000. 900 900 for the four
principal crops of the United States,
and IL the tax collector or the national
government took the entire amount
produced by these four crops, it would
not pay tho expenditures authorized
by congress. Nor would IT pay the
total amount of state and municipal
GAes u Sohi SNNhs
Policies Need Revision.
Is it then plainly apparent to you
that you must revise your govern
mental policies, as well as revise
your personal policies of life, iU or.
der to make your annual production
equal your annual expenditures? We
have not time to go into detail, ex'
>eept to express the hope in behalf of
american prosperity that the presi.
cent of the United States may call
before him the numerous heads of
departments. whether It be patents,
bureau of mines or numerous others.
and warn them that they must elimt,
nate the gross volume of immaterial
and useless expenditures in order to
put the operations of this government
upon a basis possible for the people
to DroyIde. The government has