The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1932-03-11


vision for their old age have turned out aN
to be of much less value than had been
supposed. Some have met with losses
through the failure of banks in which
they had money deposited.
1t is easy, in these circumstances, for the in
dividual to conclude that these disasters have
arisen through no fault of his own, that it must
be the fault of someone, and he is inclined to
blame something he loosely calls society. Some
times feeling of injustice results in threat
Of defiance against constituted authority.
Among all these people, those who most
strongly appeal to our sympathies, those who
seem most warranted in their dscouragement
are the ones who want work and cannot find it.
But even they should take the larger view of
their situation. 1t is no new experience for
wage Garner to be without employment. Such
condition has always been temporary. It will
be temporary now. Surely the country will go
back to work, back to production and consunp-
ton. The condition of the wage Garner in Amer
lea has long been the despair Of all the rest Of
the world. Some hope should be derived from
what has been and some confidence entertained
that the same again shall be.
o
But new element has entered into the situa-
ton of the unemployed. Heretofore, few have
known anything about it, few have cared any
thing about it and nobody has done anything
about it. Now the whole nation is aroused.
There is scarcely hamlet in the land where
there is not an organization and active public
effort for the relief of the unemployed. They
will be cared for in an unprecedented way.
We have had tremendous spiritual awakening
concerning our duty to relieve human suffering.
1t is true some homes have been lost through
default of payments. That risk is always in
CURED when property is bought credit. But
even in this field, where one home has been lost,
an enormous number have been retained. Their
owners now find themselves securely and COM
fortably housed because they saved money and
bought when they had an income instead of
spending all their money on rents and expensive
living.
If all those who have bought homes in the
last twenty years could be assembled, 1t would
be found, in spite of some failures, that, as
class, they were distinctly better off than their
neighbors.
The desire to build and own home is one of
the primal human instincts. 1t is especially
strong in women. Even the present age of ho-
tel apartments and flats is not likely to eradi-
cate so strong natural longing But those who
have given up the effort in despair or disgust
certainly must live somewhere-if not in their
own house then in the house of someone else
Their real position in the world is disclosed by
supposing that everyone else followed their ex-
ample. The whole race would be without shell
ter in about generation.
Those who have come to the conclusion that
they will do nothing to make themselves home
are injuring themselves most, but they also
injuring the whole community.
Any such scheme Of things as their actions
presuppose could not be put into effect. Nature
and reason are both opposed to 1t.
When we examine the complaints Of those
who have lost through investments we find that
they fall into three classes: Some lost because
they were plainly swinded. We are enacting
more and more laws and setting up more and
more regulations and safeguards to prevent a
recurrence of such abuses. The practice of SWIM
ding is very old, and larceny has never been
eradicated from any community where property
was abundant. But because someone does wrong
does not prove that we shall all abandon trying
to do right.
Others have used poor judgment in invest
ments. Usually they have been tempted to take
large risks by the hope of making large gains
Some did not make great profits while many
more suffered heavy losses.
Those who trust to chance must abide by the
results of chance. They have no legitimate COM
plant against anyone but themselves.
Still others, using all the Judgment possible
for human beings and guided by the best fnan-
cal advice obtainable have seen their invest
ments seriously impaired. But this simply
means what everyone should know; that even
when surrounded by all the safeguards and all
the integrity which 1t is possible to secure, the